Melinda Beck’s “Health Journal” column in today’s Wall Street Journal focuses on “The 7 Things You Should Know About Hormones.“ She tries to clarify the debate over bio-identical hormone replacement therapy by offering 7 facts about bio-identicals, some of which are, well, debatable such as: don’t trust saliva tests, and hormones from compounding pharmacies aren’t safer than conventional HRT. I don’t know if those statements are true, but I do know that there is still principled debate on both sides.
Melinda Beck quotes a physician-spokeswoman representing the Endocrine Society who weighs in against bio-identicals: “women may be putting themselves at much higher levels of risk.” I wish Ms. Beck would have pointed out that Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Premarin and Prempro, (the most widely prescribed hormones until the WHI study was prematurely stopped), is a Corporate Liaison Board member of The Endocrine Society and was a “Leadership Donor” in 2002, according to Compounding Facts.Org (written by an organization of compounding pharmacists).
That doesn’t negate the spokesperson’s statement. A connection with Wyeth just colors the debate and makes us wonder, don’t you think?
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After using hormone replacement for sixteen years and knowing nothing about Premarin when I was put on it a 37 the year following a uterine hysterectomy because my body was going through monthly changes that made me look like I was in early pregnancy and deteriorating moods swings and then being taken off after six years because my doctor was concerned because I was still producing my own hormones, I have a lot to say on this topic.
There is a very big difference between Premarin and Estradiol patches. After being taken off Premarin my life spun out of control, though I discovered it was helping me with hot flashes and night sweats, and when taken off I had really difficult short term memory problems, it did very little to help me with my mood swings. After being taken off the Premarin, I sought out help from reproductive endocrinologists. After four referrals, I ended up at the fertility clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston where I live. My doctor told me that if you increase the estrogen it prevents the erratic ovulation which occurs during perimenopause, I was 44 at this time. She gave me the option of either taking birth control pills or the patches. I had never been able to use birth control pills so I opted for the patches. Two days after using the estraderm patches, which are natural estradiol, my life changed dramatically. You see I suddenly felt as good as I did when I was pregnant with my son. I cried because I had gone through so much trying to get help for my symptoms that I knew were related to hormone imbalances but I was written off by many physicians. I forgot to mention neither of my doctors who prescribed the hormones did blood work. The only doctor who did blood work was the one who took me off the Premarin.
I decided at 54 to stopped using the patches because I felt they were preventing me from getting into menopause. The night sweat returned when I stopped the patches but my doctor told me that they probably would subside. One thing that happened really surprised me. A few months after stopping the patches the cysts that I had in my breasts from the time I got my period at 13 disappeared. Eight months after I stopped the patches, I went for my yearly check up. The doctor found something which lead to tests and I ended up at a reproductive oncologists office discussing the removal of an ovary that had a bad cyst on it. I was stunned because there has been no cancer in the women in my family. I ended up loosing my ovaries. They say I had a type of ovarian cancer which rarely returns. I’m not so sure they were not overly cautious by removing my ovaries. I knew by using hormone replacement I was at a higher risk of breast cancer because of all the news related to this topic. I could not function without those patches and since there had been no cancer in my family I felt I was not at risk. So in the end, knowing that I had estrogen dominance since puberty, that’s a whole story in itself, having the proper dose of all my hormones including estradiol may have prevented what happened. I am currently having night sweats again, short term memory isssues, I gained 15 lbs right after my ovaries were removed which I am having a hell of time loosing. I made an appointment with my new primary physician, the one I really liked moved, I asked to have my thyroid and hormone levels taken and requested I get a copy of the tests. She did not want to do the hormone testes stating they really don’t do that on post menopausal women. I know by reading the tests that my thyroid is low but in the range for the mice they did the tests on to determine the range women are in for hormone imbalances and my estradiol levels is also very low but considered to be in the normal range for a post menopausal woman.
So here I go again but this time I am going to seek out a ND. I am sick and tried of dealing with doctors who have not been trained to understand symptoms when it comes to address hormone related issues. I certainly think that too much estrogen may have lead to the ovarian cancer issue that may or may not have been. So my take on all of this is compounding hormones, in my estimation, can prevent having too much of any of the reproductive hormones. Remember birth control pills are synthetic hormones and it’s well known they can cause breast cancer lead to stokes and many other conditions but no one questions why they are still on the market. I, for one, want my hormones back but this time they need to be in the proper dose. This fight could take on a whole different perspective if Pfzier, a giant in the drug business, ends up buying Wyeth which seems to be most likely.
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