estrogen therapy benefits

estrogen therapy benefits : Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is used by allopathic physicians to treat women symptomatically in the menopausal years, but more significantly, to protect them from osteoporosis and coronary heart disease as they age. Both of these conditions are ominous problems for many of our patients with strong family histories for these diseases and less than perfect compensatory life styles.
Of greater concern is the fact that women, with symptomatic coronary artery disease and acute myocardial infractions, are less likely to be taken seriously by their allopathic doctors, less likely to receive aggressive intervention, and more likely to die than male counterparts. This makes our jobs as homeopaths, treating perimenopausal women, even more important. If we hold strongly to our opinions that hormone replacement therapy is, at the least, disruptive to the vital force and homeopathic treatment and, at its worst, antidotal or even damaging, we must be prepared to understand the allopathic research and construct a plan of action that actively addresses not only the symptoms of the menopausal years, but also the progression of both osteoporosis and heart disease.
"all women, regardless of race, should consider preventive hormone therapy," then we, as homeopaths, have to understand clearly why we disagree. Looking at these charts, we can see the major reasons simultaneously as to why allopathic practitioners are more likely to advise HRT and why homeopathic practitioners are not. Looking at the use of estrogen to asymptomatic women, we can see that it lowers their lifetime probability of developing coronary heart disease from 46% to 34%. Considering the morbidity and mortality of that disease, this is significant. However, unless progestins are added, the lifetime probability of endometrial cancer increases from 3% to 20%. And if progestin is added, the risk of breast cancer goes from an untreated 10% probability to 13% with estrogen alone and almost 20% with estrogen and progestin. This is quite a dilemma for an asymptomatic 50 year old woman.
Hormone replacement is routinely offered as treatment for stopping bone loss and reducing hip and vertebral fractures. The information offered to substantiate this often conflicts with some studies, citing as much as 30% reduction in risk of hip fractures and up to 80% reduction in vertebral fracture. However, in the articles written by Dr. Grady about life time probabilities of heart disease, figures indicate that estrogen alone only decreases the probability of hip fracture from 15% in the untreated group to 13% and to 12% in the estrogen and estrogen with progestin treated group, respectively. So again, claims for HRT as an effective treatment for post menopausal bone loss are, at best, questionable.
Coronary artery disease and osteoporosis are serious diseases and are highly probable risks for women in the second half of life. As health care providers to women during their perimenopausal years, we must take these risks seriously, and establish the educational forums and clinical assessments, which give our patients the ability to make informed choices for treatment. Hormone replacement therapy seems now, more than ever, a misguided approach to the treatment of women. Ongoing homeopathic treatment is essential during these years. The role of natural progesterone may expand the ability of homeopaths to offer women a safer passage through menopause. The time is truly ripe to pool our energies into a coordinated long-term study of the use of homeopathic medicine in relation to the incidence of coronary artery disease and osteoporosis in menopausal women.
Diseases affected by hormone therapy lifetime probability
  Occurrence% Death%
 Coronary Disease 46 31
 Stroke 20 8
 Hip Fracture 15 5
 Breast Cancer 10 3
 Endometrial Cancer 3 0.3 
LIFETIME PROBABILITIES OF SELECTED CONDITIONS FOR A 50 YEAR OLD WHITE WOMAN TREATED WITH LONG TERM HORMONE REPLACEMENT
 No  Estrogen Estrogen and
 Treatment Alone  Progestin
 Coronary Heart Disease%   46   34   39 
 Stroke%    20   20   19 
 Hip Fracture%    15   13   12 
 Breast Cancer%    10   13   20 
 Endometrial Cancer%    3   20   3 
 Life Expectancy (years)  83  84  83
                                                              homoeopathy journal