Pregnenolone to Progesterone

Q: On your website I found some information about pregnenolone capsules that appears to conflict with what my doctor tells me. My 58-year-old wife is using 50 mg of pregnenolone per day. However, she underwent an operation some years ago to remove the majority of a meningioma, and various articles and doctors state that progesterone has a stimulating influence on these tumors. In your bullet list for pregnenolone you mention that it is “readily converted into progesterone.” Yet my doctor always stated that pregnenolone is harmless. He refers to the biochemical fact that exogenous pregnenolone cannot reach the gland cells that contain the enzymes to do the conversion to progesterone. Only endogenous pregnenolone (which is produced in these cells) will convert readily. So in this view your statement is correct, but not applicable for pregnenolone from capsules. What is your opinion on this? Also, how can pregnenolone work out positively on the bone mass? Isn’t this an estrogenic effect only, or does pregnenolone support it as well? It might be crucial in our choice for enjoying the benefits of pregnenolone without the fear of tumor growth.

A: Technically, pregnenolone should cascade down to progesterone. Since nobody really knows how your body is going to convert that hormone, as opposed to the next person, the only way to know if your wife is converting it to progesterone is to have a blood test. Have a blood test before supplementing with pregnenolone and then have another one month later to see if her progesterone levels have risen. Both hormones—estrogen and progesterone—are necessary for bone formation. Estrogen builds osteoclast cells, while progesterone builds osteoblasts cells. These two cells are necessary for proper bone formation. In a study published in the journal Endocrinology (1998, Vol 139, No 10), the ovaries of female rats were removed for the purpose of inducing an estrogen and progesterone deficiency. The effects of estrogen-progesterone ablation was a severe 90% reduction in tibial bone and a 43% reduction in vertebral bone. This structural deterioration of bone was seen throughout the skeleton and provides an acute view of the catabolic effects of hormonal deprivation.

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