Menopause - HRT and Premarin
What Women Should Know About Hormone Replacement Therapy and Premarin
There will be 60 million menopausal women in America by the year 2010. Twenty-five million women are currently going through menopause and already, synthetic hormones are the third most often prescribed drug in the U.S. Of the women in menopause today, about half start synthetic hormone replacement, but only half of those stick with it because of the side effects or fear of cancer risk.
Most women don't know that the popular Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) drug, Premarin, is made from pregnant mare's urine, and that the mares are kept in horrendous conditions -- their foals are sold for slaughter.
What women should know about premarin
Premarin is the most prescribed of all drugs in America today. Most women don't know what Premarin is made of or how it is made. Once they know, most react like this woman who commented on the World Wide Web, "After taking Premarin for over 15 years, I just found out that this drug is made from pregnant mare's urine, that the mares are kept in horrendous conditions, and that their foals are slaughtered. I will now be using a synthetic or herbal version of HRT."
Today, there are 484 horse factories located in Southern and Central Canada and North Dakota which hold about 75,000 horses. The biggest Percherons and Clydesdales and large thoroughbreds are used -- the noblest of horses -- the larger the mare, the more urine and estrogen they can produce.
The mares are artificially inseminated and forced to spend their 11-month pregnancies in stalls so small they cannot turn. If they try to lie down, their heads are jolted upright by their halter chains. Long lines of pregnant horses stand, chained and strapped into cramped concrete and steel pens like rows of four-legged galley slaves. They shuffle uncomfortably from hoof to hoof. A forlorn look fills their eyes as they stare. Their coats are dull, their ears droopy -- tell-tale signs of a horse's misery. Many get sore, swollen legs or become crippled from standing, months on end, in their tiny concrete stalls.
The mares are kept constantly thirsty. They are denied water so that their urine becomes thick. If they were allowed to drink as much as a normal horse needs, it would over-dilute their estrogen. A rubber, medieval-looking "pee bag" and harness is strapped over the mares' vagina by elastic hoses, secured round their flanks and run over a pulley to the ceiling above them, causing sores which are left open and untreated. Most develop painful urinary tract infections due to the inhumane conditions.
This treatment is for their entire lives which only last for the years they are capable of foaling. Once they can no longer become pregnant, the mares will be shot for horsemeat -- just like the majority of the unwanted foals to which they give birth -- their reward for producing the billions of dollars made for the estrogen drugs prescribed to unsuspecting women.
There's more sad information. The baby foals are taken from their mothers a month or two after birth. Some are kept as replacements, some are killed immediately. Some foals and discarded PMU mares are loaded into windowless trucks without food and water and the doors sealed (so that there doesn't have to be an expensive veterinary health examination done), then the horses are shipped to the U.S. from Canada where they arrive 48 to 60 hours later. They are shipped to foal slaughter sales where row after row of pens are crammed with three to four thousand babies. Despite standing in the heat for several hours, few have access to any water. Some babies try to suckle milk from each other. All, except for a handful, are bought by meat dealers to be fattened for slaughter.
Women trying to help expose these facts say they wish it were possible for every woman taking Premarin to witness the sad sight of so many babies, each just separated from its mother facing such a horrible end.
For more information call Redwings Horse Sanctuary: 831-624-8464. Or visit their website: Redwings.
About menopause
New studies indicate that menopause may actually be nature's way of lessening hormone production to protect women from hormone-driven cancers like breast and uterine cancer. Unless you have extenuating circumstances, using natural remedies can be the best way.
The onset of menopause begins in the late thirties as blood levels of estrogen and progesterone start to decline. There is a general misconception that estrogen is lost at menopause. But estrogen is not lost -- production is simply reduced by 50 to 60%. In a well-nourished, vibrant woman, the adrenals and other glands pick up the job of estrogen secretion to keep her active and attractive after menopause.
ERT became the standard drug approach in the late 1960's after estrogen was proclaimed a "wonder drug" that could stop the clock by artificial means. When a link between the use of estrogen and cancers of the ovaries, uterus, and breast surfaced, the sales of estrogen supplements drastically dropped. The "unopposed estrogen" was said to be the cancer culprit and adding a synthetic version of progesterone solved the problem. The drug companies shifted to the combination of estrogen and progesterone and HRT was born (1975).Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is the conjugated combination of estrogens, estradiol, estrone and progesterone.
Synthetic HRT
I don't believe synthetic hormone replacement is the right course for most women. I listen to thousands of women around the country as I speak about menopause. The overwhelming vote is that there are numerous problems, side effects and unknowns about hormone replacement drugs that tamper with the deep hormone levels of a woman's body. Women who are addressing their menopausal symptoms with natural remedies say that they are feeling younger and more energetic.
Most hormone replacement therapy prescriptions are for hormones from pregnant mare's urine (Premarin), or from hormones synthesized in test tubes, and a synthetic progesterone (progestin), the drug called Provera. The synthetic partial estrogen, "ethynol estradiol" is a completely man-made substance not found in nature at all. Other synthetic estrogens used in hormone replacement drugs include, dienestrol, estradiol, esterified estrogens and estropipate. Their brand names include Alora, Climera, Estrace, Estroderm, Estratab, Estring, Ogen, Ortho-est, and Vivelle. All have been shown to be as safe as Premarin and Prempak-C (another drug manufactured from pregnant mare urine). The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine reports that "Synthetic estrogen works as well as if not better than Premarin, and is closer to the human female's estrogen than mare's estrogen. Synthetic estrogen has a more consistent potency than animal derivatives."
The medical community and drug companies, for whom synthetic hormones are an incredibly profitable business, have continued to justify the risks because of the perceived advantages to osteoporosis and heart disease prevention. Many physicians think that HRT should be a lifetime drug, believing that it is the most effective way to prevent osteoporosis and heart disease!
Yet, recent research indicates that the benefits of HRT for these two diseases are not validated over the long term. Further, there is no real proof that lower levels of estrogen cause heart disease or osteoporosis. In fact, the use of synthetic estrogen as protection from heart diseases is very debatable, and it does not reverse osteoporosis. Synthetic estrogen does not facilitate deposition of calcium to the bone. It only slows down the leaching of calcium from the bone.
Synthetic estrogen increases appetite, causes fluid retention, aggravates mood swings and depression and localizes fat deposits on the hips and thighs. Synthetic estrogen replacement should be avoided if there is a history of breast, bone or uterine cancer, thrombosis, gallbladder or liver disease. Who wants this???
Other synthesized hormones used to treat menopausal symptoms are DHEA and Pregnenolone. I advise caution. Not enough is known about the proper dosage and the safety of these substances.
I believe the risks for both heart diseases and osteoporosis can be better addressed by diet improvement, exercise and certain herbal supplements.
The natural protective choice for women
There are alternatives women should know about. Around the world, in every culture throughout history, plant hormones have helped support women through the discomforts of menopause. Plants such as soybeans and wild yams, and herbs such as black cohosh, ginseng, licorice root, and dong quai have a safety record of centuries. They offer a gentle, effective way to stimulate a woman's body to produce amounts of estrogen and progesterone that are in the right proportion for her needs as menopause progresses. They can help control hot flashes, tighten sagging tissues, lubricate a dry vagina and normalize circulation.
The report from The Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine also says that "plant-based estriol may also be better and apparently causes no cancer risk." The 1996 Journal of Medical Ethics of Cambridge University Medical School concludes that "plant-derived estrogen (estriol, the protective estrogen) is an effective, economical and acceptable alternative to equine estrogen."
Plant estrogens are remarkably similar to human hormones and contain estriol. Plants are taken in naturally by the body as foods through the enzyme system, not as drugs working outside the system. Herbal therapy is not a replacement therapy, it is a balancing therapy because the phytohormones behave like hormones as they lock into human cell receptors.
Most hormone driven cancers like breast, bone and uterine cancer involve excess hormones, especially estrogen. Today, women are assaulted by hormones from a variety of environmental and drug sources. Because the estrogen potency of plant estrogens is so small (1/400th the amount of human circulating estrogen), they have the net effect of lowering body estrogen levels when they bind to the receptor sites, thus reducing the risk of excess estrogen-driven diseases. Phyto-estrogens in plants act like estrogen in women whose estrogen is unusually low. Phyto-estrogens can have estrogenic or anti-estrogenic effects depending on the body's needs.
A natural menopause is one where you don't take drugs of any kind. And, natural, herbal therapy for menopause symptoms is the natural choice. Herbal therapy is not hormone replacement therapy, it is hormone balancing therapy.
I recommend that women learn more. By choosing natural therapies, women will not only be healthier, but they will be saving these beautiful horses. Tell your doctor you want choices other than Premarin. And, if your doctor isn't aware of any, (and we know of many who are not aware of where Premarin is from, or the side effects of Premarin) then, please educate them! Many women have told me that they have presented information to their doctors. Won't you help yourself to a healthier life and help to save these beautiful animals? Please tell your friends. Thank you.
To learn more about natural solutions to menopausal symptoms, see Menopause.