The MANY benefits of Naturezone Natural Progesterone: Helps the body utilize calcium to maintain or restore bone mass (helps prevent osteoporosis) Restores sex drive Protects against fibrocystic breasts Natural antidepressant Normalizes blood sugar levels Normalizes zinc and copper levels Helps prevent breast cancer Helps use fat for energy Improved sleep patterns Normalizes blood clotting Restores proper oxygen cell levels Natural diuretic Elimination of depression after child birth

Menopause is normally defined as the end of menstrual cycles. The unpleasant symptoms of menopause that some women suffer such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and mood swings are peculiar to western industrialized societies. Menopause is often associated with the end of a woman’s sexuality and the beginning of old age, and arthritis.

What does progesterone have to do with menopause?

Due to ovulatory cycles, progesterone levels typically decline before menopause starts and this is followed by a decline in estrogen. Progesterone production tends to fall to almost zero while estrogen declines to about 40% to 50%. This situation leads to an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone causing an increase in estrogen activity, which is now described as estrogen dominance.

What is estrogen dominance?

It is clear that estrogen when unopposed or unbalanced by progesterone is not something to be desired. Stated differently, many of estrogen's undesirable side effects are effectively prevented by progesterone. Dr. Lee has named this syndrome estrogen dominance. This syndrome occurs mostly in industrialized countries and commonly occurs in the following situations:

• When women are on estrogen replacement therapy
• Premenopause when early follicle depletion results in the lack of ovulation and thus a lack of progesterone well before the onset of menopause
• Exposure to xenoestrogens which is the cause of early follicle depletion. Xenoestrogens are foreign substances found outside the body in the air and food that have an estrogen effect on the body
• Birth control pills with an excessive estrogen component
• Women who have had a hysterectomy leading to dysfunction of the ovaries
• Post menopause, especially in overweight women

The following is a list of symptoms that can be caused or made worse by estrogen dominance:

"In most cases the symptoms are eliminated. I have not encountered any substance which is more effective than progesterone in relieving PMS."
- Dr. Louis Marx, Psychiatrist (From Dr John Lee's Medical Letter)

Many women find that by supplementing their hormone production with natural progesterone they will reduce many or most of their menopausal symptoms. The presence of progesterone in the body sensitizes estrogen receptor sites thus enabling estrogen to work more efficiently. Progesterone is a precursor to other hormones in the body including estrogen, testosterone, and especially the corticosteriods.

A woman's ovaries make two hormones, estrogen and progesterone. When these hormones are out of balance, hormone related illnesses can emerge.

Progesterone is one of two main hormones, the other being estrogen, made by the ovaries of menstruating women. Progesterone is also made in smaller amounts by the adrenal glands in both sexes and by the testes in males. When a woman's monthly cycle is functioning correctly, estrogen is the dominant hormone during the first two weeks of the menstrual cycle. In response to ovulation, progesterone assumes dominance for the final two weeks of the month. When the pituitary gland in the brain sends a message to the ovaries to stop production of progesterone, the menstrual cycle begins within 48 hours of this message.