What are Bio-identical Hormones and Why is Everyone Talking About Them?

By: John Milek, MD

 The term bio-identical hormone simply means that a hormone taken from plant sources and commercially made is identical to the hormone made in your body at the molecular level. This can be any hormone in our bodies.

Many years ago pharmaceutical companies began to synthesize and change many of the hormones in an effort to make them better than the natural one. They then patented these compounds and put them in various hormone pills such as birth control pills and menopause hormone products. They were heavily advertised and promoted as safe and effective. For a long time they did seem safe until the WHI study suggested that synthetic progestin may be the cause for the increase in breast cancer rate seen in the study. This caused a great disturbance in hormone therapy. As a result, millions of women stopped their hormones. As you can imagine millions of women felt terrible and developed medical problems related to lack of hormones in their bodies.

Most doctors were trained to use the synthetic hormones and believed in them. However, there were a few doctors who believed in bio-identical hormones all along. They believed that bio-identicals were safe and effective and there are many studies to back up their beliefs. For example, studies suggest that bio-identical hormone therapy does not increase ones breast cancer risk as compared to synthetic hormones.

Bio-identical hormones have been shown to reduce heart disease, osteoporosis, dementia, and maybe reduce colon cancer risk. Not to mention, an increase in feeling better.

So the news is good. Millions of women can safely take bio-identical hormones to relieve their menopausal symptoms and improve their overall health.

For more information call 985.448.1216.