Golden Girl

I wanted to share some excerpts from a book I am reading by Dr. John Lee. He promotes the use of Progesterone Cream. Note: When he uses the phrase estrogen dominant he is saying that the estrogen levels are higher than the progesterone.

A woman is likely to be chronically exhausted, always, "on", never taking time for herself. She is constantly forced to push the limits of her endurance to keep up. In an effort just to maintain her lifestyle, her adrenal glands are constantly pumping out hormones meant to be used sparingly for "fight or flight" situations and they eventually beome tired, sluggish, and depleted. Her body gets the message that survival is at stake. Blood sugar beomes constantly unstable. Digestion goes awry so she isn't absorbing nutrients properly. The ovaries respond by shutting down in favor of survival. When the ovaries shut down, progesterone production occurs only at the adrenals, but they aren't working and she's not getting any progesterone from poor dietary habits, so she becomes progesterone-deficient and estrogen dominat.

The estrogen dominance causes the all-too-familiar signs of fatigue, depression, little or no desire for sex, weight gain, water retention, headaches and mood swings. The estogen dominance interferes with thyroid action, which increases her fatigue, so she's cold all the time and she's gaining more weight. But her Doctor gives her a thyroid function test and it comes out normal; she produces the normal amount of thyroid, but it's not being used effectively. Not realizing the role of estrogen dominance, her doctor often prescribes thyroid supplements. (Estrogen dominance impairs thyroid hormone activity and will simulate hypothyroidism)

Here are some of the symptoms of low progesterone not already discussed:
Allergies
Foggy thinking
Hypoglycemia
Infertility
Memory loss
Miscarriage
PMS
Water retention, bloating
Fat gain, especially around the abdomen, hips, and thighs
Gallbladder disease
Autoimmune disorders such as lupus erythematosus and thyroiditis and possibly Sjogren's disease
Skin problems such as acne, seborrhea, rosacea, psoriases, and keratoses

The progesterone cream can be bought in most places, I bought mine at Walmart. I have been using it for one week now and I don't know if it is from the cream or not but I felt GREAT yesterday, the first time in about 2 months.

The book I have is entitled, "What your Doctor may not tell you about Menopause" by John Lee, M.D. There is also one entitled, "A Woman's Guide to Using Natural Progesterone", by Catherine Rollins.

This may be something to consider.

Note: Dr. Lee also stated that most Doctors do not check progesterone levels, only estrogen.




[This message has been edited by Golden Girl (edited 09-07-2003).]