For years, we had no other choice. HRT was a double-edged sword: we prescribed synthetic hormone replacement, hoping to ease women's menopausal symptoms. Yes, PremPro certainly helped diminish hot flashes, night sweats, headaches and other symptoms of menopause.

But the cure could be worse than the disease. So many women had difficulty staying on their prescription that only 30% of those originally prescribed the drug stayed with it. The side effects were legion: weight gain, depression, wild mood swings, insomnia, nausea, increased risk of stroke, gall bladder problems.

So we found ourselves treating the side effects of HRT, prescribing Meridia or another appetite suppressant for weight gain, Prozac as an antidepressant, and Xanax for insomnia. Suddenly, our patients were on a spiral of medications. They were miserable and we felt impotent to help them return to a normal life.

New, more serious side effects of HRT

Over the last five years, more serious links between synthetic hormone replacement and disease have been uncovered, leaving physicians with a difficult choice: Do we continue to prescribe these seriously flawed medications, against our better judgment?  Do we leave ourselves vulnerable to malpractice?

A complete survey of natural progesterone's fascinating role as a preventive measure for pelvicdisorders, osteoporosis, cancer, heart disease and PMS. How, as a physician, to give your patients the full benefits of natural progesterone and estrogen replacement, as a welcome substitution for synthetic HRT Complete clinical guidelines on dosage, duration, choosing skin sites,   the effects of combining natural progesterone with various medications, modifications for special cases and dietary considerations

Recent articles have informed lay readers about: Tamoxifen: does it work? Is it worth the side effects?
Why nutritional supplements and hormone balance may be the most effective medicine for hypothyroidism
How to protect your liver and bolster  its detoxifying function Prescription drugs that can contribute to lung disease The latest breast cancer  research…what you should pay attention to   Why a hysterectomy might be unnecessary HRT and Dry Eye Syndrome (DES) The medical risks of eating unfermented soy products The many causes of urinary tract infections (UTI)

As you may be aware, synthetic hormone replacement has been positively linked with:

Heart Disease and Stroke: Unopposed estrogen (i.e., without progesterone balance) makes the blood a little stickier and increases the risk of stroke by 300% according to a meta-analysis by Emory University Medical School. Synthetic progestins can increase the risk of coronary artery spasm, whereas real progesterone protects against it. Stress-induced cortisol increases the risk of endothelial damage. This is blocked by progesterone but not by synthetic progestins such as Provera. Breast Cancer: The Harvard Nurses study recently revealed that estrogen, specifically estrone and estradiol, are linked to breast cancer in many women.

The study showed that each year on synthetic HRT increases a woman's risk of breast cancer by an additional 8%. Essentially, any physician who prescribes unopposed estrogen therapy, or doses of estrogen that surpass a woman's deficiency, can easily be creating a recipe for breast cancer. Expect major legal battles within the next few years.
Osteoporosis: Several new animal studies clearly confirm that estrogen (even at very low levels) can reduce bone resorption (inhibit bone mineral loss), but only progesterone or testosterone can stimulate new bone formation.

Hypothyroidism: We now know that excess estrogen inhibits thyroid hormone activity, and thus exacerbates thyroid deficiency. The most recent research indicates that a normal metabolite of endogenous estrogen, 2-methoxyestradiol, induces thyroid cell apoptosis and disruption of thyroid follicles. This process leads to release of thyroid antigens and probably  contributes to the high incidence of autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's thyroiditis) in women. In contrast, progesterone and testosterone are thyroid allies, and appropriate  supplementation with progesterone will often clear up minor thyroid symptoms. Women with hypothyroidism often contribute to the problem by taking too much estrogen (the standard 0.625 dose causes an overbalance of estrogen for many women) in relation to their progesterone level.

Are you a malpractice target?

More and more women read the journal articles, and they are fighting back. Female patients are outraged that they were ever allowed to take Premarin and Provera, and they're lashing out against their doctors. In fact, there has been an increasing surge of malpractice suits against physicians who prescribe artificial HRT.
 

Every day, more physicians are phasing out Premarin, Provera and PremPro and replacing these with NHRT.

The underlying difference is that natural hormone therapy is biochemically identical to the hormones manufactured by a woman's body. Correcting hormone deficiency with NHRT  relieves the many symptoms of menopause without the risk of side effects. No depression, no weight gain or irritability, no increased risk of breast cancer.

NOTE: Many medical publications mistakenly call Provera "progesterone." Yes, Provera is a progestin, but it is NOT progesterone, and it is NOT biochemically equal to the body's progesterone, any more than orange Kool-Aid shares the same chemistry as freshly squeezed orange juice. (If they were the same, fertility specialists would be able to use progestins but they can't because progestins can cause birth defects.)

Compare the molecular structure

Natural hormone replacement restores women's pre-menopausal levels of progesterone and estrogen. After a month or two on natural hormone replacement, many women report feeling as if menopause never happened.

Because of their chemical differences, progestins create different effects than that of  progesterone, and many of them are undesirable. As a result, your patients return with a myriad of new symptoms. Worse, these foreign compounds actually contribute to the onset of breast cancer, gallbladder disease and stroke, not to mention depression, weight gain, bloating and irritability.

The many benefits of Natural Hormone Replacement

Physicians across the country are abandoning PremPro for the various forms of natural hormone replacement. My phone has been ringing off the hook for technical advice. I help as many doctors as possible, and urge them to subscribe to the On-line Letter for Doctors, the definitive source for NHRT education, news, clinical findings and professional advice. I'm also inviting you to become a subscriber to natural hormone replacement's premier journal.

We estimate that within five to seven years, natural hormone replacement will become the universally accepted standard of care. This is because NHRT is clearly superior in so many ways...

Restoring hormone balance with NHRT relieves many symptoms of menopause without risk of side effects.
Female patients are far happier with NHRT and stay with the program. NHRT is the answer for women who have -- understandably -- rejected HRT or for  whom HRT has been contraindicated. With NHRT, appropriately prescribed, you will not have to worry about contributing to breast cancer, as conventional HRT has been found to do.  We have clear clinical evidence of a correlation between natural hormone replacement and breast cancer prevention. In ten years of prescribing NHRT, not a single patient of mine on NHRT has developed a new case of breast cancer. In addition, I continually survey doctors who prescribe NHRT as well as my newsletter readers, and out of thousands of those surveyed, I have only found four who had  been using NHRT for more than a few months who had breast cancer: all of them were using or had used excessively high doses of estrogen. We have found a strong correlation between NHRT and increased bone density. In
the On-line Letter, I explain exactly how physicians have been using NHRT to increase bone density up to 14% per year in osteoporosis patients. Fibrocystic, lumpy and painful breasts resolve rapidly with a natural progesterone supplementation regimen. I have a thick file of testimonials from delighted women who report that they are pain-free for the first time in years. Women on NHRT are much less likely to suffer from depression, obesity, hypothyroidism and many other illnesses associated with hormone imbalance. NHRT also tends to restore libido, usually without resorting to testosterone supplementation.

When I published my first natural HRT book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause, I completely underestimated the groundswell of interest from American women.  Over 1 million women have purchased this book and its companion volume What Your  Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause.

More and more women are asking their doctors about "natural hormones" and "hormone cream" and even demanding to have their hormone levels tested. And so they should. It's important that you are not caught off-guard and are able to convey your knowledge of NHRT to the women who rely on your expertise.

The On-line Medical Letter keeps you informed, and more importantly, contributes to your clinical success. Once you have integrated NHRT into your practice, you'll find patient encounters such as these commonplace:
 

These are the sort of comments you can expect when you switch over to NHRT, rather  than complaints, anger and exasperation. In fact, patients are so much happier with NHRT that physicians using it are reporting significant increases in patient volume due to word-of-mouth recommendations. Wouldn't you rather deal with the rapid growth of your practice than with mounting complaints and the risk of malpractice claims?

Be ahead of the curve, not behind it.

Every month in the On-line Letter for Doctors, you'll stay fully informed about...

Sincerely,
 

John R. Lee, M.D.

PS: I am a physician, researcher and editor, not an entrepreneur. I do not endorse, promote or market hormone replacement products or any other medicine or nutritional product. I publish my newsletters and write books for the benefit of other doctors and their female patients.