Taken From a transcript of a Seminar by Dr John R. Lee, M.D.

     It became apparent in my practice when I would measure

progesterone levels, that progesterone deficiency is very

common malady, long before menopause. This is never taught

in medical school. No one ever thinks of measuring

progesterone levels. They'll say, "well, after 43 or 44 it's harder

for you to get pregnant, and you may have periods till you're 55,"

but they never say "it's harder for you to get pregnant because

the ovary isn't making progesterone."

    As shown in the graph below there is essentially very little

progesterone made for the first two weeks or so of a women's

month and then it rises like a sky rocket to become the dominant

hormone during the second half of the month. And then about on

day 26 it falls like a rock. That fall of progesterone is the signal

for the uterus to shed the blood that built up. Looking at the

Estrogen line you'll see it does not start at zero. You are always

making some estrogen. The body always makes some

estrogen, even if you were to remove the ovaries the body makes

some estrogen. Men make some estrogen, we make it in body

fat, so there is always some. But about day 9 or 10, another

words 2 or 3 days before the progesterone, the estrogen rises

and peaks just before ovulation when progesterone is rising.

Then it falls a little bit, maintains a fair level and then it too falls 2  

or 3 days before the period. So this is the surge that is

necessary to prepare the uterus to make a nice thick bloody

womb lining for the possible pregnancy. But this is an average.

    We have now done tests using saliva hormone assay of the

progesterone production in women. In fact this was stimulated

by the work of Dr Peter Ellison of Harvard. He has been doing

this for the last 6 to 10 years, measuring saliva hormone levels

in women and what he finds is that many women might make a

surge of progesterone and then before it reaches a peak it falls

back down again. Another words the ovary was not able to

maintain the progesterone production. Dr Peter Ellison had one

study, I recall, he used 19 women their average age was 29. He

measured estrogen, and testosterone and progesterone every

2nd day through out their whole cycle for like three cycles. Out of

the 19 women, average age 29, 6 of them were not making

progesterone. And they all were healthy, they were all having

periods, they were all normal, they had all thought they were

ovulating and they were already deficient. So it became clear

from anybody who studies it that this is an epidemic that 's

occurring in women that his surge of progesterone does not

match what mother nature intended. So by age 35 the typical

women is already deficient in progesterone. This did not happen

in previous years, this is a brand new 20th century epidemic.

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