I came across a news item the other day that irritated me. It was another one of those stories about how dangerous estrogen therapy is for post-menopausal women. It contained the usual tsking and finger-wagging over doctors who felt it necessary to interfere with the ‘natural process of aging and menopause’ and the horrible risks of cancer they cause while doing it.

There’s so much wrong with that position I scarcely know where to begin. First off, we scarcely need to discuss my opinion of the ‘the natural process of aging’. Suffice it to say, the natural process of aging is one of slow decline into a pitiable, crippled, wretched shell of a human being. My opinion: we don’t have to just give up like that.

The medical community started giving estrogen to post-menopausal women nearly 50 years ago for excellent reasons. Without it the health and quality of life of post-menopausal women was declining so precipitously, it became apparent that something had to be done. Careful study of the situation revealed that loss of estrogen caused much of the rapid decline seen in menopause. The logical thing to do was to get these women some replacement estrogen. Of course back then, Estrogen was a poorly understood chemical. They didn’t know how to make it so they began looking in nature to find a workable solution. Amazingly, what they found was that pregnant horses produced vast amounts of readily extractable estrogen in their urine. So they extracted it, added some preservatives and transmitter chemicals to make it a little more usable to the human body, and voilà! Premarin was born.

Premarin was fantastic stuff in its day. It addressed many of the crippling effects that women had previously suffered. Aside from a few side effects like weight gain, Premarin rapidly became the standard of care worldwide for the treatment of menopause. Sadly, there wasn’t a lot of concern about the long-term effects. At the time, the period between the onset of menopause and the end of a woman’s life was short enough that women were not expected to see the long-term deleterious effects.

Fast forward to today. Thanks to advances in medicine, women can expect to live another 30 years beyond menopause, making the long term consequences of Premarin clear. Premarin, when coupled with Provera (medroxy progesterone acetate), substantially increases your risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Suddenly the debate rages: do we keep prescribing Premarin or just accept the osteoporosis, heart disease, sleep issues, hot flashes, memory loss etc. that come with menopause?

Of all the stupidity, it’s been 50 years, people! We can now make real human estrogen with no preservatives or transmitter chemicals needed. We can measure the estrogen in your blood and adjust the dosage until you’re getting exactly what you had as a young girl in exactly the right amounts. The question shouldn’t be Premarin or nothing. Neither is a workable option. The real question is why don’t we use the vastly superior tools developed over the last 50 years to give women the best care possible?

Again, Premarin was great stuff in its day but that day is past. It now belongs on the ash heap of history next to the use of mercury as a cure for syphilis. It’s also ridiculous to claim that because the Premarin/Provera combination is genuinely dangerous that all Estrogen therapy is equally dangerous. Not all hormone replacement is created equal. Roughly 100 million women have taken estrogen birth control pills for up to 20 to 30 years in a row without a rise in breast cancer. In fact there are studies that show a decrease in breast cancer in women who use some form of estrogen-based birth control pills. Read the article here. Why then do some pretend that all estrogen is equally dangerous?

In Europe, human-type estrogens and real progesterone, instead of Provera, are more frequently used. There are large studies that show that this more natural combination not only does not cause a rise in breast cancer risk but also that the risk of ovarian cancer actually declines by about 10% below the level seen in non-hormone users.

Rather than spending more and more research dollars beating up on an outdated 1950’s technology, let’s move into the 21st century and use the tools that we have today: True Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. The biggest problem that we face in optimal hormone replacement therapy today is the misconception that giving estrogen and progesterone constitutes adequate replacement. As we age there is a global decline in our endocrine system, also known as somatopause. All three sex hormones, testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone, decline dramatically. But that is a small part of the picture. DHEA, pregnenolone, non-protein bound T-3 and T4, growth hormone, and a variety of neurotransmitter compounds are all in freefall as you age.

In addition, cortisol production can either rise as a consequence of chronic inflammation and stress or can drop as a result of adrenal fatigue. In the vast majority, insulin levels are rising to dangerously high levels. Unless you address all of the interrelated factors in a comprehensive and competent manner, you are going to be receiving less than optimal care. Longevity Medical Clinic is one of the few places in the country where all of these issues are addressed comprehensively. Treating somatopause in both men and women is what we do best. Anything less is simply not good enough.