I live in the wheat belt of Western Australia, and the farmers spray pesticides, herbicides - all very estrogenic.

Hi Catherine,

Could you please help me?

I live in the wheat belt of Western Australia, and the farmers spray pesticides, herbicides, suicide, homicide and genocide (hehe) - all very estrogenic. My children and I are having trouble in the way of hormones, but it is the children I am most concerned about as I can take natural progesterone. But what do I give my 2 girls and 2 boys in the way of herbs or homeopathy, or do I give them natural USP progesterone cream?

The oldest girl is 11, the youngest girl is 8. The oldest boy is 10, and the youngest boy is 7. They are getting early onset of PUBERTY, I believe due to the estrogenic enviroment, and I can’t move away at this time. By the way, my husband finds the progesterone cream helps his prostate trouble and gives him a lift!!

The only thing happening to me is I am loosing my hair, and I hope the progesterone cream will fix that.

Regards,

Lisa

Dear Lisa,

There are so many issues contained in your letter that it is difficult to know how or where to start.

You seem to have convinced yourself that the local sprays ARE responsible for all the health issues you mention. Proving this is NOT easy. I wonder who it is who has made this diagnosis for you or perhaps it is simply that you are concerned about these issues that CAN cause problems that are not commonly addressed by GPs or specialists.

Firstly, as you say you are taking natural progesterone, I would need to know what product you are taking and in what dose and for what reason. It is NOT necessarily THE treatment for patients exposed to pesticides or other oestrogenic compounds.

In this day and age, puberty does occur earlier than it did in times past. You do not mention which children are experiencing early puberty and what your particular concerns are. Early puberty is also not necessarily due to exposure to environmental oestrogens.

You are right that progesterone can be a great help to men and their prostates; Dr John Lee wrote about this in his monograph about Mens’ Health.

Your loss of hair raises questions about your overall health and other symptoms that you may have. Thyroid dysfunction is commonly involved in hair loss and should be looked into by your doctor. You could help your GP by taking your oral temperature using an electronic thermometer every morning for 10 days or so the moment you wake up and before you actually get up. Take the readings with you to your GP. If they are erratic and consistently below 36.6 (as the average reading) then you may have hypothyroidism.

Progesterone and Thyroid problems commonly co-exist.

I would recommend that you get advice from a GP experienced in the use of bio-identical hormone therapy and get your family tested - to confirm or deny your fears about their hormone levels.

Catherine Rollins may be able to provide contact details for GPs so trained in your area.

Salivary Hormone testing is the most informative way to assess this. Blood levels are notoriously inaccurate.

Doctors work with scientific evidence rather than assumptions & preconceived ideas or theories; hence my advice to you to arrange to get some evidence about your family’s problems before allowing your fears to take over.

I hope this is helpful.

Yours,

Philip Stowell