Bioidentical Hormone Replacement with Dr. Maggie Ney: Rational Wellness Podcast 330

View the Show Notes For This Episode

Dr. Maggie Ney discusses Bioidentical Hormone Replacement with Dr. Ben Weitz.

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Podcast Highlights

2:38  Perimenopause and Menopause....  

8:46  The Women’s Health Initiative Study first published in 2002: Is Hormone Replacement Therapy Dangerous, Increasing the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke?  A lot of women are now afraid of taking hormones because they think that they will have an increased risk of breast cancer.  And a lot of doctors are still afraid of prescribing hormones because of this study. But this is a mistake because there were many flaws with this study.  To begin with, the average age of the women in this study who were starting to take hormones was age 63, which not when most women start to take hormones.  70% were overweight and 60% were obese and a lot of them were past smokers and had hypertension.  The estrogen used was an oral form of conjugated equine estrogen (Premarin) and synthetic form of progesterone known as a progestin (Provera).  There was a group of women who did not have a uterus, who were given only estrogen/not progestin and they actually had about 18% less breast cancer, so clearly estrogen does not cause breast cancer.  Dr. Ney feels that this study has done irreparable harm for a generation of women and 21 years later we’re still trying to educate women and doctors about bad hormone replacement therapy. (Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy Postmenopausal Women: Principal Results From the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA. 2002;288(3):321–333. doi:10.1001/jama.288.3.321) 

16:24  Relative risk vs absolute risk....  

19:30  Dr. Ney’s favorite recommended options for hormone replacement therapy includes the FDA-approved options for estrogen, including a patch, a gel, a spray, or the Femring.  Dr. Ney usually starts with estradiol in the patch form.  And then she usually recommends a bioidentical progesterone in an oral, micronized pill form, such as Prometrium....

Dr. Maggie Ney is a licensed naturopathic doctor and a Menopause Society certified practitioner. She’s a director of the Women’s Clinic at the Akasha Center for Integrative Medicine in Santa Monica, California, where she has been supporting women through perimenopause and menopause since 2006. Dr. Ney is co-founder of HelloPeri, (TheHelloPeri.com) an online resource for women going through perimenopause, and she’s been featured on The Doctors show and Goop for expertise on women’s health and hormones.  Her website is DrMaggieNey.com.

Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.