Sommers on Oprah

[Eos of the Eons]

Okay, the show wasn't a total bust I hear, but there are problems. People noted that these exact same hormones are available, and that the synthetic forms are available under a physicians care.

However, some nut said the hormones weren't available at regular pharmacies until people demanded them.

Hormone replacement therapy has always been available. But, Sommers is claiming that the ones from the plants directly are more "natural".

How is something from a plant (we are not plants) better for us than the exact same hormone from a pharmacist who is helping patients under physician guidance? Under a physician's guidance HRT is tailored to the woman. So this claim that people selling "bioidenticals" are the only ones tailoring HRT for a woman falls flat.

That is the line that sells "biodenticals" though, and Sommers is still hawking it as the thing that gave her her life back. Something is wrong with any other HRT, according to Sommers it must come from a plant and a special pharmacy to have her great results.

There was another thread on this somewhere, but I can't seem to find it. Ah well.

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20090128_tows_suzannesomers/1

http://www.pharmwatch.org/strategy/bioidentical.shtml

These "bioidenticals" are not safer than other HRT, to claim it is without evidence... is unethical.

Somers adamantly defends her book and bioidenticals. "From a woman's standpoint, this is the first time we've gotten some relief in a non-drug way," she says in an interview with NEWSWEEK.

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2006/11/from_the_ridiculous_to_the_sublime_a_jou.php

Yeah, that old false claim that something is not a drug when it is. Argh. Serious ignorance being demonstrated by Sommers, but that is no surprise. I suppose "bioidenticals" aren't chemicals either.

From the point of view of being a cancer surgeon, though, what really irritates me about this is that Somers reportedly had an estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, yet she's taking a lot of estrogen and advocating the same for postmenopausal women. Whether they are "bioidentical" or not, taking large amounts of estrogens after having been treated for an ER(+) breast cancer without the input of a medical oncologist is a very bad idea. A prior history of breast cancer is almost an absolute contraindication to HRT.-Orac