Facebook Pixel

Why Is Hormone Replacement Therapy Controversial? - Dr. Emdur (VIDEO)

By Expert
 
Rate This

More Videos from Dr. Larry Emdur 22 videos in this series

Why Is Hormone Replacement Therapy Controversial? - Dr. Emdur (VIDEO)
Why Is Hormone Replacement Therapy Controversial? - Dr. Emdur (VIDEO)
3 of 22 : Current video

Dr. Emdur shares why hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is considered a controversial topic.

Dr.Emdur:
There’s a controversy in the medical community about hormone replacement therapy and that’s because there was a large study called the Women’s Health Initiative where they looked at 15,000 women which were on estrogen-replacement therapy and compared them to a group that were on placebo therapy and the women that were getting estrogen therapy, their incidents of heart disease, stroke, pulmonary emboli and even breast cancer increase instead of decreased and because of that, the study had to be terminated.

However, what you should be aware of, what they were studying was Premarin, which is a conjugated estrogen, which comes from horse urine. So, number one, the patients were taking a non-bio-dentical hormone, something from another species, and the second issue is they were taking progestin which is a semi-synthetic progesterone and they were studying that population, and in that population there were a lot of side effects from hormone replacement therapy.

Where the controversy lyes is that bio-identical hormone therapy may be different than taking hormones that are semi-synthetic or from another species, but to be honest, you know, that study has not yet been done looking strictly at bio-identical hormone therapy in a large population base.

About Dr. Emdur, D.O, Ph.D.:
Dr. Emdur is a board certified Internist/Pulmonologist (American Board Of Internal Medicine) and recognized by his peers as a Diplomate in the American College of Chest Physicians since 1996. He did his medicine and pulmonary training at the Cleveland Clinic (1979-1984) and has practiced both hospital based and office based pulmonary medicine in San Diego since 1984. He holds a PhD in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh (1975) an MBA from California State University (1998) and is board certified as a Diplomate and Advanced Fellow in anti-aging medicine by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. He also is a clinical faculty member at Western University of Health Science in California where he teaches medical students.

Visit Dr. Emdur at Alvarado Hospital

Tags:

Menopause

Get Email Updates

Menopause Guide

Have a question? We're here to help. Ask the Community.

ASK

Health Newsletter

Receive the latest and greatest in women's health and wellness from EmpowHER - for free!