I think the hormone replacement therapy boondoogle will (or should) go down in history as one of the biggest health scandals ever. I'd been bugging my mom to stop doing HRT ever since I saw the alarming studies that came out in 2002, which warned that taking synthetic estrogen could fuel the growth of estrogen-positive tumors, which carry receptors for estrogen on their cell surfaces (duh!) and fake progesterone is also not well utilized by the body (plus, it's made from pregnant mare's urine--hence, the brand name PreMARin--and the poor pregnant horses are kept in deplorable conditions). Anyway, I'm sure you're reading all about the BIG drop in breast cancer after everyone stopped taking the hormone, which pretty much says everything right there...so no need to go on about it here.
What you may not know about, however, is that oral contraceptives are also a source of fake hormones anad show similar cancer causing abilities.
This is from a medical newsletter I'm subscribed to, NOT an alternative health one. Sad, sad, sad. Even our midwives' office is crammed full of ads for oral contraceptives for such ridiculous conditions as acne! PMS! Well, at least your skin will be nice and clear and you won't be too PMSy when you show up for your chemo!
Oral Contraceptive Use Increases Risk for Premenopausal Breast Cancer: "'The Women's Health Initiative Clinical Trial reported that prolonged exposure to exogenous estrogens and progestins in hormone therapy increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. In addition, the World Health Organization recently classified both postmenopausal hormone replacement and oral contraceptives (OCs) as group 1 carcinogens.'"
Again, simple rule: It's not nice to fool mother nature!
10 comments:
I tried it once, it gave me such violent mood swings that I decided it was evil.
Hey, most of us people who have struggled to get pregnant never needed birth control! There are positive aspects of infertility!
This is an issue close to my heart since I had a pretty severe reaction to oral contraceptives during my mid twenties. I wasn't quite normal for almost 3 years and wasn't able to work consistantly during this time.
What pains me most is that "feminism" seems to side with oral contraceptives. Idealistically, it's surely liberating, but practically speaking, the deleterious effects are anything but liberating. Feminism also doesn't seem to want to investigate the IVF issue. I wonder what medical journals will be saying about this in 10 years.
Ali
I was on the pill for 3 years and loved it. Had no side effects whatsoever and it did of course prevent pregnancy. But I'm very glad I was only on it a relatively short time -- in fact, my unease with the whole idea of artificial hormones, and the side effect tales of other women, scared me away from it for many years prior, and now I realize that that was all to the good.
Of course, during those pill-free years, I was using the diaphragm, which I always found very uncomfortable and which caused me many bladder infections, which are also dangerous and miserable. The pill was a much better experience, I have to admit.
That oral contraceptives increase the risk of breast cancer is not new-- it's on the packets and doctors are supposed to tell you this when they prescribe it. But it all just shows to go ya that safe and effective birth control is still elusive....
(To poster: "feminism" is not a conspiracy! Feminists are pro- women's health and had anyone known in advance the ill effects of hormones they would NOT have promoted the pill, I'm sure. Quite the opposite. Let's blame the pharmaceutical industrial complex before we blame women's rights advocates!)
As a naturopathic dr. and breast cancer survivor, it makes me so frustrated when patients continue to use BCPs in spite of my recommendations. Theoretically people come to see me because they are looking for a "natural" solution, an alternative.
The denial of awareness of the body is ENORMOUS. Our society teaches us to ignore the body's messages and listen to the "rational" advise of M.D.s when something goes awry.
9 times out of 10 when patients go off BCPs much of their dis-ease clears up!
Thanks, Dr. Hannah! I'm honored to have an n.d. reading the site!
I'm psyched to find someone with passionate attitude about the b.s. masquerading as modern conveniences for women.
I live on an island on the Other coast where there are no street lights at night and fallow fields next door....the closest I could get to living the old fashioned way while being close to a big city. We have forgotten about living with nature....
blah, blah, blah, I'll write more about this later ;-)
Dr. Hannah,
Are you on Whitby Is. by any chance? I went to the Hedgebrook Writers' Colony...really sweet! They grow their own organic food and there are no outside lights. I learned to walk w/o flashlight, enjoyed what the real night shd look like, and realized, gee, our bodies are actually pretty smart.
p.s. I am a feminist and almost bought that "periods are patriarchal" thing and ALMOST started the continuous BCP thing...now there's a whole new product, "Seasonale" that encourages it. Eeeek!
This information is totally FALSE.
There are many studies that proved that oral contraceptive has NO relation with breast cancer.
Even the "famous" WHI study proved to be wrong in this ideea. (BTW, the WHI study was about hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women!) Read more, there is a lot of literature on the net regarding this.
Thank you for posting--feel free to post links to the studies you are citing.
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