Healthy Pregnancy: 5 Natural Ways to Boost Your Progesterone Levels

You probably know that your placenta plays a significant role during pregnancy, providing oxygen and essential nutrients to your baby. However, what you might not know is that the placenta doesn’t fully develop until the 12th to 14th week of pregnancy.

So, what supports and nourishes your baby until then? The answer is simple: progesterone.

After conception, this ovarian hormone stimulates the growth of blood vessels in the uterine lining and glands that supply nutrients to your embryo, paving the way for a healthy placenta. Even after the placenta takes over, progesterone continues to work hard to maintain a healthy uterus and help prevent premature labor.

This is why it’s so important for an expectant mother’s progesterone levels to remain high throughout pregnancy, according to Nanette Santoro, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado.

But how much progesterone do you need, and how do you know if you’re producing enough? Unfortunately, these questions don’t have simple answers.

First, it’s worth noting that some doctors believe certain women are at risk of luteal phase deficiency—producing insufficient progesterone. This is especially true for women who:

• Have borderline low body weight (BMI of 19 or less)
• Have very low body fat
• Exercise more than four hours a week
• Have previously missed their periods due to stress
• Experience a short luteal phase

Since these women often struggle to conceive, such issues are usually addressed before pregnancy with medications that regulate their cycle and stimulate the ovaries to produce more hormones—progesterone being just one of them.

For most women, however, it’s difficult to know for certain if their progesterone levels are insufficient during pregnancy. Moreover, while medical professionals agree that adequate progesterone is crucial for a healthy pregnancy, defining the required threshold is not straightforward.

According to Wendy Warner, M.D., ABHIM, an OB-GYN in Langhorne, PA, most pregnant women’s levels are sufficient. However, she notes: “If you’ve had a history of irregular periods, severe PMS, or early pregnancy losses in the past, you might have issues with unbalanced progesterone/estrogen levels.”

In such cases, consulting your doctor about the best natural ways to maximize progesterone levels is essential.

Even if you don’t have any of these symptoms, the following methods are safe for both mother and baby—especially if they’re part of a clean and healthy pregnancy.

How Can You Naturally Boost Low Progesterone Levels?

1. Maintain a Healthy Body Weight
   Estrogen and progesterone balance each other during pregnancy. However, increased body fat can lead to excess estrogen production in fat cells. Unfortunately, the ovaries don’t recognize this, so they fail to produce enough progesterone to compensate. While maintaining a healthy weight doesn’t directly boost progesterone, it helps regulate estrogen levels, ensuring balance.
2. Avoid Over-Exercising
   Moderate exercise won’t harm your progesterone or estrogen levels; in fact, it can benefit both you and your baby. However, over-exercising—think “competitive CrossFit”—can result in imbalanced cortisol levels, which can overall lower progesterone, explains Dr. Warner.
3. Ask Your Doctor About Vitex (Chasteberry)
   Vitex is an herb widely known to enhance progesterone production. It’s also used for premenstrual syndrome, irregular periods, and supporting early pregnancy when there’s a history of potential progesterone imbalance. Specifically, Vitex works by stimulating the pituitary gland to produce more luteinizing hormone, which in turn signals the ovaries to produce more progesterone.
4. Consider Acupuncture
   While progesterone and estrogen levels aren’t directly referenced in Chinese medicine, studies have shown improved implantation rates after IVF and reduced embryo loss when acupuncture is performed early and regularly during pregnancy. Always consult your gynecologist before trying this method.