#isge2012

Three cheers for Dr. Adolf Schindler*, who today said something that needs to be said at every meeting that has anything to do with hormones: medroxyprogesterone acetate, known as MPA, brand name Provera, is not the same thing as progesterone, and any academic research paper that has the word progesterone in the title, but refers only to MPA in the paper, should be tossed out for sloppiness. 

MPA has more differences with progesterone than you can shake a stick at, including the nasty fact that MPA has been found to be toxic to brain cells in a couple of studies, while progesterone is protective of brain cells. Just the fact that MPA is a different molecular compound is enough to make mixing it it up with progesterone a prime example of bad science. 

For the tiny minority of you that care, here's the way the classification should be done: the overall category is progestagens-that's any compound that has a progesterone-like effect on cells in the uteruses of rabbits and other lab animals. This includes progesterone, the compound made by the corpus luteum of the ovaries of mammals after ovulation occurs. Progesterone can also be made in a lab. Progestins are also included as progestagens, and these compounds are made in a lab, are never found in nature, and have their own characteristics depending on their chemical structure. MPA is a progestin, and so are drospirenone and norethindrone, and many others.

So now you know better than the authors of one study examining the impact of progestins on the hearing organs. The authors used the word progestins, but never bothered to identify which progestin they were talking about. This just drives me nuts. This is like saying that diesel and gas are the same thing. They may both fuel cars, but put the wrong one in the tank, and the engine is ruined. The differences are crucial.

So please, give your progestagen its rightful name. Don't use the term progestin unless it's clear what compound you are discussing.