How to Increase Progesterone Naturally (and What Won’t Help)

When I was working on getting my own cycle back on track with PCOS/PMOS, the turning point came when I stopped obsessing over detoxing estrogen and started paying attention to progesterone instead. Progesterone is the hormone most of us never think about until it’s low, and then a lot of things start to make sense at once: the anxiety that ramps up the week before your period, sleep that falls apart in the luteal phase, cramps that feel out of proportion, and that annoying spotting a few days before your period officially starts, etc. So, can you raise progesterone naturally? In a lot of cases, yes, with one big caveat that shapes everything below. Progesterone isn’t a hormone you can target on its own with the right supplement. Your body makes it as the result of a whole chain of events, and most of the links in that chain are things you have some say over.

All of the specific habits you need to increase progesterone, naturally, are in my Stronger Body Blueprint.

Signs Your Progesterone Might Be Low

None of these confirm low progesterone on their own (a lot of them overlap with thyroid issues and plain old stress, plus low iron), but if several sound familiar, it’s worth a closer look:

• Anxiety, irritability, or a short fuse that shows up in the week or two before your period
• Trouble falling or staying asleep in the second half of your cycle
• Spotting for a few days before your period
• A short luteal phase (fewer than about 10 days between ovulation and your period)
• Heavy or painful periods
• Breast tenderness before your period
• Cycles that are irregular, or periods that are hard to predict
• Trouble getting or staying pregnant

What Progesterone Does for You

I like to think of progesterone as your calming hormone. It rises after ovulation and stays elevated through the luteal phase, where it helps you sleep more deeply and keeps your mood steadier (it also prepares your uterine lining). It works as a counterweight to estrogen, so when progesterone runs low relative to estrogen (which you’ll sometimes hear called estrogen dominance), the second half of your cycle tends to feel a lot harder than it should. It isn’t only a fertility hormone, either. Progesterone also plays a role in bone health and supports a calmer nervous system, so how much of it you make has a bigger effect on how you feel day to day than most of us were ever taught!

What Causes Low Progesterone

Low progesterone is almost always downstream of something else. Something is getting in the way, and progesterone takes the hit. Here’s where I’d look first:

You’re not ovulating (or not ovulating well)

This is the big one. After you release an egg, the follicle it came from turns into a temporary gland called the corpus luteum, and that gland is what makes most of your progesterone. No ovulation means no corpus luteum, which means progesterone barely rises at all. And yes, you can still bleed without ovulating, so a monthly period doesn’t automatically mean everything is working the way it should. Stress, under-eating, overtraining, PCOS, and thyroid issues can all interfere with ovulation, which is why supporting ovulation is the most direct way to support progesterone.

Your stress load is high

You may have heard of the “pregnenolone steal,” the theory that your body diverts a shared building block away from progesterone to make more cortisol when you’re stressed. It’s a tidy explanation, but it doesn’t hold up when you look closer. Hormone researchers have pointed out that there’s no shared pool of pregnenolone for cortisol to steal from, since each cell makes its own. Stress still matters a lot for progesterone; it just works mostly through ovulation. Chronic stress can disrupt the brain signals that trigger ovulation, and a weaker ovulation means less progesterone afterward.

You’re under-eating (especially fat)

Progesterone is a steroid hormone made from cholesterol, so your body needs enough overall energy and enough dietary fat to make it. When you’re consistently underfed, your body decides it isn’t a good time to prioritize reproduction and scales back. I wrote more about this pattern in my post on why your PMS might be getting worse, since under-eating is one of the most common culprits I see.

Your blood sugar is on a roller coaster

Big blood sugar spikes and crashes are a stressor in their own right, and they keep your stress hormones elevated in a way that can make ovulation less reliable. Steadier blood sugar gives your other hormones a calmer environment to work in. My 30-3-30 Guide has specific meal ideas to guarantee steady blood sugar!

You’re short on sleep

The signals that drive your cycle are tied to your circadian rhythm, so poor or inconsistent sleep can throw off ovulation. It also works in the other direction: progesterone has a mild sedative effect, so when it’s low, sleep gets worse, and it’s easy to get stuck in that loop.

How to increase progesterone naturally

The goal here is to clear away whatever is suppressing progesterone and give your body what it needs to make its own. In my experience, this works best when you stack a few of these together and give it a few cycles.

1. Eat enough, and don’t fear fat. Since progesterone is built from cholesterol, low-fat eating and chronic under-eating are two of the fastest ways to tank it. The standard recommendation for adults is to get 20 to 35% of your calories from fat, which works out to roughly 44 to 78 grams on a 2,000-calorie day (your needs may differ). Avocado, olive oil, whole eggs, nuts, fatty fish, and full-fat dairy all count, and I’d make sure every meal has some. Getting enough protein matters here, too. Click here to learn how to structure your meals!

2. Make ovulation the priority. Everything that supports ovulation supports progesterone, so if your cycles are irregular, that’s where I’d start. In practice, this means the basics we keep coming back to (eating enough and managing stress), plus enough zinc.

3. Get your zinc in. Zinc is involved in the ovulatory process and in the corpus luteum’s ability to make progesterone. Pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, beef, oysters, and chickpeas are all good sources. If you seed cycle, you’re getting zinc in both halves of your cycle, from pumpkin seeds in the follicular phase and sesame seeds in the luteal phase.

4. Add vitamin B6 foods. B6 plays a role in progesterone production and also helps your body make serotonin and GABA, which may be part of why it seems to help some women with PMS. A review in the BMJ concluded that doses up to 100 mg a day were likely to help with premenstrual symptoms, though the quality of the studies was limited, and higher doses over time can cause nerve problems. I’d start with food (chicken, turkey, salmon, potatoes, bananas, chickpeas, and sunflower seeds) and talk to your provider before supplementing.

5. Consider magnesium. Magnesium supports your stress response system and tends to make it easier to wind down at night. I like it in the evening, especially in the luteal phase, when sleep is often the first thing to go. I take 300mg of magnesium every night.

6. Lower the stress load in a way that fits your life. This doesn’t have to mean a 20-minute meditation practice if that isn’t you. A walk after lunch counts, and so does a few minutes of slow breathing before meals (try inhaling for seven seconds and exhaling for 11). Phone-free mornings and saying no to the commitments that drain you (a consistent bedtime too) all chip away at the cortisol load that gets in the way of ovulation.

7. Protect your sleep. Aim for 7+ hours with a fairly consistent bedtime and a cool, dark room (screens off for a bit beforehand helps too). I know that’s easier said than done with little ones at home, so even moving one of those in the right direction is worth it.

Where Seed Cycling Fits In

Seed cycling won’t replace any of the above, but I think it’s a nice daily habit that layers on top. Flax and pumpkin seeds in the follicular phase provide zinc for ovulation, and sesame and sunflower seeds in the luteal phase bring zinc, selenium, and vitamin E to support the corpus luteum. I walk through exactly how to do it in my Master Your Menstrual Cycle guide.

Do Progesterone Creams and Wild Yam Work?

Many “natural progesterone” creams sold online are made with wild yam extract, which contains a plant compound called diosgenin. Labs can convert diosgenin into progesterone, but your body can’t, so rubbing wild yam cream on your skin won’t raise your progesterone. Creams made with progesterone itself vary a lot in dose and quality, and progesterone itself is something to use under the guidance of a provider who has tested your levels. If you think you need hormone support, that’s a conversation for your doctor, not a purchase to make based on an Instagram ad.

How to Test Your Progesterone

If you suspect your progesterone is low, testing is worth doing. Ask your doctor for a serum progesterone test about seven days after you ovulate. That’s often called a “day 21” test, but day 21 only lines up with a textbook 28-day cycle, so if your cycles are longer or shorter, the timing needs to shift. A level above about 3 ng/mL in the mid-luteal phase generally indicates that ovulation happened, and many practitioners like to see 10 ng/mL or higher as a sign of a healthy luteal phase.

If your cycles are irregular, timing the test is the tricky part. Tracking your basal body temperature or using LH strips can help you and your provider figure out when you ovulated, so the test lands in the right window.

Common Questions About Low Progesterone

1. What foods increase progesterone?

No food contains progesterone, but some foods give your body the building blocks it uses to make it. Healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, eggs, and fatty fish provide cholesterol and energy, while pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, oysters, and beef provide zinc. For vitamin B6, look to poultry, potatoes, bananas, and chickpeas.

2. Can stress lower progesterone?

Yes, mainly by interfering with ovulation. Chronic stress can disrupt the brain signals that trigger ovulation, and without a strong ovulation, your body makes less progesterone in the luteal phase.

3. Can you have a period without ovulating?

Yes. Bleeding can happen in a cycle where you didn’t ovulate (called an anovulatory cycle), and in that cycle progesterone stays low. Tracking basal body temperature or getting a well-timed progesterone test can tell you whether ovulation is happening.

How Long Does it Take to Raise Progesterone Naturally?

It usually takes at least two to three cycles to see a difference, since the follicle that releases an egg starts developing months before ovulation. Sticking with a few changes for that long tends to do more than any single new habit. If you want to hear how this played out for me, I talked about focusing on progesterone (and finally getting a regular, painless period) in this Daily Deposits episode. And I’m curious: which of these feels like the biggest gap in your routine right now? Is it food, or is it the stress you’ve been telling yourself you’ll deal with later?

This article is for informational purposes only. It is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your healthcare provider with questions about your health.