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| | The Let Your Sunshine In Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Is Hormon Replacement Safe? | Views: 591 | | Oct 09, 2005 8:54 am | | Is Hormon Replacement Safe? | # | 
Nita Lopez | | It's official. Synthetic, not-natural-to-the-body hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is no longer considered 'safe' when used long term, and perhaps increases the risk of cancer and heart disease. Links of HRT to breast cancer, stroke and other diseases has caused widespread panic to women on some form of HRT. Back in mid 2002, a US study on the risks of combined estrogen-progestin was called off because of fears for its participants. The trial was cut short after five years because it was found one in 100 women taking the HRT combination suffered health consequences, including breast cancer and heart disease. The US findings could have legal implications for the manufacturers of HRT drugs. After years of promotional messages about the benefits of HRT, the results from the recent Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) have come as a surprise to patients and health care providers alike, leaving them and us with more questions than answers. Clearly the conclusions of this study are disconcerting and leave women with a decision that feels no more certain than a roll of the dice. There is no question that an increased number of HRT-supplemented women in the study experienced coronary heart disease, strokes, pulmonary embolism, and breast cancer. Additional studies such as the Heart and Estrogen / Progestin Replacement Study Follow-up (HERS II) corroborate these findings, demonstrating that cardiovascular risk occurs primarily in the first year of treatment. It is important to bear in mind that the WHI trial tested only one drug regimen — a combination of conjugated equine estrogens (CEE), and medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), a synthetic progestin. The study’s results do not necessarily apply to the more bio-identical hormones, including estriol, estradiol, and micronized progesterone, which appear to have less adverse impact on health, particularly in breast cancer and vascular disease. Twelve months on, it's August 2003, and results of the Million Women Study - an unprecedented study of the medical histories of nearly 1.1m British women who were cancer-free as they entered the national screening programme - revealed that those on some types of HRT were twice as likely to develop breast cancer as those who had not used it. Certainly, we are feeling like we have been treated like guinea pigs because HRT has been widely promoted as a safe panacea to the uncomfortable symptoms of menopause. Now we're finding that sometimes it is not safe at all. Why weren’t these products tested more thoroughly before they were prescribed so broadly and why weren’t we told of the possible risks earlier? Women around the globe and those who subscribe to this Network seek to break the bonds of limited choices in HRT and replace them with the freedom to be treated individually and more safely. A spokesman for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (the makers of Prempro, the brand name for estrogen-progestin) told the Associated Press that hormone therapy remains "an appropriate therapy when used at the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time." Is that an absolute gem of drug company double-speak? That's about as close as you can get to saying, "Stop using it." Which may be the best advice for the 3 million U.S. women who still are.
HERE'S TO OUR HEALTH
Nita Lopez
http://www.ineways.com/forahealthierlife
http://letyoursunshinein-network.ryze.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Naturals-FAHL
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