Your gut health and fertility are related to hormone production and regulation. If you are experiencing certain issues with your gut health it can affect your hormone balance. How fertile you are depends on hormone balance and regulation. Specifically, when estrogen and progesterone are out of balance this can create issues that cause infertility because you are not ovulating properly. Gut health can significantly impact the hormone balance in your body.
How to Track Your Period
Your period relies heavily on your hormonal production in order to be regular each month. We have to produce our hormones in different amounts every day to create the 4 phase menstrual cycle. Due to this, your period can give you important clues about your overall health when you track your period and any related symptoms.
8 Supplements to Increase Progesterone
Progesterone is the hormone released in the second half of your menstrual cycle after ovulation. It is produced by the corpus luteum, the sac that remains once you ovulate & turns into a hormone-secreting gland during the luteal phase. It’s important to dig into your root causes of low (or no progesterone). Supplements may help to support a nutrition, lifestyle, & movement foundation. It is also important to focus on food sources of these nutrients!
10 Reasons for Not Ovulating
Ovulation is the main event of the menstrual cycle. It occurs during the halfway point in the menstrual cycle for one day. Ovulation is when the egg gets released from the ovary into the fallopian tube to prepare for fertilization and pregnancy. Progesterone is the hormone that promotes pregnancy and ovulation, and if progesterone is low, then you may not be ovulating (pro meaning to upgrade and gesterone meaning pregnancy).
Why Am I Cramping A Week Before My Period?
5 Key Vitamins to Increase Progesterone
Certain vitamins like vitamin B6, vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin E, and vitamin B12 helps to support healthy progesterone levels in the body. Vitamins play an important role in hormone production and are needed to make enough progesterone. Nutrient deficiencies can be a reason behind low progesterone levels. Including certain foods and sometimes vitamin supplements can help to raise progesterone.
6 Important Prenatal Supplements
When you are trying to conceive, it is highly important to make sure you have the right amount of nutrients coming into your body. These nutrients help prepare your reproductive organs, your hormones, and health to be at its peak to allow for conception to occur. Here are 6 important prenatal supplements.
12 Best Foods to Boost Progesterone
Progesterone is a sex hormone released from the ovaries that is vital for conceiving and maintaining a healthy pregnancy. The hormone can be broken down as ‘pro’ meaning to promote and ‘gesterone’ meaning gestation or pregnancy. It is released from the corpus luteum which is the remains of the ovarian follicle which releases the ovum or egg. Progesterone has 2 different paths each month depending on fertilization and ovulation. If your ovulated egg is fertilized, then progesterone rises after ovulation to help thicken the uterine lining for pregnancy. If your egg does not become fertilized after ovulation, then progesterone peaks and then declines, because you do not need to prepare for pregnancy. The uterine lining will shed and become a period. Progesterone is also involved in breast development and breastfeeding. Problems can arise when progesterone levels are too low regardless if you are attempting to conceive. Certain foods contain nutrients to help increase progesterone in the body.
8 Foods to Raise Estrogen
Low levels of estrogen occur after menopause, but low levels can also emerge during perimenopause (the stages leading up to menopause). Symptoms of low estrogen include night sweats, sleep issues, achy joints, bone loss, anxiety or depression, vaginal dryness, low libido, and painful sex. Estrogen and progesterone work on a balance, where a high level of one will cause a low level of the other. Here are the 3 patterns: high estrogen and normal progesterone, high estrogen and low progesterone, normal estrogen, and low progesterone. There are foods to raise estrogen that have components to facilitate the increased production of estrogen when levels are low.
How to Track Ovulation
Ovulation takes place around halfway between 2 consecutive menstruations. After your period, your estrogen starts to rise during the follicular phase, the first half of your cycle. FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) increases during the follicular phase to tell your ovaries to produce an egg and right before you ovulate you have an LH surge (luteinizing hormone) to tell your ovary to release the egg. Once you have ovulated your progesterone should kick in, rise, then peak. Just after ovulation your hormones peak. This is the time when your energy is the highest, you may feel like doing more things, maybe you’re more social during this time.
