In the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the synthetic hormones Premarin and Prempro were linked with increased risk to stroke, breast cancer, heart attacks, and circulatory disease. In fact by 2004, the breast cancer numbers for the USA dropped significantly, related directly to women’s discontinuing these two dangerous drugs.
However, most of the millions of women taking these dangerous drugs switched to bio-identical hormones, available from compounding pharmacists, and obviously, from the statistics, these bio-identical hormones did not contribute to the same list of disease side effects as the synthetic drugs.
Well, Wyeth Laboratories lost hundreds of millions when this happened, and they have petitioned the FDA to designate compounded bio-identical hormones as a “new drug,” subject to all FDA restrictions and requirements for a new drug. The support for this comes from main line medicine, but the pharmacists are making some good arguments to keep things as they are. Compounding pharmacies are “making hay while the sun shines” since the WHI in 2002, and obviously don’t want to lose that income. Additionally, compounding pharmacies have been around since the turn of the century, and patients depend on them for many items that the big pharmaceutical companies refuse to make because of insufficient profits.
Of course the big issue for all of us is really not about profits, but freedom of choice in what we take, and the ability to choose a product with fewer or no side effects than the synthetics offered by the big pharmaceutical companies. This could have a major impact on women’s health, and we need the FDA to do the right thing. Unfortunately, most of the time the FDA simply caves in to Big Pharma, which is who they were initially created to protect us against.
Ain’t that a fine kettle of fish!
This might be a good time to contact a Senator or Congressman/woman.