Estrogen has been studied for a very long time. In fact, it was first placed in the US market in 1942, which was Premarin. Basically it was taken successfully without any medical alarms or concerns until the Women's Health Initiative in 2002 and nothing has been the same since. It has been reported that the results of that infamous study have caused the deaths of 50,000 to 100,000 women who had hysterectomies because they were too scared to continue taking it. You are also correct that each women has a different medical health status and history which is why the WHI study reported inaccurate results, the participants had the average age of 63, were overweight and had heart disease.
The observational study we are conducting will collect important data as to women's ages, what estrogen they are taking (including birth control & bio-identical), how long, and the result is has, if any, on heart disease, all cancers, osteoporosis, diabetes, blood clots and strokes. The bio-identical estrogen compounds that are available through compounding pharmacies in the US are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and do not have their endorsement.
A new theory has recently been discussed in that the timing of when women start estrogen may well be a very important factor so the observational data that will be collected will also serve to provide important information on this new theory.
Lastly, what I personally am interested in knowing and hope this study will provide an answer to is this simple logical question: if women are at their maximum health with estrogen, ages 12 to 45, and estrogen is needed by many important receptors in their body, including the heart, the bones, and blood vessels, just to name a few, HOW CAN WOMEN BE HEALTHY WITHOUT IT? All the doctors that I have been to and know about this study have all preliminarily stated that they believe that this study will indicate that women who maintain estrogen will be the healthy ones. If by any slim chance, this study provides this indication then it could open new doors where new drugs could be created to give women the choice of whether they want to endure menopause. Now I know that sounds far out there, any it may well be, but the last health improvement women were given a choice to was the birth control pills in 1960 which also created mass chaos at that time as everyone had differ opinions of what that choice could mean.
So, there are too many questions that haven't been answered concerning estrogen so this study, hopefully, will only serve to be a new beginning.
I have many interests in women's health issues because, medically speaking, at least in the US, women's are secondary to men's. As an example, more women die of heart disease than men yet if both are in an emergency room with the same diagnosis, men are treated first. If a man has a heart attack, his chances of survival are great, if a woman has a heart attack, the chances are great that she will die within the first year. It's a medical fact that estrogen prevents heart disease in women and that when their estrogen is gone, their risks increase enormously yet there is NO preventive measures in place for women to find out exactly how much, if any, plaque is in their arteries. This doesn't even touch on the subject how women loose their sex drive after estrogen is depleted. It's simple: women aren't interested in boys until their estrogen kicks in -- what puberty giveth, menopause taketh away. These are only a few topics that I believe women's health issues are lacking in which needs to be brought to a much higher standard.
Have a great day UK -- from me in the USA!!
