Dr. Erika | Bioidentical Hormone Expert

BIOIDENTICAL HORMONES: THE EVIDENCE IS HERE

It is sad and disturbing that in 2009 there is no formally-designated medical specialty in women's health. It is sad and disturbing that the role of hormones in wellness and disease prevention is unclear and confusing to the medical community and the public at large.

Physicians taking care of women and working with hormones are polarized; they either support bioidenticals to a fault or reject them cavalierly without scientific basis or knowledge of what they are or how they work.

Doctors pitted against doctors are a recipe for disaster. This untenable situation directly affects patient care. Women are suffering while desperately looking to their doctors for answers and reassurance. We can no longer stand by watching women be treated as second class citizens in our present health care system.

As a conventional physician who has worked successfully with bioidentical hormones for 14 years on 15,000 patients I find it hard to accept that if it weren't for celebrities touting bioidenticals, most conventional physicians would still think of bioidenticals as a dirty word or a marketing term. Shouldn't the goal of healthcare be for physicians to help patients feel better? What am I missing here?

I find it impossible to grasp the reality that millions of women who take bioidenticals might have to continue to be victims of shoddy practices by fringe elements and feel obligated to hide the fact that they are taking bioidenticals from their conventional doctors for fear of intimidation or belittlement.

It is time to eliminate the polarization. Together with a group of expert and caring clinicians we have committed to creating a better system of cooperation among doctors and between doctors and patients.

One year ago we created the Bioidentical Hormone Initiative, www.bioidenticalhormone initiative.org , a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating physicians, educating lawmakers in Congress and providing scientific and referral resources to physicians and laypeople on all bioidentical hormone data on an ongoing basis.

The Bioidentical Hormone Initiative, is asking for physicians to join forces and experience and effectuate a positive change in women's health and learn the science behind them and consider the use of bioidentical hormones in their practices.

There are no good guys, there are no bad guys here. There only are women who suffer and need not do so. For goodness sake, this is 2009 after all!

When the focus is shifted entirely onto the women we will be able to create a better health care system that will lead to healthier and happier patients and more professionally-fulfilled physicians. Together with the founders and the members of the Bioidentical Hormone Initiative we will work to accomplish this goal. Please join us!

THERE IS Hope for Women's Health and Bioidentical Hormones After ALL

Today is a big day for us!

For us physicians who serve women no longer accepting status quo, physicians with the desire and knowledge to keep patients healthy and young, with the goal of always being cutting edge and safe in the information and treatments we deliver. Physicians who follow the science and the scientific evidence when treating patients with bioidentical hormones, physicians who dedicate their lives to the wellbeing of the patients we treat.

Today is a big day for us women! For the first time the mainstream media is acknowledging that women are suffering unnecessarily and that hormone imbalance is an overwhelming handicap that needs attention, legitimate treatments and can no longer be swept under the rug.

It took someone like Oprah Winfrey, who is obviously suffering from inadequately treated thyroid problems, menopausal hormone loss and its attendant weight gain and other unbearable symptoms to blast the hinges off the door to bioidentical hormone therapy.

Acknowledgement is always the precursor to enlightenment.

Maybe one day soon Oprah might even consider bioidenticals an important ingredient in her commitment to achieving true wellness.

For now, let's just celebrate the fact that bioidentical hormones are "coming out", and are finally being considered as viable treatments for feeling lousy. No longer are we hearing that "bioidenticals are just a marketing term". Now that is progress!

The next step involves training the doctors.

We must educate the medical community about the existence of bioidenticals, provide them with the scientific data and the studies about them. Teach them the difference between how bioidenticals and non-identical hormone molecules work in the human body. Inform them that bioidenticals are FDA approved and available at your local drugstore. Explain to them the role and usefulness of compounding. Help them understand that they must know and get involved with who compounds the hormones they prescribe.

Finally, balanced and honest studies must be undertaken on a large scale and in full view that compare the efficacy and safety of bioidenticals to their non-identical counterparts. The era of creating confusion and muddying the waters of hormone therapies has reached its end.

Teaching doctors the truth about hormones must start in medical schools and continue throughout their clinical careers. Women's health is indelibly connected to the knowledge and understanding of hormones and therapies associated with them. We can no longer treat women and their health as second class citizens.

While physicians like myself focus on opening the doors of knowledge to the medical community-(WebMD News Story and read my most recent article in the Medical Clinics for physicians) you, the patient must become vigilant about the care you receive, the treatment you accept from both conventional and alternative practitioners.

My hope is that you will now begin to demand that your doctors listen to you.

When you say you have hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, weight gain, depression, loss of sex drive, brain fog and everything else you know is hormonally connected, do not take a pat on the back,birth control pills,antidepressants or "you're just getting old honey" as answers. Do not allow anyone to scare you!

Do not hide the fact that you are taking or want to take bioidenticals from your Ob-Gyn, Internist or Endocrinologist. They need to learn about them now!

It's high time all doctors start representing your interests and become members of your team. When you no longer accept being taken for granted, will your OB/GYNs and Endocrinologists become true providers of health.

This is a new day and we must all celebrate. It's the day we took back our healthcare!

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1. Estrogen and Natural Hormone Therapy.

2. Hormones and Women 20-29.

3. Hormones and Women 30-39.

4. Hormones and Women 40-59+.

5. Progesterone Cream.