In the news this week, an Australian study has shown that there has been a significant drop in breast cancer rates that can be attributed directly to women stopping HRT therapy after warnings of a link came out a few years ago.

It is estimated that there was a 40% drop in usage at that time, and this has correlated into fewer cases of breast cancer, that the authors of the study could find no other contributing factors for.

In an article published on the ABC news site it states “really what this means is that women and their doctors have had a very positive impact on breast cancer in Australia and it really shows that by incorporating solid evidence about HRT into clinical practise, we can have an impact on breast cancer”. 

I would actually explain this another way:

“really what this means is that pharmaceutical companies and their cohorts (doctors) have been using menopausal women in a huge medical experiment with no regard for the safety and long term effects of their product; and as soon as women were made aware of this, they stopped using it”.

I don’t think for one minute that the drop in HRT usage is due to a mutual collaboration between women and their doctors - in some cases maybe - but in my opinion, HRT is often stopped because women are horrified that they have been duped by greedy drug companies hiding the truth about their dangerous products.

HRT (and “the pill”) are synthetic drugs that are “similar” to our own natural hormones but not identical - and that difference is enormous.  Natural hormones are not able to be patented, and therefore drug companies cannot make obscene fortunes off of them - so synthetics are developed to take their place. 

Unfortunately whenever you put something synthetic into your body - there are going to be consequences and often quite serious consequences.

There is a much safer alternative to HRT and that is called BHRT - bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, which uses hormones identical to our own that our body recognises.  Of course any hormone supplementation has its risks and it is much better to heal the body naturally wherever possible - but if a very good assessment has been done (see www.salivahormonereport.com) then BHRT can be a consideration in some cases.

What more evidence do we need to give HRT the flick and stop drug companies from running their experiments on us??

Still on the subject of synthetic hormones for women, I do a lot of work with balancing hormones naturally, and in certain circumstances when a women needs Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy, I refer her to a Dr. for this.

In Australia we have what are called Compounding Chemists, which make up to order, capsules, creams or troches for women (and men) utilising Bio-identical Hormones.  This means that what is in the product, is identical to our own natural hormones, and our body accepts it and recognises it as safe.  If used appropriately, these hormone medications do not have the side effects that make the synthetic variety so dangerous.

In the U.S. however, the use of BHRT has come under pressure from one of the major pharmaceutical companies, most likely because they have had declining sales of their synthetic hormones following the studies highlighting their harmful side effects; and many women are turning to BHRT instead.

Here is a short article on this problem in the U.S., and unfortunately over the past few years BHRT has been under attack in the mainstream Australian media more than once.  Let’s hope that our Compounding Chemists can withstand the pressure and fight to keep these valuable alternatives available to the people who need them.