breast cancer and pro-gest cream bio identical

Gscott,

I was diagnosed with DCIS in 2007. I started using bio-identical progesterone cream shortly after that. This is not the same stuff as the synthetic progesterone tested in the Women's Health Initiative Study. That study showed that synthetic estrogen when given with synthetic progesterone increased your risk of BC.



While synthetic progesterone and estrogen do not have the same chemical composition as the progesterone and estrogen your body makes, bio-identicals are identical to what your body makes.



When I asked my surgeon about this, she said I should not use or take any other type of bio-identical or synthetic HRT, other than bio-identical progesterone. This is because, if you are ER+, any type of estrogen can possibly encourage cancer growth when it binds with estrogen receptors.



If you are PR+, when the bio-identical progesterone binds with the progesterone receptor it has a very different effect and actually encourages cancer cell death. There are many studies showing the preventative effect of bio-identical progesterone.



I hope my explanation makes sense. Please feel free to send me a PM if you have questions or want to discuss this at all.



Best wishes,

Sandie

Excellent point, gscott.  Hormones in meat and dairy products are the reason most naturopathic and integrative doctors recommend a diet that's extremely low in animal protein, or avoiding it altogether.  So, yes, I believe that eating the kind of meat and dairy products most commonly available in US supermarkets, combined with other genetic individualities and environmental stressors, very possibly does contribute to some of our bc dx's.  And what's especially frustrating about this is, it's hidden hormones, so we don't even know what we're getting when we eat it. 

Nancy said exactly what my integrative doctor said... "hormones are really complicated."  Even those with PhD's in microbiology don't seem to fully understand their complex workings, and especially the role they play in those of us who get bc.  Progesterone may be a good thing for your sister and many of us, gs.  I was just hoping she would make as informed a decision as possible about it.      Deanna

Lucy, I'm afraid you misunderstood (my fault) the spirit in which my integrative doctor made her "complicated" remarks, which I greatly oversimplified above.  She was not simply terming hormones as "complicated" because she doesn't understand them, as my post must have implied.  She was speaking as an MD, PhD, who I suspect has read everything you have and more, yet has come to a different conclusion for the time being vis-a-vis the safety of hormones for those of us who have been dx'd with certain types of bc.  True, the emphasis of her practice is not limited to, nor does she specialize in hormones.  But I feel confidant based on her research background that her opinion is not based on a lack of information or a lack of understanding.

I am not anti hormones or anti progesterone cream.  What I said is that I don't think that progesterone cream should be used by someone who has had invasive bc as a harmless over-the-counter remedy for hot flashes, and that the prudent thing to do would be to seek out expert advice.  Do you disagree with that, Lucy?  Do you think gscott should send her sister samples of progesterone cream to try, as her original post asked, without her sister bothering to have her hormone levels checked?     Deanna

Deanna,

I'm absolutely confident from the research that breast cancer patients or menopausal women can't get into any trouble trying over the counter progesterone. Progesterone has been shown to slow down cell growth. If a woman is getting too much progesterone she will get sleepy or a headache or maybe crave carbs. Dr. Reiss has a section in NATURAL HORMONE BALANCE on how to tell if you are taking too much or too little.

As for lab testing, even the head of the main hormone testing lab told me that doctors only do the first test to appear concientious. But it is a waste of money to test until three months of supplementation. Still, I suggest getting a well-recommended hormone specialist onboard as soon as possible because they see patients all day long with the same issues. They may want to tweak depending on your profile.

*I responded to Deanna because she is respectful of our diversity here. Otherwise, I only discuss this subject by PM.