Conjugated Hormones – “It’s Natural for Horses, Not Women,” says Dr. Steven Brody

I recently attended The Scripps Conference on Natural Supplements in beautiful La Jolla, CA where I listened to a presentation on bio-identical hormone therapy in menopause by Dr. Steven Brody, a gynecologist and assistant clinical professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Dr. Brody’s time slot coincided with another, equally compelling presentation on “Chocolate and Tea: A Scientific Overview and Tasting Demonstration.”  It was a tough call, I admit, yet he drew a full house of mostly female physicians and nurses.  And when the hour was up, no one would let him go. His discussion continued outside the presentation room, as a sea of women, notebooks in hand, peppered him with more questions.  He was still holding court at lunch the next day as more conference attendees (perhaps the ones who chose chocolate over his presentation) pulled up their chairs to join him at his table. Despite all the research, articles, FDA actions, dueling press releases and Oprah shows, there is still a lot of confusion about bio-identical hormones, and an urgent need for unbiased information.

In Dr. Brody’s opinion, conjugated hormones – namely Premarin, which consists of about six different conjugated estrogens derived from the urine of pregnant mares, is “one of the worst offenders for woman’s health in the last 50-100 years.  It’s natural for horses, not for women,” he said.

Dr. Brody was trained at Yale and Stanford Universities, where he said he was taught the “party line” about hormones.  Like other gynecologists of this time, he too prescribed synthetic hormones as a cure-all for hot flashes, heart diseases, osteoporosis and memory loss.  “It was said to be free of serious side effects,” he explained.

In a conversation with Dr. Brody the following day, he described to me his own “moment of “revelation” about conjugated hormones around 1990, when he gave a lecture in Europe to a group of accomplished clinicians.  Prior to 2002, over 20 million menopausal women had been treated with traditional HRT in the U.S.  At the same time, different approaches were being used by doctors in Europe, South America and Asia.  “I learned what their impressions, attitudes and experiences were with conjugated estrogens and I was absolutely flabbergasted!  We were saying they were helpful, safe and good for women.  They thought it was ‘insane and dangerous’ for doctors to be prescribing these drugs. It wasn’t even a close call.”

Since then Dr. Brody has been recommending instead bio-identical hormone therapy for his patients who need relief from menopausal symptoms.  However, he points out that “like any compound, if you use it improperly, you can harm someone. If used properly, there are a myriad of benefits.” Such as?

• Eliminates hot flashes
• Improves mood and concentration
• Improves vitality
• Decreases wrinkles
• Maintains skin collagen
• Improves fine motor skills
• Increases sexual interest
• Decreases memory lapses
• Reduces heart risks
• Reduces painful intercourse
• Reduces night sweats

Add bone health to this list as well. “Estrogen is for the prevention – not treatment- of osteoporosis in early post-menopausal women,” he explained.

Dr. Brody’s presentation also covered bio-identical progesterone, “which should always be used if the uterus is intact. Natural progesterone improves sleep, breathing, blood pressure, mood and fat metabolism,” he explained.  He recommended using natural, micronized progesterone or transdermally with a topical gel or cream.

On the topic of bio-identical testosterone, Dr. Brody told the audience that it “may improve well being,  increase sexual interest, and should be used topically, either added to the estrogen gel or used separately.”

Finally, Dr Brody said that many women will experience benefits from taking bio-identical DHEA, an adrenal androgen, which declines with age and is a precursor to estrogen and testosterone.  “It can enhance immune function, improve sleep and well being, and increase lean body mass.”

Have bio-identical hormones helped you? I’d love to hear your stories.

* Lower photo by Bob Ross for Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine

Update (2/16) :

In Dr. Randolph’s Hormone Well newsletter this week, Genie James, Executive Director of The Natural Hormone Institute of America and co-author of From Hormone Hell to Hormone Well, explains why, in her view, synthetic hormones continue to be actively marketed by the pharmaceutical companies.

“Sales of synthetic hormones is a multi-billion dollar business for pharmaceutical companies. Despite the fact that the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study established beyond a shadow of a doubt the harmful and sometimes lethal side effects linked to synthetic hormone use, the Rx industry is financially vested in continuing to brainwash doctors that there is no medically-proven option for treating women desperate for relief from hot flashes, night sweats and hormone-related weight gain, migraines and low libido. This is dead wrong thinking and it continues to put women’s lives at risk.”

Ms. James also explains why she thinks bio-identical hormones are a safer alternative:

“In order to be patented, the molecular structure of synthetic hormone drugs has to be different from the molecular structure of the hormones produced by the ovaries or testes. At a cellular level, that difference causes a chain reaction that can lead to side effects from weight gain and depression to cancer and heart attack. In contrast, bio-identical hormones have EXACTLY THE SAME molecular structure as the hormones produced by the human body. They do not trigger side effects because the body recognizes and receives them without hesitation.”

You can read the entire Hormone Well newsletter by visiting their website.