"Jerilynn Prior can always be trusted to go beyond the surface to what is really happening in women's bodies. She is a true champion in women's health. This book will help you finally understand your body and hormones."
Susan Love MD,
President of the Dr Susan Love Research Foundation
and author of Dr Susan Love's Breast Book
President of the Dr Susan Love Research Foundation
and author of Dr Susan Love's Breast Book
An Introduction
In this revealing work, a medical writer and an internationally-known physician team up to explain the controversy over medicine prescribing estrogen for perimenopausal women in North America, and to detail why progesterone is actually a far more effective, and a far less risk-ridden, approach. Citing long-standing and emerging research, patient vignettes, and personal experience, endocrinologist Jerilynn Prior and writer Susan Baxter tell us how false beliefs on estrogen became entrenched in North American medicine and culture, and why business and politics have played a role in this erroneous thinking.
Like most women in Europe, Prior's patients find progesterone the key to dealing with a life cycle transition that, contrary to Western medicine, these authors do not see as a disease. Challenging medical orthodoxy, this work presents arguments and evidence both women and doctors will find compelling and useful.
Hot Flash—Progesterone is an Effective Alternative to Estrogen
Thursday, July 4 2010It’s been a few weeks since Chris Hitchcock and I returned from San Diego’s recent Endocrine Society meetings. We are feeling incredibly happy with the success of our protracted, intense commitments to a controlled trial of oral micronized progesterone (marketed in the USA and Canada as Prometrium) for night sweats and hot flushes/flashes. At the Endocrine Society we presented the first ever trial showing that the molecularly identical progesterone by mouth is effective treatment for vasomotor symptoms (VMS = hot flushes/flashes and night sweats)(1). We were also invited to present our data at an Endocrine Society-sponsored press conference (See press releases on Science Daily and Web MD).
Hooked on Estrogen
Thursday, June 4 2010Yes! I’m sure you can hear my whoop of excitement and vindication. Finally, something negative about estrogen and positive about progesterone in the mainstream media. According to this article by Emily Anthes in the current issue of Scientific American: Mind, women’s risk for addiction, and potential for successful withdrawal, are both linked to our menstrual cycle hormones. Estrogen increases women’s addictive behaviors while progesterone assists with successful addiction recovery.
The Great Perimenopause Cover-Up
Monday, April 1 2010I just read “The Estrogen Dilemma” and I feel like weeping—in sorrow and deep sadness. This article by Cynthia Gorney about energetic, intelligent women who feel they must take estrogen in order to survive perimenopause yet have deep worries about its risks. I know personally the anguishing changes that erupt during perimenopause. “The Estrogen Dilemma” also evoked my frustration and even rage. It is wrong that symptomatic women in the midst of the long and stormy midlife transition have to face a conundrum—to take estrogen or not. It arises from a Nixonian-style cover-up of three proven and important-for-women truths:
The Estrogen Myth in Boston
Wednesday, November 3 2009by Jerilynn C. Prior
Thoughts on my 40-year MD graduation visit to Boston Medical Center
Last week I was the guest speaker at “Grand Rounds” (meaning the major, usually weekly, academic lecture) in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at my alma mater. This was an important occasion for me personally, because I became a physician at Boston University 40 years ago this year.
Perimenopause is as Different from Menopause as Chalk from Cheese
Tuesday, October 2 2009by Jerilynn C. Prior
Dr Jerilynn Prior comments on a new menopause site in this Globe & Mail article from October 16, 2009.
Last Thursday I learned from Carly Weeks of The Globe and Mail that a new website by the 14-member strong Canadian Menopause Coalition was just unveiled. I quickly went to www.menopauseandu.ca and found that “menopause” was mixed with perimenopause. Most importantly, accurate and helpful information about the higher estrogen levels in perimenopause was absent.
