The Health Risks of Synthetic Hormone Replacement Therapy

Replacement Therapy

The theme of the 1950s was "better living through chemistry." Subsequently, scientist Edward Adelbert Doisy discovered various forms of estrogen. Estrogen replacement therapy began to be presented as a treatment that could help women counter estrogen loss and preserve their femininity. As a result, millions of women began using the horse urine-derived estrogen Premarin. In 1942, Premarin was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of menopausal hot flashes. However, this novel estrogen replacement therapy was not thoroughly researched. The FDA approved these prescription drugs based on studies involving a relatively small number of women. Despite this, from 1965 to 1970, estrogen replacement therapy was promoted as a pill that would keep women young.

Doubts About Hormone Replacement Therapy

Dr. John Lee, MD, writes, "By the mid-1990s, there was ample scientific evidence that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was not living up to its promise and was probably doing more harm than good. However, many excellent studies showing this were ignored in favor of continuing hype from drug companies about all the diseases that HRT could prevent... In the summer of 2002, two major studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA) finally changed the fixed mindset of conventional medicine toward HRT. The first blow to HRT came from the huge Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, one part of which looked at the effects of the most common form of HRT, PremPro. This arm of the study was ended after five years (three years early) because of a clearly greater risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and strokes among women using PremPro."