How Progesterone Plus Pregnenolone Benefits Your Hormones – Dr. Anna Cabeca

You’re in perimenopause or menopause, and hot flashes, mood swings, and brain fog are out of control. Your intuition and your doctor tell you this is because your estrogen is dropping. So of course you need to add estrogen to your life, right? Before you go there, I would encourage you to first explore how pregnenolone benefits the menopause experience.

In my private practice, I have seen pregnenolone, especially when combined with progesterone, accomplish some pretty spectacular things for menopausal women…all without the harsh and potentially dangerous side effects of estrogen therapy.

In this article, we will explore the benefits of pregnenolone and how it combines with progesterone to balance hormones and combat menopause.

Your body synthesizes pregnenolone from cholesterol, and from there — it turns into cortisol, progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA).

Pregnenolone is produced primarily in your adrenal glands. But pregnenolone synthesis also takes place in other tissues, including glial cells and neurons in your brain. (1)

Typically, as you get older, your body produces less pregnenolone. This is why taking pregnenolone supplements during menopause makes sense for many women.

Pregnenolone supplements have caught on recently, for both men and women. Pregnenolone is particularly popular because it not only provides the foundation for the creation of other hormones, but also has a reputation for helping a variety of mental health disorders, including depression. (2,3)

Pregnenolone for menopausal women helps restore hormonal balance by giving your body more than it needs to make a little extra of your sex hormones. But when you combine it with progesterone, it creates an even more comprehensive approach to managing hormonal balance. This can be especially beneficial for people dealing with a wide range of menopausal disorders — let’s take a look at some of the ways this power couple can support you.

Pregnenolone is a precursor to many other hormones, including progesterone. So supplementing with pregnenolone and progesterone together can help balance your hormones more easily.

Remember, pregnenolone can be converted by your body into a wide range of other hormones.

This means that no matter what hormones your body is missing right now, pregnenolone could help balance things out.

And we know that progesterone directly opposes this erratic drop in estrogen… so when you combine the two – together, they could help address a wider range of challenges. Typically, I find that this combination reduces hot flashes and also helps your sleep and mood.

Pregnenolone is thought to have mood stabilizing and memory enhancing effects. (4)

In addition, progesterone exerts a calming effect by interacting with GABA receptors in the brain. So when you combine the two, they could support cognition and mood regulation more effectively. Plus, they help with those feelings of restlessness during menopause.

Progesterone has relaxing, almost sedative properties. What you’re betting on could help your sleep history change dramatically.

But, when you combine progesterone and pregnenolone, it’s the ultimate sleep aid…because pregnenolone has its own calming effects as well. Pregnenolone is the precursor to progesterone and is also the precursor to other neurosteroids such as allopregnanolone that support sleep patterns. (5,6)

Progesterone plays a role in bone formation and bone density. (7,8) Combining it with pregnenolone may provide additional support for bone health during menopause, a time when the risk of osteoporosis increases — because pregnenolone is converted to progesterone and estrogen (another key hormonal factor in bone density) and also because it likely also has its own bone-supporting properties. (9)

Both progesterone and pregnenolone play a role in skin health. Did you know that progesterone helps regulate skin elasticity? (10) This is one of the reasons I like to use it as a face cream in my Balance formula every night.

Pregnenolone can also support glowing skin through its conversion to other hormones that benefit the skin, especially estrogen. (11) Together, these two hormones could help maintain a more youthful-looking skin during menopause.

Pregnenolone levels drop as you get older, there’s just no way around it. But there are some things you can do to encourage this crucial hormone to stick around.

For one thing, your body needs cholesterol to make pregnenolone. This means that your diet should include healthy sources of healthy cholesterol, such as:

If you want to increase your pregnenolone levels, it is important to encourage hormone balance with proper sleep hygiene, stress reduction, and an overall healthy lifestyle that includes plenty of exercise.

Pregnenolone is a precursor hormone. It is at the top of the steroid hormone pyramid. That’s why we call it the mother hormone.

Pregnenolone is converted by your body into progesterone, cortisol, androgens and estrogen. (12) Well, yes, pregnenolone can help support your estrogen levels. However, we don’t usually see pregnenolone encouraging estrogen dominance. It is a much gentler and more balanced approach to increasing estrogen than estrogen therapy.

However, this also means that if you have or are at risk of developing estrogen-dependent cancer, it is imperative that you speak with your oncologist before starting any type of hormone therapy.

In general, pregnenolone dosage varies depending on where you are in your menopause journey and your health goals.

For women taking my Balance cream, which contains progesterone and pregnenolone, I usually recommend:

For perimenopausal women:

Start counting from the first day you start bleeding. this is day 1. Then on day 14 of your cycle, start applying Balance cream and continue until day 28. Typically, you will apply one pump of the cream daily from day 14 to day 28, which is time from suspected ovulation to the start of your next period.

For postmenopausal or menopausal women:

Apply one pump of the cream for 25 consecutive days, then take a 5-day break before starting the cycle again. Alternatively, you can use the cream 5 to 6 days a week, ensuring you take 1 to 2 rest days during the week, or follow specific instructions provided by your healthcare professional.

My Balance cream contains approximately 20 mg of progesterone and 10 mg of pregnenolone in one pump.

I always recommend taking pregnenolone and progesterone at night so they can help you sleep.

If you take them too early in the day, you may want to take a nap!

When you start taking a pregnenolone supplement, give it time.

Many of the women who use my Balance cream see results after a few applications.

But there are many who don’t notice a difference until they use it for 4-8 weeks, so stick with it.

It is important to be consistent when applying Balance. This is one of the main problems I see – women forget to use their progesterone and pregnenolone on a regular basis. If you don’t use it regularly, you won’t see the benefits!

I should point out here that pregnenolone is a commonly misspelled word! Here are some of the variations I’ve seen, even in the scientific literature:

• Pregenelone

• Pregnalon

• Pregenolone

• Pregnenolone

• Pregnenolone

• Pregnanalone

• Pragnenalone

So if you’re looking for pregnenolone and having trouble finding it, it might be because you’re spelling it wrong 😉

Pregnenolone is such an exciting hormone. And it plays such a critical role in your mood, memory, sleep, bones, sleep, skin, and overall hormonal balance during menopause.

When combined with bioidentical progesterone, it’s an unstoppable force for menopausal women everywhere.

Be sure to check out my Balance Cream which contains bio-identical versions of both of these powerful hormones to help you start feeling like your old self again!