Virginia Cassara

Virginia Cassara (born September 22, 1943) was the founder of the 501(c)3 non-profit PMS Action.
She had three goals: to make "PMS" a household phrase, to get it recognized as a biochemical disorder vs. a psychogenic one and to make "natural" progesterone therapy available in the U.S. She spent 18 months trying to obtain a prescription for (USP) progesterone therapy in the United States. She was unable to find a doctor to prescribe it, so in 1979 Cassara travelled to England to obtain it. (USP progesterone is chemically identical to progesterone produced by the ovaries.
The menstrual cycle is divided into two phases: the follicular phase—the first half of the cycle—and the luteal phase—the 2nd half. Estrogen is dominant in the first half of the cycle and progesterone dominates the 2nd half of the cycle, post ovulation. So, in 1979, the few medical professionals who even considered a hormonal case for "premenstrual tension" thought progesterone was the culprit—that progesterone caused the symptoms.
Cassara introduced the United States the British physician Dr. Katharina Dalton's opposite view: premenstrual symptoms were caused by insufficient progesterone being produced in the luteal phase.
PMS was from the get-go a controversial topic. In the 1980s, it was not politically correct for there to be biological differences between men and women—especially if the differences affected behavior. Different genitalia were a fact, but not emotional differences caused by hormones. Thus many progressively-leaning women denied the existence of PMS and lashed out at those promoting it.
==Family and Education==
Cassara was born in Brooklyn, New York. She was adopted as an infant and raised in Vermont. A graduate of the University of Vermont, she received a Masters of Art in Teaching from the University of New Hampshire, and a Masters in Social Work from University of Wisconsin.
Cassara had spent over a decade seeking answers for serious cyclical depressions related to her menstrual cycle, when in 1977, she thought she found an answer. A Harvard endocrinologist prescribed the birth control pill. It helped initially so thinking she would no longer experience crippling depressions, she moved to Madison to begin the University of Wisconsin's two year M.S.S.W. program. Her intent was to become a counselor. When the pill stopped helping she began doing research in the stacks at the University of Wisconsin's Medical School library. There she discovered the work of Katharina Dalton, M.D. a British physician who theorized that PMS was caused by insufficient progesterone in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle.
In the M.S.S.W program, students were required to work in a social work setting for 20 hours per week during the academic year. From 1979-80, Cassara's field placement was in a counseling center. For the 1980-81 academic year she approached the administration for permission to create her own field placement—PMS Action, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit that would help others who were as adversely affected by a hormonal imbalance as she had been. She had no idea how she was going to find others but planned to do so via seeking women who had had either a toxemic pregnancy or postpartum depression, two conditions often correlated with PMS. Via PMS Action, she eventually heard from over 100,000.
In the interim, seeking "natural" progesterone treatment, Cassara took Dr. Dalton's research to numerous American physicians. They were unwilling to prescribe it because there were no double-blind studies supporting its efficacy. One physician recommended removing Cassara's ovaries, though there were no double-blind studies supporting that treatment either. Unable to find a U.S. doctor willing to prescribe U.S.P progesterone, Cassara traveled to England in 1981 for treatment from Dr. Dalton even though she did not know whether 'natural' progesterone would help.
==Career==
Cassara was the Executive Director of PMS Action, a national clearinghouse for information from 1980-1986. The nonprofit started as a home-based business. By 1983 PMS Action had 13 employees and a bevy of volunteers. Knowing PMS would not be a glamorously fundable topic, Cassara was determined to make the nonprofit self-supporting. Their income came from her consulting and speaking fees, from the sale of materials developed by the organization (including a "How to "Approach Your Doctor" kit), from a Madison, Wisconsin-based training program for medical professionals and from donations from thousands who contacted the nonprofit. Cassara's story was written up in dozens of newspapers and magazine, and she was a guest on innumerable national television and radio shows. She did grand rounds, speaking to physicians at hospitals around the U.S. and lectured to Ob/Gyn departments, including Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City and Loma Linda Medical School in Los Angeles, California.
Via PMS Action, Cassara consulted with two Madison-area pharmacists, including Wallace Simons, who started separate compounding pharmacies specializing in U.S.P progesterone therapy and other bio-identical hormones. In 1986, Cassara closed PMS Action because premenstrual syndrome had been accepted by medical professionals as a condition warranting treatment. A variety of treatments are now available including progesterone and other bio-identical hormones.
Category:1943 births
Category:People from Brooklyn					
Category:Founders
Category:Directors