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

* Excess estrogen can impair spermatogenesis. The estrogen can be brought down with small dosages of steroids, which then improves sperm count.

* Not only ovarian, but adrenal and thyroid function as well should be normal before conception can occur.

* When properly administered, safe physiologic dosages of cortisol replacement (with thyroid medication, if necessary) seem to be an effective treatment option for ovarian dysfunction and infertility.

Current treatment of fertility and miscarriage problems involves a variety of highly sophisticated and expensive methods. Exploring hormonal and immune imbalances caused by abnormal cortisol may yield new understanding and less expensive treatment options for reproductive failure, and should be comprehensively investigated.

Table 1

Cortisol  Total Estrogen  T3     T4      IgA    IgG    IgM
mcg/dl    Pg/ml           ng/dl  mcg/dl  mg/dl  mg/dl  Mg/dl

1.0-2.5   30-35 female*   100-   2.0-    70-    1000-  100-
          20-25 male      200    4.5     170    2000   200

Table 1: Normal endocrine-immune serum values for dogs and cats, based
on simple blood draws. After the draw at the veterinary clinic, blood is
spun down in a serum separator tube and refrigerated. It is shipped cold
and refrigerated at the lab until testing. If blood is not kept cold,
results will be invalid, with excessively high hormone and antibody
results. * Spayed and out-of-estrus females.

References

1. Cutolo M. et al. Altered neuroendocrine immune (NEI) networks in rheumatology. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, June 2002, 966: xvii.

2. Plechner AJ. An effective veterinary model may offer therapeutic promise for human conditions: roles of cortisol and thyroid hormones. Medical Hypotheses. 2003, 60 (3): 309-314.

3. Plechner AJ. Chaos in the cortex: An unrecognized adrenal-immune disturbance in pets offers therapeutic insights for multiple human disorders. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, April 2003; 58-61.

4. Plechner AJ. Treating unrecognized cortisol-based imbalances offers major healing benefits for multiple disorders. Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, 2004, 22 (4): 9-14.

5. Arafah BM. Increased need for thyroxine in women with hypothyroidism during estrogen therapy. New England Journal of Medicine, 2001, 344 (23): 1743-1749.

6. Gross HA, et al. Effect of biologically active steroids on thyroid function in man. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 1971, 33: 242-248.

7. Jefferies WMcK. Safe Uses of Cortisol. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas Publisher, 1996; 160, 181.

8. Primary immunodeficiency diseases. Clinical and Exp. Immunology, 1999, 118 (supplement 1): 17.

9. Jefferies W McK. Op. cit., 67-90.

10. Hickling P, et al. Joint destruction after glucocorticoids are withdrawn in early rheumatoid arthritis. British Journal of Rheumatology, 1998, 37: 930-936.

11. Cutolo M, et al. 2002. Cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and androstenedione levels in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica during twelve months of glucocorticoid therapy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, June 2002, 966: 91-96.