Natural Sources of Progesterone & Estrogen

When a woman's hormones get out of balance, it can cause depression, weight gain, a lack of sexual desire and infertility. If you are feeling down or are having trouble getting pregnant, it might be worth a trip to your doctor to have your hormone levels tested. If the test shows that your hormone levels are not where they need to be, discuss all the options with your doctor. He might want to put you on medications, but there are also some natural sources of progesterone and estrogen that you can try.

Women sometimes need extra progesterone and estrogen.

Estrogen in Foods

According to Natural Hormones, soy, apples, alfalfa, cherries, potatoes, rice, wheat and yams are rich in estrogen, so try adding a few servings of these foods to your diet. Soy is particularly easy to add by replacing your regular milk with soy milk.

Herbs to Increase Estrogen

Some herbs that contain plant estrogen can increase your estrogen levels naturally, including black cohosh, dong quai, ginseng, red clover, and gingko biloba. Most of these can be found in supplement form or in tea form at your local health food store. Their only drawback is that they can interfere with your body's ability to produce estrogen on its own.

Herbs as Estrogen Aids

You might consider using herbs that do not contain estrogen, but help your body to produce it. One such herb macafem. According to Herbs for Menopause, mecafem stimulates the body's hormonal production instead of introducing external hormones into it. Your local health food store might carry this supplement, or you can order it online.

Herbs for Progesterone

Although wild yam is not a natural sources of progesterone, as it is rumored to be, it and herbs like yucca and sarsaparilla can jump start your own natural resource of progesterone. You can buy these as a supplement or in a tea from many health food stores or online.

Creams

Your doctor can prescribe natural creams that contain herbs that promote your body's production of progesterone. Discuss your options in detail and emphasize that you only want a cream that contains natural components, not synthetic.

References

• Natural Hormones
• Herbs for Menapause

Resources

• Herbal Ed.