Myths of Hormone Replacement Therapy

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Myths of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
By: Dr. Loretta Lanphier, ND, CN, HHP

You’ve heard about HRT and maybe even natural HRT, but you’re not sure what the difference is, or why you are not told more about the differences. You are not alone. Women have been made to believe that hot flashes are the worse thing a woman can experience during her life. Let's realize that a woman can get through hot flashes. What she may not get through are the side effects of conventional HRT.

History of HRT

In 1938, Charles Dobbs discovered diethylstilbestrol (DES), supposedly the first synthetic estrogen. Dobbs thought DES would solve the problems of menopause but the AMA immediately began to make extravagant predictions that it would prevent miscarriages and solve all problems of pregnancy as well. It was prescribed as a “safe pregnancy” drug to prevent miscarriages. But by 1960, the number of DES daughters having sex organ issues was up to 60 to 90% of all infertility problems, miscarriages, and cervical cancer. Breast cancer in the mothers had increased by 40%.

Next there was Robert Wilson’s “Feminine Forever” thesis that menopause was an estrogen deficient disease. Insufficient estrogen was proposed as the cause of all menopause symptoms. The drug industry immediately donated $1.3 million to set up the Wilson Foundation for the sole purpose of developing and promoting estrogen drugs based upon pregnant horse’s urine. Resulting drug company funded studies were cited as inconclusive, or skewed results were reported. Negatives were swept under the carpet as irrelevant.

In 1975 the New England Journal of Medicine published findings after studying endrometrial cancer. Women who took estrogen had increased their risk of endrometrial cancer by five times, even up to 14 times if they had used the drugs for seven years. However it was found that if synthetic progesterone (called progestins) were added to the estrogens the risk of this cancer would be reduced. This new product was promoted by changing the name from Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) to HRT. In the same year, the American Cancer Society of 240,000 found a close relationship between HRT and cancer. This study was generally ignored.

As the HRT industry gained strength, unsupported claims that it prevented osteoporosis and heart disease arose. But side effects of HRT were beginning to become a bigger problem than the menopause symptoms they were to solve. Now occurring was; migraines, increased clotting, high stroke risk, mood swings, disrupted copper/zinc ratios in the brain, fibroids, endometriosis, and sluggish blood circulation.

As the complex menopausal myths occurred, the natural health movement was gaining strength as the Baby Boomers became educated, and many took a more proactive approach to their health care needs. The natural medicine community followed the estrogen myth developments and warned women of the consequences of HRT. The position was taken that the body is not made for substances that are foreign. How much more foreign can you get than with pregnant horse’s urine?

Pharmaceutical Companies

The traditional method of health care in the United States provided the pharmaceutical industry lucrative markets. The potential market for patentable progestins is vast--contraceptive pills, irregular menses, osteoporosis--literally every woman through the age of puberty on, is a target for a sale.

Ample medical research regarding progesterone was carried on from the 1940's through the 1960's, and amply reported in mainline, recognized medical literature. Since the early 1970's, however, medical research became much more expensive and the grants subsidizing progesterone research, or any unpatentable medicine and treatment technique, dried up. Funds supported synthetic drugs, particularly progestins.

If a pharmaceutical company is selling a product, the final product cannot be a natural substance or they cannot patent it. This means that naturally occurring substances cannot be patented. That is why pharmaceutical companies are not interested in natural progesterone, nor will they sponsor any research to help further prove its effectiveness. Progesterone is an over the counter product, essaily produced by companies who are not dependent upon pharmacutical industry control.

Physician Dilemma

Contemporary physicians now know that estrogen is not the hormone to replace. They are becoming increasingly aware that it is progesterone that is desperately needed. As previously mentioned, synthetic estrogen products are formulated to include synthetic progestins to offset some of the bad side effects of estrogen dominance. This vicious cycle is just now beginning to be understood with the advent of natural progesterone. When some physicians hear of the use of natural progesterone, they wonder why none of their associates know about it or prescribe it. When something is not commonly known, it must in some way be false and/or unapproved. However, perfectly fine physicians have inquired about obtaining natural progesterone for use by their wives or mother-in-law, not for their patients. Fear perpetuates the reluctance to recommend natual progesterone.

Products use terms for estrogen and progestin, such as “similar to natural hormones.” Many drug companies do derive these natural hormones from plants, but then they have to change a molecule, so that it is not a naturally occurring substance, to patent it. This change makes it foreign to our bodies, creating the bad side effects. Be cautious. Physicians unfamiliar with natural health practices and standards will sometimes call these products natural when prescribing them.

If you are experiencing symptoms of menopause, be aware that when doctors do lab tests for hormone levels, they typically find that women are low on estrogen. However, the hormones are even lower in progesterone, which many doctors do not even test for. Raising just the progesterone levels will usually balance out the estrogen levels naturally in the body.

We are now more aware of how the health system works in this country. Natural HRT will most likely never get positive acknowledgement from the allopathic (traditional medicine) community. There is just not enough money to be made by using things as simple as diet, exercise, stress management and bio-identical hormones.

Be Proactive

Many women now taking estrogen, or estrogen combined with progestins, are able to discontinue their HRT. It is possible, that if adequate natural progesterone levels are present, the body can produce estrogens. If you are taking HRT and begin applying progesterone cream but do not lower your estrogen dosage, you may experience symptoms of estrogen-dominance cited above. Take a hormone saliva test to see if your hormones are out of balance (this can be done in the privacy of your own home). With your doctor's permission, lower your estrogen dose. If he or she doesn’t agree with this reduction, get another opinion. Replace your HRT with natural progesterone and after awhile you will be able to discontinue your HRT.

At Oasis Advanced Wellness, hormonal levels can be tested with a simple and inexpensive saliva test. With these results, you can determine your need for natural hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

You can find out more about other solutions in the eBook, Balancing Your Hormones Without Drugs…You Can Feel Good Again.

[megabuff]

I found this Article from
1. Colgan, M. Hormonal Health. Vancouver: Apple Publishing,
1996.

The thing that I respect about Dr Colgan is he always supports his statments with factual scientific data.

I encourage all Women to read this.

Optimal HRT concerns six hormones. Usually only two are replaced, using equine estrogen and synthetic progestin’s. That’s where all the trouble lies. Melatonin, estradiol, estriol, estrone, progesterone and testosterone. If you are going to replace one
hormone, you have to replace all six, and you have to use hormones that are biologically identical to those of human females.

We will examine each in turn.

Melatonin

The first hormone to decline in perimenopause is the pineal hormone melatonin. Melatonin is an essential synchronizer of the whole hormone cascade. If you replace anything, then melatonin is first on the HRT list, because, without it all other hormones lose their natural synchronicity.1 Imposing extra estrogen, or anything else, on a de-synchronized system is playing endocrine Russian roulette. From thousands of cases, we have found that 1-3 mg of melatonin, taken sublingually (under the tongue) at
night, immediately upon going to bed, raises night peak melatonin levels to within the range of a 35-year-old. It also assists sleep in perimenopause and menopause in about 60% of cases. For many of the others, for whom melatonin does not work well, 50 mg of 5-hydroxy-tryptophan (5-HTP), a precursor of
melatonin, restores sleep patterns. We advise against any use of HRT that does not include melatonin or 5-HTP.

Estrogen

While I was teaching at Auckland University Medical School in the 1970’s, we reviewed the research on hormone replacement for women, and concluded that it was beyond doubt that horse estrogens and synthetic progestins, primarily medroxy-progesterone, caused a number of illnesses, including reproductive cancers. We also concluded that these man-made drugs, which have never been a natural part of the human body,
failed to protect the human brain against egeneration, and did only a poor job of protecting the heart and bones. We taught these findings to the medical students of the time, and I updated them in my 1994 book Hormonal health.1 Numerous other
researchers also brought the same facts to public attention.

Nevertheless, such is the power of pharmaceutical advertising to suppress evidence and to hire tame scientists to fabricate opposing data, that it took until 2002 for the American Medical Association bureaucrats,1 not the brightest buns in the bag, to
finally catch on. I want to state unequivocally, that no physician worth their credentials who was familiar with the evidence of their damaging effects that first surfaced in the 1980’s, and every physician should be, would ever prescribe
these drugs. That they continued to be widely prescribed until 2002, AND still continue to be prescribed by physicians who don’t even read their own journal JAMA, is a humbling indication
that human intelligence has not increased much since we discovered how to make fire.

The Need For HRT

Do women need HRT? Isn’t it unnatural? Shouldn’t we leave the body alone to age naturally? These are some of the confused questions we get frequently. Again I want to state unequivocally, for better or
worse, humans have decided to extend their lives as far as possible, and in doing so, to remain as healthy as possible. To object to HRT is to object to contact lenses, tooth fillings, antibiotics, life-saving surgery, and all the other artificial
medical procedures that extend human life and health. Without HRT, once a woman passes the prime reproductive years and enters perimenopause between ages 35 and 45, Nature has little further use for her body, and the hormone cascade declines. And at least a thousand systems in the body decline also, most notably intelligence and memory, emotional tone, heart function, bone density, liver and kidney function, muscle strength, mobility, flexibility, and sexual function. So what happened before HRT?
All of the above plus a host of horrible symptoms. For many women, life after menopause was “nasty, brutal and short”.
Fortunately women then didn’t live so long. Now with the prospect of an average female lifespan of near 90 years, HRT is essential to preserve a women’s health for half her life. To update my 1994 book, in which I advised the use of Tri-Est, circa 2003 the most advanced natural estrogen formula, exactly
duplicates the average proportions of the three estrogens in the healthy human female system before menopause. Called Esnatri in Europe, this formula is 7% estradiol, 3% estrone and 90% estriol. The proportion of estriol is especially important,
because it is anti-carcinogenic and probably acts to keep the other two estrogens under control. Formulas, loosely called BiEst, that do not contain estrone purport to reduce carcinogenic potential, exhibit only the crudest understanding of hormonal function, and may increase hormonal mayhem in the
female system. And formulas that are straight estradiol, or that contain only a small proportion of estriol, will likely prove to be as carcinogenic as horse estrogens, though it may take the same period of 25 years before the public is informed. The
amount of Esnatri (or Tri-Est) to use depends on the woman. Some are naturally low estrogen and others are high estrogen. HRT is always an experiment with any individual and may require a number of adjustments to find the optimal dose. Sensible
physicians use the least amount possible, as they know they are playing with the most powerful hormones known to science. HRT should use the least triple estrogen formula that will protect a
woman’s brain, organs, and bones, will eliminate menopausal symptoms and will not increase the risk of cancer. In monitoring thousands of women on natural HRT over the last 20 years, we have found that an effective dose yields a serum estradiol level on the low end of the normal range. For many
menopausal and postmenopausal women, this is achieved with an amount of only 1.5 –2.5 mg per day, applied as a penetrating cream or gel. As far as possible, the use of triple estrogen formulas should also mimic the natural cycle of estrogen. In
healthy, cycling women, estrogen is low during menstruation and peaks between Days 12-15 (Day 1 is the first day of your period), then drops sharply at ovulation, and continues at a moderate level until days 27-28. Externally applied estrogen in
the correct small dose, builds up only slowly, taking 4-5 days to raise estrogen appreciably. Consequently, a reasonable cycle of estrogen replacement application is Days 1 through 25 of each
month with no application for Days 26-28 (28 day cycle). For individuals with shorter or longer natural cycles, their physician should adapt this application program.

Progesterone

Progesterone declines even earlier during perimenopause than estrogen. As a natural hormonal component of the system, and a vital controller of estrogen, progesterone should always be used in conjunction with estrogen replacement. For many women, we have found that a cream or gel containing 25 mg of natural progesterone per dose is effective at controlling menopausal symptoms. In healthy, cycling women progesterone is low until
ovulation (Days 12-15) then raises to peak at about Days 22-24.
To mimic this cycle, we have found that progesterone application is effective if started on Days 12-14 and finished on Day 26 (28 day cycle). Different individuals respond better in terms of
menopausal symptoms by using different lengths of application cycle within this range.

Testosterone

Testosterone is the sixth vital component of hormone replacement. The first hormone to decline in perimenopause is dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Women
readily make testosterone from DHEA in peripheral tissues of the lungs, organs and skin. For many women, a pill of 10-25 mg of DHEA is sufficient to maintain testosterone levels. In cycling
women DHEA is made daily and remains relatively stable, so should be replaced daily. As menopause progresses, however, a small amount of testosterone, applied as a cream or gel, may be necessary to eliminate symptoms and maintain well being. We have
found that 2-5 mg per day is an effective dose range, applied on the same days as estrogen.

HRT Timing

Research to date yields the following pattern for using these hormones and precursors.

Perimenopause and Menopause: This is based on a 28 day cycle.
Day 1 is the first day of your period. Esnatri (or Tri-Est): Day 1 through Day 25. Progesterone: Day 12 through Day 25. Three days of non-use, then repeat the cycle. DHEA: 10-25 mg per day.
Melatonin: 1-3 mg per day or 50 mg 5-HTP taken at bedtime.

Post-Menopause: Choose one day of the calendar month as Day 1. (The first day of the month is the easiest). Esnatri (or Tri-Est): Day 1 through Day 30 or 31, use each day.
Progesterone: Day 8 through Day 30 or 31, use progesterone each day. DHEA: 10-25 mg per day or Testosterone cream 2-5 mg per day. Melatonin: 1-3 mg per day or 50 mg 5-HTP taken at bedtime.
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Maree McGoldrick
www.bodiorganic.com