FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE BLOG
Includes over 800 monographs reporting on emerging studies in the medical and scientific literature of practical clinical importance, easily searched for content.
Oral contraceptive hormone doses could be reduced by over 90%
“Results show that it is possible to reduce the total dose by 92% in estrogen monotherapy, 43% in progesterone monotherapy, and…that by combining estrogen and progesterone the dose can be lowered even more.”
Hormone replacement in menopause and ovarian cancer risk
Hormone replacement in menopause must be evaluated thoroughly on an individual basis with careful attention to the important benefits and risks. This includes of course objective measurements of bioactive hormone levels before and during hormone replacement at appropriate intervals, including analysis of benign versus troublesome estrogen metabolites. Regarding adverse effects that must be weighed, an important study just published in The Lancet brings to light a significant risk for ovarian cancer in current and past users of hormone replacement.
Epilepsy as an autoimmune disorder
Epilepsy should be evaluated in case management for neuroinflammation that reduces neuronal thresholds of excitability, and more evidence that this can be due to autoimmunity was just published in JAMA Neurology.
Progesterone and irritable bowel syndrome, headaches and irritable bladder
Progesterone plays a role in preventing or ameliorating irritable bowel syndrome by inhibiting the release of histamine. This applies to numerous conditions including migraine, interstitial cystitis (painful/irritable bladder), dysmenorrhea and others.
Progesterone increases thyroid hormone
This 12-week randomized controlled progesterone trial documented that Free T4 levels were significantly elevated in progesterone-treated compared with placebo-treated women.
Progesterone Is Still Crucial After Menopause
Progesterone performs many crucial functions after menopause.