What Oprah got wrong on hormone therapy! (actress, film, rock)

[JackTheRipper]

When Dr. Lauren Streicher, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University's medical school in Chicago, got a call from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" inviting her to discuss menopausal hormones with actress Suzanne Somers, she figured she'd better read Somers's best-selling books on the subject. As Streicher worked her way through the first chapter, she started underlining every sentence she felt was inaccurate. "But pretty soon, I had to stop," Streicher says, "because I was underlining almost everything."The taping of the show, which aired Jan. 29, proved equally disconcerting. Somers, a self-styled hormone and anti-aging expert whose controversial books promise midlife women that they will feel young and sexy if they take unregulated hormone therapy (HT) in much higher doses and for much longer time periods than most experts recommend, was literally given center stage.

Experts Slam Oprah and Somers' Take on Menopause | Newsweek Voices - Her Body | Newsweek.com

[Bella52]

Who would listen to a has been Suzanne Somers. She couldn't make it in film so she goes around now pawning her crap.
Oprah. Don't watch her and would never take advise regarding my health from someone on t.v.

[missncr]

Yeah, Suzanne Somers is a true anti-aging expert. Considering she's had tons of cosmetic surgery done to herself. Good grief, who would buy her books and actually believe her spew is beyond me. <eyeroll>

[Giesela]

The medical community is only reaping what it sows. There is a huge void - people are going to step in and fill it.
The main stream medical community has totally left menopausal women out there to essentially fend for themselves for years and years. Why should we care about what they say now?
I understood what the Dr. on the show was trying to get at - by SS using the term Bio-Identical it makes people think its different and safer than what you get from the Dr. Sure, I get it, the hormone is the hormone whatever its processed from. Semantics.
So leaving aside the arguments about the terminology, the difference btw SS and what the Dr's prescribe is that by going to a compounding pharmacist like SS recommends you can get a more individualized dose both in size and of the different hormones.
Mainstream Dr.s have fewer "FDA approved" (what a crock) options AND - the biggest AND - mainstream Drs are far far less likely to really go through all the testing and study necessary to try to individualize your dose. You can practically read their minds in your 15 minute office visit.."Here try this and quit whining about your hot flashes"
So maybe its is a bit experimental that women go off the reservation a little bit to try to get their needs met. So what? Do you really think its that much more dangerous? How about the past 20 years of "real" medication prescribed by "real" Drs that have been doing harm according to the ONE new study.
Many of the FDA approved drugs out there have had very little testing or long term study. And the ONE study on menopause show how much we still don't know about it - but that hasn't stopped Drs from prescribing for years and years has it? This is about the medical community trying to keep its monopoly. A monopoly I have no problem with if they are doing a good and equitable job at. But they aren't.
I say go for it. Screw the male dominated medical industry that's mostly about money.
Let em go prescribe some viagra.