Sep 1, 2026 · 11 min · 8 segments
Jamie Gallagher, a board-certified family nurse practitioner and Menopause Society certified practitioner, explains progesterone’s roles beyond pregnancy and what happens as it declines during…
Jamie GallagherHostWelcome to Perry and Paws, the podcast.
Where midlife women get real answers about their bodies, their health, and what's actually changing.
Because every woman deserves this conversation.
Welcome back to peri and pause the podcast, where we talk about all things, midlife, women's health, life experience, share the best.
I'm a nationally board certified family nurse practitioner, menopause society, certified practitioner and owner of peri and pause a midlife women's healthcare practice, serving women in North Carolina.
I'm so glad you're here
We dove deep into estrogen or estrogens and talked about what they do and how they help our body function and what happens during the perimenopause transition.
Today's topic is our hormone progesterone, another of the hormones that changes during this same midlife transition.
We tend to think of progesterone as a pregnancy hormone, and it's not just the pregnancy hormone.
Most of us learned that progesterone was the hormone that just shows up after ovulation and helps you stay pregnant.
Progesterone is also working on your brain, your sleep, your mood, your uterus, your breast tissue, and even your bones.
So today we're going to give a little tour everywhere in the body that progesterone actually works, what happens as it changes during perimenopause, and then we're going to clear up one of the most confused topics in this whole field, the difference between progesterone and something that sounds like it but is not it, progestin or progestogens.
That mix-up is actually a big part of why hormone therapy got such a bad reputation.
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Welcome to Perry and Paws, the podcast.
Where midlife women get real answers about their bodies, their health, and what's actually changing.
Because every woman deserves this conversation.
Welcome back to peri and pause the podcast, where we talk about all things, midlife, women's health, life experience, share the best.
I'm a nationally board certified family nurse practitioner, menopause society, certified practitioner and owner of peri and pause a midlife women's healthcare practice, serving women in North Carolina.
I'm so glad you're here
We dove deep into estrogen or estrogens and talked about what they do and how they help our body function and what happens during the perimenopause transition.
Today's topic is our hormone progesterone, another of the hormones that changes during this same midlife transition.
We tend to think of progesterone as a pregnancy hormone, and it's not just the pregnancy hormone.
Most of us learned that progesterone was the hormone that just shows up after ovulation and helps you stay pregnant.
Progesterone is also working on your brain, your sleep, your mood, your uterus, your breast tissue, and even your bones.
So today we're going to give a little tour everywhere in the body that progesterone actually works, what happens as it changes during perimenopause, and then we're going to clear up one of the most confused topics in this whole field, the difference between progesterone and something that sounds like it but is not it, progestin or progestogens.
That mix-up is actually a big part of why hormone therapy got such a bad reputation.
