in this issue

• Wall Street Journal Publishes Article Citing Potential Health Benefits of Bio-identical Hormone Replacement
• The WSJ Turns a Corner and Finds Biodentical Hormones That Have Always Been There
• YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee

On March 11th, the Wall Street Journal finally published an article citing the potential health benefits of bio-identical hormone replacement (see Melinda Beck’s blog introduction).

Welcome to the Health forum.

This week, I wrote about the bewildering variety of hormone-replacement products that are available for women, from Premarin, which has been on the market since 1942, to newer rivals to the "bio-identical" versions made by compounding pharmacies, which have been the subject of a recent FDA crackdown.

How do you make sense of the conflicting information on hormone replacement? Have you had a good or a bad experience on hormone replacement therapy? Finally, what's your take on "bio-identical" hormones? Is the FDA crackdown warranted?

Melinda Beck
The Wall Street Journal

I immediately “blogged on” and shared my thoughts (see below).  This is such an important issue that we need your help in getting the word out about. 

Genie James, M.M.Sc. response:
Thank you for your article. The confusion surrounding hormone replacement options has been rampant since the 2002 release of the Women's Health Initiative data linking synthetic hormones (chemically altered hormones such as Premarin and Prempro) to an increased risk of breast & uterine cancers, heart attack, stroke and even Alzheimer's disease. This is a sad example of how, when pharmaceutical marketing gets ahead of medical science, the health of women and men suffer. Thank heavens 50% of women on those dangerous drugs made the decision to come off them when the read the results of the study in newspapers like yours.

The good news is that there is now solid statistical data substantiating a decline in breast rates due to a decrease in the # of prescriptions for synthetic hormones. The bad news is that a recent study released by the JAMA indicated that women who had taken synthetic hormones were still at a greater risk for developing breast cancer three years after they had ceased taking their prescriptions.

What is also most significant - and deserves more scrutiny - is that the # of prescriptions for bio-identical hormones has increased during this same time frame. As Dr. Dach indicated in a previous entry, there are clinical studies validating the safety and efficacy of bio-identical hormone therapies. Bio-identical progesterone has even been shown to be cancer-protective.

Please take a moment and visit to also share your experiences with bio-identical hormone replacement. 

Thank you. 

C.W. Randolph, Jr., M.D. and Genie James, M.M.Sc.
Medical Director                    Executive Director
The Natural Hormone Institute of America

Dr. Randolph is a practicing gynecologist and an internationally recognized expert in the field of in bio-identical hormone replacement. He is the Medical Director for the The Natural Hormone Institute of America and is also the author of From Hormone Hell to Hormone Well as well as From Belly Fat to Belly Flat (to be released in January ’08).

* Please Note: Because legally we are unable to provide prescriptions for telephone consultation patients unless they have been previously seen in my office, should you require a prescription for a more comprehensive panel of bio-identical hormone replacement, my nurse practitioner will advise you how to locate a physician and compounding pharmacy in your area.