Bioidentical hormone replacement IS very safe. The natural hormones are molecularly identical to what the human body produces, unlike the synthetic drugs which have little in common with our body's hormones. The Women's Health Iniative in 2002 proved without a shadow of a doubt that synthetic estrogen is downright dangerous, so why are we even having this discussion? And if research doesn't sway you, just read the little package insert that comes with the Pill. If all the warnings about possible embolism, stroke, cancer, and heart attack don't alert you than perhaps you need to have that heart attack as a wake up call. Still somehow the pharmaceutical companies have done a wonderful job brainwashing doctors and women across America that synthetic hormones (which are strictly drugs and not really hormones) are safe. No, they're not safe at all, but just very profitable. Since natural hormones can't be patented they're obviously going to be discredited by the pharmaceutical companies and most mainstream doctors.

Personally, I have been using natural progesterone cream for over 2 years. Up until that time, I suffered severe PMS for over 20 years! (My PMS was so severe I wasn't even eligible to participate in a PMS study conducted by a UCLA researcher in l984.) Not one standard care physician had any words of advice on how to end my PMS other than through diet and exercise, which didn't work at all. Year after year I informed my various doctors about my condition, which by the way was rapidly getting worse, but doctors I found didn't and still don't pay any attention to PMS. If they can't operate on it or treat it with chemo it's not worth worrying about in their eyes. But thanks to the natural progesterone I have been free of PMS for 2 years now. I feel serene and cheerful, I sleep deeply, am full of energy, have no more water retention and sore breasts, and the list goes on. It also made a difference in my hair, which was becoming very dry, dull, and thin. My hair is now full and lustrous again like when I was in my twenties. My quality of life has so much improved since I started using natural progesterone that I wouldn't consider discontinuing its use ever.

I read Suzanne's book and it is a very good and comprehensive look at how to stave off aging through BRHT, diet, exercise, sleep, and attitude. It's only flaw at all is the inclusion of T.S.Wiley's (whose credentials are inflated and misrepresented) and her protocol, which has caused numerous serious health problems among women, notably progesterone dominance (immune suppression, kidney problems, weight gain, depression, etc). Suzanne missed the boat entirely on what the criticism was all about, unless she was just trying to protect T.S. Wiley, who in case you didn't notice had hardly anything to say at all in her defense, even though she was the entire reason for the discussion. It was probably wise that she limit her participation since it's pretty hard to defend her protocol and her lack of credentials.

Throughout Suzanne's book, Suzanne maintains the importance of replicating our body's natural hormonal template at optimal levels with BRHT. However, and this wasn't even mentioned by the female doctors who liked the rest of her book: Wiley's protocol doesn't come even remotely close to that natural replication. She recommends some 350mg/day of natural progesterone along with a very high amount of natural estrogen as well. This certainly isn't what happens in nature, and is also contrary to what Suzanne ardently defends in her book: to follow nature's plan. Suzanne shouldn't have been so trusting because all of this can only serve to damage her own credibility as an author and speaker on women's health.

I thought it was a shame that the male doctors were allowed to steer the entire crux of the debate off course. What was supposed to be strictly about T.S. Wiley and her lack of credibility (as well as dangerous protocol), turned into a debate over whether natural hormones are worse or better than synthetic. Hopefully that part of the discussion will at least cause those people who are still ignorant and/or brainwashed about the dangers of synthetic hormones to at least do their own research on the matter and see for themselves.