Hormonal Imbalance Care Options

Synthetic hormones are not the same as a body?s "true" hormone as they alter the natural flow of hormones and convey different messages than the body's "true" hormones covey. This can deprive the body of other crucial hormones it needs to function properly and in good health. This also, could cause negative side effects for some women.

It is important that you know there are no regulations governing the amount of synthetic natural progesterone that manufactures can put in their products. Many far exceed the amount of progesterone that a woman's body would produce on its own if it were functioning properly.

Although it has been reported that natural progesterone is safe to use, one should question this as natural progesterone is a drug and as with any type of drug product there is always the possibility of overdose or adverse effects. If you chose to use this type of therapy, please do so under the supervision of a physician.

It has been reported that some countries such as Australia prohibit natural progesterone from general sale; making products available on prescription only and other countries, such as Singapore consider natural progesterone as a poison, therefore it is not allowed to enter their country.

According to the FDA guidelines it states that any cream containing more than 5mg. of U.S.P. grade natural progesterone per ounce should be considered a drug however to date it has not been classified as such.

The long-term effects of natural progesterone or natural progesterone creams are unknown as there have been no scientific studies done on this type of progesterone to date. It has been reported in several article that lack of any significant clinical studies into the long-term use of natural progesterone also means there may be adverse side effects of which we are not presently unaware of.

Synthetic Progesterone (progestins or progestogens)

Medical research revealed that giving a woman estrogen therapy alone in HRT could lead to the thickening of the uterus lining, increasing the risk of uterine cancer. Therefore, synthetic progesterone became a part of HRT to protect the endometrium.

Synthetic progesterone differs in composition from the body's true natural progesterone. This type of progesterone is chemically altered in a laboratory, resulting in the addition of other molecules. Progestins bind to the same receptors in the cell as the body's "true" progesterone does, however from this point on progestins send different messages to the cell. For example, the parts of the body that need progesterone first will identify progestins as progesterone. The chemical alternations in the progestins will convey a different message than the body's "true" progesterone would, thus explaining the many negative side effects and warnings progestins bring with their use. Each variety of progestin differs from the other and bears its own exclusive array of side effects.

Progestins can and have caused negative side effects for a huge percentage of women. They include, breast tenderness, various skin reactions including hair growth and hair loss, spotting, changes in menstrual flow, increased or decreased weight, nausea, fever, insomnia, headaches, depression, irritability and jaundice have all been reported. Blood clots are an occasional, serious adverse reaction to progestin therapy.

Wild Yam Creams

Most wild yam creams contain only diosgenin, which is found in many plants, however the wild yam and soybean extract are most commonly used.