Getting to Know Synthetic Estrogens and Progestins: What Do They Do to Our Bodies?

by Lindsay Schlegel
Natural Womanhood

Our society is increasingly interested in natural versus synthetic everything. Marketers push organic food, cleaning products, and beauty lines. There is a growing wariness about synthetic foods and medicines, especially as we learn more about the unsavory side effects that often come with them.

When it comes to hormones as well, natural is, generally speaking, preferable to synthetic. However, the more accurate and important term we should be keeping in mind, when it comes to the safety of hormones we ingest, is the word bioidentical.

What Does Bioidentical Mean?

A bioidentical hormone is one that is an exact chemical replica of the hormone created in the human body. Even one minor change in the structure of the compound can produce different results when the substance is administered.

“Natural” progesterone can be produced in a lab (in other words, synthesized). And some “natural” hormones (for example, those procured from animals) may not have the intended effects on the (human) body. When talking hormones, the chemical structure is ultimately more important than where the chemical came from. Thus bioidentical is the more significant term.

It is also important to consider that bioidentical hormones cannot be patented, as they are simply replicas of naturally-occurring compounds. Synthetics, however, can be patented—and marketed—even with just one change in the molecular structure.

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