Blood Pressure and Natural Progesterone

Progesterone’s effect on blood pressure

Progesterone can be used in conjunction with your anti-hypertensive drugs providing you do so under strict supervision of your doctor. Too much estrogen in our body will cause the retention of fluid made up of sodium and water, and the subsequent loss of potassium and magnesium. Hypertension or high blood pressure is the end product.

Progesterone supplementation can help eliminate this sodium and water influx into cells (intracellular edema or water retention). In other words, when progesterone is introduced into the body, weight goes down (excess water is excreted), and blood pressure returns to normal.

Progesterone also exerts an anti-spasmodic influence of blood vessels. In fact, progesterone appears to have a protective effect against hypertension. Reports have indicated that a reduction in the dose of anti-hypertensive drugs has been necessary over a period of time, and in some cases, medication was halted altogether because blood pressure had been restored to normal.

Progesterone and the contraceptive pill

This may not be the case if you are taking the Contraceptive Pill. The Contraceptive Pill contains artificial progestins that can also cause water retention, often accompanied by hypertension. Natural progesterone cream will be rendered ineffective because synthetic progestins compete for, and bind to progesterone receptors thus inhibiting the action of natural progesterone.

Progesterone and beta blockers

Please note, there is a potential interaction with progesterone and the group of medications known as beta blockers. This interaction may cause an increase in the resistance to blood flow in the hands and feet. The result may be an increase in the side effects of the beta blocker, especially the cold hands and feet.

We stress that this website has NOT received reports of this effect as yet, but the potential is there.

Keep in mind also that blood pressure changes may be due to physiological effects or other reasons unknown so keep your doctor informed at all times. You might be interested to learn that studies have shown that people living near the equator are less likely to have hypertension. And that blood pressures tend to be higher in winter, when we get less sunlight, which our body uses to synthetise vitamin D. By all accounts and observations, vitamin D may be nature’s leading blood pressure regulator.