Toxemia
A study reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry observed that administering progesterone from the middle trimester of pregnancy for relief of the symptoms of toxemia had some unexpected benefits: "A significant improvement in educational performance was demonstrated among children [whose mothers] received progesterone before the sixteenth week" following conception; and after giving birth their mothers seemed to have greater success at breastfeeding. Clinical observations involving ninety children whose mothers received progesterone were summarized thus:

Breastfeeding
More progesterone children were breast-fed at six months, more were standing and walking at one year, and at the age of 9-10 years the progesterone children received significantly better gradings than controls in academic subjects, verbal reasoning, English, arithmetic, [and] craftwork, but showed only average gradings in physical education.

Dr. Katharina Dalton, who conducted these studies, first discovered the amazing benefits of progesterone through personal experience when she found that her own menstrual migraines disappeared during the last six months of pregnancy. She concluded that the high levels of progesterone during pregnancy might have made the difference. She then tested the use of progesterone on other women and found the same rapid relief of both headache and other symptoms. Noting that if symptoms normally associated with PMS should return at any stage of pregnancy, a resumption of progesterone treatment would be indicated, she advises: "You could be wise to arrange prophylactic progesterone during pregnancy."

Dr. Dalton is one of the many scientists and doctors who have discovered that progesterone in the natural form:

•   protects the fetus from miscarriage
•   increases the feeling of well-being of the mother
•   increases the potential IQ of the child
•   produces calmer, less colicky babies

To protect the fetus the body secretes ten to fifteen times more progesterone during pregnancy than at other times. Dr. Lee tells us that the placenta becomes the major source of progesterone, producing 300 to 400 mgs. per day during the third trimester. What a great protection we have during pregnancy with this incredible hormone! And with no known dangerous side effects.

Morning Sickness
Dr. Dalton calls morning sickness "a sign that the ovarian progesterone is insufficient and the placenta is not yet secreting enough progesterone." She says that giving the woman extra progesterone will ease the symptoms. Says Dr. Ray Peat, "Since natural progesterone has been found to reduce the incidence of birth defects, it would seem reasonable to be sure that your own progesterone has returned to normal before getting pregnant."

Dr. Katharina Dalton is one of the many scientists and doctors who have discovered that progesterone in the natural form protects the fetus from miscarriage.

If a woman has had four or five miscarriages in the first six or eight weeks of a pregnancy, this is always due to luteal phase failure, says Dr. John Lee. Progesterone is needed to facilitate implantation and to prevent rejection of the developing embryo, but the follicle may not respond to the ovum with enough. Dr. Lee's recommendation: "Wait till you ovulate, and then four to six days after possible conception do a blood test ( for HCG) to see if you're pregnant. If you are, start the progesterone; that way you will increase you chance of having a healthy baby." Blood tests for pregnancy tend to be positive within seventy-two hours of conception, whereas he says urine pregnancy tests are not usually positive until two weeks after conception.

One of Dr. Lee's notable findings is that there is an immune-suppressing effect in the uterus from higher doses of progesterone. This is important, because when conception takes place, half of the baby's chromosomes are from the male and half of them from the female. That makes the baby's tissue DNA different from the mother's because of the contribution of the father. If there's not a good tissue match, the difference will create tissue rejection. If you try to do a skin graft or a kidney or heart transplant and the tissue isn't the same, the body will reject it. But this doesn’t happen with pregnancy. Why? Because of the progesterone response in the uterus. It's a site-selective action that doesn’t occur anywhere else in the body; therefore, the baby is not rejected. By giving more progesterone after conception, you thus increase the likelihood that the baby will survive.

Looking at the problem from another perspective, Dr. Lita Lee informs us that "after conception progesterone prevents miscarriages resulting from excess estrogen." It is interesting to note the consistency of the research, as in Dr. Peat's study, indication that "pregnancy toxemia and tendency to miscarry or deliver prematurely are often corrected by progesterone." Dr. Peat goes on to say, "My dissertation research, which established that an estrogen excess kills the embryo by suffocation, and that progesterone protects the embryo by promoting the delivery of both oxygen and glucose, didn't strike a responsive chord in the journals which are heavily influenced by funds from the drug industry."

It is a fact that if a pregnant woman produces too much estrogen, her embryo can be suffocated (hypoxia). Dr. Lita Lee cautions that during the ninth week of pregnancy, a woman can lose her baby if she is a "high estrogen producer and/or [is] consuming commercial meat, poultry and dairy products containing synthetic estrogen (DES)." However, she goes on to say that natural progesterone "has been known to protect against the toxic effects of excess estrogen, including abortion." Make certain, if hormones are prescribed during pregnancy, that they are not the synthetic progestins or estrogens but the natural micronized products. We now know that artificial hormones can be dangerous to the fetus during pregnancy.

Dr. John Lee stresses that synthetic compounds cannot be efficiently "excreted by one’s usual enzymatic mechanisms. Despite their advertisements, synthetic hormones are not equivalent to natural hormones." Side effect can include fatigue, elevation of cholesterol, heart palpitations, headaches, depression, emotional disorders, weight gain, bloating, and more.

Increasingly in the area of fertility therapy, medical doctors are concentrating on prescribing more natural substances for women. It would be wise to try to locate one in your area who will work with you and understand your needs when it comes to natural hormone replacement therapy. A case in point: natural progesterone for conception. Although under ideal conditions it sometimes works as a contraceptive, progesterone is also, conversely, used in some fertility clinics.

Jerome Check, M.D., an infertility specialist and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University and Hahnemann University, says that "too often physicians will treat the infertility problem with strong medication or even surgery without checking progesterone levels first...But for many women, progesterone therapy has been very effective in helping them to become pregnant and to carry the child to term. Only after this treatment in tried should more drastic procedures be considered."

An adequate amount of progesterone is crucial to a woman who is trying to become pregnant. It actually prepares the uterine wall for implantation of the fertilized egg. Without sufficient progesterone, the egg will be expelled. Progesterone treatment can also be used to induce fertility when there appears to be ovulatory dysfunction. A study was performed involving fifty women who had lived with infertility for a minimum of one-and-a-half years. Seventy percent of the women conceived within six months while exclusively using progesterone therapy, reports Dr. Check. The Efficacy of Progesterone in Achieving Successful Pregnancy describes this group:

Five patients had a history of previous spontaneous abortions; all others had primary infertility. The range of ages was 18 to 39, with an average of 31. Their average period of infertility was 2.8 years in the 35 patients who conceived, and 2.7 years for the entire group.

From all the data it seems clear that natural progesterone therapy offers no risks to the patient and will be likely to benefit those wishing to conceive. Additional reports indicate that without progesterone treatment, women with luteal phase defect are at very high risk for spontaneous abortion. Progesterone has been found to be important in maintaining a pregnancy during the early months.