Dr. Jerilynn C. Prior is a tireless researcher of women’s hormonal functions and related health problems. She has identified and published information striking at the social myths that prevent good therapy. Ignorance, lack of good science and poor translation to clinical use abound.

Recently, she shared “Women’s reproductive system as balanced estradiol and progesterone actions – A revolutionary, paradigm-shifting concept in women’s health” (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S174067572030013X).

She decries the notion of estradiol being the “women’s hormone” and the subsequent practice of focusing treatment on estradiol only for women and relegating progesterone’s utility only for the uterus.

Progesterone is a far more prevalent hormone and behaves in a yin-yang dance with estradiol. The two hormones enhance the function of receptors for each other. They produce opposite effects. Estrogen is a stimulant. It promotes growth of tissue. Progesterone helps cells mature and decreases proliferation. In bone remodeling, estradiol slows the rate of bone loss; but it is progesterone that stimulates new bone growth. Without this constant break down and rebuilding, good quality bone cannot happen.

At perimenopause, women can experience aberrations in heart rate because estradiol levels can be at their highest during the lifespan. Progesterone restores the heart’s electrical activity to normal. In the brain, estradiol increases excitation, progesterone is calmative. Dr. Prior writes a thorough review of various body systems to enlarge the importance of balance.

One of the myths, she has identified is that if women bleed regularly each month, they produce adequate progesterone and that they have ovulated. She found that missed ovulations can be a regular event and the generous production of progesterone that should follow doesn’t happen. She calls for easy, inexpensive, home testing for ovulation to guide us.

You can benefit by taking the time to review Dr. Prior’s comprehensive webpage at www.cemcor.ubc.ca.

Carol Petersen, RPh, CNP