Letter to United States Senator Gordon Smith

Last Thursday, T.S. Wiley appeared as a witness before the Senate Special Committee on Aging for a hearing on bioidentical hormones.

In questioning, Wiley claimed that there have been only two adverse events reported by women on her protocol.

The following response was sent to Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon, who presided over the hearing. If you are among the many women whose existence T.S. Wiley is attempting to hide, I encourage you also to be heard and be known.

Contact Senator Gordon Smith
Hearing page
Video of the hearing
Wiley's written testimony

April 22, 2007

The Honorable Gordon Smith
United States Senate
404 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-3704

Dear Senator Smith:

I watched with particular interest your hearing on bioidentical hormones by the Senate Special Committee on Aging, April 19, 2007, and in particular the testimony of your witness, T.S. Wiley.

I have extensive experience with Ms. Wiley and the Wiley Protocol – as a patient on the protocol, as an insider working closely with her to promote it, and for over two years now as a leading voice in opposition to the protocol.

I broke with T.S. Wiley when I could no longer doubt that the Wiley Protocol was making me and the women I was working with perilously ill. I now moderate an online support group for women seeking recovery from and alternatives to the Wiley Protocol. We have about 320 members and are growing (I'm sorry to say). I am a stay-at-home mother and I have no financial interest in this matter. I have only a sincere conviction of the protocol's danger – and an acute hope that women can be spared the terrible experiences that I and too many others have endured.

You asked Ms. Wiley if there have been any adverse events. She mentioned only two cases of blood clots.

These words were, for me, a punch in the gut.

She didn't tell you about the women who happen upon my group, fleeing the Wiley Protocol and the doctors who prescribe it, desperate for relief. She didn't tell you about the problems these women report – depression, anxiety, weakness, brain fog, balding, heart palpitations, weight gain, breakthrough bleeding, and immune suppression, among others. Many women (myself included) have feared death, and it's not unusual to hear of women who were house-bound on the protocol. A number have come to us tearful and on the verge of suicide. You can find a collection of some of these stories, expressed in detail, on my web site[1].

T.S. Wiley has dismissed these reports out of hand, alleging that these women failed to follow the protocol precisely and that they failed to adjust their dosages appropriately. She of course has no access to the data needed to make such assessments, and it's curious that these explanations contradict one another. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't.

She has also blamed product inconsistency, impeaching two pharmacies who split with her over a year ago. But what, then, explains the steady stream of new women? Here is a new testimonial from just four days ago:

“I recently took myself off the Wiley Protocol after barely getting through the third month. I was experiencing anxiety to the point of panic attacks and now am having insomnia along with anxiety, depression and crying spells. I am looking for other women who have experienced this and how they have recovered. Help!”

You should know that Ms. Wiley's co-author and science mentor, Dr. Bent Formby – a researcher with PhDs in molecular biology and medical biochemistry – disavows the Wiley Protocol, calling it "a nuclear blast to the endocrine system" and "fantastically irresponsible." He asked, after watching the hearing, "Does somebody have to die of kidney failure or suicide before she is stopped?"

Ms. Wiley also testified before your committee, "I don't ever involve myself with individual patient response. That belongs to their doctor." Again I was stunned. I am providing you with links to video excerpts from a Wiley Protocol support meeting[2], so that you can judge for yourself the consistency between her words and actions.

You may know that T.S. Wiley claims to have earned an undergraduate degree from Webster University in 1975. But as Newsweek reported last November, Webster has no record of this degree. Yet, in an interview with ABC News in February, she again claimed to have it. Their research revealed that Webster gave T.S. Wiley a blank diploma.

I could tell you stories about harassment of women who speak up about their experiences, or a variety of malicious e-mails and pro-Wiley testimonials posted under false identities, and various other unsavory behavior. But I am content knowing that you have at least the information needed to assess Ms. Wiley's testimony.

If you can offer any advice on how this might be stopped, I would be forever grateful to you.

Sincerely,

Laurel McCubbin

References:

1. Wiley Protocol experiences:
http://rhythmicliving.org/rhythmicliving/Stories.html

2. Wiley Protocol support meeting video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQlF0mmAIXk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F56ZguemfKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv4u5smoUKU
(T.S. Wiley: "Take eight lines of estrogen, morning and night, from day 16 to 28." And, "I would say cortef maybe next month but I think you should up your estrogen maybe 50% from the baseline.... Yeah, we're cheating, we're saying up it by 50% so the doctor won't notice we've gone way beyond two lines.")