| |
|
 |
 |
|
The risks associated with hormonal replacement therapy
Headlines have been filled over the last few years with report after report of negative effects of Hormone Replacement. It is important to know that all these reports have come from studies using synthetic or non-native versions of human hormones. The portion of the Women’s Health Initiative study released in 2002 was done on the product Prempro®, which is a combination of horse urine estrogen and a synthetic progestin, medroxyprogesterone. Instead of reduced incidences of heart disease, breast cancer, and strokes, there was a large increase in these problems. Doctors and drug companies had to finally admit that all these benefits they had assumed were available from HRT were not there. The reason they had assumed these benefits occurred in the first place was because of the effects of the bio-identical hormones when the body normally produced them. We already knew that when the balance of hormones is correct in youth, there is protection against breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and blood clots which disappears when the balance is disrupted later in life. The negative effects of HRT occurred because the drug companies developed molecules which were not identical to what the body had been producing. Because they were not identical, there were unintended side effects and a lack of the usual effects of the bio-identical forms of the hormones.
Some of the other effects of HRT include:
Women who take estrogen alone and still have their uterus can develop a building-up of the lining of the uterus which is known to be a pre-cancerous condition.
Women who take estrogen (alone) for at least 6 years have a 40% increase in developing a fatal ovarian cancer, and this risk increases 70% if taken for at least 11 years.
Estrogen replacement has been also linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, and certain types of estrogen can make breast cancer worse. There is one form of estrogen that seems to offer protection against breast cancer. That is estriol, and it has never been shown to cause breast cancer or make breast cancers grow. Estriol has even been given to patients who had breast cancer with beneficial results. |
|
 |
|
 |
| Previos |
|
Next |
|
