Additionally, the amount of these hormones that the body produces from month to month and year to year can vary, depending on a whole host of factors such as stress, nutrition, and exercise. This causes a major shift in the fine balance between the two hormones that the body has attempted to maintain to that point. This imbalance leads, inevitably, to the unpleasant menopausal symptoms many women experience. This might be a good place to point out that the chemical building block for many of the body s hormones is cholesterol. Not enough emphasis is placed on the importance of our good cholesterol.
Cholesterol is the firs step in a complex process.
From one or the other of these hormones, in turn, come androstenedione, testosterone, and the estrogens. So progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, and DHEA, are all made from cholesterol. Both progesterone and estrogen have many functions in the mature women s body, but the most important for our initial consideration is probably their role in the control of the menstrual cycle. Here the two opposing hormones work in careful balance to control the woman s reproductive functions, time the cycle, and sustain any eventual pregnancy. Without an adequate level of estrogen, the cycle will not start.