FDA / Wyeth Attack Women and Cancer Patients

I am contacting all of you on behalf of myself, a cancer patient, my super-hero compounding-pharmacist Donna, and all women with or without cancer who are being denied Estriol as a viable, natural hormone replacement.

I was diagnosed with cancer last July. As I'm sure you all know chemotherapy can wreak havoc on the hormone levels. After treatment I had the hormone levels of an 80 year old (I'm 40), and then the joint pain of an 80 year old set in as well. After having endured and survived all the pain of radiation inflammation, the nausea, the mental anguish, etc., I was then unable to even climb the stairs; I started sleeping on the couch for fear of falling down the stairs. I was afraid to drive because I couldn't work the clutch well enough. I was taking up to 10 pain killers a day just to perform very basic activity, like walking.

Of course my oncologists forbid me to have synthetic hormone replacement therapy because of the link to cancer. So I researched and found a wonderful compounding pharmacist. She worked with my doctor and they put me on Estriol and Progesterone and within one week my joint pain was gone. Completely, absolutely gone. I have been pain free for four months now. However, I just started chemotherapy again and I got a letter last week from my pharmacy telling me that I will no longer be able to get Estriol in the United States. Call me hormonal, but I cried. Then I went to see Donna to find out what we were going to do.

Donna is a woman on a rampage. She is mad as hell and we are ready to make a stand. Why? Because Estriol is a natural substance and natural substances can not be patented by the drug companies. Thus it behooves the pharmaceutical community to lobby to make natural hormone replacement illegal in America. Non-patented drugs are not profitable regardless of their effectiveness. There is a lot of background information that is readily available on the internet but in a nutshell, Wyeth, one of the world’s largest drug companies, filed a petition with the FDA asking the agency to address the growing trends of unlawful manufacture and marketing of so-called bio-identical hormone replacement therapies (BHRTs). Supposedly because Wyeth has been concerned by the risks these products may pose to women’s health. Yet, Wyeth's synthetic hormones, Premarin and Premproas, have been positively linked to breast cancer. In fact, last October a jury levied a $134.5 million judgment against them in a lawsuit filed by three Nevada women because the company’s drugs had caused their breast cancer.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired! I am fucking outraged that a company would spend three million dollars lobbying and $270,000 in campaign contributions to get a law passed that will leave me in pain with no alternative.

This is not just an assault against women with cancer; it is an assault against all women. This drug company would rather cause women's cancer to line their pockets than let us have safe alternative. You and I have no alternative, we already have cancer. But don't women without cancer have a right to choose and not be put at risk for the almighty dollar? Wyeth doesn't think so.

Donna is going to Washington in the near future as well as organizing a gentle protest in our home town on Memorial Day. We have to start somewhere. I urge you to look into this matter for yourself, your mother, sisters and friends. We would appreciate any support you could give.

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Permalink Reply by Whole_Body_Healer on April 10, 2008 at 7:58pm: Yeah Donna! That's great. Yes, all this is swirling around Wyeth & the profit motivations! It is outrageous. I had previously heard that the FDA action was against a few of the compounding pharmacies, but it is now all of them? Can you provide an article to a news link perhaps? The Women's Health initiative study relatively recently showed the links between reproductive cancer risk & HRT, and of course, Wyeth is the major manufacturer of these synthetic hormones. Perhaps Donna would also like to contact Dr. David Zava to help support the position of bio-identical hormones. He's done quite a bit of work & some studies on this with Dr. John Lee (now deceased), regarding their effectiveness & the problems with HRT. He also runs a lab that does saliva testing of hormones, so he's got quite a bit of relevant background & I would imagine a vested interest in supporting this as well.

Hope you find an interim solution to your personal situation.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jody Carnes on April 10, 2008 at 8:26pm: http://iacprx.convio.net/site/DocServer/IACP_Letter_to_FDA.pdf?docI...

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/ww...

http://twshf.blogspot.com/2008/01/fda-says-alternative-hormone-clai...

https://secure2.convio.net/iacprx/site/Advocacy?page=SplashPage&...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by carolyn on April 12, 2008 at 7:14pm: it might be time to move to europe! this tuesday on PBS in the NYC area, there's a special on comparing health care in the USA with other countries. i gather from the trailer that the US doesn't come out so well- 37th among developed nations
i believe we are coming to the point of open revolution against drug companies and big industry. jenny mccarty and jim carry are leading a march on washington in may to protest the vaccines that are giving children autism

there are hundreds of cancer support groups, maybe not as cool as this one, all over the web. while that's a great thing, it's a terrifying statement that all these groups are needed, that all these young people are getting cancer (i was astounded when i read kim's book and when i look at the members on this site) and that they need to turn to each other for advice and support because they get none from their doctors

i remember some years ago, the FDA was trying to get vitamins declared medicines. imagine having to visit a doctor and get him to write a script every time you wanted some vitamin C? and the price would jump up 100 fold

perhaps this site is the perfect place to organize a march, a protest. why shouldn't you be able to get the hormones that exist in your own body?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Whole_Body_Healer on April 12, 2008 at 7:25pm: About your comment with respect to the FDA....this is happening TODAY as well, relative to CODEX ALIMENTARUS! And of course, you are right that if we don't take a stand for various things supporting our health whether it is voting with our dollar or protesting or getting politcal action going, we will have the same thing or worse. I'm reading a great book about this called Fight for Your Health.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James Frame on July 18, 2008 at 2:57pm

Dear Jody,

I have lots of friends and associates in the industry who are fighting this and congress recently even asked the FDA to reverse the ban... we will see what happens.

FYI There is a new product on the market which a lot of top doctors are using including Dr Tori Hudson and Dr Christiane Northrup called Femmenessence. Femmenessence is the first clinically proven herbal product which actually affects your hormone levels. But the most exciting thing is that it does not introduce any hormones into the body rather it stimulates the Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal Axis to improve the body's own production of hormones. What this means is that not only does it improve your body's production of estrogen but also progesterone, LH, reduces FSH, thyroid and balances all hormones in the body. This not only helps with symptoms but key areas of our immune system, gastro intestinal absorption, metabolism, bone density, heart health and body weight.

Attached is some information or you can go to www.naturalhi.com

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