Progesterone Levels: What Your Blood Test Really Means

Women are familiar with signs that their period is starting. There’s bloating, tender breasts, mood swings, and more. Hormones, especially progesterone, play a huge role in why that’s happening. 

If you want to understand your own body’s rhythm, are planning to get pregnant, or are experiencing symptoms of perimenopause, you need to check your progesterone levels.

What is Progesterone?

Progesterone is primarily a female sex hormone, though guys have a bit of it, just not as much. Produced by the ovaries after ovulation, its main job is to prepare the uterus for a potential baby. It keeps the uterine environment cozy if pregnancy happens. 

The Ups and Downs of Progesterone Levels

What’s interesting is that progesterone levels don’t always stay at the same level. They naturally rise and fall throughout your menstrual cycle. After ovulation, your progesterone rises and peaks around the middle of the luteal phase (the second half of your cycle). 

• High Progesterone: High progesterone levels help thicken the uterine lining for the fertilized egg. When progesterone is high, you might feel a bit more relaxed or even sleepy. Some women notice breast tenderness or slight mood changes.
• Low Progesterone: When progesterone is low, it leads to a whole host of issues. You may experience irregular periods, spotting, or even trouble getting pregnant. Some might have anxiety or mood swings.

Figure 1: During the menstrual cycle, the levels of estrogen and progesterone change. Estrogen levels go up and then drop sharply at the end of the follicular phase. Estrogen rises again along with progesterone, but both hormones drop by the end of the luteal phase. During menstruation, the levels of both estrogen and progesterone are low. Modified from [4]

What Affects Your Progesterone Levels?

1. Stress: When you're constantly stressed, your body produces more cortisol. This affects the production of progesterone. The stress hormone steals the resources your body needs to make progesterone.

2. Medications: Hormonal birth controls suppress your body's natural progesterone production. Other medications, like antidepressants or corticosteroids, also play a role in hormonal imbalances.

3. Weight Changes: Both weight loss and weight gain disrupt hormonal balance. Fat tissue produces estrogen. When there’s an excess of estrogen, it interferes with progesterone's job.

4. Lifestyle Factors: Poor sleep, excessive alcohol consumption, and an unhealthy diet lead to hormonal fluctuations. Our bodies thrive on balance, and when we neglect our basic needs, our hormones are often the first to complain.

5. Underlying Health Conditions: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or thyroid issues affect your progesterone levels. These conditions often lead to hormonal imbalances that require careful monitoring and management.

Progesterone in Peri- and Postmenopause

As you approach menopause, progesterone levels naturally decline. This leads to perimenopause symptoms like irregular periods, hot flashes, and mood swings. Many women experience low progesterone symptoms during perimenopause. It makes the transition period a bit of a bumpy ride. 

After menopause, progesterone levels stay low, which is why those symptoms eventually subside.

Testing Your Progesterone Levels

So, how do we know what’s going on with our progesterone? That’s where a progesterone blood test comes in. A simple blood test will give you a snapshot of your progesterone levels during your cycle.

Here’s why it’s done:

• Checking for Ovulation: If you’re trying to conceive, this test confirms if you’re ovulating.
• Infertility: It helps pinpoint hormonal imbalances that might be affecting fertility.
• Pregnancy Monitoring: It’s important to check a pregnancy's health if there are concerns about miscarriage.
• Abnormal Bleeding: If your periods are all over the place, this test can help find why it’s happening to you.

Understanding Your Progesterone Blood Test Results

After doing a progesterone blood test, you’ll want to know what those results actually mean.

• Progesterone Normal Range

Normal progesterone levels in women vary depending on where you are in your cycle. Generally, levels are low during the follicular phase (before ovulation). After ovulation, they rise significantly. A progesterone levels chart can be a handy tool for understanding this.

• Low Progesterone

Low levels can show you have ovulation problems, increased risk of miscarriage, or irregular periods. Knowing low progesterone symptoms in perimenopause is also important for women transitioning to menopause.

• High Progesterone

High levels of progesterone may mean you’re pregnant. The corpus luteum produces progesterone to maintain the uterine lining after conception. So, you may experience fatigue, nausea, and breast tenderness when progesterone levels are high. 

Ovarian cysts can also cause elevated progesterone, although they are often benign. Problems with the adrenal glands also lead to increased progesterone production. In rare cases, certain types of ovarian tumors produce progesterone that leads to elevated levels.

When to Test Progesterone Levels

Typically, day 21 of a 28-day cycle, or about 7 days after ovulation, is the best time to measure your progesterone levels. This is when progesterone levels should be at their peak. For perimenopause, testing might be done at various points to track your fluctuating levels.

Measuring Your Progesterone Levels with Mito Health

Whether you’re navigating fertility problems, dealing with perimenopause, or just want to understand your body better, knowing your progesterone levels chart helps you understand your body’s rhythm.

Taking control of your hormone health starts with understanding your numbers. That's where Mito Health steps in. Get started on our comprehensive blood panel that covers over 100 biomarkers, including progesterone. 

We go beyond just giving you numbers. You get personalized insights, one-on-one sessions with our top doctors to break down what those results mean, and a user-friendly dashboard to track everything.