Many people, even some physicians, do not consider progesterone to be a male hormone (it is). Once again, men and women produce estrogen. Men and women have the same hormones but in different amounts. I prescribe progesterone for most of my male patients over 50 for several reasons. As men get older, their levels of progesterone decrease, becoming almost non-existent around the age of 50. This is about the same age men start putting on their “middle-aged paunch.” Could there be a connection?

The answer is most definitely yes. And the reason? Progesterone is the number one hormone for lowering insulin levels, the hormone that creates fat right around the mid-section. This is also the time of life when men may experience fatigue between 3 and 4 in the afternoon or get sleepy while driving and after eating – the classic times for tiredness related to overproduction of insulin. When insulin goes up, blood sugar goes down.

A brain deprived of sugar gets sleepy. The number one cause of people falling asleep while driving is hypoglycemia. The number one cause of hypoglycemia is too much insulin.

The number one cause of too much insulin is low progesterone. One of the first benefits people experience after starting progesterone is that they no longer get sleepy in the afternoon, after eating, or while driving.

Another reason I believe men over 50 should take progesterone is that I suspect that it prevents prostate cancer. I cannot point to studies that show this, but it is logical. As men approach andropause, their progesterone levels drop, and their estrogen levels start rising. This is also about the time that prostate cancer becomes a risk. If estrogen causes six different cancers in women, why wouldn’t it be causing them in men as well? Not only cancer of the prostate, but also cancer of the colon, may be caused by excess estrogen in men’s bodies.

Other benefits of progesterone in men include preventing Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, and coronary artery spasm, along with the reversal of depression and elimination of asthma.