DR JOHN LEE - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Author, Pioneer in Use of Natural Progesterone
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John R. Lee, M.D. was internationally acknowledged as a pioneer and expert in the study and use of the hormone progesterone, and on the subject of hormone replacement therapy for women. He used transdermal progesterone extensively in his clinical practice for nearly a decade, doing research which showed that it can reverse osteoporosis. Dr. Lee also famously coined the term "estrogen dominance," meaning a relative lack of progesterone compared to estrogen, which causes a list of symptoms familiar to millions of women. Dr. Lee had a distinguished medical career, including graduating from Harvard and the University of Minnesota Medical School. After he retired from a 30-year family practice in Northern California he began writing and traveling around the world speaking to doctors, scientists and lay people about progesterone. Dr. Lee also taught a very popular course on "Optimal Health," at the College of Marin for 15 years, for which he wrote the book Optimal Health Guidelines. His second self-published book, written for doctors, was Natural Progesterone: The Multiple Roles of a Remarkable Hormone. He then teamed up with Virginia Hopkins and others to write the best-selling books: passed away unexpectedly on Friday October 17th, 2003, of a heart attack. Dr. Lee was known by millions of people as the doctor who pioneered the use of transdermal progesterone cream and bio-identical hormones, and who had the courage to stand up against the medical establishment s dangerous and misguided HRT (hormone replacement therapy) treatments. He kept a full schedule, giving talks and teaching worldwide, writing his best-selling books and monthly newsletters. Dr. Lee was gratified by the thousands of women who wrote and called to tell him how dramatically their health had improved when they followed his recommendations, and by the hundreds of clinicians and researchers he corresponded with who had integrated his work into their practices and research with great success. Dr. Lee was thankful that his analysis of the problems with conventional HRT were finally validated by the medical establishment during his lifetime. The night Dr. Lee died he had dinner with a group of friends and colleagues-he was hale, hearty, telling jokes and stories, and ready to give a talk to a group of compounding pharmacists the next day. He had recently returned from a two-week speaking tour in Europe, and the day before had completed corrections on the final manuscript for the major update and revision of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause (now on bookshelves). Most of the men on Dr. Lee s father s side of the family (including his father, who was also an M.D.) died of heart attacks before they were 60. Dr. Lee had some symptoms of heart problems in his fifties, and that was part of his inspiration to search for the keys to optimal health, which he shared with so many people in his college classes and books. A few months before his death he wondered out loud whether he had been given an extra 20 years so that he could bring the message of natural hormone balance to so many people. Dr. Lee s colleagues, family, and friends will carry on his legacy, as will the millions of others whose lives he touched over the years. We know that many of you will write, asking What can we do? The most meaningful way to remember John R. Lee, M.D. and carry on his work is to educate others, one-to-one, and give them the gift of optimal health, as he gave us. His family asks that in lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Progesterone Research Institute. Dr. Lee was so convinced that his clinical experience with progesterone could have a major positive impact on the health of menopausal women, that he retired from his family practice and devoted all of his time to writing about natural progesterone and giving talks about it. He self-published a book for doctors called: Natural Progesterone: The Multiple Roles of a Remarkable Hormone and sold it out of his garage, and soon was engaged in a voluminous correspondence with hundreds of women, doctors and scientists from around the world. He also self-published a book called Optimal Health Guidelines, a general guide to good health written for the class he taught at College of Marin for 15 years.