Another Great FDA Decision (she said facetiously)
I’m furious. Did you see the story on Yahoo News entitled, “FDA cracks down on custom-made hormones”? If not, the gist of it is that the giant pharmaceutical company, Wyeth, whined to its buddies at the FDA that women weren’t buying as much of their synthetic hormones, but were instead purchasing bio-identical hormones from internet sites, thereby cutting into profits. Well, heaven forbid those of us who got wise to the dangers of synthetic hormones have a safe alternative at a lower price!
So the FDA got busy looking for ways to “protect” us from the dangers of those natural products, stating that they were “no safer” than synthetic versions. EXCUSE ME? Are they joking? If they’d done their research, they would have found studies from the USA as well as all over the world (where bio-identicals have been used for years) on the benefits and safety of bio-identical hormones, and so far none have shown that they cause cancer, heart attacks or strokes. On the other hand, we know that synthetic hormones may cause them.
In an apparent attempt to appease Wyeth, and other big pharma companies, the FDA zeroed in on seven internet sites that allegedly made “misleading” claims about the benefits of bio-identical hormones (maybe like natural progesterone’s ability to lift hormonal-related depression and get rid of hot flashes? Because they sure did for me and most of my friends).
Dr. Janet Woodcock, FDA’s chief medical officer stated in the article, “We want to assure that Americans receive accurate information about the risks and benefits of drug therapies.” The agency, you see, professes to be concerned that claims for safety and effectiveness of those nasty natural hormones might mislead patients, as well as doctors and other health-care professionals. Yeah, right.
It appears that the FDA would rather have us use something cooked up in a lab that has known risks, rather than something that our bodies recognizes as natural, in order to appease goliath Wyeth.
I sent an email expressing my outrage at their decision and got a pat answer back. It was what I expected. You know the saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease?” Well, guess whose wheels got greased? Not ours.
The lesson here is that all of us who resent being dictated to by companies that are solely interested in making a profit need to squeak louder and more often, demanding that the FDA stop pandering to big pharma. Natural hormones aren’t the danger here. You figure out who is.
Kate, still fuming