Dr. Mary Claire Haver

It affects gut motility.

Why do we get so constipated in pregnancy, a high progesterone state, right?

It slows the gut down.

I had a patient who came to me and she had really significant constipation and her GI doc sent her to me.

And, you know, we see all these zebras where they're like, could it have anything to do with her hormone therapy?

And I was like, let me think this through.

Yes.

You're taking natural progesterone.

I bet that this is slowing your gut down and it's causing intractable constipation.

There are progesterone receptors in the liver.

There's progesterone receptors in the pancreas.

There's progesterone receptors all over.

Breast.

In the breast, obviously.

Sorry, I skipped that part because it was so obvious.

What about muscle and bone?

Not that's not a place that we see a lot of progesterone receptors, but in the breast, absolutely.

So progesterone is what basically really helps with breast development.

And in pregnancy, it's the progesterone that that stimulates the mammary glands to get ready to release milk.

But it actually prevents lactation until the pregnancy is over.