Articles
Letter to the editor.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Dear Editor,
I have recently been reading all the media hype that has just been released about HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) and I find myself incensed because of two huge issues surrounding this.
Firstly, since the cat has finally been (officially) let out of the bag regarding the risks of taking HRT (i.e. a 26% increase in breast cancer and an even greater increase in strokes, pulmonary embolism and hip fractures), the government, via the medical establishment via the pharmaceutical companies is still trying to cover up the facts by asking women not to panic, see their doctor and not to trust alternative therapies as they don't work.
I have, as a Naturopath, been seeing women with menopausal symptoms for 17 years and find natural remedies, i.e. herbal medicine, dietary changes, exercise and meditation/relaxation techniques to be a very effective treatment for most of the debilitating changes that occur, particularly hot flushes, anxiety and fatigue, menopause being a natural transition, not an illness. There is proven evidence that the herb Black Cohosh relieves hot flushes and other symptoms of menopause and if the government made more money available for research for natural medicine we would have more positive evidence of the efficacy of other empirically used plant based remedies.
Secondly, and this is what makes me even more incensed, if not ropable, the cat has still definitely not been let out of the bag regarding the source of HRT, known in America as Premarin or Pempro and in Australia as Menoprem and Premia. Women are told by their doctors that it is a "natural" product. How natural is keeping hundreds of horses continually pregnant, tired up with leather bags around their flanks cutting at their flesh, day in and day out, to collect their urine? They are denied adequate water so as not to dilute the progesterone in their urine and the foals are usually born sick and because they're mostly not needed are put down soon after birth. This is a torturous industry for thousands of horses and a multi-million dollar industry for the pharmaceutical company Wyeth-Ayerst that manufactures the products in America and Australia. Yes, Premarin is very natural pregnant mares urine. And all this not so women can have safe relief from menopausal symptoms but so that Wyeth can reap the benefit of huge amounts of profit, HRT being 14% of its revenue.
Yes, the cat has to be let out of the bag on all aspects of HRT so women can make more well informed choices of what industry they wish to support as well as having access to safe remedies that don't involve the torture of animals.
Suzanne Staples
Mullumbimby
Last updated :
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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