What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause - John R. Lee

Author's product rating:   

Degree of Information	Very high
How interesting was the book?	Compelling
How useful was it?	Indispensable
Would you read it again?	Absolutely
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	excellent medical info and advice, well - organized and helpful
Disadvantages:	repetitious necessarily; rather  heavy

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This 2004 edition of Dr. John R. Lee's and Virginia Hopkin's What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause isn't only about menopause or for women, for hormonal imbalance often begins with premenopause in a woman's mid-thirties and can last til the end of her life, and men could also learn much about the women in their lives besides a little something for themselves. When I recently reviewed (on epinions.com) Dr. William Regelson's and Carol Colman's 1996 book, The Super-Hormone Promise, published the same year as Lee's book originally, I said it was the best book available on the subject, but I was quite wrong.

A Harvard and University of Minnesota Medical School graduate, Dr. Lee practiced family medicine for thirty years in Northern California, prescribing transdermal natural progesterone for almost a decade based on extensive research and his patients' problems that only responded to his treatment. He began writing and traveling around the world to speak to doctors, scientists and laypeople about progesterone until his death a day after giving a training or teaching seminar in Europe and finishing the revisions on this book. 31 pages of references include a book by Regelson and Kalmi, numerous medical books and journals throughout the years. The authors do not sell progesterone products; neither have they been paid to include information on where to find recommended products.

This is a huge book of 372 pages, not including the glossary, resources, recommended reading, references, an appendix that reveals the structure of steroid hormones and the index. The detailed Table of Contents is about six pages, divided into three sections: The Inner Workings of Hormone Balance, Hormone Balance And Illness and Creating And Maintaining Hormone Balance, with twenty-two chapters to guide you.

I did not read the 1996 edition of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause, but an epinions.com member did and found it lacking in solid, clinical evidence and was only convinced by the praises of friends to try natural progesterone cream (not any wild yam extract), although not nearly for long enough, it seems. This updated version includes that evidence with the findings of the Women's Health Initiative in 2002 that confirms that synthetic hormones (PremPro, a combination of Premarin and a progestin) significantly increase the risk of breast cancer, strokes and gallbladder disease.

Dr. Lee wants you to know about the very safe and effective natural alternative. He debunks a lot of what women have been told for years, backed with biological explanation and research. Women, your estrogen levels in menopause fall to maybe half of what they were before until you're about 80 and only then and if you're slim will you need to usually supplement. Body fat, you see, manufactures estrogen. Most women in industrialized nations do not need more estrogen. The sex hormone that does decline rapidly to almost nothing is progesterone. When our progesterone levels are so low, it creates a state of estrogen dominance where estrogen is not counterbalanced by the protective effects of progesterone.

And estrogen dominance will probably begin in your mid-thirties more than a decade before menopause. Here's a list from page 140 of the symptoms that premenopausal women may suffer:

Fatigue
Depression
Weight gain
Water retention
Headaches (including migraines)
Loss of sex drive (libido)
Mood swings
Inability to handle stress
Irritability
Fibrocystic breasts
Uterine fibroids
Endometriosis
Low metabolism
Symptoms of hypothyroidism with normal T3 and T4 levels
Unstable blood sugar (insulin sensitivity or resistant)
Craving for caffeine, sweets and carbohydrates (refined)
Sluggishness in the morning

With all these symptoms, cancer, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases such as MS, lupus and Sjogren's Disease, heart disease, strokes, fetal development , pelvic disorders, skin problems, allergies, urinary tract problems, PMS and more fully addressed as to how natural progesterone supplementation is needed to prevent or reverse these health problems, as well as nutrition, eating organically, clean water, environmental pollutants (xenoestrogens) and exercise's role in our health, well, you can see that the doctor thoroughly knows what he's talking about. It's very impressive and convincing.

Did you know there are three forms of estrogen? There's estradiol, estrone and estriol, the first two being carcinogenic and the third more safe, mild and protective. If you need estrogen supplementation for hot flashes and vaginal dryness, estriol should be used. If you want to wean off HRT (synthetic hormone replacement therapy), Lee advises that you use natural estriol and progesterone cream and monitor how you're feeling as you use less, preferably with a physician. Then again, my menopausal friend read some of this book and tore off her HRT patch when she bought those creams, is using the creams as directed by Lee, other women and on the containers, and no longer feels nauseous, lethargic, scatterbrained and stressed out. She's bursting with energy too.

Lee explains why natural is better than synthetic and why saliva tests for hormone levels are much more accurate than blood tests. Hormones won't show up in the blood, or rather they're not soluble in free form in blood serum. He discusses other hormones like testosterone (menopausal women may need a little supplementation), DHEA, corticosteroids, thyroid hormone and pregnenolone, their purposes, benefits and symptoms of imbalance that may be corrected with supplementation after a saliva test has determined your levels.

It should be noted that all hormones work synergistically and when one becomes imbalanced, it will have a deleterious affect on the others by making them work harder and exhausting them or causing them to work inefficiently.

Conclusion

Dr. Lee died in seemingly good health almost twenty years later than his father and most men in his family from heart attacks. He didn't take hormones that I've noticed from reading this book and his website (johnleemd.com). I've summarized the main points of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause and included details most impressive to me. It's unquestionably a heavy read with many necessary repetitions of facts since hormones affect each other and so many health problems are caused by estrogen dominance (progesterone deficiency), but it's also very well-organized so you can find what you want.

Clinical studies like the Women's Health Initiative and many others from around the world are proving Dr. Lee right that many of us women need natural progesterone cream and also saliva tests to determine our complete hormone story. If I haven't answered all of your questions, and I'm sure I haven't, you will be satisfied with either Dr. Lee's information and advice, his interview with another doctor, letters from a female endocrinologist and patients, or the question and answer chapter at the end.

I must include the website for natural progesterone cream for people all over Europe to order without tax or prescription (the only one). Dr. Lee mentioned it somewhere in the book, but not with the many websites or contact information for North Americans. It's the original cream at pro-gest.co.uk. You may find it locally too, but make sure it's USP.

I've already got my saliva test in the mail, actually from where Dr. Lee recommends (the scientist there is interviewed too), but need to wait to take it until I am supposed to ovulate in my cycle (progesterone causes ovulation). I hope my review has intrigued you about the book enough to order it and be better informed, men as well as women. My copy was at my library, but health food stores and bookstores will carry it as well.

Dr. John R. Lee has also written What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause and separately About Breast Cancer.