Bioidentical Hormones - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

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the only compelling reason to take hormone therapy," (what an understatement) and that
"hormones are best used for only two to three years." What are the depressed women
aged 40 to 50 to do three years later - live on Prozac, when a natural substance would
have put them right instead?
Follow the Money
The importance of understanding the biology of menopause and its morbidity
must be a primary medical economic concern to America. Relief of menopausal
symptoms such as improved sleep will likely translate into a more productive woman
whether in the workforce or as a mother or a spouse. Healthcare dollars can be spent
more wisely than in Medicare reimbursements for constant doctor visits and endless
prescriptions and procedures. Quality of life will improve for most symptomatic women
and hormone replacement is an important choice for women since estrogens are known to
be the only effective treatment for estrogen-depleted states.
Although no formal medico-economic analysis is yet available, Dr. Julie Taguchi,
oncologist at Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara, California predicts that there would be a
substantial medical savings. In prescription drug costs alone, scientifically proven safe
and effective HRT could reduce the use of anti-depressants, blood pressure medications,
lipid lowering agents, sleeping aids, gastrointestinal drugs, etc. to such an extend that the
estimated annual savings in the 10 to 20 billion dollar range would not be unreasonable.
Additional cost savings in office visits, hospital stays, productivity are hard to estimate.
The failure of the WHI trial is partially due to the lack of understanding of the
biology of the reproductive and menopausal state as well as, the indiscriminant choice of
study subjects without well defined entry criteria, such as on the average enrolling
subjects 12 to 15 years into menopause, creates unfathomable noise for the outcome.
A larger issue is the administration of drug molecules that are not natural to
women's bodies as compounded versions of plant-derived hormones could be. The
choice of the molecule, the dosage, and timing of the onset of therapy are the most
important variables in the search for safe and effective HRT and the WHI spent almost a
billion dollars and never approached any of the most important questions..