The goal of my site is always to provide the best information I can find in support of women's hormone health. I read articles - A LOT of articles - oh and books too. Some are good, some are better but occasionally I come across just plain irresponsible articles about hormone health. I cannot abide irresponsible information sharing from a website that says it provides "authoritative expert content" and then even comments that the content has been reviewed by presumably a staff member.

The article that has gotten my attention recently is called, "Bad Side-Effects of Natural Progesterone". You all know that I take "bio-identical" progesterone. Of course I am definitely interested in an article that wants to talk about any potential negative side effects and I would readily share this information with my readers. Interestingly I haven't really come across any "bad" effects of bio-identical progesterone I figured it's because there's hardly any studies about the effects of bio-identical progesterone. I couldn't wait to read about what these bad side-effects might be.  Instead I instantly became disgusted by the irresponsibility of the website in question, the author of the article and the reviewer and I knew I had to address this with my readers.
<ul>
	<li>The article points to 4 studies. Not one of the studies is research on the use of progesterone in a practical application that women would use progesterone for.</li>
	<li>The author mentions one study where pregnant sheep are injected for three days with progesterone and their lambs' activity level decreases. He ends this paragraph by stating that <strong>"Pregnant women should not take progesterone"</strong>.  I admit I haven't read the study he speaks of but that sure sounds like a blatant misrepresentation of the study in my opinion.  Where are the preganant women in the study? Were the sheep progesterone deficient in the first place? How much and what type of progesterone were the sheep given? At what gestation? Most women I've heard of taking progesterone during pregnancy take it in the first trimester in vaginal suppository, oral, or cream format.</li>
	<li>The author mentions another study where women in a laboratory setting were given amphetamine's twice.  Once they were given natural progesterone before the dose of amphetamine &amp; the women reported greater feels of euphoria when pretreated with progesterone.  His final words are a caution that this could<strong> "lead to progesterone becoming a drug of abuse"</strong>.  Well you all know that I "tongue-in-cheek" refer to myself as the Progesterone Junkie.  I can tell you that I have never taken an amphetamine so I don't know if this is true or not. But wow - I'm trying to imagine the illicit drug trade in progesterone and to be honest....I'm having trouble.  I have to wonder at the purpose of this study and in fact need to dig around and find it so I can review it.    Someone actually received funding for a study on progesterone's effect on amphetamine use? I would love to see funding go to things like progesterone and recurrent miscarriage or mood disorders or infertility.</li>
	<li>The author's final word on another mentioned study is "Women, for example, should not drive after taking the hormone" [progesterone].   So in this study apparently women were given natural progesterone, a placebo or a sleeping pill and the women given the hormone were apparently as sleepy as the ones who took the sleeping pill.  I'm again curious about the facts of this research but none are really given.  So are these progesterone deficient women in the study or just random women who already have sufficient levels of the hormone in their system?  I'd be curious.  Trust me this is a big and important issue for me - my teenage brother was killed by a man who fell asleep at the wheel because he was on sedating medication and SHOULD NOT have been driving. So please know I don't take this kind of information lightly.  Now remember progesterone is the "calming" hormone so again if you are deficient you are more likely to experience symptoms of anxiousness.  If you have progesterone excess it acts more like a depressant.  Again, though, here we have a case of irresponsible reporting of a study with a blatant warning for those of us who take progesterone not to drive.  Another study I will have to seek out.</li>
	<li>The last study the author mentions is, in fact, interesting and refers to women who received progesterone to "treat" cervical cancer in addition to their other treatment.  He indicates that the woman given the progesterone showed less improvement, required more surgeries and that they regressed relative to the participants who were given a placebo.  So the final word is that "Progesterone should not be taken by women with symptoms of cervical cancer."  I'm not refuting this but I have to say I recently read a review of a 1951 Study by Hertz, et al. which reported the opposite - more than half of the 17 women that were treated with progesterone apparently showed improvement.  There may be other studies but the point here is that we need to review both sides and not make blanket statements about one study.</li>
</ul>
The point I need to make here is that his article is supposed to be about "bad side-effects" as if directed to women who take bio-identical hormones for medical purposes, yet these 4 studies are all related to something other than what women are taking hormones for in the first place.  Please my dear and beloved readers when you are considering information about bio-identical hormones please consider the information carefully.  This article comes from a supposedly reputable source, the author is apparently a scientist and well educated in his field (not endocrinology) and  the article was reviewed by someone before it was published.  Well I say shame on all of you for mis-representing bio-identical progesterone.

Just for the record here's my info:
<ul>
	<li>I'm not an endocrinologist or doctor of any kind</li>
	<li>I'm a woman who survived a plethora of hormone health issues and found the cause and solution that fits ME</li>
	<li>No one paid me to write this</li>
	<li>I have no self-serving interests to promote bio-identical hormones (or not)</li>
	<li>I am not a scientist but I believe strongly in critical thinking skills</li>
</ul>
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