Is “bio-identical” hormone therapy a safe alternative to traditional hormone therapy?
Bio-identical hormone therapies (BHT) have been promoted as an alternative treatment to traditional hormone therapy* (HT) for menopause. They are marketed as “natural” pills, creams, or gels that can be compounded–tailored to an individual’s specific needs–based on saliva or urine tests. Ads claim effectiveness without the side effects of HT, which has been shown to significantly increase breast cancer risk. Despite claims that BHT is safe, no one knows if this is true. There have been no large long-term studies of the side effects of BHT on the same scale as the National Institute of Health’s Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study, which looked at HT. There are no BHT drugs which have met the FDA’s standards for safety and effectiveness. “Bio-identical” implies that the drugs are identical to hormones a body produces on its own, but this is merely a marketing term. The hormones are derived from pregnant mare’s urine (which is also used in HT) or plants and then manufactured in labs.
