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Natural Hormones… Are They Really Natural? |
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Page 2 of 8 John Lee was a Family Practice physician who worked at “hormone balancing” in the 1980’s. He and T.S. Wiley were colleagues, both searching for answers to natural progesterone’s positive potential in aging until Dr. Lee’s death. He acknowledged her work in molecular endocrinology in his book, What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Breast Cancer. Dr. Lee was in the vanguard of clinicians experimenting with natural hormone creams containing progesterone 20 or so years ago.
Dr. Lee was well aware of the deleterious effects of the “missing” second half (luteal phase, days 14- 28) of a woman’s cycle. John invented the phrase “estrogen dominance” to describe this peri-menopausal state of spotty ovulating or anovulation. * He prescribed weak (9% OTC) progesterone creams to address many of the symptoms of peri-menopause and menopause. He even pioneered, with Dr. David Zava, the saliva tests geared specifically to the amounts that he recommended. These are the saliva tests that many practioners continue to use today. They measure only the “free” hormones in the blood stream, so do not to give a complete picture.
Dr. Lee’s work never included replacing any of the missing estradiol that actually physiologically led to the loss of ovulation at peri-menopause. Dr. Lee often said that “Progesterone would do it all…,” meaning that progesterone would convert reliably to estradiol and testosterone once in the body. We now know that, in fact, the conversion of one hormone to the next is controlled by enzymes that are controlled by light, food and sleep, seasonally, so progesterone can’t do it all. Although, incomplete, Dr. Lee’s work was a platform for other clinicians to spring forth. R. JOHN R. LEE'S THREE RULES FOR HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY
- Rule 1. Give hormones only to those who are truly deficient in them.
- Rule 2. Use Bioidentical hormones rather than synthetic hormones.
- Rule 3. Use only in dosages that provide normal physiologic tissue levels.
The problem is Rule#3.
Replacement to normal physiologic levels in a 40, 50 or 60 year-old woman is still an estrogen and progesterone deficient state, thanks to aging. That’s why heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, memory loss and diabetes are all also normal at those ages. John Lee’s prescription for progesterone alone or with estriol (not FDA approved) in a static, chronic low dose is not “natural” or bio-identical.
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