Mother's Milk Found to Be Potent Cocktail Of Hormones

I can't help wondering if one of the effects of formula-feeding might be connected to al lthe infertility we are seeing - perhaps without the correct hormones, at the correct time, women are not developing as they should - with long-term reproductive effects?

By NATALIE ANGIER
Published: May 24, 1994

In his own research, Dr. Frawley and his colleagues recently have discovered a new milk factor that they have named mammotrope differentiating peptide. Through test-tube experiments, they have shown that the peptide fosters the maturation of cells of the pituitary, a critical gland at the base of the brain that supplies many of the body's hormones. But the biologists have no idea how the peptide works or much else about it beyond the fact that it is small.

Already there are clues that the impact of gonadotropin releasing hormone in milk may resonate well into adulthood. Studying the effects of GnRH on the physiology of newborn rats, Dr. Sergio R. Ojeda, head of the neuroscience division at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Beaverton, and his co-workers have learned that the hormone suppresses the premature development of the reproductive organs of females. Once ingested, the hormone fills in little docking sites studding a young rat's ovaries and keeps them from responding to competing signals in the body that might otherwise urge rapid maturation.
Full article: nytimes.com