Monday, February 09, 2009
A new study in last Wednesday's New England Journal of Medicine offers both good and bad news to women suffering from the effects of menopause.
First, the bad news. New evidence from the massive Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, completed in 2002, indicates that women double their risk ...
Has anyone read books by Suzane Somers regarding bio-identical hormones,
Estroen, Progesterone, Testerone, HGH, Melatonin, etc. She also had a bout with
cancer and is now feeling great and taking these hormones formulated just for her
body. She looks great and was on Oprah several weeks ago with Dr. Christiane Northrop. I am in the process of reading, "Ageless," before I read her new best
seller, "Breakthrough." My treatments for breast cancer, incl. chemo & radiation which took up the entire last year of my life; I had a clean Mammogram last Nov. and want
to feel good and get on with my life. In the book, she interviews 15 doctors and it's
very interesting what they say. When I go on Medicare in April this year, I'm going to
have my hormone levels checked to see what I am low on and what can be done
about it. I just wondered if any other cancer survivors have taken bio-identical
hormones and whether they have had positive experiences with them. Like I said,
I am just now getting over "coming off treatment" and trying to develop a totally healthy body, mind and spirit. And for those of you out there just starting treatment or are still in the process, there is life after -- I can promise you. And I am just so
appreciative and grateful for the life that I have --just checking to see how I can
make it better. In case I didn't tell you, I am post-menopausal. Would appreciate
any comments....
Take care,
Ulli
Hi Ulli - From the research I've done, most reputable sources discount Suzanne Somers and her espousal of bioidentical hormones; from what I understand, they're no more (nor less) effective than standard hormone therapy. I tend to rely on sources such as the Mayo Clinic, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, etc.
Good luck going forward. Sounds like you have a GREAT attitude. Be well! PJH
I am a PhD in molecular endocrinology with over a decade of research experience in reproductive hormones. Further, I am a woman who has taken esterified estrogen for almost 20 years. I have had normal mammograms.
There are several reasons the Prempro research including the WHI results may not be accurate for all estrogen replacement regimens.
First, Prempro and Premarin are both isolated from pregnant mare (horse) urine. Extensive, published analyses show that horse estrogens are NOT the same as estrogens produce in humans. Indeed, some horse estrogens may even block the human estrogen receptor (the cell membrane protein that enables response to estrogens)
Second, when estrogens are combined with a progestin (i.e. as in Prempro) it is likely the estrogen does not have a full effect. This is because the progestin component causes the cells that make up organs of the body to stop making the estrogen receptor protein.
Third, the progestin used in Prempro is medroxyprogesterone. This progestin causes heart vessels to constrict in non-human primate animal models.
Before I believe hormone replacement (estrogen and progestin, not to mention testosterone) causes heart disease or breast cancer or an increase in death from breast cancer, I would like to see studies using esterified estrogen and with progestin added for only five days like with the normal cycle before menopause.
Thanks for your informed input here. I'd be surprised, however, if the studies you mentioned haven't indeed been done - considering the breadth of the WHI data, as well as drug manufacturers who'd surely want to prove that their HRT was safe... PJH
Bioidentical hormones would be at least the same as esterified estrogen.
The reasons WHI studies were only done with isolated horse estrogens is that
1. Wyeth (the company that produced Prempro and Premarin) holds the exclusive method to isolated these equine estrogens.
2. Such big studies are done with many "connections" between the funding entity for the study.
3. Because of Wyeth's very effective marketing of their products, Premarin and Prempro were the most frequently prescribed HRT.
4. Bioidentical and esterified estrogens have no patent rights only their method of delivery (e.g. patches that deliver 17-beta estradiol transdermaly) can be patented and therefore highly profitable.
5. To my knowledge there have been no large studies of human women using bioidentical or other more natural to human forms of estrogen.
I find it very interesting that even in the Journal of the American Medical Association they sometimes discuss summaries of the subgroup studies as strictly estrogen progestin and do not specifically mention that this is Prempro or Premarin. Again, there were several subgroup studies and follow ups of the WHI participants (e.g. women taking Premarin alone with no progestin because they did not have a uterus and did not need to take the progestin component) but none of these were with bioidentical or esterified estrogens.
Have the companies behind bioidenticals funded any studies regarding their effect on breast cancer incidence, and are those studies available to the public? PJH