Progesterone is vital to good health in both women and men. It is the primary precursor of our adrenal cortical hormones and testosterone. Males synthesize progesterone in amounts less than women do but it is still vital. Furthermore, it may be important in the prevention and/or treatment of prostatism and prostate cancer.

In the past three years, a number of men have called or written to me to tell me of their experience with progesterone, usually acquired in the process of applying progesterone onto their female mates. They report that their symptoms of prostatism such as urinary urgency and frequency decreased considerably and their sexual performance increased. Several men with prostate cancer have told me their PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) level decreased and they have had no progression of their prostate lesions since using the cream themselves. One man called to say his bone metastases are now no longer visible by Mayo Clinic X-ray tests.

Though I retired from active practice seven years ago, six of my former patients with early prostate cancer have been using progesterone cream (along with diet, some vitamin and mineral supplements, and Saw Palmetto) for about five years and report their cancer has shown no progression.

All this caused me to review the endocrinology books in regard to hormone changes in older men. There I found that three changes seem to occur as men age:

• progesterone levels fall;
• estradiol levels rise; and
• testosterone changes to the dihydro- form.

This suggests to me that research should be done to determine whether the fall in progesterone is primary to the other changes. Unfortunately, such research has not been done, as far as I can tell. If it were true that falling progesterone synthesis by the testes preceded either prostate hypertrophy or prostate cancer, then a trial of natural progesterone cream in men might show that it prevents these conditions.