What Women Should Learn about Normal Progesterone Levels

Updated: Jun 18, 2020

Keeping normal progesterone levels is crucial to preventing hormonal imbalance. Progesterone has influences on the body during pregnancy, menstruation, and on bone, heart, and liver health. Thus, it is vital that women have regulated levels during each stage in their lives. Having balanced estrogen and progesterone levels can help to prevent unpleasant signs and symptoms of hormonal imbalance, such as hot flashes, night sweats, and brittle nails.

Continue reading for more information about normal progesterone levels, what happens if they aren't maintained, and how to maintain them.

What Are Normal Progesterone Levels?

Normal, balanced levels of progesterone are those that are correct for each individual woman. These levels change depending on the stage of life that a woman is in, and the woman herself. For example, during pregnancy women have high progesterone levels, and during postmenopause women have low progesterone levels.

Nevertheless, there are normal progesterone levels that women will maintain when they are going through their normal menstruation period. These are:

Hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycle
  • During premenopause and perimenopause, women's normal progesterone levels will be around 8 - 10 ng/ml. However, during ovulation normal progesterone levels change to between 18-20 ng/ml.
  • During postmenopause, normal progesterone levels change and become much lower. Normal progesterone levels are normally at 1 ng/ml.
  • Lastly during pregnancy, normal progesterone levels are usually around 16 ng/ml.

What Happens if These Levels Are Not Maintained?

It is important that progesterone and estrogen levels are balanced. This is because having hormonal imbalance can cause many different, unpleasant side effects such as:

  • Hot flashes
  • Night sweats
  • Weight gain
  • Headaches
  • Brittle nails
  • Osteoporosis
  • Anxiety
  • Depression

With this in mind, it is vitally important that women maintain normal progesterone levels in order to stay healthy.

How Can Normal Progesterone Levels Be Maintained?

There are different ways to maintain the correct levels of progesterone. To do this, a woman can either make healthy lifestyle changes or take natural supplements to keep the body healthy.

A number of healthy lifestyle changes that women can make are:

Eat a healthy and balanced diet
  • Exercise regularly. For optimum results, it is recommended to engage in it half an hour a day, five times a week.
  • Eat a healthy and balanced diet. A diet that contains plenty of fruits and vegetables, with whole grain fibers, and protein.
  • Drink at least eight glasses of water a day to keep hydrated
  • Sleep for eight hours a night to keep the body and mind rested
  • Limit alcohol intake
  • Do not smoke

Additionally, women can also take natural supplements to maintain normal progesterone levels. There are a number of different ones on the market, which contain certain herbs such as:

  • Red clover
  • Black cohosh
  • Gingko biloba
  • Soy
  • Ginseng

These can help women maintain normal progesterone levels. It is important to keep hormones balanced in order to avoid unpleasant symptoms. Click on the links below for more information about progesterone imbalance.