Your Postpartum Quiz Results
Even if you are YEARS postpartum, hormone changes can still be impacting how you feel day to day.
According to the answers you gave on the quiz, you’re experiencing signs of:
Low Progesterone
Super common, low progesterone can last well beyond the first year postpartum. I also see this one quite a a bit with my fertility patients.
Progesterone is affectionately called the “calming” hormone - and although it’s at an all time high at the end of pregnancy it comes slamming down to menopausal levels after delivery. File this under things no one told you! So with this comes a few symptoms:
Anxiety
This is one of the reasons why we see postpartum anxiety so commonly in the first year after baby. Since progesterone is the calming hormone, the abrupt change can translate into anxious thoughts, worry and full blown PPA. Now of course this isn’t the ONLY cause of mood changes like anxiety, but it’s one of the biological reasons why we see this so commonly in postpartum.
Insomnia
Trouble falling asleep at night, waking up in the night (on your own, not because of screaming children), or lying awake for a long time after waking are all signs of low progesterone. So fatigue will come along with this. It’s particularly telling if the night waking happens between the hours of 2-5 am. We need progesterone to be nice and high to keep our brain calm and ready for sleep, so I see a TON of insomnia with low progesterone. It’s a cruel joke to finally get a baby sleeping through the night but mom can’t! Because let’s be real, dad can.
Foggy Brain
Your brain needs progesterone too! Along with the insomnia and fatigue a foggy brain is more common when progesterone is low. If you have trouble finding words, feel like cognitively your thinking or memory has slowed down, this is another sign that we need to focus on progesterone.
Period Problems
This is only relevant for those who have gotten or should have gotten their cycle back but some cycle signs of low progesterone are spotting before your period, short cycles or short luteal phases, and really light flows. If this describes your period before baby, it’s likely that it’s still low now.
Which ones sound like you?
You don’t need to have all of these, but if you recognize a few (and I know you do, because you just took my quiz and here you are!), then it’s time to start working on supporting your progesterone in a gentle way so you can start feeling better ASAP.
How and why does progesterone crash in new moms?
I'm so glad you asked!
Postpartum is like a mini-menopause and puberty all mixed into one exhausting package…
Every single mother who gives birth experiences the peak of progesterone in pregnancy and then the crash after delivery. Progesterone is produced by your body and the placenta to support a healthy pregnancy. And after delivery, it takes a dive and then needs to slowly climb back up.
And from there it's variable on how fast progesterone comes back to baseline, if ever. All this will depend on how you are feeding yourself, what’s going on with your other hormones and whether or not you’re breastfeeding.
Progesterone is particularly sensitive to high stress, lack of sleep, and restrictive eating.
We can use nourishing meals, functional foods and safe supplements to support progesterone balance, even if you are breastfeeding.
You're in good company, because it's super common to have the lingering effects of low progesterone.
But COMMON does not mean NORMAL.
Now that you know what's going on, we can do something about it!
Because...
Motherhood is hard enough without feeling like you got run over by a hormone truck. 😳
But time isn't the only thing that heals hormone drama. There are simple, effective strategies to balance and calm your body in a way that supports your postpartum body.
The first step is understanding WHICH one to work on ✅
The second step is a targeted plan to get your hormones to play nice.
I'm here to walk you through your happy mama hormone journey!
I'm Alison. A registered dietitian specializing in postpartum and motherhood wellness. I'm obsessed with all things reproductive health, and after experiencing the hormone drama after my first baby, I developed a simple and effective roadmap for healing hormones after baby.
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