Dr. Louise Newson

speaker

9,771 appearances 47 recordings 5 series first heard Apr 2025 last heard 4d ago

Dr. Louise Newson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 46 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 9.

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The Dr Louise Newson Podcast · 101 – Luteal Uglies - what does this mean? · 15 Sep 2026 podcast

So we all are used to seeing graphs of how our hormones change throughout our menstrual cycle.

But there's this lot of confusion and I want to hold something up, which for those who are just listening, I'm going to talk through as well.

But if you see here on this picture, this is what hormone levels, the Easter dial being read,

and progesterone being green, this is the start of our menstrual cycle.

There's a peak in ovulation.

And then the second half of our cycle, there's an increase in estradiol and an increase in progesterone.

But those graphs really are not to scale.

And that's really confusing because actually, if you look at the levels of progesterone in the luteal phase relative to estrogen, this is what happens.

The progesterone is really high and then falls off a cliff very quickly.

And so it's hugely more significant and you could say more important than estradiol.

And in the luteal phase, this change in progesterone level can really trigger a myriad of symptoms for many, many women.

And it's not always the absolute level in the body, it's the change.

Because our body likes things to be constant.

Our bodies are designed for something called homeostasis.

which means that we need to have the right balance of a condition, especially in our brain, to function properly.

So if, for example, we've got this big drop or even a big increase of hormone levels over a short period of time, that upsets the kilter and that can really trigger a lot of symptoms.

So 95% of us will have PMS, premenstrual syndrome.

And most of us have been told it's just part of growing up.

Adolescence is a difficult time.

We'll always have symptoms before our periods.

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