Ray Peat on Menopause

The Role of Progesterone in Various Medical Conditions

“Even though progesterone seems to be able to heal almost everything, we should be cautious and only use it when the biochemical mechanism is fairly clear. A progesterone deficiency can be misdiagnosed, for example as epilepsy, Bright's disease, multiple sclerosis, or even as estrogen deficiency (such as in menopause). It can influence susceptibility to many conditions, including herpes infections, dizziness, perceptual disorders, varicose veins, mastitis, fibroids, and endometriosis. In my experience, cyclical edema, depression, and migraines are always stopped by progesterone.”

Nutrition For Women

Dalton’s Insights on Menopause and Hormonal Imbalance

“Katharina Dalton found that premenstrual symptoms resulting from a relative excess of estrogen and a progesterone deficiency often persist during menopause.”

Nutrition For Women

Menopause Symptoms and Progesterone Deficiency

“Strickler found that only 10% of his patients with menopause symptoms such as hot flashes felt and benefited from estrogen when given alternately with a placebo. These studies and a few dozen others convinced me that menopause symptoms mainly result from a progesterone deficiency—relative to estrogens. The 10% who really improve with estrogen may have an estrogen deficiency, but this is not clear, and several other factors could explain the boost they feel: for example, a healthy thyroid can respond to increased estrogen with increased thyroxine production, which at least makes the person feel different and may raise blood sugar, increase alertness, etc.”

Nutrition For Women

Osteoporosis, Diabetes, and Mineral Loss Related to Cortisone

“Osteoporosis and diabetes are often part of Cushing’s syndrome and also occur more frequently after menopause. Cortisone therapy (even when applied to the skin) can cause mineral loss.”

Nutrition For Women

Insights from Overlapping Conditions on Stress and Aging

“Aging, stress, menopause, Cushing’s syndrome, and premenstrual syndrome overlap so strongly that each condition likely offers some insights into the others.”

Nutrition For Women

Cortisol Levels and Inflammation After Menopause

“Starting suddenly around the time of menopause, cortisol is higher, probably as compensation for the lost stabilizing effects of progesterone and for the increasing inflammatory processes due to the lower body temperature.”

November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Aromatase Activity and Hormonal Effects in Menopause

“Aromatase, the enzyme that produces estrogen, is present in muscles, fat, blood vessels, and many other tissues, and its activity is increased by cortisol and decreased by progesterone. The altered activity of these two steroids in menopause may explain the sudden rise in degenerative diseases, inflammation, depression, etc.”

November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Effects of Menopause on Respiratory and Cardiovascular Health

“Respiratory and cardiovascular problems increase with menopause, corresponding to a rise in inflammatory cytokines and cortisol as well as a decline in progesterone and thyroid hormone. Both thyroid and progesterone are thermogenic and lower estrogen levels.”

November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Estrogen Levels and Anti-Estrogenic Factors in Reproduction

“The actual estrogen level rises throughout the reproductive years, and in menopause, the decrease of anti-estrogenic factors such as progesterone, thyroid, and DHEA leads to enhanced effects of estrogen.”

February 2001

Consensus Opinion and Its Influence on Publishing Trends

“Uniformity of opinion creates an environment where publishers, wanting to sell many books, feel compelled to publish things that won’t upset the reading audience. Books about menopause become books about an attitude toward menopause.”

August–September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Debunking Menopause Myths: Ovarian Function and Hormone Production

“Even people who like to say that the ovaries do not fail in menopause describe a theory according to which menopause and its consequences result from the disappearance of eggs from the ovary. This theory is so simple it can be described in three short sentences—and none of them is true: (1) The ovary runs out of eggs; (2) ovulation produces hormones, so you can tell when ovulation stops because the ovaries then stop producing hormones; (3) menstruation stops because ovulation has stopped. Various conclusions revolve around these principles. Estrogen is the female hormone. Estrogen deficiency accelerates aging. Treatment with estrogen makes you more feminine. Progesterone deficiency is the result of anovulatory cycles.”

August–September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Stress, Estrogen, and the Brain’s Role in Menopause and Aging

“Stress, especially when amplified by estrogen, leads to damage, exhaustion, and aging. The uterus and ovaries are involved in the stress response, but (as Zeilmaker and Wise have shown) the brain is apparently more directly involved in menopause than the ovaries or uterus. Coordination proves crucial for complex processes like ovulation, fertilization, and implantation. The destruction of nerve cells that regulate the pituitary gland makes coordination impossible.”

August–September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Estrogen Excess, Androgens, and Defeminization in Menopause

“In menopause, an excess of estrogen—with absent progesterone—can promote androgen production, which tends to defeminize the woman. This is often a consequence of stress and sometimes a result of hypothyroidism. In such situations, it becomes clear that estrogen is not a feminizing hormone; it is unable to neutralize the male hormones the body produces in response to the estrogen excess.”

August–September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Menopause and Parallels to Cushing’s Syndrome

“In the mid-1970s, when I pointed out that menopause resembles Cushing’s syndrome, I had not yet sufficiently studied this condition of cortisol excess to know the full extent of the parallels: for example, hot flashes, night sweats, and insomnia—such common menopause symptoms—are also common symptoms in Cushing’s syndrome. Estrogen’s tendency to increase cortisol production should be considered in connection with the brain-aging effects of both estrogen and cortisol.”

April 1991 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
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