Natural Woman Institute

COMING SOON...INFORMATION ABOUT NEW ATTEMPT BY WYETH WITH COMPLICITY OF THE FDA TO LIMIT YOUR ACCESS TO BIOIDENTICALS...WHAT YOU CAN DO...WHAT IS ESTRIOL?

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If you are concerned about retaining your access to bio-identical hormones, click on "Updates" above for an important post relating to continuing attempts by the North American Menopause Society(NAMS)and its director, Dr. Wulf Utian, to attack their credibility.

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Dedicated to supporting safe and effective hormone therapies for women of all ages.

Provides the following free services on this website:

Doctor Referrals - Our database contains over 2,000 doctors and medical practitioners in the US and Canada who can prescribe natural/bio-identical hormones.

Compounding Pharmacies - A comprehensive list of over 400 pharmacies in the US and Canada that specialize in natural/bio-identical hormone prescriptions.


The nonprofit Natural Woman Institute (NWI) was founded in l997 with the mandate of inspiring and supporting the safest and most effective hormone therapies for women.

The isolation of human hormones in the 1920's was done by investigators driven by pure science. Drug companies saw big profit in selling hormone products based on these discoveries.

Very early on, Premarin (and later Prempro),a synthetic estrogenic product derived from horse urine, and not completely compatible with the human body, became the dominant drug in the marketplace, while safer and better alternatives were either surpressed or ignored. The driving principle behind "hormone replacement therapy" became control of the marketplace. Women were treated as consumers as opposed to individuals deserving the best treatment available from their doctors. For over forty years, hormone therapy has been monopolized and controlled by drug companies, principally Wyeth, and real science has taken a back seat to profits.

The damage was twofold: women were harmed and medical training and research were corrupted. For control of the marketplace meant control of what doctors prescribed, control of research, control of what was discussed at medical conferences, and control of a media dependent on drug advertising dollars -- but worst of all, it meant ignoring the significant side effects to women caused by the Premarin/Prempro regimen.

Twenty years ago, pioneering doctors and health professionals, having listened to escalating complaints from women about side effects, began working to provide an alternative to Premarin/Provera. Bio-identical hormones had been in use in Europe for fifty years, and in the US to a limited extent, but so-called Big Pharma had little interest in them, mostly because they couldn't control patents. Because the bio-identicals matched human hormones exactly, they consistently had good clinical results. You would think this fact alone, and the common sense factor that bio-identicals matched human hormones, would encourage doctors in their direction, but Wyeth was generating billions of dollars a year world-wide from its Premarin product line and completely controlling the dialogue.

Then, in July 2002, shock waves ripped through the medical world. An important National Institutes of Health (NIH) study revealed that contrary to the claims made over twenty years by the manufacturer, taking Premarin/Provera for a woman's lifetime did not help prevent disease. In fact, taking the drugs placed women at greater risk for heart disease, breast cancer, blood clots, and stroke. Over the years there had been other studies damning of Premarin products, but this study under government auspices proved a tipping point.

Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today confirmed that women are increasingly turning to bio-identicals -- as many as two million may be using them now. But the battle to make sure women have access to the best and safest hormonal therapy is far from over.

Don't expect a drug company to abandon its cash cow, even if it's a repudiated drug. Wyeth recently filed suit to put compounding pharmacies effectively out of business. This is a ruthless business move, but not surprising considering that the company experienced a 40% drop in profits for its Premarin product line in the last year.

And Wyeth still has its faithful legions to do battle for them. Now leading the charge against bio-identicals are the very same organizations that supported the disastrous "Premarin for life" regime, The North American Menopause Association (NAMS), and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Having once totally ignored the bio-identicals or dismissed them as useless, NAMS is now claiming that bio-identicals have the same risk and benefit factors of Premarin/Provera. This ignores a fact that is crucial to women: Bio-identicals work better, without the debilitating side effects.

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