Progesterone Sensitizes Estrogen Receptors
Taken From a transcript of a Seminar by Dr John R. Lee, M.D.
One
of the most important lessons I learned. When I give this to a woman who’s
doctor has her on estrogen, it turns out the dose he has ordered is ALWAYS,
two, four, eight, times too much. And I was trying to figure out, is the doctor
that dumb? What is happening here? Why is it that when I give progesterone
they get estrogen side effects? They get breast swelling, they get water retention,
they get headaches, their feet swell, that’s estrogen. Well, it dawned
on me finally when I looked it up. Turns out when you have the same hormone
all the time like estrogen, unopposed by progesterone, the estrogen receptors
tune down. Just as if you're working in an office where there's too much noise.
After working there for six months you end up not noticing the noise. Then
you go away for two weeks and come back and say, “oh my God, how could
I have been working here without realizing all this noise is here?”
Every cell that they work on, it does so because there’s a receptor,
already made that binds and unites with that hormone's molecule, and goes
to the nucleus and creates the effects of the message. But it takes binding
with that receptor. When you have unopposed estrogen, the receptors tune down.
When you add the progesterone the receptors come back to full force again,
full efficiency.
So, I learned that every time I added progesterone to a woman already on estrogen I had to tell her to cut her estrogen at least in half. Then later she could cut it down even more because the progesterone was handling so many of her problems. She didn't need all that much estrogen. Then I had some ladies who kept cutting it down, cutting it down and pretty soon they weren't taking any, and they were doing fine. No hot flashes, no vaginal dryness, no problems, they were doing fine and I said, “how can this be?” I was taught in medical school estrogen goes to zero.
So I went to the library and looked up the original references of people, primary references. Somebody measured estrogen levels for 5 years before menopause and then 5 years after menopause and you know what they all found? Every single one? They found the estrogen only drops about 40-50%! It doesn't go to zero! Women continue to make estrogen even if they have their ovaries removed! How do they make it? The fat cells make it. The body fat converts to one of the hormones that the adrenal gland makes, into real estrogen. The greater your need for estrogen, the more it makes. The body’s not dumb. The body has this backup mechanism and it works. In fact the tests show that a fat lady after menopause makes more estrogen than a skinny lady does before menopause. Isn’t that something? And you have all these doctors giving fat ladies estrogen! There’s something wrong here! It became more and more apparent to me, I learned all this from the patients.