[Pansy-Mae]

Bryony
For once your wrong

Pm is also produced in a lab , ie a standardised extract, Unless you go for whole root, then you have quality or compliance guarantee.

Microgest is similar it is condensed down in a similar way then encapsulated too and at a pharmaceutical standard.

Julie

Not totally true Julie because you are leaving out the fact that the progesterone has to be physically manufactured in a lab, before it can be micronised and encapsulated. As Bryony says, there is no plant source of progesterone itself.

However, there is an an argument both ways about taking it and in the end it comes down to personal views.
Aspirin, Ibuprofen and countless other drugs are produced in a lab by adding A to B then removing C to to produce D.
In principle that is no different to extracting Diosgenin from WY and treating it to produce progesterone.
Aspirin for all of its undoubted benefits in curing aches and pains and thinning the blood for heart patients also causes stomach haemorages. Nature identical Progesterone is used medically to help post-menopausal women, for many years as a topical cream, and more recently in micronised form.

OK it hasn't been around as long as PM or even aspirin, but taken in moderation it appears to be 'safe'. That cannot be said for Progestins, which do have medically acknowledged and documented negative side effects, so there is a clear difference between Progesterone and Progestins.

To go back to my very simplistic previous example.. you can get salt from countless 'natural' sources... mines, where it is contaminated by whatever in the ground... the sea where it is contaminated by things I don't want to even contemplate... or you can make it in the lab easily enough from very simple ingredients ( come to that, many years ago I had to actually make aspirin as part of my A Level Chemistry practical exam, that isn't difficult either). Whatever the source it needs to be cleaned and purified, but aside from that, the lab manufactured version of salt is identical in every respect to the natural stuff.

So as I said, it comes down to personal choice but at the mo, as far as I know there is no valid argument for not taking it in moderation and within advised limits, if an individual feels like it.