Women Used To Ingest Urine To Relieve Menopause Symptoms!?

A Crazy Story: How Bioidentical Hormone Therapy Originated

Previously we took a look at the difference between synthetic, natural and bioidentical hormones. Today we will take a look at the history of development hormone replacement therapy.

The act of replacing hormones has been around for some time

In fact, there were several ancient civilizations in which women going through menopause would ingest the dried urine of young adult females. I know, it sounds pretty unappealing and extreme, but it’s only a hop skip and jump away from the conjugated horse urine pills (Prempro) taken by some women today.

Bioidentical hormone therapy development became mainstream in the 1930’s when James Collip, a Canadian biochemist, began using Emmenin.  Emmenin was an orally active estrogen derived the urine of pregnant women. It just so happens that the company marketing this drug was Ayerst, which later became Wyeth; the company that in the 1950’s developed and sold Premerin.

By the 1960’s hormone therapy really began to heat up after Robert Wilson’s wrote his immensely popular book; “Feminine Forever,” sensationalizing estrogen replacement. Prescriptions for women taking hormone replacement therapy grew exponentially and at the time it seemed that this “miracle drug” offered women a new “lease on life.” However, research in the 1970‘s indicated that taking Premerin, or oral estrogen alone could lead to uterine cancer. So Wyeth set out to create a new drug that could curtail these effects and voila, along came Provera.

All was well once more in the land of hormone replacement therapy and once again women were being prescribed hormone replacement therapy. Then, to show the efficacy of their medication, Wyeth decided to partake in a research study along with the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). However, the results that were released in 2002 did not glowing recommend the use of hormone replacement therapy, in fact, it did quite the opposite.

To Wyeths’ dismay the results indicated that such therapy contained many negative side effects such as an increased risk in stokes, heart attacks, blood clots, and breast cancer. Unfortunately, the results were generalized to all types and methods of hormone replacement therapy, and once again the number of women taking hormone replacement therapy dropped dramatically.

Around the same time, bioidentical hormones began to gain steam; particularly after Susan Summers and Oprah Winfrey discussed their success stories on national television. Shortly after, Wyeth petitioned the FDA for stronger regulations and more intense supervision of compounding pharmacies. Wyeth’s argument was that bioidentical hormones were unsafe and developed in compounding pharmacies whose claims could not be trusted.

They also stated that compounding pharmacies have minimal oversight and regulation. Interestingly enough, at the same time, Wyeth continued to market and produce Prempro; the same medication that showed all the negative side effects in the WHI study. The justification behind this being that Prempro is now prescribed in lower doses and for shorter time periods.

So why would Wyeth continue to prescribe Prempro while pursing regulatory action against the use of bioidentical hormones and compounding pharmacies. What evidence or studies do Wyeth and other pharmaceutical companies provide in their argument? Why are compounding pharmacies being belittled on one hand and yet held in such high regard when it comes to formulating and creating mixtures of other medications?

Unfortunately, we don’t have all the answers to these questions, but it does bear some consideration. However, one thing is for certain, with history being our guide, the debate on hormone therapy is long from over.

To find out more about hormone replacement therapy and, whether or not it is right for you, contact VitaliT Medical Clinics.

And for more information click on the links in the article and check out our previous blogs.