Just a few years ago I was working with a young woman who had been experiencing some health issues. She already had two children and while she wasn’t trying to get pregnant again, she also wasn’t not trying to get pregnant, but noticed that she didn’t conceive even though they weren’t using protection. This didn’t surprise me as many women do see a correlation in the ability to get pregnant and their overall metabolic health. After working with her on some ways to improve her conditions, which included the use of natural progesterone, she suddenly became pregnant. This was unbeknownst to me and after receiving the news she decided on her own volition to stop using the progesterone out of a misguided belief that taking anything during pregnancy could disrupt it. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened and she instead miscarried, because her body was not able to produce enough progesterone on its own to support a healthy pregnancy, just as it hadn’t before she began progesterone. After hearing about her pregnancy and miscarriage I explained to her what happened and urged her to try progesterone again, but this time not to quit until about the twelfth week of pregnancy, under supervision of her doctor. Normally the ovaries will produce enough progesterone to support a pregnancy, but between the eighth to twelfth week the placenta actually takes over in progesterone production, after which there usually is no need to supplement progesterone any longer and which is why pregnancies are more likely to come to term the longer they last. This young woman did as I instructed, promptly got pregnant, and carried a very healthy baby all the way to term.

This deficit of progesterone is commonly the reason for the difficulties many women have when trying to make a baby, as there are many dietary, environmental, and behavioral practices which can easily impair progesterone production, things like fasting and dieting, environmental contaminants, or eating certain foods like common wheat in which gluten acts as a potent promoter of inflammation which in turn can reduce progesterone production and cause such conditions as endometriosis. But this also means that aging doesn’t need to be a limiter on fertility, which is really just a functional decline of youthful levels of progesterone, and progesterone is so helpful in many aspects of health, including men’s health, that using progesterone can have a wide ranging degree of beneficial effects besides simply promoting pregnancy. One woman complained that progesterone made her breasts too large, which I totally get, but it also demonstrates some of the other characteristics of progesterone in support of pregnancy. Right now one of the commonest causes of infertility is exposure to toxic chemicals in cosmetics, body products, and clothing. Large-market brands often use highly estrogenic and endocrine disrupting chemicals which are entirely unregulated, and because these products are applied to the skin, which is highly absorbent, they easily derange the endocrine system and when combined with harmful dietary habits like low-fat, low-carb, fasting, or excess exercise can easily prevent pregnancy in both women and men. Avoiding this chemicals is absolutely necessary if you are having trouble conceiving.

Fertility treatments typically address certain regulators of our hormone production, but the problem is that these targets, such as leutenizing hormone or gonadotropins, are related to the stress pathways which kick in when our body cannot easily maintain normal sex hormone production. The body has downregulated these functions because they are causing the production of too much estrogen, so manually increasing them only serves to further increase excess estrogen, for which clinics then prescribe aromatase inhibitors which block the conversion of estrogen. None of this serves to address the underlying reasons why you are having trouble conceiving in the first place, and often exaggerates the underlying health problems, which is why that process often takes a long time and is inconsistent. Supplementing progesterone and supporting metabolic health is much quicker and reliable and can actually address the root of the health issues which are causing the problem in the first place.

There is also a correlation between metabolic rate and the frequency of morning sickness. Progesterone acts like a broom, helping the body to sweep out debris which gets in the way of good metabolic health, which is one of the reasons why pregnant women often experience a reversal in aging while they are carrying. But if your metabolic health is not in great shape this process which is stimulated by progesterone will cause more nausea, vomiting, lethargy, aches, and dizziness because the body has to work that much harder to get the gunk out in order to prep the body to handle a pregnancy. Aside from taking progesterone you can further support your own reproductive health and prevent serious morning sickness by increasing the metabolic rate such as I advocate in my book, Fuck Portion Control, through monitoring your own temperature and pulse and eating a diet which supports a high metabolic rate while avoiding those things which impair it. Because I am not female and not a medical professional, I don’t know all the particulars of being pregnant nor how this would apply to women who have more severe medical issues which prevent them from conceiving, but generally the nature of progesterone is to help heal and rehabilitate tissue, even in cases of conditions like endometriosis which progesterone strongly rehabilitates, so its use can go a long way in supporting any health condition whether it is used solo or as part of an overall comprehensive strategy. I do know that estrogens in excess can cause the womb to contract and expel a pregnancy, so it’s probably wise to avoid any extra estrogen hormone products or supplements as well.

It is very important to use a 100% natural progesterone, as synthetic products can actually come with complications and are not the same as natural products, and I would also absolutely avoid any product which contains or originates from soy—which, if their ingredients and their source is not listed, probably means they are derived from soy and another product should be used instead. Manufacturers which use soy claim that their product is filtered and so does not retain any soy, but when I have used soy-sourced progesterone products there are side effects that can only be caused by exposure to soy, and I believe the filtration process is not as robust as they believe it to be or that the compounds which originate from soy differ from those of other sources (and yes, men can and in many cases should use progesterone to help with a variety of health problems including erectile dysfunction, which is also discussed in my book). Progesterone should not be used during breastfeeding, though, as it opposes lactation and might stop it altogether. But once nursing is complete progesterone use can be resumed to support the overall metabolic health. Progesterone should also only be used during the ovulation and luteal phase of the menstrual cycle (I would confer with other women on this point), as constant use can trick the body into thinking it’s already pregnant, which can sometimes actually work as a contraceptive and is not at all harmful, but as I have no experience with getting pregnant I wouldn’t rely on it definitively as a contraceptive, but which also brings me to a point that some contraceptives high in estrogen or which are poorly made can cause serious emotional suffering or contribute to health problems which can in turn present as pregnancy complications later, and if your contraceptive of choice makes you feel off it’s probably a good idea to look into other products which have less risk to your overall health. Also, I will write a future article on nutrition for pregnancy, but for now I do know that most prenatal vitamins contain iron, and supplemental forms of iron can not only damage your own health but your baby’s as well, and it is much safer to use an iron-free prenatal and get your iron from dietary sources such as meat, spinach, etc. Men’s reproductive health is obviously also an equal part of the equation, and besides raising the metabolic rate there are some direct therapies which can improve and enhance men’s ability to make someone pregnant such as direct sunlight exposure to the male genitals, which directly stimulates testosterone production, or red light therapy which can be used to regenerate the testes and actually enlarge them, increasing the quantity output of both testosterone and sperm, and details on these therapies and more information on the health of the male reproductive system can be found in the chapter on erectile and libido dysfunction in my book. If you are approaching 40 or over, I highly recommend reading about the use of lysine in my book to suppress excess nitric oxide, which in anyone who is no longer a youth can prevent tissue regeneration and might be a factor in your ability to conceive, and using a short course of lysine to suppress excess nitric oxide can make progesterone therapy extremely effective, but there are some cautions to look out for when using lysine which is why I recommend reading about it first. You can also take pregnenolone which is widely available and very inexpensive to help increase your own endogenous production of progesterone (avoid supplements with ingredients like silica, though, which can inflame the nervous system and contribute to conditions like eczema).

If you’re having trouble conceiving and whether or not you are working with a doctor I strongly urge you to try out natural, soy-free progesterone. It is one of the most powerful promoters of youth and fertility in both women and men and can help heal and regenerate tissues which might otherwise have more difficulty healing, and used in conjunction with a diet that promotes a high metabolic rate can help you overcome significant health challenges. More information on improving metabolic health can be found in my book, Fuck Portion Control.