Should you avoid Prempro for hormone replacement?
by Dana Burnett
Though some medical experts claim conventional hormone replacement is a better therapy of choice, medical studies and lawsuits prove otherwise. Several court cases have charged Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Prempro (conjugated estrogens/ medroxyprogesterone acetate) with punitive-damages. Lawsuits filed against the drugmaker have regarded the association of Prempro and increased breast cancer risks. It was discovered that the company willfully hid evidence that Prempro is linked to cancer. Furthermore, Wyeth allowed their consultants to ghostwrite for medical journal articles and offered gifts to medical doctors to promote the product.
Prempro sales fell dramatically after the release of the Women’s Health Initiative in 2002 and the Million Women Study in 2003, which found an increased risk of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and stroke were linked to the use of conventional hormone replacement therapy. After women stopped taking Prempro, breast cancer rates fell dramatically. Furthermore, Prempro has been linked to lung cancer. Women taking the estrogen/progestin combination were shown to have a greater incidence of death from lung cancer, when compared to women taking a placebo.
Women have often felt trapped, as they know the risks of taking conventional hormone replacement are detrimental. Yet, they feel the effects of hormone deficiencies that come with menopause and want relief from their symptoms. Fortunately, there are alternatives to conventional hormone replacement, which are gaining popularity among women. Specifically, bioidentical hormones can effectively restore progesterone and estrogen levels without the detrimental side effects associated with synthetic hormone therapies.
Should you avoid Prempro? The answer is clearly, yes. There is no reason to put your health at risk, when there are safer alternatives to this conventional therapy. If your doctor recommends you take Prempro, you should question their advice and find an alternate physician that will prescribe a safer therapy.
References
Dale MC. (2009 October 26). Pa. jury returns verdict in Prempro-cancer case. Retrieved on November 5, 2009 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/26/financial/f135400D04.DTL#ixzz0W0iFYtIS
Chlebowski R., Schwartz A, Wakelee H, Anderson G, et al. Oestrogen plus progestin and lung cancer in postmenopausal women (Women’s Health Initiative trial): a post-hoc analysis of a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. 374(9697):1243-1251.
Million Women Study Collaborators. Breast cancer and hormone-replacement therapy in the Million Women Study, Lancet. 2003; 362:419–427.
Rossouw E. Anderson GL, Prentice RL, et al. Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results from the Women’s Health Initiative randomized controlled trial, JAMA. 2002; 288:321–333.
