I should have posted this in December, 2023, when I started with SUBSTACK, but better late than never!
Gervais A. Harry, MB, BS (London), LMCC, FRCSC, ABAARM (A4M)
I’m a (Toronto) Urologist (1974) and an A4M functional medicine specialist (2016).
Studying at the University College of the West Indies, in Jamaica*, I earned the MB, BS (MD) certification from London University (England) in 1964. After internship in Kingston, I joined my father, G. Valentine Harry, FRCS (Edinburgh), as the sole assistant at his 164 Bed Hospital in Port Maria, Jamaica. Following that, I became the sole MD for a 65-bed hospital at Ulster Spring (pop. 4,000), in the “cockpit country”, in Jamaica.
There were no other MDs in the area, so the experience was “interesting” and professionally satisfying: however I soon received notification from the UWI, that I had been accepted for training in surgery:
In 1967, I returned to the UWI Hospital, intending to study for a British surgical degree, but revised my plans in 1968 and relocated instead to the U. of Toronto, for training in Urology. In “first year, as a designated research assistant, I won the Canadian Urological Association research prize (1972) – thanks, in large part, to my mentor, Dr Gerald Ranking.
Returning to Jamaica in 1974, I spent 2 years as the sole Urologist for the Montego Bay area (population 600,000). Professionally, I was “in heaven”; but social factors beyond my control led me back to Toronto in 1976.
After 20 years of freelance practice in urology, based at the Doctors Hospital and (also) operating at the Wellesley and Central hospitals, in Toronto, my career was effectively terminated by the golf instructor Michael Harris, then premier of Ontario, who included my 3 workplaces in a province-wide, “money-saving” closure of small hospitals, in 1997.
So my wife, two sons and I relocated to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with me as chief of Urology for the Northwest Armed Forces teaching hospital in Tabuk, in North-West KSA and my wife as an operating room nurse (later, manager of the endoscopy unit).
My duties in Tabuk were supervision and instruction of Dr. Mahmoud Zakaria, a highly professional, excellent senior resident with superb diagnostic and surgical skills, plus two junior residents. Collectively, we provided consultation and surgery for Urological diseases and presentation of unusual cases, to the medical/surgical staff.
My time in KSA was worthwhile and enjoyable, but not as hectic as the Toronto practice had been, so I had time to write the first 200 pages of my science fiction opus, “XCRATH”.
Returning to Ontario in Y2000, I quit Urology and joined a family practice in Etobicoke, rather than opening a new surgical practice at the age of 60 years.
Bio-Identical Hormone Restoration in Family Practice
In 2006, I became aware of the progressive loss of DHEA production which begins at age 26 in both male and female humans. After studying DHEA, including experimentation by taking it myself, I began to prescribe DHEA and then progressed to bioidentical Estrogen and Progesterone, for some of my patients, in 2006.
In 2012, I became a member of the American Academy of Antiaging Medicine (A4M) and started their two-year course of study. I wrote their examination successfully in December of 2013 and began a Bioidentical Hormone Restoration Therapy (BIHRT) practice in December, 2014: at about that time, I became aware that a major part of our “aging” symptoms are the result of combined DHEA, Progesterone and Thyroid Hormone insufficiency.
Vindication, by observation, of the imortance of DHEA
The majority of my patients benefited from hormone balancing, so in October of 2015, I stopped accepting new family practice patients and concentrated on BIHRT, utilising DHEA & Pregnenolone supplementation for all, estrogen and progesterone for my menopausal patients and desiccated thyroid, or thyroid 3 hormone, for thyroid insufficiency.
In May, 2016, I passed the A4M’s oral examination, receiving their “ABAARM” certification as a BIHRT/ Metabolic Mesicine consultant
In January of 2017 I relocated from the West Etobicoke Medical Centre, to the Stone Tree Naturopathic Clinic, in Collingwood, Ontario.
Specialising in BIHRT
MY PRACTICE, from 2015 TO July 2021, was dedicated to consultation in Functional and Metabolic Medicine, including management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Andropause, Menopause, Depression with or without Panic Attacks, the “Troubled Teen”, Thyroid Hormone Malfunction, Failed Treatment of Hypothyroidism, Infertility, Sexual Dysfunction and “the Undiagnosable”.
I RETIRED in 2021
I retired from medical practice in July of 2021 and cancelled my medical license. However it seems wasteful to jettison my learning and experience. Particularly, since the medical establishment disregards and ignores the hormonal aspect of human metabolic function, I feel obliged to offer my knowledge to anyone who wishes to read my blog, in the interest of helping those who think outside the box.
JUST TO REMIND YOU
My Qualifications:
MB, BS (MD), London, via the University of the West Indies, 1964,
LMCC (Canadian medical license exam), 1969,
FRCSC (Urology), via University of Toronto, 1974,
ECFMG 1984 …… Florida license 1998 [inactive],
ABAARM Certification [A4M], 2016.
My memberships: OMA/CMA, RCP&S, SUSO, CUA and CSAMM [Canadian Society of Aging and Metabolic Medicine].
Florida license, 1999: never utilised.
My website
I started a website in August, 2020, to provide background information regarding hormone deficiency and its management, but my efforts were un-remunerated and the costs were significant, for a retired Canadian MD. So in December 2023, I began my journey on SUBSTACK: new posts go into SUBSTACK only and most of the old ones have been transferred.
If you wish to see the website, “go” to cbhrt.ca.
CAVEAT
The “flavour” of this blog, its content and the opinions expressed are my own.
At times, my attitude and opinion differ from those of official, mainstream, allopathic medicine, since they are based on “extracurricular” knowledge and my experience of 18 years, in the practice of hormone assessment and restoration. Therefore, much of the information offered in my posts may be rejected by family doctors (the link goes to a post, which explains why doctors don’t innovate), who are constrained by the official “guidelines” set by the medical establishment.
Should there be conflict between my opinions and those of your family doctor, please accept the family doctor’s advice, but seek a second opinion from a metabolic medicine (functional medicine) professional *.
* (1) Click this link to see an explanation of Functional (or “Metabolic”) medicine. The page to which it leads explains it well. Note: the page is provided by the IFM, but the link does not constitute a preference for the IFM’s professional certification, compared to those of the A4M or other metabolic medicine training organizations.
(2) For a further explanation of functional medicine, click here.
I must emphasise:
I provide functional medicine and hormone balancing information via my blog and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. However having cancelled my medical license, I am no longer legally entitled to order tests, diagnose your problem officially, give my opinion regarding diagnosis, or prescribe medicines.
Therefore, armed with the information you glean from these pages, you should consult with both your family doctor and a “Functional”, or “Metabolic”, medicine practitioner (a medical doctor, certified as a specialist by the A4M, the IFM, or other accredited “functional” or metabolic medicine organization), for diagnosis and ongoing treatment (by all means, if you consider it advantageous and if you are sure that our MD if calm enough to accept it, you may print any of my posts, to show the origin of your “odd ideas” to your MD.