What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About: Menopause: The Breakthrough Book on Natural Progesterone

Written by John R. Lee and Virginia Hopkins

Narrated by Christina Moore

Women considering hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause symptoms and health benefits should read this controversial, provocative book first. "Advertising and research dollars are spent trying to convince women that estrogen will cure everything from heart disease to Alzheimer's," writes John R. Lee, M.D., "but there is scant evidence for any of these claims and reams of evidence that synthetic estrogens are highly toxic and carcinogenic." Lee has studied the research and concludes that estrogen is not the magic bullet for protection against heart disease and osteoporosis, nor does it retard aging. Natural progesterone, instead, puts postmenopausal women's hormones in balance, says Lee. He cites study after study that indicates that natural progesterone, obtained in cream form, delivers what the usual HRT only promises. "Menopause as a disease has been largely fabricated by physicians and the pharmaceutical industry," says this leader of a "quiet but powerful revolution" regarding HRT. What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause covers the benefits of natural progesterone, the history and politics of the medical and drug establishment, the biochemistry and dynamics of hormones and how they get out of balance, and how to prevent hormone imbalance and stay healthy. Lee empowers you to ask hard questions of your doctor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490645513

Reviews for What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About

[ccyynn-75710 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this years before menopause. Very helpful to me: with pms, premenopause and many other uncomfortable, if not unbearable, symptoms of an imbalance of hormones. Helpful, unlike all other advice I received from doctors and other health providers at the time. (I do not like using synthetic hormones, which were often casually prescribed to me.)

Lee's writing in this book has a somewhat defensive, emotional tone to it, which does not suit a scientific approach. But the title itself tells us it is intended for non-scientists, and he explains the reason for his urgent tone in the book. (Most alternative treatments, that could not be controlled ($) by the pharmaceutical/medical industry, were essentially blackballed along with their advocates.)

Although his style made me cautious of what he advised (a healthy response, I think, to any popular health advice), his explanations of the impact of estrogen and progesterone in our bodies as they change was extremely interesting to me, and in the end compensated greatly for the tone. I did use natural progesterone at the time, because of this book. (To explain whether it "worked" or not would require a more in depth and too personal review.)

I have not forgotten what I learned in reading this, which I read when a great deal of other information was being published and discussed about the dominance of estrogen in our environment and lifestyles. I don't know what science says about all this now.

I do recommend this book, with these caveats in mind. I am not a scientist, which is a warning to readers who might consider my recommendation.

The bottom line is that his advice makes sense to me, and does not carry the shadowy mystique of the typical medical profession, a profession that is hampered by issues driven by insurance, limited time, and the demand for quick fixes.

Dr. Lee pushes the reader to take charge of her own health. At the time he wrote this book, this was still a radical act.

I liked it enough that it occurs to me I might need to read it again soon. Perhaps an expanded review will follow.