Female Reproductive Disorders 199
pregnancy is no longer possible. Worse still, with progesterone levels
at zero, its protective effect against cancer is lost.
When women show premenstrual or perimenopausal symptoms
such as irritability, fatigue, headaches, inertia, and so on, indicating
their estrogen-progesterone cycle is imbalanced, doctors are apt to pre-
scribe hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a combination of estrogen
synthesized from the urine of the mare horse, and progestin, a syn-
thetic form of progesterone. Progestin’s molecular structure is different
from that of the naturally occurring progesterone in the body. Legions
of studies show the bad effects of this synthetic hormone medication.
The progestin in HRT as well as in birth control pills increases the risk
of breast and ovarian cancer as well as heart disease. One study done in
Europe, with more than eighty thousand postmenopausal women,
found that those who took progestin along with estrogen for an average
of eight years had a 70 percent higher risk of breast cancer than those
who took the bio-identical form of progesterone or didn’t use hormones
at all.^1
What is the solution, besides the obvious—improving the diet and
exercising? It is the replacement of synthetic progestin with natural
progesterone, and estrogen derived from horses’ urine with estrogen
derived from herbs and other plant foods. T. S. Wiley, an anthropolo-
gist specializing in endocrinology in molecular medicine and genetics,
is conducting a study using bio-identical hormones according to the
normal estrogen-progesterone monthly cycling pattern.^2 The theory
behind rhythmic cycling is that, no matter how old a woman is, if her
intake of natural estrogen/progesterone mimics the monthly rhythmic
cycle of these hormones in menstruating women, the brain will think
she is menstruating and therefore still fertile. According to Wiley, this
causes the brain to conclude that her life is worth saving. It sends this
message to the rest of the body, with the result that the organ systems
begin to function the way they did when the body was young.
The problem with Wiley’s rhythmic cycling is that it adds to the
overload of estrogen in the body. It might be conducive to a long and
healthy life if it weren’t for the fact that, living in an estrogen-polluted
world, everyone is supersaturated with this female hormone.
Estrogen’s role in the attachment of the fertilized egg to the uterine
wall helps explain why, during the rest of the individual’s lifetime,