Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy

Suzanne Sommers has been advocating bio-identical hormones as an alternative to standard hormone replacement therapy. Check out this Philadelphia news video for a quick introduction to the issue.

Bioidentical hormones are manufactured in the lab to have the same molecular structure as the hormones made by your own body. In contrast, synthetic hormones are made to be intentionally different. Reason: drug companies can’t patent a bioidentical molecule, so they invent synthetic hormones that are patentable (Premarin, Prempro and Provera being the most widely used examples).

Though bioidentical hormones have been around for years, most practitioners are unfamiliar with them. There are several branded versions now available for use in the kind of hormone replacement therapy (“HRT”) typical of synthetic hormones. This is generally a one-size-fits-all dosage regime.

Soy

There's a misconception that soy products may be dangerous. This is largely due to a study published in 2000 implicating hormone replacement therapy as responsible for an increased rate of breast cancer. Since then, consumers have assumed that soy, being similar to estrogen, could also increase this risk. However, this may not necessarily be so. Here's a good article that tries to explain the misconception about soy being potentially dangerous to hormone dependent cancer patients.

Some other interesting links about soy

• A balanced repudiation by an MD to Suzanne Sommer's book, Ageless and the corresponding New York Times article describing the repudiation.
• A general article on bio-identical hormone therapy and it's corresponding research summary
• Dr. Magaziner's web page talks about soy being good for menopause symptoms. He gives some statistics comparing Japanese to American women.
• Bio-identical Hormone Society
• An extreme (but interesting) perspective on the scathing attack on the FDA's assault on bio-identical hormones