Natural Progesterone Replacement - Michael E. Platt, MD

Progesterone: A Very Special Hormone
By Michael E. Platt, M.D.

It is surprising how little the medical community knows about progesterone, especially the consequences of a progesterone deficiency. In many cases, these consequences can be prevented with the use of natural progesterone replacement. It is fairly easy to diagnose women with low progesterone levels because these women are the ones who have PMS, severe menstrual cramps, headaches with their periods, and breast tenderness. They will be estrogen-dominant and very often will wind up with complications such as fibroids in the uterus and fibrocystic disease of the breast.

A recent article in the British medical journal, The Lancelet, indicated that women with fybrocystic disease have a higher incidence of breast cancer. This is not surprising when you consider that fybrocystic disease is found in women with low progesterone levels. Low progesterone levels leads to an over-production of estrogen. Estrogen is known to cause cancer.

In the pre-menopausal woman, administration of natural progesterone eliminates PMS, menstrual cramps, headaches, and breast tenderness. In addition, it helps eliminate migraine headaches and allergies, including asthma. Progesterone prevents weight gain for several reasons. It is thermogenic - it helps fat burn. Progesterone helps the thyroid to function better. And, most importantly, progesterone prevents the over-production of insulin, which is the main hormone that creates fat and keeps fat stored.

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For those women who already have fybrocystic disease or uterine fibroids, administration of natural progesterone cream will tend to make these problems disappear. There are 300 different receptor sites throughout the body for progesterone so it is easy to comprehend how important this hormone is. Women with low levels of progesterone often suffer from morning sickness when they're pregnant and may have problems with miscarriages.

For those women in their menopause, natural progesterone should be the primary replacement hormone and not estrogen as the usual case. Natural progesterone is more beneficial for osteoperosis than is estrogen because it both prevents osteoperosis, as well as helps bone to calcify. Estrogen is damaging to blood vessels, which is the reason why it is not recommended for women with coronary artery disease. Progesterone is ver beneficial for blood vessels, and can even prevent coronary artery spasm. As stated previously, estrogen is known to be carcinogenic. In fact, first year Premarin was released, 60,000 women developed cancer of uterus. This is the reason why women who still have their uterus are given synthetic progestins, such as Provera, to prevent uterine cancer.

Estrogen has always been a risk factor for breast cancer, and recently they discovered that Provera doubles a woman's chance of developing breast cancer. Natural progesterone, on the other hand, helps to prevent cancer of the breast, uterus, and ovaries.

In addition, estrogen and synthetic progestins are lipogenic - they create fat and cellulite. Natural progesterone helps to eliminate fat. Progesterone is the "feel good hormone" for women and helps to enhance a woman's libido - estrogen does not.

There are several factors I want to leave you with. Number one, it is a lot easier to prevent disease than it is to treat it. It is very likely that breast cancer can be prevented with the simple administration of a natural hormone. Number two, it is extremely important for the body's hormones to be in balance - a deficiency of one often leads to an over-production of others which can lead to unfortunate consequences. A simple blood panel can determine a person's hormone status, and the judicious replacement or enhancement of various hormones can allow one to live healthier for a longer period of time.

One last thing to keep in mind. I realize that people reading this piece would think, "If natural progesterone is so beneficial why don't we hear about it?" Please keep in mind that business runs this world. Pharmaceutical companies are big business. They cannot patent a natural product and thereby have no interest in natural hormones. Pharmaceutical companies support most of the drug research in this country, which is the main source of articles published in medical journals. This is the reason most doctors are unaware of natural progesterone, or other natural hormones, which can be replaced. This allows Premarin, and drug known to cause cancer and in damaging to blood vessels, to be the largest selling drug in the world.

For those of you who might be interested, I would be glad to discuss natural hormone replacement or replenishment with you and I can give you the names of books from which you may get further information.