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To the Editor:—
With all due respect to Dr. Stephen Rothman's many wonderful contributions to the science of dermatology, I was amused at his comment in the discussion of Smith's article in the December, 1959, issue of the A.M.A. Archives of Dermatology. The comment:"After it was shown in our laboratory that progesterone caused sebaceous gland hyperplasia, the validity of this finding has been doubted. It was even claimed that progesterone is an effective therapeutic agent in the treatment of acne vulgaris."For my part, I do not find the latter sentence at all hard to believe, particularly since it has been perfectly demonstrated to me many, many times in patients, both adolescent and postadolescent, who show premenstrual flares of their acne. The effectiveness of premenstrual progesterone in such patients was first told me by Dr. Phyllis Jones who, together with Dr. John H. Lamb, has used premenstrual progesterone and