In the News

Not too long ago, a friend of mine told me that her puppies (PUPPIES!) went into heat, apparently as a result of their being exposed to the topical hormone cream that she was using on her lower arms.  It seemed odd to me and not worth writing about since, after all, how often does THAT happen?  Well, just over a week ago, the FDA issued a statement warning users of Evamist that this spray-on menopause treatment could indeed harm pets and children if they come in direct contact with it. Evamist contains estradiol, an estrogen hormone. It’s sprayed on the inside of the lower arm and is used to treat menopause-related hot flashes.  Since it was approved three years ago, the FDA has received eight reports of “adverse events” in children aged 3 to 5 who were unintentionally exposed to the drug. They define “adverse events” as premature puberty, nipple swelling and breast development in females and breast enlargement in males. Eight reports isn’t exactly a crisis, but I bet there are more unreported incidents of these “events” that cause a lot of worry, doctors appointments and unnecessary medical tests. [click to continue...]

Add broken bones to the list of possible side effects of the popular Osteoporosis drug, Fosamax, which millions of women take to prevent bone fractures and bone loss associated with menopause.  There have already been warnings that bisphosphonate drugs, including Actonel, Reclast and Boniva, can cause severe musculoskeletal pain and a serious bone-related jaw disease called osteonecrosis. There were even concerns in 2008 about related heart problems.

ABC News reported  earlier this week that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been aware of reports of spontaneous fractures, but did not inform the public or doctors who prescribe bisphosphonates of the possible side effect.  An FDA spokesman explained to ABC News that they didn’t think it was necessary at this time.  However, today, the FDA announced  that it will indeed investigate the possibility of a link between long-term use of osteoporosis drugs and thigh bone fractures though, “at this point, the data that FDA has reviewed have not shown a clear connection between bisphosphonate use and a risk of atypical subtrochanteric femur fractures,” the statement said. [click to continue...]

News came today that an appeals court has upheld a jury’s finding last year that Wyeth’s hormone-replacement drugs helped cause an Arkansas woman’s breast cancer.  At stake was $27 million in actual damages, an amount that was upheld by the three-judge panel.

The appeals court said “the evidence presented could allow a jury to find or infer that Wyeth was guilty of malicious conduct.”  According to the news report, Pfizer’s lawyers argued that the plaintiff received ample warning about the cancer risks tied to the company’s Prempro and Premarin drugs and chose to continue using them.

The ruling comes a week after a Philadelphia jury ordered Wyeth to pay an undisclosed amount of punitive damages to an Illinois woman who developed breast cancer after taking Prempro.   Six million women have taken Wyeth’s hormone therapy drugs for severe menopause symptoms and there are more than 9,000 lawsuits against the company. The menopause drugs are still on the market and many physicians continue to recommend and prescribe them to their patients.You can read the court’s summary of the case here.

Exercise makes women around the time of menopause feel better, even when they don’t lose weight and even when they devote less time to it than is generally recommended. That’s what researchers concluded at the end of a six-month  controlled study that measured the effect of 50 percent, 100 percent and 150 percent of the physical activity recommendation on 430 sedentary postmenopausal women.

“Our results indicate that improved quality of life can be added to the list of exercise benefits and that these improvements are dose dependent and independent of weight loss, at least among people similar to this study’s sample,” Corby K. Martin, PhD, from Louisiana State University System, in Baton Rouge, and colleagues write.

The study was published in Archives of Internal Medicine, a bi-weekly, international peer-reviewed journal.

There’s news this week about a new, hormone-free treatment for menopause-related hot flashes and night sweats.  It’s called Pristiq, and it was originally approved by the FDA last year as a remedy for depression.  The agency just gave the green light to Wyeth, the drugmaker, to also market it as a safe solution for women experiencing moderate to severe hot flashes.  Is this welcome news? I decided to “double-click” on this story to see if this falls under the category of “it’s too good to be true.” [click to continue...]

As someone who swallows six multi-vitamin tabs every day, I was dismayed to read that “Multivitamin Use May Offer No Benefit in Postmenopausal Women,” the headline of a report that was published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine.  Does that mean everyone, myself included, should stop taking a multi-vitamin? [click to continue...]

The sudden decline in breast cancer after 2002 can be attributed to women stopping hormone therapy following the Womens Health Initiative study, according to the findings of a new study that was published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. [click to continue...]

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. [click to continue...]

The first global summit of  40 “menopause experts” convened last week to review the current evidence, risks and benefits of using hormone replacement therapy for women in early menopause. They concluded that HRT is indeed safe for healthy women entering menopause, despite what the 2002 government-sponsored WHI study showed.  They went so far to state that women should “have no fears” about its use.”  I don’t know about you, but I find that statement quite startling in light of all the research that has concluded that HRT poses a number of significant health risks.  [click to continue...]