FEMALE HORMONE REPLACEMENT

Bioidentical Hormone therapy advice
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Estrogen lowers breast cancer death rate
Breast Cancer Survival up with subsequent HRT
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Estradiol longevity and cardiovascular disease
Taxoxifen is not worth side effects
Estrogens provents hardening of the arteries thus cardiovascular disease
Metabolite of estrogen is neuroprotective
Setting the record straight with journal articles on HRT
HRT for Postmenopausal Women, and PhARMA Profits First
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HRT Studies, much fewer heart attacks, etc.
Breast-Firmer-HRT
Cholesterol profile improved by Estradiol
Cognitive functions improved
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healther skin with HRT
Bioidentical Hormone therapy advice
HRT benefits journals
Choice of progestagen component in HRT affects incidence of Breast cancer
HRT & Heart Benefits--etc.
22% muscle loss prevented with testosterone
Arthritis effective treatment HRT
Testosterone, Sex Drive, Feeling Better, etc--Mayo Clinic
Testosterone increases sexual drive
Testosterone improves sexual desire and sex
FDA Article on Menopause and HRT
Bioidentical Hormone therapy advice
Prempro settlement $330M
alcohol and higher estradiol and testosterone levels in postmenopausal women

Quite disappointing this site fails admit to the folly of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) and the error applying results for Prempro and Premarin to all forms of HRT and ERT (which is widely criticized), see http://healthfully.org/fhr/id2.html.  (I have emailed them concerning this error on 12/10/12).  However, their warning about low dose plant estrogens is appropriate.  This warning is quite appropriate for the salubrious effects of HRT will not be fully obtained if the dose is too low.  For example, estriol has only 1/80th the bio-activity of estradiol—see http://healthfully.org/fhr/id2.html.  Moreover, "natural progesterone" products derived from yams do not require a prescription, but there is no evidence that the human body can convert its active ingredient (diosgenin, the plant steroid that is chemically converted to produce progesterone industrially[16]) into progesterone[48][49] Wikipedia.  Sometimes “bioidentical” is used to mean naturally found in the human body, and not the source.  This is good science, since a molecule is a molecule.  If taking HRT check the dose.  Best formula would be 4 mgs of estradiol, 100 mgs of progesterone, and 10 mgs of testosterone (to prevent loss of muscle mass) as a topical lotion. 

http://www.worstpills.org/member/newsletter.cfm?n_id=710

Beware: Bioidentical Hormones

     Worst Pills Best Pills Newsletter article September, 2010

It is now widely accepted that prescription estrogens such as conjugated estrogens (PREMARIN) and conjugated estrogens with me­droxyprogesterone (PREEMPHASE, PREMPRO) cause breast cancer, heart disease and many other serious health problems.

Therefore, exploitative dietary supplement makers — often com­pounding pharmacists not regulated by the Food and Drug Administra­tion (FDA) — have introduced and heavily marketed so-called bioidenti­cal, “natural” hormone preparations that contain plant-based estrogens derived from soy or yams. These sup­plement makers attempt to fool the public into thinking these hormones are better and safer than prescription estrogens.

None of these supplements have been approved by the FDA, and according to the widely respected journal Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics, these products are “chemically modified to be structur­ally identical to endogenous [natural­ly occurring] hormones. Most FDA-approved single-entity hormones are also [natural] derivatives of soy or plants extracts and are structurally identical to hormones produced by the ovary.”

The May 31, 2010, issue of Medi­cal Letter contained a table (Table 1) describing the content and origin of several of these popular products:

According to the Medical Letter, “The FDA has reported sub-potency, super-potency and contamination of pharmacy-compounded drugs. In one 2006 survey, their potency ranged from 67.5 percent to 268.4 percent of the amount specified on the label­ing, and both sub- and super-potent active ingredients were found within the same sample.”

It goes on to say that:

Bioidentical products that contain progesterone, testosterone and estrogen can be expected to have the same adverse effects that con­ventional preparations have. Most bioidentical hormone preparations contain estriol … No drug product containing estriol has been ap­proved by the FDA and the safety and effectiveness of supplemental estriol is unclear. Endometrial cancer associated with bioidenti­cal hormone therapy has been reported.

The appropriately strong conclu­sion of this matter is that “there is no acceptable evidence that ‘bioidenti­cal’ hormones are safe or effective. Patients should be discouraged from taking them.” We strongly agree.

What You Can Do

Aside from avoiding bioidentical hormones for reasons stated above, even FDA-approved prescription estrogens should be used at the lowest effective dose and for the shortest duration consistent with treatment goals. This is because these products increase the risk of breast cancer, car­diovascular disease and dementia.

There is no question that an epidemic of breast cancer in women, now abating somewhat, was caused by several decades of massive use of estrogen-containing products (that has now decreased significantly).

Table 1. Some Preparations of Bioidentical Hormones

Drug

Source

Route of Delivery

Estriol
100% estriol

Soy

Oral, transdermal, sublingual and vaginal

Biest (biestrogen)
20% estradiol
80% estriol

Soy

Oral, transdermal, sublingual and vaginal

Triest (triestrogen)
10% estrone
10% estradiol
80% estriol

Soy

Oral, transdermal, sublingual and vaginal

Progesterone

Soy or Yams

Oral, transdermal, sublingual, vaginal and injectable

Testosterone

Soy

Oral, transdermal, sublingual, vaginal and injectable

 

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