Dallas County Living Well Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 48

Synthetic vs. Natural Progesterone: The verdict is in!

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By Dr. Donna Barsky, D.Ph., R.Ph.
bout one month ago I
attended a short “informative seminar” with
a fairly new OB/GYN
who had been out of
medical school for about a year. The
physician was to supply the latest information about hormone replacement
therapy (HRT), but what I heard were
the same stories that I heard 20 years
ago about synthetic hormones.
Obviously, big pharmaceutical companies are still contributing greatly
to our medical schools. What most
physicians do not realize is that, in this
country, a natural product cannot be
patented and, therefore, pharmaceutical companies will not fund a study
that includes natural products. Most of
the studies done with natural products
are in foreign countries and given scientific processes are the same. In four
different studies, synthetic progestins
and progesterone have a number of
differences in their molecular and
pharmacologic effects on breast tissue,
as some of the procarcinogenic effects
of synthetic progestins contrast with
the anticarcinogenic properties of progesterone.
When discussing progesterone, it
is important to understand the difference between natural progesterone
and the synthetic progesterone analogs
called progestins. Progestogens is an
umbrella term for both natural progesterone and the synthetic progestins,
because they all have progestational
effects in the uterus. One of the most
common progestins, medroxyprogesterone acetate (Provera®), has been
linked to blood clots, fluid retention,
acne, rashes, weight gain, and depression. Progestins are also able to
bind to glucocorticoid, androgen, and
mineralocorticoid receptors, which
explains the wide range of side effects
many women experience while taking
progestins. Synthetic progestins may
also increase the conversion of weaker
endogenous (naturally occurring)
estrogens into more potent estrogens.
The vast majority of research studies
have been conducted using progestins rather than natural progesterone,

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which explains the disparity and negativity of the results.
Restoring the body’s supply of
natural progesterone confers multiple
health benefits, including balancing
blood sugar levels, promoting normal
sleep, reducing anxiety, and stimulating new bone growth. Progesterone’s
many functions in the body include:

• maintaining the uterine lining and preventing excess tissue buildup
• inhibiting breast tissue overgrowth
• increasing metabolism and promoting
weight loss
• balancing blood sugar levels
• acting as a natural diuretic
• normalizing blood clotting
• stimulating the production of new bone
• enhancing the action of thyroid hormones
• alleviating depression and reducing
anxiety
• promoting normal sleep patterns
• preventing cyclical migraines
• restoring proper cell oxygen levels
• improving libido.

Controlled studies and most observational studies published in the last
five years suggest that the addition of
progestins (synthetic progesterone)
to hormone replacement therapy,
particularly in a continuous combined regimen, increases the risk of
breast cancer compared to estrogen
alone.1 While the results of clinical
trials may accurately assess the risks
associated with synthetic proge