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[Linda57]

I have just discovered Dr John Lee (he sadly died a few years ago)  He has written many books re natural hormone replacement - progesterone and talks about all the doctors being WRONG about HRT and estrogen etc.  I have just ordered his book from Ebay -
 "What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About The Menopause"

[babyjane]

..... talks about all the doctors being WRONG about HRT and estrogen etc.

Isn't that rather arrogant of him?  Do you mean he is saying that all the doctors are wrong and he is the only one that is right?  I think I would be tempted to give someone like that a wide berth 

[Cassie]

I seem to remember there was a lot of controversy about his writings, he was very pro natural progesterone, if I remember correctly....

[Dorothy]

If it worked for everyone, we would all be doing it. 

If you are blessed with an easier menopause, the natural alternatives may work for you.  I hope they do.  I've tried them and they did absolutely nothing.  Maybe I'm at high risk of breast cancer in my 50s from taking the pill so long - but I'm 41 now and would have no quality of life without hormones, so I'm sticking to them.  I could give them up, live in agony from VA and then get run over by a bus...

[Linda57]

I am not saying he is right.  At what point did I say he was right?   I do listen to others opinions and cannot judge him until I have read his book.

[Linda57]

..... talks about all the doctors being WRONG about HRT and estrogen etc.

Isn't that rather arrogant of him?  Do you mean he is saying that all the doctors are wrong and he is the only one that is right?  I think I would be tempted to give someone like that a wide berth 

I have no idea if all the other doctors are wrong - I am interested in reading his book.  I give everyone a fair hearing !

[Hurdity]

Hi Linda57 - you probably don't know but we're not really supposed to link to stuff like this because he is a US based private practitioner trying to sell stuff - books, cream, his (company's) services etc!  Probably best you remove the actual link at the bottom of your post?

Anyway this guy is the proponent (maybe even inventor?) of the oestrogen dominance theory which was developed to sell progesterone cream. It has been discredited and experimental evidence (as far as I know) does not support his theory. Nevertheless it is widely used to sell peri-menopausal women progesterone cream in the hope that it will  eliminate their symptoms which it doesn't! The main thing is also that the dose is insufficient also to protect the endometrium from thickening when oestrogen is used.

Progesterone isn't really HRT as such - and the progesterone he advocates is no more natural than the progesterone available on NHS as utrogestan, and estradiol available as part of HRT. It is all synthesised in a factory or lab from the same raw materials!

Progesterone is the hormone of pregnancy so is part of the menstrual cycle to prepare for that. It is present in small amounts in the body including after menopause. The main problem re lack of progesterone is sometimes during peri-menopause when women have cycles where they don't ovulate - so the womb lining continues to thicken. When women start HRT ( because oestrogen is also declining) this is rectified - but the creams he advocates do not work to stem heavy bleeding, as I said because they are not strong enough.

It is also typical of the sorts of services and products that have come out of US because they have such a different health-care system and no NHS - leaving the market wide open for all sorts of individual doctors to promote their pet theories and sell things to unsuspecting menopausal women! Fortunately we don't have many like this in UK and as well as NHS, have resources like this website, and the British Menopause Society to keep us informed about the latest reserach and best practice in the world of menopause and HRT!

If you do a search for this sort of thing you will find lots of discussion - some of it heated!

I seem to remember you introduced yourself a while back on this part of the forum - but do remind us where you are in menopause and how old, whether you have any symptoms that you want to treat, or tried HRT?

Enjoy the book anyway but do read it with a huge dose of sceptisim!!!

Hurdity x

[Linda57]

I have removed the link.

[Taz2]

This book is included under the Book section at the top of the page under "more"  http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/books.php

Taz x

[Justjules]

Taz

Looks like Lynda has left us...... sad then to realise that the book was even on the list on here.

[Hurdity]

Justjules - I don't follow?  It doesn't make any difference! Thanks Taz - I knew the book was on the list though! Does not mean that forum members need to agree with it and the contents. Sad if any member feels they need to leave - but I can see that all the posts in response to the OP could be seen as negative, but none of these are criticising the OP but the views of the guy who wrote the book. If someone posts up something like this then you have to be prepared for whatever response you might get  - provided it is polite to the OP/member of course!

Re commercial links - there are three ways of dealing with this - 1) report to Emma, 2) ask the poster politely to remove and point out the form policy 3) ditto by pm. Emma has said in the past she prefers us to sort things out ourselves and I am sure doesn't want to bothered about every little post. It also seems a bit sneaky to me which is why I don't tend to do it. In the past I have received some unpleasant and upsetting pm's so I am loath to do this at all - even though my pm's are always polite, hence asking on the post itself.

I can see that my post was probably the last straw in a series of posts unfavourable to the esteemed Dr John. However no need to leave Linda57 -  none of this was aimed at you .

Hurdity x