3 ms·

Something important about hormones, that this article completely avoids, is how the pharmaceutical industry abuses the actual findings of science to sell produc

Something important about hormones, that this article completely avoids, is how the pharmaceutical industry abuses the actual findings of science to sell products. A British doctor, Katharina Dalton, noticed that her monthly miseries went away when she got pregnant. She coined the term "Premenstrual Syndrome" ("PMS") for women's problems that go away as soon as their period starts. She further found that her patients' experience of PMS went away with the injection of Progesterone USP, which is the hormone that gets most amplified during a pregnancy. https://books.google.com/books?id=ODI4QwtEGIYC https://books.google.com/books?id=ODI4QwtEGIYC https://books.google.com/books?id=lpRsAAAAMAAJ https://books.google.com/books?id=lpRsAAAAMAAJ https://books.google.com/books?id=yII3AQAAIAAJ https://books.google.com/books?id=yII3AQAAIAAJ https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0091856086 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0091856086 A later scientist figured out how to use Progesterone USP without injections. Industry sells micronized (finely-ground) Progestone USP pills, but these don't work very well on account of the first-pass metabolism. In the mid-century, while Dr. Dalton was doing her science, Industry was teaching doctors to prescribe the synthetic estrogen DES to prevent miscarriages. Now we know that DES causes cancers in the children of the treated. Whoops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethylstilbestrol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethylstilbestrol Today countless women are given prescriptions to "regulate" their hormone cycles, or to protect them from getting knocked up. These prescriptions -- marketed as "birth control" -- use hormone-analogues that aren't actually perfect replacements for the natural hormones. The steroid cycle only works with the right inputs -- cholesterol, thyroid, Vitamin A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid#/media/File:Steroidogenesis.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid#/media/File:Steroidoge... The tragedy of the situation is that the practical implementation of the science of hormones has gone exactly nowhere since Dr. Katharina Dalton's initial research in the 1950's. The modern standard of care specifically condones modern doctors' replacing a foundational step in their patients' steroid cycle (Progesterone USP) with an imposter (Medroxyprogesterone Acetate, etc). Some women do fine with this substitution. Some women never recover. The anti-science of prescription fake-hormone marketing is an ongoing travesty and tragedy.

debacle 8y ago
> Some women never recover. Can you explain the supposed implications?
- tcj_phx 8y ago
  Fake-progesterone tricks the body into reducing its own production of Progesterone USP. Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (Provera, typically injected as Depo-Provera for 3-months of chemical sterility for otherwise-healthy young women) is a very effective fake-progesterone with a black-box warning of causing insufficient cortisol production (a symptom that is now associated with psychosis). The most common side effect of this defective drug is that it causes women to rapidly gain weight. Search on YouTube for "depo provera" for some anti-testimonials. My friend was turned into a mental health patient with three Depo-Provera injections, but the mental health professionals have never cared about cause-and-effect. It's possible to recover from fake hormones with time and physiologically-appropriate interventions. To implement this in our medical system would require the medical profession to acknowledge its mistakes and prescribe the right type of Progesterone USP (which promotes its own synthesis, and is therefore a sort of 'antidote' for fake-hormone poisoning). Illnesses are 'iatrogenic' when they are caused by medical treatments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis
  - CryoLogic 8y ago
    It's the same with TRT, exogenous testosterone stops your body from producing it's own testosterone. It is however, a very low percentage (probably sub-1%) from what I've read that do not recover. However, some take longer to recover than others and can take 6mo-1yr to re-obtain natural levels again. HCG prevents or reduces atrophy in male testicles while on TRT (analog to LH signaling hormone which controls testicles) and many of the most respected endos perscribe it with TRT now. Perhaps a similar solution should be added to birth control to continue the natural production of progesterone?
    - tcj_phx 8y ago
      > Perhaps a similar solution should be added to birth control to continue the natural production of progesterone? There are very effective ways for couples to deal with the fertility problem (edit: that don't involve chemical castration with patented medicines containing xeno-hormones). They are not profitable for the Medical-Industrial complex, so these strategies have been ignored by the high priests of medicine for the last 60+ years. Strategies for women, strategies for men, strategies for couples... A different friend got panicked by a missed period, dealt with it in her own way, then went to Planned Parenthood for a free blood test. They said, "you had a miscarriage, let us deal with it next time." Hrmph.

debacle 8y ago

> Some women never recover. Can you explain the supposed implications?

tcj_phx 8y ago
Fake-progesterone tricks the body into reducing its own production of Progesterone USP. Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (Provera, typically injected as Depo-Provera for 3-months of chemical sterility for otherwise-healthy young women) is a very effective fake-progesterone with a black-box warning of causing insufficient cortisol production (a symptom that is now associated with psychosis). The most common side effect of this defective drug is that it causes women to rapidly gain weight. Search on YouTube for "depo provera" for some anti-testimonials. My friend was turned into a mental health patient with three Depo-Provera injections, but the mental health professionals have never cared about cause-and-effect. It's possible to recover from fake hormones with time and physiologically-appropriate interventions. To implement this in our medical system would require the medical profession to acknowledge its mistakes and prescribe the right type of Progesterone USP (which promotes its own synthesis, and is therefore a sort of 'antidote' for fake-hormone poisoning). Illnesses are 'iatrogenic' when they are caused by medical treatments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis
- CryoLogic 8y ago
  It's the same with TRT, exogenous testosterone stops your body from producing it's own testosterone. It is however, a very low percentage (probably sub-1%) from what I've read that do not recover. However, some take longer to recover than others and can take 6mo-1yr to re-obtain natural levels again. HCG prevents or reduces atrophy in male testicles while on TRT (analog to LH signaling hormone which controls testicles) and many of the most respected endos perscribe it with TRT now. Perhaps a similar solution should be added to birth control to continue the natural production of progesterone?
  - tcj_phx 8y ago
    > Perhaps a similar solution should be added to birth control to continue the natural production of progesterone? There are very effective ways for couples to deal with the fertility problem (edit: that don't involve chemical castration with patented medicines containing xeno-hormones). They are not profitable for the Medical-Industrial complex, so these strategies have been ignored by the high priests of medicine for the last 60+ years. Strategies for women, strategies for men, strategies for couples... A different friend got panicked by a missed period, dealt with it in her own way, then went to Planned Parenthood for a free blood test. They said, "you had a miscarriage, let us deal with it next time." Hrmph.