Hormone Replacement Therapy Revealed

by Dr. Connie Hernandez

The recent termination of a major study on hormone replacement therapy by the Women's Health Initiative has brought to public awareness issues about which naturopathic medicine has long been concerned and which Dr. Edwards  continually addresses in patient education and treatment. The Women's Health Initiative study concluded that women taking the most common conventional hormone replacement therapy, a combination of Premarin (0.625 mg of conjugated equine estrogens) and Provera (2.5 mg of medroxyprogesterone acetate) were at increased risk for breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots in the lungs and legs. These risks outweighed the benefits of fewer hip fractures and reduced risk of colon cancer. And the widely promoted benefit of heart disease prevention was not substantiated.

There are many points to consider. First of all, the hormones used in the study (and by somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 million American women) are not bio-identical They are synthesized to be different than those hormones your body produces, in order that they might be patented and sold. Premarin comes from a hormone produced by pregnant mares and excreted in their urine. Provera is a progestin, not true progesterone. One would expect that these substances which are foreign to our bodies would have different effects than our natural hormones. And they do.

In complementary medicine we offer low dose combinations of bio-identical hormones when menopausal symptoms can not be treated in other ways. Through detailed case histories and salivary hormonal testing, we are able to look at your unique hormonal profile to find what treatment best suits you. If you are taking any estrogen for any reason, we offer ways of testing whether your body metabolizes estrogen to protective forms vs. proliferative forms, and supplements and protocols which can shift your metabolism in favor of your health and protection. Often we can address menopausal symptoms through a combination of dietary change, nutritional supplements, plant medicine and energy medicine.

In addition to working with obvious menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and perimenopausal arthritis, we can help ascertain individual risk factors for silent conditions which often occur in perimenopause, such as cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Our new genomics profiles allow us to look at genetic variations which would predispose you toward one condition or another, and offer the treatment option best suited to you. For example, we can determine whether your risk for osteoporosis would better respond to an increase in calcium supplementation, or to a form of vitamin D. We can monitor the success of your treatment protocol with cardiovascular profiles, bone density testing, urinary tests of urinary calcium loss, and other indicators.

These are the ways of working with menopause that naturopathic medicine has been promoting, expanding, and offering for years. The findings of the Women's Health Initiative are no surprise to us, as they are no surprise to many of our patients. We have long held that conventional hormone replacement therapy is one of the most lucrative and scary examples of medical experimentation on human subjects known in our time. And we are pleased to see that questions are being asked, and that the situation has come to the attention of the public.