If you search the Internet, you can find plenty of information about progesterone and how it can help you during menopause, but it's a little bit more difficult to find information about progesterone and fertility. Below you'll find a consolidation of all the current studies and information about using progesterone to boost fertility and help carry a pregnancy to term.

How are fertility and progesterone related?

Progesterone is a hormone that the body makes. It is released right after you ovulate and decreases just before you begin your menstrual cycle.

What are progesterone's actions in the body?

· It normalizes blood's ability to clot.

· It protects against several kinds of cancer, ovarian, breast and endometrial cancers.

· It increases the sex drive around the time of ovulation.

· It prevents secondary sexual development from occurring.

· It helps the body used fat stores as energy during pregnancy.

· It prevents your immune system for rejecting the baby during your pregnancy · Supports the embryo and helps it to survive.

· Makes the cervical mucus "welcoming" to sperm.

· Maintains uterine lining, which makes it possible for a fertilized egg to attach and develop into an embryo and fetus.

If you are progesterone deficient or estrogen dominant, you may have too much estrogen in your body. One of the reasons you may be progesterone deficient is because you have too much estrogen.

You can become estrogen dominant for several reasons. For example, meats that have been commercially produced and raised can contain large amounts of estrogen. In addition, stress and pollution can mimic estrogen at estrogen receptor sites.

If you eat a large amount of processed soy products, this can also cause you to become "estrogen dominant." Polycystic ovarian disease and endometriosis can also cause you to become estrogen dominant.

What are the symptoms of estrogen dominance?

· Fatigue

· Weight gain, especially fat around the middle

· Early menstrual onset

· Dry eyes

· Anxiety or agitation along with depression

· Lowered sex drive

· Tender breasts

· Breast cancer

· Allergic symptoms such as hives, abnormal thyroid, or asthma

What If You Don't Have Enough Progesterone in Your Body?

If you don't have enough progesterone in your body, you may also suffer from progesterone deficiency symptoms. These include:

· Experiencing facial hair growth

· Having low thyroid

· Experiencing depression

· Battling obesity

· Having a loss of sex drive

· Having breasts that are fibrocystic

· Having swollen breasts

· Having abnormal blood clotting

· Having excessive cramping during menstrual cycles

· Experiencing PMS

· Having polycystic ovarian syndrome

· Having endometriosis

· Having no menstrual cycle

· Having recurrent episodes of early miscarriage

Should You Do Hormone Testing?

Dr. John Lee has been very adamant that hormone and progesterone level testing should be done with saliva, not blood testing. This is against conventional thinking, because most doctors today test blood.

You can order a saliva test that you will take a sample with during a certain time in your menstrual cycle. You send the sample away to a lab and the results are mailed back to you. This will tell you if you are in balanced hormonally. They are FDA approved.

What can you do about progesterone deficiency?

Natural progesterone cream can help to supplement your body’s own progesterone levels and lead you back to a state of natural balance.

Natural progesterone cream comes from plant fats and oils called diosgenin which is extracted from either from Mexican Wild Yams or soybeans. In the laboratory diosgenin is chemically synthesized into a molecular structure that is identical to real human progesterone.

The United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) denotes a recognized standard of purity and strength. It is sometimes referred to as “human-identical” or “bio-identical” progesterone, which differentiates it from synthetic progestins or progestogens.

You can use Fertilica's Natural progesterone to balance excess estrogen or to increase progesterone levels. You take it from the day after you ovulate until you start your menses. If you don't know exactly when you ovulate during the course of the month, you can estimate by realizing that many women ovulate between the 12th and 14th day of their cycles.

**You should not use sublingual progesterone if you are on birth control or are already taking hormones for another reason.