About Biomimetic Hormones
If you are using natural bio-identical hormones, either as static dosing or in a Biomimetic fashion, and have arrived at menopause or perimenopause and have done your research, you probably have heard about the battle between Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the Federal Drug Administration and the individual’s right to use bio-identical hormones. The battle began in 2005 when Wyeth filed a citizen’s complaint with the FDA to prohibit the use of bio-identical hormones. The background to this story however starts earlier than 2005 when Wyeth lost 68% in profits between 2002 and 2004 from the synthetic hormone replacement medications Premarin and Prempro.
Premarin, made from pregnant mares’ urine and Prempro made by Wyeth for menopause had boosted profits for Wyeth and shown promise of great profits for the pharmaceutical company because of the obvious, every woman reaches menopause.
However, in 2002 a study by the Women’s Health Initiative showed that synthetic hormone replacement therapies such as Prempro and Premarin caused heart attacks, strokes, an increase in breast cancer and blood clots in the lungs. Research since that year has proven again and again the health risks associated by chemical hormone replacement therapy.
The result of the WHI study was that profits fell drastically for Wyeth and other pharmaceutical companies. Women stopped taking this form of HRT. Wyeth then went ahead with a citizen’s complaint to the FDA in 2005 to stop their loss of profits to end the growing competition from the compounding pharmacies.
Why would the large pharmaceutical companies not starting making individual formulas for women? The answer again, is profit-related. Bioidentical mixtures cannot be patented and therefore, there is no profit in producing a more natural alternative.
As a result of the WHI study, women began to seek out natural and less harmful alternative therapies and the doctors and compounding pharmacies responded. Bio-identical hormones are plant based extracts synthesized in a laboratory. They are called “bio-identical” because they are chemically exactly the same as produced by the human body. Bio-identical hormones have been used in Europe and China with great success for over 50 years. In North America, bio-identical hormones can only be obtained after a doctor, specially trained in menopause and hormone issues, obtains a hormone panel from the patient and then prescribes a bio-identical hormone therapy which could be progesterone, bi-est, tri-est, and perhaps testosterone supplementation depending on the individual needs of the patient. Patients then monitor their symptoms and regularly return to their doctors for hormone panels to monitor hormone levels. The individual bioidentical hormone mixtures are compounded by a specially trained compounding pharmacist.
Which brings us up to today, the final outcome of Wyeth’s “citizen’s complaint”. The FDA has ordered compounding pharmacies to stop using the word “bio-identical” to describe their compounded bio-identical mixtures and warned them to not compound bio-identical mixtures containing Estriol.
All of the above brings us to today and this website, Biomimetic-Hormones.com. Biomimetic-Hormones.com has been created as an information source for people seeking out information on natural bioidentical hormone supplementation.
If the FDA has chosen to ban the word “bio-identical” in attempting to aid the pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in its quest for profits, a new vocabulary must be found to replace what has been “forbidden”. It’s almost play on language which has been forced upon the masses, a kind of “newspeak”, a new dialogue which must be used.
Hence, in describing what bio-identical hormones actually do, which is “mimic the hormone fluctuations which occur in a younger human being’s body, the word bio-mimetic is now applied and used to replace the word bio-identical. It is here you will find at Biomimetic-Hormones.com all the information you need on menopause, perimenopause, bioidentical/bio-mimetic hormones. Call it what you will.
We trust this will suit the FDA and Wyeth whose greatest concerns are of profit and not actually the health of the individual.
