Updated: May 11th, 2025

  • Progesterone is one of the major female sex hormones, but many women have no idea what it does.
  • Progesterone deficiency can lead to a wide range of health problems: exhaustion, intense PMS symptoms, moodiness, weight gain and more.
  • Adrenal dysfunction also comes with an array of uncomfortable symptoms, many of which are similar to those of progesterone deficiency
  • Understanding the connection between the adrenal function and progesterone levels is crucial.
  • Simple strategies to reduce stress, eat to support hormonal balance, get quality sleep and support your body’s vitamin and mineral needs can help.

When I first saw Lisa, I could see immediately that she was totally exhausted and completely overwhelmed. Her despair was clear in her tired, flat eyes and her frustrated words: “I can’t do this anymore.”

The 38-year-old graphic designer, like so many women her age, was working herself into the ground. Her day often began at 5 am, and she didn’t leave the office until after 8 many nights – especially when deadlines were looming.

On top of all that, she travelled for her job frequently, and she felt like she was never available for her pre-teen daughter. Forget quality mother-daughter time…Lisa wasn’t even home for the typical parental nagging! She felt guilty and sad most of the time, but had no idea how to change things.

Not only was Lisa tired and stressed beyond belief, but she also had an extensive list of health complaints! Her PMS symptoms were intense, and she had vaginal dryness, thinning hair, and weight gain. She was irritable, forgetful, and had trouble concentrating. She regularly woke up at 2 am and felt like she needed a nap as soon as her alarm went off in the morning.

Does this sound familiar? Are you juggling so many responsibilities that you don’t feel like you’re doing any of them justice? I’ve heard from so many women who tell me they don’t feel like themselves anymore; their lives have spun out of control with no relief in sight. And their health is suffering greatly because of it!

What Lisa and these other women don’t know is that they’re experiencing adrenal dysfunction and low progesterone. Hormonal imbalances are behind their issues and their crazy pace wasn’t helping a bit!

Why is progesterone important?

Do you even know what progesterone does? There’s a lot of talk about estrogen, but many women don’t have a clue about how important progesterone is. This essential hormone is a key player in the menstrual cycle, fertility, and pregnancy. Progesterone is one of those things we learn about in high school biology, then promptly forget until something goes wrong. But for women, that’s a big mistake!

Another thing women don’t know is how important hormonal balance is, and how much control they have over it. Some lifestyle changes can make a huge difference in the symptoms they’re experiencing if they just realize the root of their problem: progesterone deficiency and adrenal dysfunction.

Lisa knew something had to give. She listened carefully to my recommendations, addressed her low progesterone and adrenal dysfunction, and came out the other side feeling better than she had in years. Somewhere along the way, she also learned to slow down a bit so the problem wouldn’t return! And you can, too.

Let’s talk about low progesterone and adrenal fatigue. Then, I’ll give you some practical, fairly simple strategies to begin changing your life – and your health!

What is progesterone deficiency?

Progesterone is one of your major female sex hormones. The corpus luteum in your ovary releases progesterone during your cycle to prepare your endometrium for a potential pregnancy after ovulation. It helps to thicken the lining of the womb to accept fertilized eggs, reduces muscle contractions that can lead to rejecting fertilized eggs, and stimulates glands that nourish the embryo.

Progesterone helps keep your body calm and healthy. Unfortunately, like Lisa, many women don’t realize that progesterone deficiency is the culprit behind their anxiety, moodiness, PMS, heavy periods, and other symptoms. Because of major hormonal shifts as you move beyond child-bearing years, low progesterone may also cause symptoms in menopausal and postmenopausal women.

Nothing in your body happens in isolation. For your body to function at its best, all of its hormones need to be properly balanced. If one is out of whack, chances are, others will be too. Since progesterone is produced in your adrenal glands as well as your ovaries, it is not surprising that progesterone deficiency and adrenal dysfunction are often connected.

What is adrenal dysfunction

Adrenal dysfunction may feel like walking through a perpetual fog all day. You may feel groggy, irritable, or anxious. You may have trouble concentrating, sleeping, or losing weight. You may have digestive issues, PMS, or severe menopausal symptoms. Life just feels like a chore.

Your adrenal glands are located at the top of your kidneys. They are responsible for producing and releasing a long list of hormones that your body can’t function without. If your adrenals are dysfunctional, these hormones get out of balance leading to those uncomfortable symptoms.

The primary responsibility of your adrenals is to help your body respond to stress. They release adrenaline and cortisol to allow your body to survive.

Cortisol is also known as the stress hormone. It converts nutrients from food into energy, reduces inflammation, supports the immune response, and regulates your blood pressure and cardiovascular function. It also activates the “fight, flight, or freeze” response under stress.

This comes in quite handy under acute stress if you are facing a real threat. Our ancestors used cortisol to fight for survival when running from wild animals, fire or other danger. This is also the mechanism that can help you react appropriately and survive if you get mugged or get into a car accident.

But it’s not exactly practical when you are experiencing constant everyday stress, such as being stuck in traffic, dealing with job frustration, or reading the news all day long. When you are under chronic stress from family, relationship, job, and other life issues, your body’s stress response gets stuck in the “on” position.

Your body never gets the memo that everything is alright, and it can relax and chill a little bit. Instead, your adrenal glands produce cortisol constantly, causing imbalances in your other hormone levels. Eventually, your adrenals may also get tired of the continuous cortisol demand and start producing too little cortisol instead. Too little cortisol can also lead to problems, including exhaustion and hormonal imbalance.

There are lists of symptoms for both progesterone deficiency and adrenal dysfunction below. Do you see how similar some of the symptoms are? There’s a lot of overlap, which can make determining exactly what you’re dealing with tricky to tease out. The good news is that the strategies below help with both progesterone deficiency and adrenal health as a whole.

Symptoms of progesterone deficiency

Some of the typical symptoms of progesterone deficiency include:

  • Migraines or headaches
  • Mood disturbances, including mood swings, irritability, anxiety, and depression
  • Bloating and water retention
  • PMS and/or irregular periods
  • Vaginal dryness
  • Low or no sex drive
  • Brain fog
  • Sugar cravings
  • Weight gain
  • Fatigue or exhaustion
  • Acne
  • Facial hair growth
  • Hair loss
  • Dry skin and brittle nails

Symptoms of Adrenal Dysfunction

If these symptoms seem familiar to you, you may be experiencing adrenal dysfunction:

  • Feeling tired in the morning even after a good night’s sleep
  • Inability to stay awake in the evenings, yet having trouble falling asleep at night
  • Feeling both wired and exhausted
  • Dozing off when you sit down for a quiet activity, such as reading or meditation
  • Feeling dizzy or lightheaded when standing up
  • Feeling dizzy in general
  • Low blood pressure or blood pressure varying between high and low
  • Indigestion, diarrhea, and other digestive issues
  • Heart palpitations
  • Weakness
  • Weight gain, especially around your waist
  • Losing muscle and gaining fat
  • Low exercise tolerance
  • Feeling unwell
  • Feeling cold a lot
  • Frequent headaches
  • Swollen ankles
  • Water retention
  • Dark circles under your eyes
  • Dry mouth
  • Sweaty hands and feet when you are nervous
  • Low blood sugar when missing a meal
  • Salt, sweet, or high-protein food cravings
  • Needing a frequent coffee or sugar fix
  • Intense symptoms of PMS, perimenopause, or menopause
  • Irritability
  • Prone to anger or rage
  • Feeling constantly on the edge
  • Feeling depressed or numb
  • Low sex drive
  • Frequent nightmares
  • Feeling an overpowering urge to cry
  • Trouble concentrating and brain fog
  • Anxiety
  • Feeling stressed all the time
  • Everything feeling like a chore

The Connection Between Adrenal Dysfunction and Progesterone Deficiency

Those are long lists of symptoms, aren’t they? What is at the root of them all? In short, the answer is stress.

An ongoing stress response due to chronic stress, however, is simply not healthy. Your body shouldn’t have a ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ response because of small daily stressors, like a traffic jam.

Chronic stress taxes your adrenals and leads to overproduction of cortisol. However, when your adrenals are working overtime to make an excessive amount of cortisol, they have to cut back on progesterone production, causing estrogen-progesterone imbalance.

At first, your symptoms may be slight: a little fatigue, trouble sleeping, or a jittery feeling. But if your adrenal dysfunction goes unaddressed, you will start experiencing more extreme fatigue and symptoms. Due to prolonged stress, your body then reaches that stage called ‘pregnenolone steal’.

Pregnenolone is the compound that makes cortisol, progesterone, and Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). DHEA helps produce two other critical sex hormones, estrogen and testosterone.

When you are experiencing ongoing, chronic stress and your adrenals are pumping out cortisol around the clock, pregnenolone reduces progesterone and DHEA production to create more space for the creation of more and more cortisol instead. Cortisol ultimately steals the space from progesterone.

Another problem during stress is that the production of enzyme 17 alpha(α)-hydroxylase lyase or 17/20 enzyme lyase gets blocked. 17/20 enzyme lyase acts upon pregnenolone and progesterone and is essential for hormone production, sexual development, and reproduction.

Since enzyme 17/20 lyase is critical for hormone production, this can become a serious problem. It blocks the conversion of cholesterol to hormone production, and progesterone levels get low.

This leads to an imbalance in sex hormones, including progesterone, as well as other hormones. This is why so many women have progesterone issues.

The insufficient production of progesterone leads to progesterone deficiency, estrogen-progesterone imbalance, hormonal imbalances, worsened PMS, perimenopausal, or menopausal symptoms, infertility, low sex drive, irritability, moodiness, fatigue, brain fog, blood sugar imbalances, and other issues.

If your body continues to overproduce cortisol for a long time, eventually, it will reach ‘burnout’. It will stop producing cortisol while still only producing low levels of progesterone and DHEA. At this stage, your symptoms became even worse, making daily life very challenging. Your risk of digestive disorders, other hormonal imbalances, autoimmune conditions, infertility, and other health issues also increase.

Improve your progesterone levels to improve adrenal health

So now that you know why balanced progesterone is important, what can you do about it? Most conventional doctors don’t offer much advice. Lisa, like most of my patients, went from doctor to doctor without results. When she came to me, she finally found improvement with the help of some natural solutions.

It seems so simple, but your body is incredibly wise. If you support it with natural strategies and allow it to rest, it will repair itself. Like Lisa, you may also find success with the following natural strategies.

Reduce your stress levels

Let’s be honest, if you don’t give your body a break, your adrenals won’t be able to slow down either. Eliminating stress entirely is impossible, of course. But you can reduce stress and learn how to better respond when stressors do arise. A good place to start is finding just one thing you can stop doing in your overloaded schedule. Every small step can eventually lead to big results.

Start your day with deep breathing

Breathwork is one of the most powerful ways to relax your body. Start your day with a few conscious deep breaths and stop throughout the day to practice deep breathing for a moment. Practice meditation to release your feelings and identify negative patterns. Try meditation or yoga to calm your mind and body. Spend time in nature to slow down and connect with yourself.

Sleep plenty

Sleep deprivation is one of the main underlying causes of stress and adrenal dysfunction. Your body needs 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night. Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day to support your natural sleep-wake cycle. Avoid stress, heavy foods, and electronics. Engage in relaxing activities that help your body and mind calm down. Reading fiction, journaling, coloring, crossword puzzles, and meditation are great evening ideas.

Follow a hormone-supporting diet

Food is medicine. It’s simple but true. Be conscious about what you put into your body. Avoid refined sugar, refined oil, and processed foods. Consume nutrient-dense whole foods, including lots of greens, vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, wild-caught fish and seafood, and lean red meat. Choose organic whenever available and affordable.

Pay attention to how you eat as well. Don’t rush your meals. Sit down comfortably and focus on your meal instead of scrolling on your phone or watching TV. Slow down, chew your food, and stop between bites. Stop eating when you feel satisfied before you become uncomfortably full.

Support your body with supplements

Vitamin B and C helps to boost your progesterone levels. Vitamin B6 is not only great for optimal progesterone levels but also helps to break down estrogen and reduces estrogen dominance. Vitamin C also offers antioxidant benefits, lowers oxidative stress, and reduces free radical damage.

Magnesium helps to regulate your hormones and maintain optimal progesterone levels. Zinc promotes progesterone production in your ovaries and helps you to maintain healthy progesterone levels.

To meet your vitamin and mineral needs, I recommend taking a high-quality multivitamin. Always check with your healthcare provider to make sure that a particular supplement is appropriate for your unique needs. Testing for vitamin and magnesium deficiencies may help you to choose the right supplement.

Try herbal support

Adaptogenic herbs help to reduce stress and improve your adrenal health. Astragalus root helps your body’s stress response, immune function, and blood sugar levels. Ashwagandha helps to lower stress, reduce cortisol, improve brain function, and lower anxiety.

Rhodiola Rosea helps to reduce stress-related fatigue, improve immune function, boost mental clarity, reduce anxiety and depression, improve immune function, and regulate blood sugar levels. Licorice root supports adrenal balance, energy, and endurance. Always check with your healthcare provider to make sure that these herbal supplements are right for you.

Bioidentical progesterone cream

Sometimes, you might need an extra boost to get levels back to normal. Unlike synthetic hormones, bioidentical hormones offer the same cellular structure as the hormones in your body. They absorb easily, are quite effective, and are generally safe. You may benefit from using bioidentical progesterone cream. However, make sure to check with your functional medicine practitioner to ensure it’s right for you.

Regain your health naturally

When Lisa returned to me a few weeks after making the shifts I suggested, she was no longer in despair. In fact, she was radiant! I couldn’t believe the visible difference in just a few short weeks. She said she was learning to reduce stress (yes, she even said no to her boss sometimes!), find joy by spending time with her daughter, and support her health with natural strategies. You can improve your health the same way!. Supporting your diet with stress-reducing techniques, better sleep, a hormone-supporting diet, vitamins, minerals, and adaptogenic herbs is a road worth taking. I can’t wait to see how YOU look and feel afterwards!