Progestins such as drospirenone, levonorgestrel, or medroxyprogesterone are not progesterone.
That’s because progesterone is not a generic term like estrogen. Instead, progesterone determines only to the hormone produced by corpus luteum or taken as oral micronized progesterone.
Consider the structural difference between progesterone and the progestin drug levonorgestrel, which is used in many oral contraceptives, implants, hormonal IUDs, and the morning-after pill.
Can you spot the difference?
Levonorgestrel is actually more similar to testosterone than progesterone, which is why it can cause hair loss and weight gain.
Progesterone versus progestins
There are some important differences between real (body-like) progesterone and progestins.
Still confused? Think of it this way: Progestins and progesterone have the same beneficial effect of thinning the lining of the uterus but opposite effects on almost everything else in the body, including the breasts and the brain.
In general, real progesterone has the advantage of being safer for the breasts and often better for the mood.
How to get progesterone
There is no progesterone in hormonal birth control.
The only way to get real, natural progesterone is to:
- Do it yourself. Read the Roadmap on progesterone and Weather Adjustment Manual.
- Take oral micronized progesterone capsules (natural progesterone). Bioidentical or body-identical progesterone is actually progesterone (same molecule as above)—not levonorgestrel or other progestins. Progesterone is available as natural progesterone cream, compounded progesterone capsules, or products such as Prometrium, Utrogestan, Famenitao Teva.
Check your label and consult the chart in my bioidentical hormone therapy post. Also, check out my podcast/YouTube video about body-identical hormone therapy.
