FFP 625 | The Case for Progesterone in Perimenopause | Dr. Jerilynn Prior
Fertility Friday | Fertility Awareness Mastery for Women's Health Professionals
Fertility Friday Radio | Fertility Awareness for Pregnancy and Hormone-free birth control
4.8 • 869 Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Lisa welcomes back Dr. Jerilynn Prior, endocrinologist, UBC Professor Emerita, and founder of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (CeMCOR), for a thought-provoking conversation that challenges mainstream narratives about perimenopause and hormone therapy. Dr. Prior shares her research-backed perspective on why perimenopause is often characterized by erratically high estrogen rather than low estrogen, and how this physiological reality reshapes the conversation around symptoms like night sweats, sleep disturbances, heavy flow, and sore breasts. She discusses her randomized controlled trial demonstrating that progesterone is effective for night sweats and sleep in perimenopausal women, and explains why approximately 30% of perimenopausal women experience symptoms severe enough to warrant treatment. Lisa and Dr. Prior also explore findings from the Women's Health Initiative, the difference between treating symptomatic women and prescribing hormones preventively, and why the cultural framing of menopause as a deficiency disease misrepresents what is, for most women, a normal life transition. Tune in as Dr. Prior shares decades of research on the menstrual cycle, ovulation, and the often-overlooked role of progesterone in women's health across the lifespan.
Follow this link to view the full show notes page!
This episode is sponsored by Lisa's new book, Real Food for Fertility, co-authored with Lily Nichols! Grab your copy here!
🎧 Would you prefer to listen to the audiobook version of Real Food for Fertility instead? 🎧 Listen here!
💥This episode is also sponsored by FAMM, the Fertility Awareness Mastery MentorshipTM program! Apply now to join our next class! We start on May 12th!
📚Have you grabbed your copy of the Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Workbook? It is the first fully customizable paper charting workbook of its kind, available in both Fahrenheit and Celsius editions. Click here to grab your copy today!
📚 If you haven't grabbed your copy of The Fifth Vital Sign, grab it here!
🎧Would you rather listen to the audiobook version of The Fifth Vital Sign? 🎧 Listen here!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Attention Women's Health Professionals. Our next class of fam is just around the corner, |
| 0:07.0 | and this is officially your last call to join us in May 26. Classes start on the 19th of May, |
| 0:14.5 | and we are so excited to get started. If you've been looking for a fertility awareness certification |
| 0:20.6 | program designed specifically |
| 0:22.9 | for women's health professionals, then you're in the right place. That's exactly why we created |
| 0:28.5 | the fertility awareness mastery mentorship. Enrollment is officially open and we still have a few |
| 0:34.6 | spots left. Head over to fertility friday.com slash fam live to apply today. |
| 0:41.0 | That's fertility friday.com slash f a.m-m-l-I-B-E. This is the Fertility Friday podcast, episode number |
| 0:48.4 | 625. |
| 1:00.9 | Today's episode is all about parimenopause. |
| 1:05.5 | But even if you've listened to tons of podcasts about paramedopause, or even if you've read tons of articles about it, I'm 99% certain that today's episode is going to talk about |
| 1:15.3 | things that you've never heard before. Today I'm sharing my interview with Dr. Jerry Lynn |
| 1:20.6 | Pryor and her research on perimenopause is quite contrary to the current popular discourse around this topic. |
| 1:31.3 | She is known for her work, if you're not familiar with Dr. Jerry Lynn Pryor's work. |
| 1:36.3 | I featured her on my podcast toward the beginning of my podcasting journey, |
| 1:41.3 | and her work in the area of progesterone and its impact on bone development, |
| 1:48.7 | connecting the menstrual cycle to bone loss in different ways is still groundbreaking. So just to |
| 1:55.8 | give you a sense of why it's so groundbreaking, when you look at research that talks about the role of hormones |
| 2:02.8 | in bone development, it's almost exclusively about estrogen. No one's talking about progesterone. |
| 2:08.4 | So I feel like Jerry Lynn Pryor's work is often looking at things in a very different perspective. |
| 2:14.1 | So in today's episode, you're going to learn why Dr. Pryor is not a fan of |
| 2:20.1 | the term HRT. You'll hear so many times me saying it because we're so used to saying hormone |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Fertility Friday Radio | Fertility Awareness for Pregnancy and Hormone-free birth control, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Fertility Friday Radio | Fertility Awareness for Pregnancy and Hormone-free birth control and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.