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If you have received hormone replacement therapy, it is pertinent
that you contact a hormone
replacement lawyer.
For decades, women have been using hormone replacement therapy
so commonly that it has almost become synonymous with the
onset of menopause. Medical experts had been telling doctors to
encourage almost every woman to take hormone replacement therapy
when reaching menopause, fueling the estrogen-progestin regimen
to become one of the most common prescriptions written 70 million
times a year and taken by 6 million American women. According
to Dr. Issac Schiff, “ten years ago, it was almost malpractice
not to endorse estrogen. Now the bubble has burst,” (Time
7/22/02).
On July 9, 2002, information was released from the Women’s
Health Initiative (WHI) study involving over 16,000 healthy women
after it was halted three years earlier than planned. Researchers
concluded it would be unethical to continue the study because
of the surprising findings linking hormone replacement therapy
to heart disease, breast cancer, stroke, and blood clots. The
WHI study was the first and only large study comparing the effects
of hormone replacement therapy with placebos in healthy women.
Originally believed to prevent heart disease, the study provided
answers to the ongoing debate of whether the risks or the benefits
or hormone replacement therapy outweighed one another.
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Groups have been opposed to hormone replacement therapy
from the start, refusing to believe the claims and questioned
the data available on its’ effectiveness. The National
Women’s Health Network was astounded when Wyeth, the
company that makes the leading hormone replacement therapy
pill Prempro, went to the FDA asking for a label change
as protective against heart disease. The group’s surprise
was the fact that they felt a drug for healthy men would
never be approved without a randomized clinical trial.
Lobbying women’s groups in addition to criticism by
congresswomen regarding the lack of attention that is paid
towards women’s health pushed Congress to appropriate
money for the WHI study that was performed at the National
Institutes of Health. The results seemed to exhibit exactly
why certain groups were never convinced of what hormone
replacement therapy claimed it could do. Dr. Fletcher and
Dr. Graham of Harvard Medical School found that “the
whole purpose of healthy women taking long-term estrogen/progestin
therapy is to preserve health and prevent disease. The results
of this study provide strong evidence that the opposite
is happening for important aspects of women’s health,
even in the absolute risk is low.”
Doctors and women alike were shocked and confused at how
one of the most common prescriptions that millions of women
were taking was just found to do more harm than good. Linked
to increases in breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and
blood clots, women and doctors are trying to figure out
the future for menopausal women. For many women, stopping
their hormone replacement therapy will not be difficult
for the minimal symptoms they experience temporarily, like
hot flashes and mood swings, leading many to wonder why
if the hormones were so insignificant in their transition
to menopause their doctors encouraged them to use the pills.
For decades hormone replacement therapy has been used without
knowing the long-term risks and side effects associated
to the drug.
If
you would like to receive more information on hormone replacement
drugs including Prempro, Premarin, and Premphase contact
us.
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Breaking
News!! OCTOBER 2003
Ovarian Risk Amongst
Combined Hormone Replacement Therapy Users
Women taking estrogen plus progestin were diagnosed
as having invasive ovarian cancer at a rate of 42 per 100,000
person-years in comparison to the 15 per 100,000 person-years
in the placebo group. The Hormone Replacement Therapy study
analyzed trial data collected for the Women’s Health
Initiative trial involving 16,608 postmenopausal women who
had not had a hysterectomy at enrolment and were using a
certain combination of Hormone Replacement Therapy drugs.
Read Full Article....
More Hormone Replacement Therapy
News....
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Over 16,000 women participated in a major clinical trial that
was stopped because of the serious risks found to occur when using
hormone replacement therapy including:
 - The Women’s Health Initiative study showed
that estrogen/progestin hormones do not protect against heart
disease as earlier thought. The study found that hormone replacement
therapy actually raises the risk of heart disease by 23%.
- The Women’s Health Initiative definitively
proved that hormone replacement therapy does raise the risk of
invasive breast cancer. The earlier thirty studies was unable
to prove this serious risk that was shown to occur 26% more in
women taking hormone replacement therapy pills.
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Strokes become more likely as people age and as their blood vessels
age as well. When blood vessels age they become less flexible
and can lead to buildup in blood pressure that causes strokes.
Women taking hormone replacement therapy are at higher risk of
blood clots because estrogen tends to promote them. The blood
clots can add to the risk of stroke that was found to occur 38%
more in women on hormone replacement therapy.
- Blood clots have been shown to occur 100% more in
women taking hormone replacement therapy. The high increased risk
of blood clots also raises the risk of stroke.
There were an estimated 38% of women past menopause taking hormone
replacement therapy when the announcement of the study’s
data was released, with around 70 million prescriptions written
every year. In one year’s time, for every 10,000 women who
take estrogen-progestin combination, there will be eight more
breast cancers, eight more strokes, and seven more heart attacks.
Due to the millions of women that take the hormone replacement
therapy the number of illnesses quickly add up.
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