Adrenal-thyroid-immune dysfunction as a cause of reproductive failure in pets: does a veterinary syndrome offer testing and treatment insights for infertility and miscarriages in humans?

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Dec, 2004 by Alfred J. Plechner

Typical daily oral medication dosages

* Medrol or Prednisolone: 1 mg per 10 pounds of body weight.

* Vetalog (triamcinilone): .125 mg per 10 pounds.

* Natural hydrocortisone: .5 mg daily per 1 pound of body weight.

* Soloxine (T4): .10 mg per 10 pounds of body weight twice daily.

By correcting endocrine-immune imbalances in animals with reproduction complications I have successfully restored fertility and prevented subsequent miscarriage in more than 90% of cases. Both male and female animals who are imbalanced and who are to be bred, need to be corrected.

Is a similar approach applicable to human reproduction failure? In humans, the use of low-dosage cortisol or cortisone medications to compensate for common, yet widely overlooked, mild deficiencies of cortisol has been reported since the mid-1950s by endocrinologist William Jefferies, MD, an emeritus clinical professor at the University of Virginia Medical School. During this time, Jefferies has used this approach for patients with chronic fatigue, allergies, autoimmune conditions, as well as for infertility and miscarriages where he has found cortisol deficiency. In reports largely published more than 35 years ago, he cites consistent and significant improvement among patients, including improved conception and birth rates for many women with histories of ovarian dysfunction, infertility, and failed pregnancies.

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

Jefferies, now nearly 90, has long and steadfastly championed the medical benefits of physiologic replacement of deficient cortisol, and lamented the fact that such use has been stymied by the seemingly indelible reputation of cortisone to produce side effects. Such side effects, he has repeatedly pointed out, occur only with large pharmacologic dosages of cortisone and do not develop with low-dosage physiologic levels when given to patients with adrenal insufficiency. "There is no evidence that patients who have taken physiologic dosages for over 40 years have experienced any harmful effects, nor that children born to women taking physiologic dosages have any increased incidence of congenital defects or other difficulties," he states. (9)

My experience with animals is similar. Jefferies also notes that the treatment has had an "impressive" preventive effect against postpartum depression and thyroid disorders.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that low-dosage cortisone therapy appears to be gaining wider acceptance. Medical researchers have reported using this approach with success for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, (10) polymyalgia rheumatica, a systematic inflammatory disorder of the aged, (11) and sepsis. (12)

In respect to reproductive applications, many of Jefferies' observations with low-dosage cortisol replacement parallel my veterinary experience. Such observations include:

* Females who have difficulty conceiving also have a high incidence of miscarriages. When low-dosages of steroids are administered, and continued throughout the pregnancy to correct deficient steroid metabolism or a possible autoimmune disorder that interferes with conceiving, the incidence of miscarriages is no larger than that of women who have no difficulty conceiving.