Blood Sugar Balance = Hormone Balance

Losing progesterone can affect the brain and the nervous system. It reduces our ability to cope with stress and increases the risk of anxiety, depression, and memory difficulties. It also impacts sleep. So everything we’ve been doing up until now has a direct impact on our hormones. As we enter perimenopause and lose more of our protective hormones, these symptoms become even more noticeable. I don’t know if this resonates with you, but this is what I see daily in clients and in women my age. When we talk about hormonal balance, blood sugar balance is the foundation. When blood sugar drops, this is a stressor on the body. The body wants to keep blood sugar relatively stable. Naturally it rises and falls a little, but it shouldn’t spike and crash dramatically. When it drops sharply, the body calls on our stress hormones — adrenaline and cortisol — to bring blood sugar back up. These hormones have many functions, but one of their key jobs is to raise blood sugar. So when adrenaline and cortisol rise, the body perceives danger. It shifts into fight-or-flight mode, prioritising survival over digestion, rest, and even reproduction. This is where progesterone comes in. Progesterone is actually a building block for cortisol — we make cortisol from progesterone. So when cortisol demand rises, progesterone drops. This creates a shift in the relationship between estrogen and progesterone, the two main hormones of the menstrual cycle. I won’t go into every detail, but this imbalance makes us more estrogen dominant, regardless of how low estrogen becomes in perimenopause. Estrogen dips, yes — but progesterone dips even more. Progesterone is our “hormone of zen”. It calms the nervous system, reduces inflammation, aids sleep, relieves cramping, and supports metabolism and thyroid function. When progesterone becomes low compared to estrogen, we see symptoms like: cycle changes PMS mood swings anxiety sleep disturbances night sweats hot flushes weight gain or inability to lose weight I also see allergic tendencies, runny noses, joint pain, autoimmune issues, digestive problems, headaches, migraines, and hair loss. A very common symptom — especially in perimenopause — is the inability to let things go. Rumination. Overthinking. Being unable to relax. This is a clear sign of low progesterone and relatively higher estrogen. So blood sugar balance is key. Blood sugar drops when: we skip meals we don’t eat enough carbohydrates we eat carbs without protein we rely on sugar or coffee we eat only protein without carbs we go too long without eating we intermittent fast in ways that don’t suit our physiology For example, if you have a croissant or toast with no protein, blood sugar will drop later. But if you only eat protein — eggs alone, or eggs and avocado, or a protein smoothie with nothing else — blood sugar can also drop. We need balance. If we go too long without eating — fasting through the morning, living on coffee, or pushing meals too far apart — cortisol rises continuously. And that comes at the expense of progesterone. Progesterone keeps us calm, helps us sleep, supports hair, skin, and nails — it’s a beautiful hormone. And it gets used up when cortisol is chronically high. So when we talk about “what to eat” and “how to eat,” the first principle is keeping blood sugar balanced throughout the day. Before we go into the details of how to do that, I want to show you the contrast between the nourished woman and the modern woman — so you can really see the difference between a body that’s supported and one that’s burnt out and undernourished.