I was delighted to see that more trials on natural progesterone are about to start in five centres in the UK. The information in the article is not new to me as I had read about this study being undertaken by Professor Donald Stein over 15 years ago when I read Dr John Lee’s book ‘What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause’ I just wonder why it has taken so long when all the evidence was quite clear all those years ago.

To see the Times article 17 November 2011 click here.

Extract from Dr Lee’s book published 1996:

Progesterone and Brain Injuries
Progesterone can reduce the severity of brain injuries. In an experiment by Emory University Professor Donald Stein and colleagues found that studying head trauma to rodents showed results of reduced mortality and more rapid recovery of function among females compared to males. When male animals were given oestrogen, no survival or recovery advantage was found. In fact, post-mortem examinations revealed that cerebral (brain) contusions and oedema were killing neurons far beyond the site of the original injury. When male animals were given progesterone, however, their survival and recovery rates corresponded to that of female rats. Stein and his colleagues have begun researching the effects of progesterone on human patients coming to selected emergency rooms with brain injuries.

In other work on progesterone and degeneration of nerves in spinal cord injury, researchers used a unique strain of mutant mice that have degeneration of the spinal cord. A 20-mg progesterone pellet implanted in some of the nice for 15 days created substantial positive change in the nervous system, both at the cell level and at the level of physical functioning, including enhanced grip strength and prolonged survival at the end of the 15-day observation period. The researchers concluded that their results “suggest a new and important role for this hormone in the prevention of spinal cord neurodegenerative disorders”.

Even though rats are not necessarily the same as humans, if I suffered a head injury I hope someone would give me a good dose of natural progesterone.