The Science Behind Bioidentical Hormones

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By Phyllis Bronson, Ph.D.

womanAs a biochemist I have been a researcher and clinician in the area of bio-identical hormone use, and their impact on women’s mood.

I have come to believe the ignorance surrounding this topic is the dark area of women’s health.

In 1997 Science News published its summary of two major studies detailing the huge difference between synthetic progestin and bio-identical progesterone; this research clearly underscored the potential for negative impact on cardiac function in women; this was not reported in medical journals. At that time I was starting my molecular research into the difference in the molecules and the results were astounding as evidenced in the following quote:

Phyllis Bronson has done years of molecular research; see the important quote below from her great chemistry colleague and mentor, Dwight Smith, Ph.D., former chancellor of the University of Denver:

“The research which Phyllis and I pursued here, resulting in a significant finding, involved the spectroscopic study of natural progesterone and the synthetic version developed by pharmaceutical companies. The structural differences between the natural and synthetic progesterone have significant implications for women’s health. The work which Phyllis has done generally in the chemical and physiological effects of bioidentical hormones has received wide attention through her numerous lectures and publications.”

I found that real progesterone has a profound calming influence on the nervous system and brain, and that women felt calm but not sedated.

I found that real progesterone has a profound calming influence on the nervous system and brain, and that women felt calm but not sedated. Often medical journals use the words progestin and progesterone interchangeably but they are not the same. In the Women’s Health Initiative Study which was halted in 2002; the major culprit was the progestin (Provera was mainly used in that study). The women using just Premain (though not ideal estrogen) did not have the problems found in women using the combination which halted the study.

This was an interesting time to be doing original research in women’s hormones.

We saw many women struggling with years of benzodiazepine use and even addiction who were able to eliminate their use after getting started on real progesterone, under a knowledgeable physician’s care. Properly made transdermal progesterone is made in a cream at a reputable (most are highly reputable) compounding pharmacy. The creams found in health food stores are simply too weak to impact mood and emotion, our area of concern.2

Estrogen is of vital importance to mood in women, for those who can use it.

Women are profoundly affected by fluctuations in their hormones, both natural as well as those from exogenous sources such as birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy (HRT). In 2002, after the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) was halted due to unexpected safety concerns, the medical establishment largely recommended that doctors take women off their hormones. Women, particularly those vulnerable to chronic depression and related mood issues, knew they did not do well without their hormones, notably estrogen, but they had no place to turn.

According to the eminent scholar of women’s hormones, Jeffrey Dach, M.D., it is wrong to put women on anti-depressant drugs generally when what their bodies and minds and moods are crying for is primary estrogen (estradiol).3

As the less desirable estrogen, E1, rises as we age, the vitality-enhancing estrogen, E2, decreases, and brain fog and depression often set in. These are two of the first signs of serious estrogen imbalance.4

Phyllis Bronson, Ph.D. – My book: “Moods Emotions and Aging: Hormones and the Mind- Body Connection” is being published July 15 by Rowman- Littlefield.