Horsing Around With Your Hormones

The hormone replacement pill that many physicians prescribe for menopausal and premenopausal women is a pill known as Premarin.  However, I want to interject at this point that I have a growing number of physicians (especially OB/GYN's) who are referring their patients to me like never before to get them converted to bio-identicals.  It's been amazing to watch the shift in their treatment approach with their patients.  Yay!
 
Let me break this down for you so that you understand the title of my blog a little better.  The root, "pre"gnant-mare-urine is where the medicine name Premarin comes from.  (I think I heard your gasp from here).  I'm not horsing around with you on this little known fact, so please take the time to research it for yourself.  The truth is that Premarin is literally a way to horse around with your hormones by using a non-human source and placing it into the human body as an FDA approved treatment option for menopausal symptoms.  How can that be good right? The production process involves putting horses into stalls, collecting estrogens from their urine, and giving the final product to you in a pill form.  That is likely going to make you feel a mess.  Common horse sense right?!?! Blah!!!

Now don't get me wrong, some women will benefit from this "synthetic" version of hormone replacement therapy, but many will complain that they feel "unnatural" on Premarin.  Maybe it's because women weren't born with four hooves, I don't know. 

I just received results on a patient this morning who wants to convert from synthetic hormone replacement therapy (Premarin) to bio-identical hormone therapy.  Her hormone values are a mess due to the foreign chemicals her body is trying to process.


Seriously though, these are side effects listed from the package insert on a stock bottle of Premarin:

vaginal bleeding
breast changes
abdominal bloating
nausea/vomiting
headache/migraine
fluid retention
BP elevated
mood changes
yeast overgrowth
glucose intolerance
hair growth on the face (not cool in women)
acne

For the last hundreds of years, the human female system has been running quite well on three separate estrogens: estriol, estrone, and estradiol which occur in a particular ratio, with estriol being the most abundant.  Pregnant-mare-urine (sorry I couldn't help myself) consists mostly of estrone, equilin (a nice name for horse estrogen), and estradiol.  Where is the Estriol?  Not there.  Notta.  Nill. Zilch. 

So what's the big deal about that?

Estriol plays an important role and has been used in European countries for decades.  In general, studies from Europe show that menopausal women who use natural estriol to replace their natural "human" estrogen have a reduction in typical menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and thinning of the vaginal tissue (vaginal atrophy). Estriol is also considered as an estrogen with built in cancer protection.  It tends to bind to the receptors in the uterine lining and the breast to bump off cancer producing estrogens and therefore sends them through the process of elimination from the body.  It's not just available in Europe though, we carry and use Estriol is the majority of our menopausal patients.  It's simple good medicine.

Now that you know this, what should you do?  Get to a provider that understands the physiology of a female and leave the horse work to the veterinarians.  After reading this, you should understand why more and more women are seeking the bio-identical hormone replacement route for their menopausal needs.  Who in the world wants to take a pill made out of horse urine? 

So, what should you do?
Read about hormone replacement therapy options and especially bio-identical hormones. 

Check out a few books at the library before making your move.  I enjoy when women (and men) come to my office asking questions from their own research.  Remember hormone replacement therapy is now showing benefit in cardiovascular health, cognition, osteoporosis, alzheimers, along with many other things.  And, it simply helps patients look younger and feel better. 

Hormone levels should be tested in every female before considering treatment, and an individualized therapy can be formulated to meet each individuals needs.  A family history is also of critical importance when determining how best to treat symptoms.  Using the mildest dose and a customized approach is where it's at as far as I'm concerned.  I have been providing this care for hundreds of women for over 20 years now and our services are spreading across the country to those women wanting a better option in addressing their hormonal imbalances.  This treatment option is not new.  It's been around for many years.  Oh, and it's not just celebrity (Robin McGraw, Oprah, Linda Evans, Dr. Oz) medicine, or a treatment that you have to fly to California or Florida for which could cost you hundreds of dollars.   In fact, the average cost is about $50 per month for a customized treatment. Wow!!!  A small price to pay to feel better.   Very affordable and personalized to your needs.

Call my office if I can answer your questions and don't put testing off any longer.  I can offer saliva testing or blood testing to get your levels evaluated and from there develop an action plan with you.

drsonjaobryan@gmail.com

To your good health,
Dr. Sonja