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Are bio-identical hormones a better option?

Your alternatives

Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published September 03, 2007

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A hormone is a hormone is a hormone - or is it?

According to area holistic physicians, the answer is no. Some hormones - such as bio-identical versions of the hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone - are far superior to synthetic versions, says Dr. John Walck, a former Olympia physician who now practices in Gig Harbor and Port Orchard.

Walck says bio-identical hormones, made from soy or wild yam, are a perfect match to the body's own hormones. Synthetic hormones such as Premarin, a form of estrogen made from the urine of pregnant horses, are foreign to the body and can cause side effects.

In a 2002 Women's Health Initiative study, Premarin combined with Provera, a synthethic form of progesterone, doubled the risk of developing breast cancer in the study participants.

"Before the WHI, Premarin was the top-selling drug in the U.S. for 30 years," Walck said.

After the study, many women, spooked by the widely published results, stopped taking all hormones.

That left few options for women with menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, brain fog, vaginal dryness, migraines, tiredness and sleep disturbances.

Although no major research has been done on the effects of the bio-identical hormones, Walck says that in his patients, bio- identicals address the symptoms and have almost no side effects.

"If you look at our youth - the people with the highest levels of hormones, and the most healthy - is there any problem with taking people back to those higher levels?" Walck says.

Although some observers have been skeptical of the safety claims for bio-identical hormones, interest has been rising in Thurston County.

Richard DeGarmo, one of two compounding pharmacists in Olympia, says he has filled prescriptions for the bio- identical hormones for more than 20 years and has seen "no pitfalls at all." Compounding pharmacists are so named because they formulate the prescriptions from herbs or other natural substances.

The bio-identicals can benefit women as young as 30 suffering from premenstrual syndrome to post-menopausal women in their 50s, DeGarmo says.