I would beg to differ, speaking only for myself, of course. You may all remember, that I started out with pharmas, as PM was unknown to me at the time. I figure that over the last 3 and 1/4 years, allowing for breaks such as when my mother passed this June, and my father in July, that I've spent about 18 months on pharmas, and 8-9 months on PM. PM has been most helpful to me in the filling out process, and added 3/4-1 inch overall, though that may have eventually occurred with the Progynon Depot I was using prior to PM. When I switched, it was a matter of curiousity as much as safety, as I, myself, had experienced no ill effects with the chems, although my T levels dropped off the chart. While I have not, and will not, recommend my course to anyone else, it does demonstrate that chems do work faster. And I spent some time in the beginning with weaker pharmas. As with those starting PM, once I determined estrogen was not going to cause problems, I got more serious.
That said, we are all different. In more ways than one. If we weren't, we wouldn't be here, either. Patti