Raising Questions Over Hormone Therapy
Larrian on March 10th, 2008 | Filed under Drugs, Heart, Women's Health
What woman doesn’t recall the dust up over hormone replacement therapy ( HRT - which includes PROGESTINS) in 2002, as clueless doctors ripped all hormone therapy out of the hands of menopausal women over a fear of causing cancer. Well, a new article points to an even MORE dangerous medication for women of all ages: birth control pills.
In a study published in the Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology Drs. Meendering et al reveal how dangerous medroxyprogesterone acetate ( MPA, marketed as PROVERA) is to a pre-menopausal woman’s vascular health. This synthetic drug stiffens our arteries so they can’t relax normally to the pulsation of blood through our vascular highway, resulting in increased blood pressure and early heart disease. The drug is also used in a popular birth control method, DepoProvera, a once a month injection to stop menstrual bleeding.
The study looked at estradiol alone and in combination with MPA and found that MPA wiped out all the beneficial effects estradiol had on arterial responsiveness and elasticity. They also found that MPA caused increased inflammation in the body by increasing the concentration of endothelin-1, a cell peptide that promotes your cell’s ability to divide and replace themselves, even if abnormal, and is thought to play a key role in lung disease and cardiovascular health.
In an earlier study on BCP using ethinyl estradiol and MPA, just 10 mcg of ethinyl estradiol was enough to vasodilate and relax vascular endothelium. However, when MPA was combined with it..the results were the opposite.
“There is an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest that estrogen is beneficial to the arterial vascular health of women,” Meendering said. Well, tell that to all those docs who scared the poop out of menopausal women! But it’s even more concerning that young women taking BCP may be setting themselves up for early heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer because of these drugs. What a dilemma!
Menopausal/postmenopausal women need to understand, even if their doc’s don’t, that 17 beta estradiol is a necessary part of a woman’s health profile if she wants to help lower her risk of heart disease, bone damage, gum disease ( which can lead to heart disease because of constant infection) in this vital stage of life. After all…it’s not how LONG you live but how WELL you live that matters.
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