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Jacqui Brandwynne
Jacqueline Brandwynne started her Very Private® Q&A advice column to help people make their relationships happier and more intimate. The column focuses on dating, relationships, and intimate health. Jacqui also developed doctor recommended Daily Feminine Body Care products for women. For a free sample of the Very Private® Intimate Moisture product call (888) 837-9774. Mail a question to Jacqui: PO Box 491341, Los Angeles, CA 90049, or e-mail: info@veryprivate.com. For intimacy advice and to listen to Jacqui's radio show every Wednesdays visit www.veryprivate.com
Relationships
2007-03-01 11:06:00
Hormone therapy, what is the truth?
QUESTION: Please help me understand the differences of hormone therapy? I am confused about all of the different kinds of treatments.
ANSWER: Millions of women can recapture their vitality, health, the beauty and sexual desire of their youth. This alluring promise was heavily promoted back in the sixties when Dr. Robert Wilson’s book, “Feminine Forever” caused millions of women to take up hormone replacement therapy. Subsequent serious studies contradicted not only his claims but identified potentially serious health risks connected to HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy). In 2002, the U.S. government dealt another blow to HRT when they terminated the largest and most long lasting study, The Women’s Health Initiative. Their findings concluded that HRT actually increased incidents of heart attacks, stroke and breast cancer among many groups, specifically those taking hormones beyond five years. Enter actress Suzanne Somers. Her new book, “Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones” introduces you to the most forward approaches of maintaining quality of life without drugs. “Ageless” ~ that’s the promise.” She promotes her message dynamically through the national media and personal appearances, telling women, especially women in menopause, that they can regain their youthful looks, vitality and sexuality simply by taking bioidentical hormones. “Bioidentical hormone replacement is the only answer to ward off illness, weight gain, and other symptoms associated with hormone decline,” she promises. “What utter nonsense,” says Dr. Wulf Utian, a recognized world leader in women’s health. Being a consultant to several renowned medical institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, The Arthur H. Bill Professor Emeritus of Reproductive Biology and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Case Western School of Medicine and Executive Director of NAMS (The North American Menopause Society), Dr. Utian questions her sources. “Ms. Somers chooses to attribute her findings to 16 “cutting-edge” physicians without established scientific portfolios. Why didn’t she call on any of dozens of world experts, each with more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications to their names?” “Appropriately used Hormone Replacement Therapy has its place,” Dr. Utian continues, but “there is this totally false impression that these so-called bioidentical hormones are somehow safer, or that they don’t carry the risks but they do carry the benefits of synthetic hormones. There is no serious data that supports these speculations.” Dr. Marcie Richardson, MD, a clinical instructor in obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School seconds his opinion. “Bioidentical hormones have not been specifically studied in a randomized trial on any widespread level, and if you are to use that as criteria, then it’s true that we don’t know if they are any better and they could turn out to be much worse – than synthetic hormones. We just don’t know. ”Complicating matters further is the issue of how these hormones are compounded. “Often formulations are based on blood and saliva tests that can supposedly determine a woman’s hormone status. “That too is nonsense,” Dr. Utian warns. “A woman’s hormones can change dramatically from hour to hour and throughout her cycle and from cycle to cycle. There is absolutely nothing useful you can tell about a woman’s hormone status from a blood or saliva test.” So where does a woman bothered by sleeplessness, hot flashes and night sweats turn? “There are many sources to help you find a reputable medical expert in menopause, including NAMS (The North American Menopause Society),” says Dr. Utian. “That’s who you should work with and trust rather than a hot promoter or a glitzy book without scientific foundation.”Other medical experts are less strident in their views on bioidenticals and some have positive comments. But they all agree -- the many health benefits supposedly based on bioidentical hormone treatments are simply fiction, not fact.
 
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