Hepatitis and Natural Progesterone

Hormones taken orally in pill form enter the bloodstream from the small intestine, and go directly to the liver. Because the liver is not accustomed to receiving large amounts of hormones, it begins to break them down, leaving only a small percentage of the ingested hormone available to cells.

This is called first pass loss (or first-pass metabolism) through the liver.

By comparison, transdermally delivered hormones like progesterone are up to 80% more bioavailable than equivalent doses administered orally. This has been proven by salivary hormone testing.

In other words, oral delivery systems provide only a fraction of biological activity in comparison to the same dosage of steroid hormones administered from a transdermal delivery system (TDS).

A variety of medications can cause organ damage, and anyone who has a history of liver disease should check carefully with their doctor before starting new medications. Steroid-based medications can result in hepatitis-like side effects, as can oral contraceptives, antibiotics, analgesics, and any medication designed to alter liver function.

Many women with a fatty / dysfunctional liver often cannot cope with potent doses of oral hormone replacement therapy as it overloads the workload of the liver. And this can actually aggravate weight problems and obesity. These ladies usually do quite well with natural progesterone transdermal cream.

Dr Martha Howard maintains that:

"Oral pharmaceuticals can be harmful to the liver and gall bladder. Oral administration is outmoded. Plant-derived creams fit better in the body’s receptors. I prefer transdermal delivery
systems - it’s safer and more natural."

Bioidentical progesterone, therefore, delivered transdermally has a significant safety margin and carries none of the side effects or health risks of synthetic progestins.

A history of hepatitis

Having had a history of hepatitis would not preclude someone from using progesterone cream. There are plenty of more toxic substances being dealt with by the liver than progesterone.

The liver metabolises not only hormones, but numerous other toxic body wastes, ingested chemicals eg., alcohol, caffeine, prescription, recreational and over the counter drugs to name a few. It would have dealt with far more toxic substances than progesterone in the intervening years.