"What is progesterone?"
First of all its a hormone that has been around for about 500 million years. That makes it the oldest hormone.
Why is this important?
Because it shows how vital it is to the lives of a great many creatures on the planet.
It is essential to all vertebrates...fishes, reptiles, birds and mammals... including humans.
It has countless functions in both sexes and all ages... regulating blood sugar, developing intelligence, building bones, brain activity and many more.
Our bodies make it all the time.
Progesterone plays a major role in the body. It is not exclusively a female hormone nor is it a 'sex' hormone. It plays no part in the secondary sexual characteristics which develop at puberty. It is the precursor to the sex hormones oestrogen and testosterone.
It is secreted primarily by the ovaries in females and the testes in men. Smaller amounts are produced by the adrenal glands, the brain and glial cells in both sexes.
There are no great quantitative differences between men and women (at least outside the luteal phase).
William Allen and George Corner first isolated progesterone in 1934 and proposed the name because of its "progestational" activity in the pregnant female. This was an unfortunate choice of name as it has now come to be regarded as a 'female' sex hormone, and it's many other roles having been largely forgotten.
It was not until 1943 that Russell Marker made progesterone from the plant steroid diosgenin. Originally he used the Mexican wild yam (dioscorea villosa) as a source plant. However, diosgenin has now been found in many other plants, including the spice fenugreek and the soya bean.
Once it was established that it could be produced like this biochemists began converting it into other hormones. These include cortisone, testosterone, estrogen and of course the unnatural 'progestins' or 'progestogens' that masquerade as natural progesterone.
There is much confusion in the minds of both the public and the professions between progesterone on the one hand, and the progestins or progestogens and "yam extracts" on the other.
Let me clear the confusion for you.
Progesterone is made in your body from cholesterol. Here are the essentials of the process...
first, your body turns the cholesterol into pregnenolone
pregnenolone is then converted to progesterone
your body then makes a cascade of other hormones that it needs from the progesterone (these include the estrogens and testosterone amongst others)
This is the vital point to understand...
"progesterone is an essential raw materialfrom which your body makes many of the other hormones vital for good health"
Its this simple fact that helps anyone appreciate just how wide ranging the effects of a progesterone deficiency can be.
This is why progesterone therapy can be effective in treating such a wide range of health problems.
the progesterone your body makes has a uniquemolecular structure. Here's what the "natural" hormone looks like...
the progestins and progestogens on the other hand have an altered molecular structure. Here's what they look like...
Spot the difference? They may look similar to the real thing... just as ivy and spinach are both green and leafy (ivy quiche anyone?) Need more proof? Take a look at these...
Not much difference to look at either, but... estradiol tells your body its female and testosterone tells your body its male. There aren't many clearer differences than that! The lesson here is obvious enough... if such small differences in molecular structures have such big real effects then... beware of man made alterations.
The fact is progestins behave in the body in radically different ways to progesterone itself. The only similarity between progestins and the natural hormone is their ability to maintain the endometrium (the lining of the uterus). This also means they can be patented and sold for exhorbitant prices.
The natural hormone has no toxic side effects. However, the progestins and progestogens are potentially highly toxic because of their altered molecular structure. Some of the known side effects are...
an increased risk of abortion and congenital abnormalities if taken by pregnant women
- fluid retention
- epilepsy
- migraine
- asthma
- cardiac and renal dysfunction
- depression
- breast tenderness
- nausea
- insomnia
- cancer
a drop in progesterone levels
...and many more.
The long term effect of progestins on adrenal, hepatic, ovarian and uterine function is unknown.
And now for "yam extracts" and "yam creams"... simply put > "these do not contain progesterone". They docontain the plant steroid diosgenin, but the body cannot convert diosgenin into the hormone itself. The yam creams can have a beneficial adaptogenic effect on the body but, unlike progesterone, they cannot correct hormonal imbalances such as excessive levels of estrogen.
The key message in answering the question...
"What is Progesterone?" is simply this...
"Natural" progesterone... just as your body makes it, is a unique substance with unique properties that cannot be faked and that are essential to good health and...
...to life itself.