Do you or have you ever used an ANTICONCEPTIONAL method with hormones? Then I suggest you read this:

I'm not aware of any contraceptives containing progesterone, whether oral, in IUDs (e.g. Mirena) or rings (e.g. NuvaRing) - they all contain progestins. Do you want to know the differences for your health between using progesterone or progestins? Then read these links carefully and form your own opinion on the matter:

Understand what happens when you “CHANGE” your body's hormonal balance (how and why this happens):

🔗 Why use natural (bioidentical) progesterone - http://www.novatrh.net/resumo.html

🔗 What every woman needs to know about her breast health – https://www.womenshealthnetwork.com/breast-health/

🔗 For WOMEN (or anyone who really cares about them) – https://icaro.med.br/paramulheres/

🔗 Anvisa warns about contraceptives with the hormone drospirenone – https://folha.com/no999618

🔗 Anvisa urges caution in the use of the contraceptive Diane 35 and generics – https://glo.bo/YQxgeS

Why am I posting this? Today a patient sent me an email with several questions about contraceptives, and one of the sentences motivated me to make this post in particular:

“...my doctor told me that Elani is progesterone...”

Regarding this comment, I think it's important to inform you that (before continuing, please read the content of the links above or you may not fully understand what I'm going to try to explain - the text is long, but I doubt it won't interest you and clear up many doubts):

1 - According to Elani's package leaflet, its composition is drospirenone + ethinylestradiol. In other words, if drospirenone were progesterone, it would probably be written that way, wouldn't it? In fact, if progestin were the same as progesterone, there probably wouldn't be this other name for it or the need for it, wouldn't you agree?

2 - Look at the two molecules and tell me if they are the same: because if they are not, how can we expect the human organism to interpret them as such and thus determine the same effects for both?

🔗 Drospirenone – https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drospirenona

🔗 Progesterone – https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progesterona

3 - Could it be that there is no contraceptive with real progesterone because, since any human organism can produce it and the molecule can't be patented, they would need to “alter it a little” to be able to patent it as a new molecule and thus profit from its sale? And in that case, would they be saying that this progestin is “the same thing” as progesterone, so as not to jeopardize sales?

4 - Yes, a lot of leaflets and information on the internet and provided by the pharmaceutical industry lead doctors and patients to believe that progestins and progesterone are “the same thing” or that the small differences between the molecules don't cause harmful effects on the body. But if you read the links above, you'll realize: different molecules, even in the slightest way, have different effects on the body, because the body always notices the differences! In fact, progesterone has general protective effects, even balancing the effects of potent estrogens (which women produce in large quantities throughout their lives), but progestins are increasingly associated, in hundreds of studies, with effects opposite to those of progesterone (once again, read the content of the links above, if you haven't already).

Want an example of this? Using drospirenone once again (but emphasizing that this reasoning applies to all progestins): if it is a progestin and every progestin “is the same” as progesterone (or acts “the same”), how can we explain ANVISA's warning (http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/equilibrioesaude/998472-estudo-aponta-que-anticoncepcionais-aumentam-risco-de-trombose.shtml) that contraceptives with drospirenone increase the risk of thrombosis, while real progesterone (e.g. produced by the body and even bioidentical, molecularly identical to the one we produce, in appropriate doses) improves blood circulation (largely due to its “anticoagulant” effect)? If progesterone and progestin have different effects, even some antagonistic ones, they can only be different substances, right? If progestin were the same as progesterone, then how could this discrepancy be explained?

5 - I don't know of any current, well-founded scientific text that categorically states that progesterone and progestins are the same thing or that they have completely the same effects. If anyone knows of one, please send it to me. However, I think it's very unlikely that this exists, because, as I've shown above, they are substances with different chemical structures, and we know that these differences necessarily cause variations in the way our bodies interpret them, reflecting in the effects they cause.

In short, given all the above:

I don't know of any contraceptives that contain real progesterone, whether they're oral, in IUDs (e.g. Mirena) or rings (e.g. NuvaRing) - they all contain progestins. And what impact does this have on your health? The longer you use them, the greater the consequences on your body of progesterone deficiency (as already extensively demonstrated and discussed in the links cited), leading to a wide range of possible symptoms and even symptoms of uncompensated climacteric (“menopause”) well before it occurs naturally.

Understood? Hugs and have a good week!