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Women in Balance Stresses Importance of Choice for Women Hormone Therapy Patients

Posted on: Friday, 28 October 2005, 15:01 CDT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Women in Balance, a leading association of doctors, healthcare professionals and other advocates for women's health, today called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to preserve the choices women have for hormone therapy. The call was prompted by a recent filing with the FDA from Wyeth that questioned the safety and efficacy of bioidentical hormone replacement therapies.

"Physicians are the best judges of their patients' individual needs and more physicians and patients are finding that customized bioidentical hormone therapies work best," said Jane Murray, M.D., medical director of The Sastun Center for Integrative Health Care, and the founding chair of Women in Balance. "The doctor-patient relationship is very important and doctors should have the option to prescribe and patients the option to take individualized, bioidentical hormone therapies. Some of these options are drugs made by pharmaceutical companies, and some are compounded specifically for an individual patient's needs," Dr. Murray said.

Every day millions of women confront uncomfortable and sometimes painful health problems related to hormone imbalance. These problems are real and, particularly during menopause and the years leading up to it, can seriously affect the emotional, physical and social aspects of their lives.

Over the past decade, millions of women and their physicians have found that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) is unique in restoring hormone balance caused by menopause. Bioidentical hormones are extracted from soy or wild yams in a laboratory; and modified in such a way that the molecular structure is identical to the body's own hormones. For this reason, they are referred to as bioidentical hormones.

In addition, a number of clinical studies have demonstrated that natural, bioidentical hormones can ease menopause symptoms, restore hormone balance and help women achieve optimal health, without the side effects of non- bioidentical hormones usually used in prescription drug therapies.

Most recently, a study by researchers in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Texas at Tyler showed that natural progesterone cream provides relief for the symptoms of menopause while showing no short- term health risks. More studies of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy can be found at http://www.womeninbalance.org/research.html.

"Individualized treatments are the future of healthcare," continued Dr. Murray. "The one-size-fits-all model may work for some people, but others -- particularly menopausal women sensitive to even slight fluctuations in dosage strength -- require individualized care. We founded Women in Balance because we believe that there are safer, natural and more effective approaches for alleviating menopausal symptoms, achieving hormone balance and creating optimal health. We also believe that the foundation of health and hormone balance begins with healthy lifestyle choices. We want to ensure that all options remain open for women, and that research in this important field is high on the priority list for the NIH and other research-oriented institutions."

About Women in Balance

Women in Balance is a national, non-profit organization comprised of women, doctors, health care professionals, national organizations and their members dedicated to supporting safe, effective and natural solutions for women's health issues in general and for the menopausal transition in particular.

Women in Balance

CONTACT: Colleen Reilly of Women in Balance, +1-202-363-3204, orwomeninbalance@comcast.net

Web site: http://www.womeninbalance.org/research.html

Source: PRNewswire

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