Rehabilitating HRT. Pharmaceutical medicine continues the process.

Today, 2 February 2022, the UK's drug regulator, the MHRA, has suggested that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) could become available over-the-counter without a doctor's prescription. The possibility was heralded by the BBC, always a great supporter of pharmaceutical drugs. The drug is Gina 10, or estadiol, and the BBC article goes to great lengths interviewing conventional medical practitioners, who provide reassurance about the safety of the drug. For example, they quote the NHS.

            "Some types of HRT slightly increase the risk of breast cancer and blood clots in some women, but the risks are small and usually outweighed by the benefits".

I have written before about the history of HRT drugs. In November 2015, for instance, I wrote an article entitled "Menopause Issues and NICE guidelines? HRT might cause cancer, heart problems and dementia, but what the hell, women should take it anyway! In this I quoted from the British Medical Journal in , 2007 (335: 239-44).

            "Eventually, several trials produced results that were so bad they had to be discontinued. In 2002, trials conducted by the Women’s Health Initiative in the USA, described as 'the largest and best designed federal studies of HRT'  was halted because women taking the hormones had a significantly increased risk of breast  and cervical cancer, heart attacks, stroke and blood clots. More trials were terminated in 2007, when a study of 5,692 women taking HRT raised similar concerns but added 'more definition to the health risks'.

At the time I suspected that this might prove to be the end of HRT, but I clearly underestimated the ability of the conventional medical establishment to promote and sell dangerous drugs.

My 2015 article now contains several subsequent postscripts about conventional medicine's attempts to 'rehabilitate' hormone replacement therapy. The BBC enumerates how successful this rehabilitation has been. From a complete ban on HRT drugs in 2007 it states that 150,000 women are now prescribed HRT.

 So perhaps Gina 10, or estadiol, is different, perhaps it is safer? The BBC certainly wants us to believe this. It quotes one doctor.

            "It's different to HRT and it doesn't reduce the health risks of the menopause, but it is very safe".

 Whenever I hear a conventional doctor saying that a pharmaceutical drug or vaccine is safe, I run for cover! So I went to the drugs.com website to check. It makes horrendous reading, and contains one of the longest "warning" boxes that I have ever seen. I will not reproduce it here, the above link can be easily accessed.

Yet any woman who is considering taking this drug, it is important to read this information before making their decision. An "informed decision" is only possible after reading it - as it is clear conventional medicine will never be honest about the safety of their medicines.

• The BBC, as usual, are willing to promote a pharmaceutical drug, regardless of how dangerous it might be. 
• Conventional medical doctors may be willing to toe the line, and call any pharmaceutical drug "safe".

But no patient should ever take any pharmaceutical drug without checking the known, or at least the admitted adverse reactions is can cause.

So what should a woman do, who is suffering from serious menopausal symptoms? Conventional medicine has nothing else to offer - which is one of the reasons HRT is being regularly rehabilitated by the NHS. Women should certainly not suffer in silence. There are alternative to conventional medical treatment, much safe, and more effective treatments offered by natural medical therapies.

Homeopathy is one of them, certainly the one that I would recommend.

Why Homeopathy? for Menopause.

If it does nothing else (and it will) it will protect you from the harm of pharmaceutical treatment.

 

See also my previous blogs on the dangers of Hormone Replacement Therapy.

August 2016.         HRT Treatment causes Cancer. Old News but New News.

October 2019.       BREAST CANCER. Why is it that conventional medicine does not understand that HRT is a significant cause of this? Who protects patients from harmful drugs?

November 2021.   The Menopause, HRT, and Breast Cancer.

 

 

 

The Menopause, HRT, and Breast Cancer

I have written about the menopause, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and breast and cervical cancer many times before. To do so again is certainly deja vu! But headline health news recently provided us with "good" news - at least this is how it has been universally heralded:

HRT Prescription Charges to be Reduced.

       "The cost of repeat HRT prescriptions will be cut in a move set to save women who rely on the treatment 'hundreds of pounds per year', the government has announced. Working with NHS England, the government says it will look to implement longer prescribing cycles 'in line with NICE guidelines', so women receive fewer prescriptions, meaning they pay fewer prescription charges. The government has asked NHS England to review current practice and the barriers to implementing NICE guidance. To further improve access to HRT, the government will also look at the possibility of combining 2 hormone treatments into one prescription, so women only pay a single charge. It says this change would benefit around 10% of women accessing HRT".

Patients in particular were said to be delighted at the outcome - clearly the decision is going to save them money - and this is usually a good reason for delight! But should it be? The history of HRT is closely linked to breast and cervical cancer.

• In the early 2000's, research began to demonstrate the strong link between HRT and cancer, to the extent that the research was stopped because it was considered unsafe, and unethical to continue.

       "....several trials produced results that were so bad they had to be discontinued.  In 2002, trials conducted by the Women’s Health Initiative in the USA, described as 'the largest and best designed federal studies of HRT'  was halted because women taking the hormones had a significantly increased risk of breast  and cervical cancer, heart attacks, stroke and blood clots. More trials were terminated in 2007, when a study of 5,692 women taking HRT raised similar concerns but added 'more definition to the health risks' (WDDTY 9 August 2007, source: British Medical Journal, 2007; 335: 239-44).

• So from 2007, some 5 years too late, HRT was virtually suspended for several years.
• Then, in 2015, like magic, HRT was rejuvenated. The research was discounted, so doctors could began prescribing it again, and so women began taking it again - in large numbers. HRT might cause breast cancer, heart problems and dementia, but (what the hell) women should take it anyway!
• But then, in 2016, just one year later, there was a warning. HRT could cause breast cancer! As I said at the time, it was 'old news' presented as 'new news'. But nothing was done, no action was taken to protect women.
  
• Now, a further 5 years on, we are being asked to rejoice - because these dangerous drugs are to be made available to women far cheaper than they were before.

What this demonstrates, of course, is that medical science has a short memory, even about its own research, and further, that this amnesia places patients at risk of dangerous and harmful drugs. It tells us that the conventional medical establishment is prepared to give patients pharmaceutical drugs, regardless of the harm they are known to cause!

So what does conventional medicine say about the causes of breast cancer? This is just one of the serious adverse reactions to HRT, but this is what the UK's NHS state

        "The causes of breast cancer are not fully understood, making it difficult to say why one woman may develop breast cancer and another may not."

If you persevere, and continue down the page, after causes such as 'age', 'family history', 'previous breast cancer and lumps', 'dense breast tissue' (all of which the patient, nor medicine can do anything about), you get to hormone replacement, and a recognition that "HRT is associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer". Then it suggests that

        "There is no increased risk of breast cancer if you take HRT for less than 1 year. But if you take HRT for longer than 1 year, you have a higher risk of breast cancer than women who never use HRT."

Yet surely this is what the government has now negotiated for women, cheaper repeat prescriptions for a drug that should not be used for more than one year! What kind of medicine is this? It is more than amnesia. It provides patients with price incentives to take a dangerous drug for longer, against it's own current advice!

The NHS goes on to accept that "the increased risk of breast cancer falls after you stop taking HRT, but some increased risk remains for more than 10 years compared to women who have never used HRT".

The advice for women should surely be not to take HRT. But as pharmaceutical medicine has nothing else, certainly nothing safer to offer, it is prepared to prescribe a drug that has been proven to be lethal for women for many decades - since the 1940's.

And this is done by a medical system whose first principle is supposed to be "First, do no harm".

Yet there is an alternative, a safer medicine available. It is homeopathy. Homeopathy can deal with the menopause, and do so without causing breast and cervical cancer, heart problems, and dementia.

Why Homeopathy? for the Menopause.

Postscript: July 2022

HRT and the Menopause
So HRT was safe until the early 2000's: then it was so unsafe that research was stopped because these drugs were too dangerous; then new research in 2015 (financed by the pharmaceutical industry) 'proved' it was safe...... AND NOW "new evidence" is being considered that NICE guidelines might have to be renewed - because the drug is causing breast cancer.
    * When will conventional medicine learn?
    * When will patients learn that Con Med is not to be trusted?
https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinical-areas/womens-health/nice-to-review-menopause-guidance-over-evidence-of-hrt-cancer-risk/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pulse%20daily