Taking Progesterone Can Prevent Spinal injury Damage – What About Nerve Damage From Any Surgery? – And Maybe If It Does at All…!

Last year at the CPS meeting, there was a poster presentation on how progesterone can prevent post injury nerve damage. When asked if men should take it at time of surgery, the student answered yes… There are more reports of Progesterone’s neuroprotective powers..

J Pain. 2010 Jul 30. [Epub ahead of print]
Progesterone Prevents Allodynia After Experimental Spinal Cord Injury.
Coronel MF, Labombarda F, Villar MJ, De Nicola AF, González SL.   abstract here

• spinal cord hemisection
• all vehicle-treated animals – allodynic behaviors and a marked increase in NMDAR subunits, PKCgamma, and ppD mRNA levels
• “Progesterone prevented the development of mechanical allodynia and reduced the painful responses to cold stimulation” – and stopped many of the bochem changes
• their conclusion – progesterone can prevent some of the neuropathic changes after spinal cord injury

Comment – there are two forms of progesterone used in General practice:

• a synthetic medroxyprogesterone (provera) which is neurotoxic:
  Medroxyprogesterone acetate exacerbates glutamate excitotoxicity
  JON NILSEN, ALISON MORALES, & ROBERTA DIAZ BRINTON
  Gynecological Endocrinology, July 2006; 22(7): 355–361   free article here

• and a natural form  which is not neurotoxic (marketed as Prometrium 100mg):

Endocrinology 143(1):205–212
Impact of Progestins on Estrogen-Induced Neuroprotection: Synergy by Progesterone and 19-Norprogesterone and Antagonism by Medroxyprogesterone Acetate
JON NILSEN AND ROBERTA DIAZ BRINTON  free article here

I do not use the synthetic form as it can cause tumors in animals and is associated with breast cancers in women over 60 (Woman’s Health Initiative)

Comment – should people undergoing surgery be put on prometrium 100  mg twice daily? I have a young man going in for spinal disc surgery. I have put him on doxycycline 100 mg am and supper as it seems to help prevent problems by inhibiting glial cell reorganization
see:Attenuation of Pain After Spinal Injury May be Possible      and:
Ounce of Prevention is a Pound of Cure For Neuropathic Pain

I wonder if he should be on prometrium as well..

Addendum  – Not everyone thinks Progesterone is good – this found Progesterone is related to increased pain sesnsitivity. The good so far as to say it may be unwise to have surgery during one’s luteal phase (second half of cycle when Progesterone is secreted). They stated that there is just as many articles saying Progesterone is detrimental as there is to it being beneficial…
PROGESTERONE IS A RISK FACTOR IN FEMALES ASSOCIATED WITH EXAGGERATED PAIN SENSITIVITY AND HYPERALGESIA IN A HUMAN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF INCISIONAL PAIN
E. M. Pogatzki-Zahn¹, C. Mengersen¹, T. Klein², W. Magerl², J. S. Englbrecht¹, P. K. Zahn¹
IASP poster PM 246 Montreal 2010