My Mother's Hormone Replacement Therapy
I remember my mother taking the hormone Premarin back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Premarin is manufactured using equine urine. (YUCK!) I also remember that she stopped taking it abruptly. I wish I could go back in time and ask why, but she died of Covid in 2021. I'm guessing her doctor had a change of heart because of the 'noise' from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study that was cut short in 2002. I somewhat remember her telling me her doctor would no longer prescribe them to her and she was taken off the hormone therapy cold turkey.
Women's Health Initiative Study
The original reason for the study was to learn if HT (Hormone Therapy) could prevent chronic diseases of aging, such as coronary heart disease and cognitive impairment. Hormone Replacement Therapy had been used to primarily to treat vasomotor symptoms, hot flashes and night sweats. The study was created to see if they could support that hormone therapy was actually improving more than just vasomotor symptoms.
The WHI $625 million dollar study was started in 1991 by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, both part of the NIH (National Institute for Health). Together they launched the Women's Health Initiative (WIH) to understand better how diseases of the heart, lung and blood might affect post-menopausal women and if HT (hormone therapy) might reduce the number of women who develop and die from these diseases.
In 2002 the study was stopped. This bold action by the NIH prompted the New York Times article entitled, Hormone Replacement Study: A Shock to the Medical System. This is likely why my mother's doctor wouldn't continue prescribing her Premarin. At the time, what wasn't fully understood was the range of ages of the women in the study. The average age of menopause is 51. The average age of the women in the study was 63 which is considerably older than the age at which most women enter menopause.
Needless to say, the outcome didn't show anything substantial due to the average age of the women in the study being so far past the average age of menopause. Doctors quit prescribing hormones and women all over the US were miserable and left with few to no options.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy
In 2006 Suzanne Somers wrote a book titled, "Breakthrough" and suddenly the world was talking about Bioidentical hormones. Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapies prescribed by doctors are manufactured from soy and yam oils. Often times, menopausal women struggle to find mainstream docs who will prescribe bioidentical hormones, even though their molecular formula is identical to the molecular formula of hormones our bodies make. Prescribed Bioidenticals are commercially available from traditional pharmaceutical and compounding pharmaceutical companies. They come as troches, gels, patches and creams. Select clinicians write an estimated 26 to 33 million prescriptions for compounded bioidentical hormone therapy every year. Almost 41% of menopausal women need treatment during their lives.
Is Hormone Replacement Therapy safe for women?
I think many of us in our 50's, those who need HRT the most, probably remember all the hubbub from the early 2000's or from our mothers like I learned it. I always assumed it wasn't safe and therefore I should stay away from it.
However, when I was 51, I couldn't stand it anymore. I felt fat, I wasn't sleeping, I was extremely moody, and I felt fat! Oops, did I say that twice? I was at my heaviest weight.
I connected to High-school friend of my sister on Facebook, and she told me about a doctor she was going to that had prescribed her a "pill". It was made specifically for her and how she had lost like 40 or 50 pounds. I was sold, I wanted in.
I called the doctor in mid-September of 2019 and I was told his first appointment was December 1, 2019. I scheduled the appointment not having any idea what he was prescribing. All I knew is that if it might help me lose some weight and if I could also feel better, I wanted to know more.
When I was finally able to meet with him, the guy I now call my diet doctor, he also aligned me with a nutritionist and had me go get my blood tested. By the end of December, I was on my special "pill" and was very excited to officially start my diet at the New Year.
Menopause Weight Gain diet plan
The special pill was Bioidentical Hormone Replacement. It was a troche that I broke in two each day, 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 at night. It was compounded for me by a pharmacy in Colorado and sent directly to my home. I did my research and discovered that many things had been learned since the WHI study and it wasn't frowned upon to take HRT like it had been. As I continued to focus on my health and listening to podcasts, I kept hearing doctors speak to how HRT was good for your heart and your bones and wasn't the "bad guy" it had been made out to be.
I also incorporated intermittent Fasting, exercised, took my special HRT pill and was able over the course of nine months to lose 30 pounds. The Bioidentical Hormone wasn't a magic potion, but it did stop the night-sweats, my sleep improved, the hot-flashes disappeared and overall, I felt better. I think it was a combo platter of all of the "things" -- that helped me get on track and stay on track even through the beginning of Covid-19 in March of 2020.
I have kept the weight off to this day. I have to mind what I eat, when I eat and how much. I take my Bioidentical HRT daily although, I've switched to a different pill and also to a cream of estrogen and progesterone. I feel WAY better than I did five years ago and I've never looked back.