What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: The Breakthrough Book on Natural Progesterone
Product Description
Here is a practical and resourceful guide that focuses on the effective, scientifically proven, natural alternative to current therapies used in combating the effects of menopause. This invaluable volume also contains a complete, non-prescription “hormone balance” program for optimal health, which lists foods, supplements, and herbs that can be used to balance a woman’s hormones.Amazon.com Review
Women considering hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause symptoms and health benefits should read this controversial, provocative book first. “Advertising and research dollars are spent trying to convince women that estrogen will cure everything from heart disease to Alzheimer’s,” writes John R. Lee, M.D., “but there is scant evidence for any of these claims and reams of evidence that synthetic estrogens are highly toxic and carcinogenic.” Lee has studied the research and concludes that estrogen is not the magic bullet for protection against heart disease and osteoporosis, nor does it retard aging. Natural progesterone, instead, puts postmenopausal women’s hormones in balance, says Lee. He cites study after study that indicates that natural progesterone, obtained in cream form, delivers what the usual HRT only promises.
“Menopause as a disease has been largely fabricated by physicians and the pharmaceutical industry,” says this leader of a “quiet but powerful revolution” regarding HRT. What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause covers the benefits of natural progesterone, the history and politics of the medical and drug establishment, the biochemistry and dynamics of hormones and how they get out of balance, and how to prevent hormone imbalance and stay healthy. Lee empowers you to ask hard questions of your doctor. Highly recommended. –Joan Price
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The author, a medical doctor with 30 years of private practice experience, decided that he wasn’t being very effective in helping his women patients deal with unpleasant premenopausal and menopausal symptoms. He began to research the research on hormone balance, HRT (hormone replacement therapy), and the way the medical and pharmaceutical industries deal with the “disease” of menopause and “female problems.” What he discovered was that treating menopause as an “estrogen deficiency disease” was exactly wrong. In fact he argues that premenopausal and menopausal women are much more likely to be in a state of “estrogen excess” relative to levels of progesterone, which are often close to zero. Estrogen excess leads to weight gain, mood disorders, endometriosis, low sex drive, fybrocystic breasts, heart disease, and osteoporosis. Yet what the most doctors and drug companies offer to do is to increase estrogen levels with synthetic hormones made with pregnant mare’s urine and synthetic progestins. While this may temporarily relieve certain symptoms like vaginal dryness and hot flashes, this HRT regime ultimately leads to worse side effects, including increased breast cancer risk, increased bone loss, increased overall cancer risk, and increased heart disease risk. Yet we are told that HRT is the only way to prevent osteoporosis and heart disease! John Lee explodes these myths and many more, including that any woman needs anhysterectomy unless she has cancer (yet over 600,000 are done in the US each year, meaning 600,000 potential new consumers of HRT!!)Over the years he has helped thousands of women restore their hormone balance and their lives with diet, exercise, and the use of natural progesterone (usually applied topically in a cream). He convincingly demonstrates that this regimen can increase bone density (even in women in their 70’s and 80’s!), reduce fibrocystic breast problems and the risk of breast and other cancers, reduce the risk of heart disease, increase feelings of well-being, sex drive and energy levels, reduce PMS, migraine headaches and unpleasant menopausal symptoms. He also systematically reveals the role of “xenoestrogens,” the thousands of synthetic chemicals in the environment and our food supply which mimic our bodies’ hormones and which increasingly create havoc with our systems.But don’t just take my word for it. Please go out and read this book, then pass it along to other women you care about, including your teenage daughters and your mothers
Rating: 5 / 5
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: The Breakthrough Book on Natural Progesterone
This book should be titled “What Every Woman Needs to Know About Hormones”. The information contained in this book is not just for menopausal women! Dr. Lee very clearly explains how hormones work in our bodies, how hormone imbalance can be misdiagnosed, how environmental toxins are affecting our hormone balance, how we can reverse osteoporosis and minimize many of the symptoms associated with the onset of menopause, and why synthetic hormones don’t work and are indeed dangerous. He also explores the economic and political issues that have led to the proliferation and use of synthetic hormones at the expense of our health and why this information is being kept from the general public. As a medical doctor with over 30 years of experience, he has done much research into this topic and he sites many case studies to corroborate the information he presents about the use of natural progesterone. The book is easy to read, is referenced, has an extensive glossary, recommended reading and resource lists, and is fully indexed. This is one of the most important books on women’s health I have read in years and I am recommending it to every woman I know, no matter what their age! I have already bought copies for my two daughters, age 27 and 19.
Rating: 5 / 5
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: The Breakthrough Book on Natural Progesterone
In eight years I became “hot natured,” gained 20 pounds, began to search for words and for the most part walked around in a fog. Chores I once accomplished with ease required great effort and I became impatient when I could not find things. Even more disabling-my occasional headaches increased to up to thirteen a month and became migraines. Since I’d just turned 51 a friend suggested it might be hormones and recommended I get a hormone saliva test. While I was waiting for the test results another friend gave me some progesterone cream. The results were almost immediate. The frequency and intensity of the migraines decreased, my mental fog lifted, I felt more relaxed and I had more energy. In short-I was my old self again. My hormone saliva test confirmed my suspicions-my estrogen and testosterone levels were normal but my progesterone level was near zero. That’s when I found Dr. John R. Lee’s book “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Menopause.” I was shocked to learn that most menopausal women of western industrial countries have estrogen dominance (they’ve become deficient in progesterone) because they’ve been exposed to more estrogen substances in their meat, detergents, pesticides, herbicides, auto pollution and plastic household utensils. The combination of environmental pollutants, lack of exercise, cultural attitude and a diet rich in animal fat, sugar, refined starches and processed food leads to Western women’s estrogen levels to be twice as high as women in the Far East and in third-world-countries whose passage through menopause is mostly symptom free. To correct the progesterone deficiency Dr. Lee recommends natural progesterone made from Mexican wild yams or soy products as they can easily be used and eliminated by the body and have no known side effects. He said synthetic hormones like progestin are not the equivalent to natural hormones and put women at risk of endometrial and breast cancer, autoimmune disorders, osteoporosis and other symptoms. I was surprised to learn that since the 1800s natural substances such as progesterone cannot be patented. Since man-made hormones are more profitable for the pharmaceutical companies (who delineate the protocols for research) they have a huge impact on science. Because of advertising many people, including physicians, think that progestin, a synthetic product, is actually progesterone. For example, estrogen alone is credited for a decrease in heart attacks and an increase of bone mass in post menopausal women but the confounding effect of progestins has never been studied. Dr. Lee’s own research shows reversals of osteoporosis without the use of estrogen supplements. Best of all natural progesterone cream may help reduce or prevent migraines as it counteracts blood vessel dilation, restores normal vascular tone, and helps with blood sugar control. Since I’ve read Dr. Lee’s book and started the natural progesterone I’ve heard many “miracle” stories about the cream from others and I’m delighted to ad my own.
Rating: 5 / 5
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: The Breakthrough Book on Natural Progesterone
This book opened my eyes to the bias that American doctors have against using natural progesterone, and the authors taught me almost everything I now know about this subject; however, they left out one extremely important point. When a patient needs progesterone, her hormone levels must be professionally tested by using a revolutionary new type of blood test or salivary test. Then, their doctor can prescribe the correct amount of natural progesterone to use and also proceed to monitor her blood levels. Hormones are very powerful and should be used under the guidance of a medical doctor who is familiar with the proper protocol. Over the counter creams can be a quick fix, but they are presently unregulated. Would you prescribe a band-aid for someone who really needs stitches in order to heal their wound? The answer, of course, is, “No!”. Yet, Dr. Lee and Virginia Hopkins neglect to mention anything about the necessity of being tested and having your hormone levels monitored by a trained professional.
As the above authors state, most women in the United states are oblivious to the importance of maintaining the correct level of progesterone all the way through their premenopausal, perimenopausal and menopausal cycles. However, for some reason Dr. Lee ignores the following extremely pertinent information: “The revolutionary discovery of radioimmunoassay blood tests changed the method of measuring female hormones, because blood samples could be used with greater accuracy. To the surprise of PMS workers, this method showed that low progesterone blood levels were not necessarily associated with PMS.” (Dalton, Katharina,M.D.: “Once a Month”, Publishers group West, 1700 Fourth Street, Berkley, CA, 94710. Copyright 1999, p.86)The receptors that carry the progesterone to the cells may not be doing their job. Then, no matter how much progesterone one takes, there will still be medical problems in the patient. A patient who follows Dr. Lee’s advice and merely begins using a progesterone cream without knowing if she needs it or not could be ignoring a very real need for medical care.
Also, radioimmunoassays “are valuable in determining the absorption of natural progesterone administered by various methods. Volunteers are tested in their follicular phase, one month with no progesterone and a subsequent month with progesterone either by injection, vaginal or rectal suppository, orally or through the skin. These tests have revealed marked differences, with the best absorption being by intramuscular injection, good absorption vaginally and rectally, and poor absorption through the skin (creams)and orally.(Ibid.p.87)
Supplementing a lack of progesterone is not something that should be left in the hands of the over the counter companies that want to increase their sales of their OTC creams. The medical community, including doctors like Dr. Lee and his colleagues, needs to stress the importance of monitoring the process of supplementation with blood tests every 6 months—a process leading to correctly prescribed amounts of natural progesterone that will truly help a patient in need of professional care!
Unfortunately, this type of medical care is slow in coming in the United States, but it is very popular n Great Britain and Europe. Perhaps, Dr. Lee’s next book will include guidelines and even a list of clinics that provide such excellent medical care. However, this book is sorely lacking in any information concerning medically supervised supplementation of natural progesterone in prescribed amounts in its most easily absorbable form: suppositories.
Rating: 3 / 5
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: The Breakthrough Book on Natural Progesterone
This eye opening look at the current practice of gynecologists to distribute hormone replacement therapy like candy should be read by any woman experiencing menopause or in perimenopause (usually your 30’s). The pharmaceutical companies are making billions from women who trust their doctors to know what’s best for them without seeking out the truth of why American women have so much more trouble with menopause then anybody else.
Read this and make up your own mind. I have several friends who have used this therapy, including myself, and we have been delivered from night sweats, migraines, hot flashes, and mood swings.
Note that Dr. Lee has upgraded his recommendation on the TYPE of natural progesterone to use, so find his web site and educate yourself.
Thank you, Dr. Lee.
Rating: 5 / 5
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: The Breakthrough Book on Natural Progesterone