PROGESTERONE DEFICIENCY
This takes a serious toll. Without sufficient progesterone, women often develop excess weight, especially over hips, thighs and belly. They can suffer from bloating and water retention too, and are more likely to experience cravings for sweets and sweet foods. Progesterone deficiency can also lead to heavy periods and general aches and pains, particularly headaches and backache. Mood swings, depression, poor concentration and memory problems are also common.
Lack of progesterone affects appearance, quite apart from weight gain. Skin can become dry, thin and wrinkled. Women can be plagued with facial hair, while the hair on top of the head is thinning out.
More serious complications include loss of bone density - which eventually leads to osteoporosis – plus, of course, the hot flushes and night sweats that herald the menopause.
But the good news is that all these symptoms respond well to progesterone supplementation. Ensuring you have enough progesterone in your system could also prolong your life, because it may help protect from cancer and heart disease.

OESTROGEN HAVOC
You may wonder what part oestrogen plays in all this? Rightly so, because these two hormones are partners and need to be kept in balance. What happens when ovulation fails and no progesterone is produced, is that oestrogen becomes dominant, producing a number of symptoms. These all too common women’s complaints were first grouped together by Dr John Lee. He called the syndrome ‘oestrogen dominance’.

Oestrogen dominance can occur at any age. Even teenagers under stress may not always be ovulating. In younger women oestrogen dominance is usually called the premenstrual syndrome, or PMS. In the years before the menopause most women pass through a peri-menopausal phase, as their cycle gradually runs down. Often a woman bleeds heavily at this age, making her very tired. Heavy menstrual bleeding is a sign of excess oestrogen, which builds too thick a womb lining, because she has too little progesterone to prevent this. In other words, peri-menopausal symptoms are due to oestrogen dominance. At the menopause itself, the ovaries stop producing either hormone. However, a woman’s body still produces oestrogen in her adrenal glands and fat cells. If she is overweight her oestrogen production can be quite significant. However women’s bodies cannot make progesterone once the ovaries have stopped functioning. So the myth that women make no oestrogen after the menopause is not true. Women make no progesterone after the ovaries stop functioning, but they can go on producing oestrogen, and can still suffer from oestrogen dominance.

TOXIC OESTROGENS
Unlike progesterone, which is very benign, oestrogen is a dangerous hormone when not under control. Yet oestrogen dominance is now very common both during and after the menopause. Why is this happening? Sadly, many of the chemicals we are now exposed to affect our bodies hormonally. Today’s beef, dairy products and chicken, for instance, often contain synthetic oestrogen to promote water retention and weight gain in animals, increasing their value. In addition, our environment now exposes us to toxic, oestrogen-like chemicals, called xeno-estrogens. Xeno-estrogens lock onto the oestrogen receptors in the body, but have a much stronger effect than natural oestrogen. This is one reason why women are experiencing so many uncomfortable symptoms. There are xeno-estrogens in traffic fumes, plastics, petrochemical derivatives, pesticides, hair dyes, detergents and many of the other chemicals we meet daily.

Doctors have tried to address women’s’ hormonal problems by giving them synthetic hormones, including the Pill and HRT. But synthetic hormones have side effects, some of them very serious. This is because they are distorted molecules. Why don’t doctors prescribe the real hormones? The answer is simple: pharmaceutical companies produce only synthetic chemicals (and not natural ones) because then they can patent them and make enormous amounts of money.
Yet the truth is that the natural hormones are very easily accepted by the body. This is particularly true of progesterone, which not only addresses the symptoms of oestrogen dominance, but also brings many other health benefits in its wake. And holding onto youthful beauty is one of them! Progesterone actually helps skin to stay younger and plumper. It also helps bring metabolism back to normal so you gain energy and shed some weight.
Many doctors are now learning about natural progesterone, and since the recent scares about HRT they may well be searching for alternatives. But you have to bear in mind that a doctor’s training is very influenced by drug companies, and it will take many years for them to change their mindset. In the meantime, there are doctors who do prescribe natural progesterone (see further information).

NATURAL HRT
Here at HealthRight International we have sourced what we believe to be the most beneficial and safest alternatives to HRT. In the first place we’re offering a high potency, natural progesterone lotion that can be applied daily. You can rub it in to any area of the body, although soft areas are best, and it will absorb into the body and be available throughout. Of course, you can use it as a night cream as well.
We are also offering a source of natural oestrogens to help block the effect of the toxic oestrogens that we cannot avoid in our environment. We mentioned earlier that xeno-estrogens lock onto the receptors in the body. But when we provide the body with gentle plant oestrogens, these attach themselves to the oestrogen receptors and prevent the toxic oestrogens from gaining a hold.
Many herbs contain natural oestrogens. But it isn’t advisable to take herbs for long periods without a break. The best source of plant oestrogens for daily protection - the one that has the longest history of human use (and therefore the best assurance of safety) – is soya, which has been used as a food in Japan for centuries.
Soya contains plant oestrogens, called isoflavones. So why shouldn’t we eat soya foods, and not bother with a supplement at all? Unfortunately, most of the isoflavones in soya are non-active and can only be activated by fermentation. Most of the soya foods eaten in Japan are fermented (tempeh, miso and natto), rather like we ferment yoghurt and sauerkraut in the West. But most of us would not find them to our taste.
Many companies now offer soya supplements, but these are unfermented, and have little potency.
HealthRight offers a fully activated, high potency soya supplement, Soyafemme. Just one tablet a day provides maximum active isoflavones. Taken daily, while also applying 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of Profemina progesterone lotion provides an ideal youth-preserving natural and safe form of hormone replacement therapy before, during and after the menopause.