Dr. Louise Newson

And cortisone, which helps with inflammation.

And also aldosterone, which helps with our fluid balance and our blood pressure as well.

So there's lots of pathways that come from progesterone.

It's not just a hormone that works on the lining of our womb and helps regulate our periods or a hormone that increases when we get pregnant.

It works everywhere.

And it's a very important neurosteroid.

It's very, very important in the brain.

In fact, one of the first things our brain does if we had a stroke or a head injury is produce progesterone to repair those brain cells very quickly.

And we've known that for decades.

So it works everywhere.

But the balance of progesterone is really important for the balance of all these other hormones.

If we have a lot of stress, have a lot of cortisol, our progesterone gets forced towards producing more cortisol.

And then it doesn't produce as many other hormones.

It doesn't produce as much estradiol or testosterone.

So this imbalance can really have an effect.

And that's important to know because there are a lot of women, as you know, who have a lot of stress due to trauma, due to life, lots of things.

More cortisol, then they're not having progesterone forming our natural hormones.

So stress can cause a menopause, if you like, and reduce hormones.

Yeah, there's some really good papers by someone called Donald Slack, actually, who's a neurophysiologist who did a lot of work, even in the 60s when they started.

Someone called Harold Pincus developed the contraceptive pill and he worked in the same lab for a while.