Warning: Hormone Therapy Linked with Elevated Risk of Dangerous
Disease
Between 20 and 50 percent of women
between the ages of 45 and 70 have taken or are now taking
Hormone Replacement Therapy drugs. In the past they were
prescribed to every woman who experienced unpleasant symptoms
of menopause. They were even expected to decrease certain
health risks. Chances are if someone took HRT medication,
they assumed that drug companies like Wyeth had tested the
safety of the medications. Thousands of women were led to
believe that these drugs were not only safe, but that they
provided health benefits.
On July 9, 2002, the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) revealed that it was abruptly halting the
use of Wyeth's Prempro in the Women's Health Initiative
(WHI) study because of unacceptable risks associated with
taking the drug. Letters were sent to study participants
urging them to stop taking the drugs because they led to
an increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke.
The Women's Health Initiative was
a $700 million, eight-year, publicly-funded study of Hormone
Replacement Therapy. It was intended to study the benefits
of hormone replacement and hoped to find that drugs like
Prempro and Premarin helped in the prevention of heart disease,
breast and colon cancer, and osteoporosis. Instead, the
risks associated with these drugs outweighed any benefits
found and led to the immediate halting of the study. The
findings were so shocking that the study was stopped with
almost three years left to go.
The Women's Health Initiative Study
showed that combined HRT (estrogen +progestin) such as Prempro,
and for some illnesses, estrogen-only formulations, such
as Premarin, increase the risk of the following diseases
and disorders:
Breast Cancer
Coronary Heart Disease
Stroke
Blood clots/deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary
embolism
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Ovarian Cancer
Dementia
Scleroderma
Lupus
The most common HRT drugs are manufactured by Wyeth and
include Prempro, Premarin and Premphase. Others HRT drugs
include:
* Activella
* Amen
* Aygestin
* Climara
* Crinone
* CombiPatch
* Curretab Cyrin
* Depo-Provera
* Estinyl
* Estrace
* Estraderm
* Estratab
* Estartest
* Estropipate
* Gesterol 50
* Gesterol LA 250
* Hy/Gertrone
* Hylutin
* Megace
* Ogen
* Premelle
* Premique
* Premphase
* Provelle 28
* Prodrox
* Prometrium
* Pro-Span
* Provera
* And other generic versions of estrogen
and progestin (MPA)
If you or a family member were prescribed
hormone therapy and suffer from breast cancer, ovarian or
uterine cancers, stroke, heart disease, Lupus or Non-Hodgkin’s
Lymphoma, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact us
today.
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