Does your Doctor Know This? 7 Facts This year almost 50 million American women will become candidates for hormone therapy. A majority of them will be told they need estrogen.   Most menopausal women are not deficient in estrogen (it continues to be manufactured in the fat cells). They are deficient in progesterone. Giving them more estrogen creates a serious & harmful state of estrogen dominance which has been definitively linked to breast cancer as well endometriosis, fibroid tumors, and fibrocystic breast disease.   Most doctors tell the women they treat that they need the synthetic estrogen for life. If you are placed on synthetics at age 50, that means your doctor expects to keep you on these harmful drugs for 30-40 years!   HRT increases the risk of breast cancer by 40% (more in women with a family history). Reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association and in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute now show that each year a woman takes HRT, her breast cancer risk rises even further by an additional 8-9% per year above the 40%!   Premarin, the leading synthetic estrogen, is the most prescribed drug in America. The second leading prescribed drug for women is Synthroid which is for low thyroid. Did you know that estrogen dominance decreases thyroid function? It is a vicious cycle!   HRT offers NO protection against heart disease. A study published by the American Heart Association in July, 2001 revealed that women on HRT had MORE heart attacks, strokes and blood clots than those in the placebo group. That’s Right! Estrogen does not protect your heart as you have been told. Note: The study used the 2 major drugs Premarin and Prempro to ascertain this data.   Estrogen does not help build new bone. It simply keeps old bone from resorbing. Progesterone actually helps build new bone and is therefore the treatment of choice for Osteoporosis protection.   Studies indicate that within five (5) years of discontinuing synthetic hormones, your breast cancer risk returns to normal.   PROTECT YOUR HEALTH ! CHOOSE PHYTO-HORMONES!   Cordially,   Helen Pensanti M.D.   Back to Index         © 2003 Copyright Helen Pensanti, M.D.