June 2007 | medicalnewsinc.com

By Gloria Butler Baldwin

Still looking good after all these years, Suzanne Somers, most notable for her role as Chrissy Snow on the '70s show "Three's Company," swears by bioidentical hormone therapy in her New York Times bestseller Ageless, the Naked Truth about Bioidentical Hormones. Her book includes interviews with 16 notable hormone therapy physicians who say bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is not only more practical, but more effective than traditional hormone replacement therapy. And, unlike most hormones that are prescribed without any knowledge of actual hormone levels, bioidentical hormones are developed to meet the measured hormonal imbalances for each individual patient.

BodyLogicMD, founded in 2003, is a national network of highly trained physicians that specialize in bioidentical hormone therapy, which includes fitness and nutrition. Somer's book features BodyLogicMD's former Chief Medical Officer in one of the chapters as an expert source.

Florida now has five BodyLogicMD clinics with its newest opening in Orlando in March by ob/gyn Jennifer Landa. Landa made her full conversion to bioidentical hormonal therapist after seeing the erratic roller coaster rides jolting menopausal women and the challenges in treating them with traditional therapies.

"After seven years of working with women as an ob/gyn, I'm excited to transition and dedicate my practice into bioidentical hormone therapy?a practice offering women and men unparalleled results in treating menopause, andropause and other hormonal imbalances associated with aging," Landa said.

Dr. Landa said she was hooked after attending an American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine conference three years ago.

"We take a patient's saliva or blood and look at the baseline hormone levels. I also look at their adrenal glands to see if there's anything there," Landa said. "Depending on those results and a review of the questionnaire, I prescribe a therapy that is tailor-made for them. It's identical to our biology. The natural ingredients are derived in an FDA-approved lab and changed into estrogen, progesterone or testosterone, identical to compounds found in women and men."

That's good news and a good alternative after the Women's Health Initiative gave traditional hormone replacement therapies a bad rap because of their link to breast cancer, heart disease, blood clots and stroke.

Dr. Betty Jo Dulaney of Memphis Mid-South OB/GYN Alliance, said she counsels women every day suffering from hot flashes, night sweats and severe mood swings and irritability.

"For the vasomotor symptoms which commonly occur in women entering the perimenopausal time, estrogen replacement therapy can offer a restoration of their lives," Dulaney said. "I counsel these women in their late forties and early fifties that the benefit of estrogen can be weighed against the risks. Estrogen therapy is the only medicine for some which will relieve these sometimes disabling symptoms."

Dulaney said the risks and benefits are similar, whether using pharmaceutically-produced estrogen or estrogen-progesterone combinations. Patients should take the lowest oral dose for the shortest duration to relieve their symptoms and minimize their risks.

Dr. Landa said bioidentical hormones are more effective because they don't contain progestin, the ingredient believed to be the culprit in traditional therapies.

However, according to an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee Opinion entitled "Compounded Bioidentical Hormones," lack of rigorous testing for either safety or efficacy and issues of quality assurance in regards to the purity, potency and quality of the compounded products are a concern. In a six-month analysis by the Food and Drug Administration of 29 product samples from 12 compounding pharmacies, 10 failed one or more standard quality tests performed. In addition, there is no evidence that hormonal levels in saliva are biologically meaningful. The article stated that given the lack of well?designed and well-conducted clinical trials of these alternative therapies, compounded hormone products should be considered to have the same safety issues as those associated with hormone therapy agents that are approved by the FDA.

They also may have additional risks intrinsic to compounding. There is no scientific evidence to support claims of increased efficacy or safety for individualized estrogen or progesterone regimens.

But, while hormonal changes can trigger an array of emotional or behavioral changes, they can't be blamed for everything.

The American Society of Reproductive Medicine revealed two studies recently showing that relationships and support systems are very significant factors to consider.

Dr. John F. Randolph, Jr., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan, studied more than 3,000 ethnically diverse women nearing menopause every year for up to six years. He found no evidence of any significant change in blood sample patterns that would create any change in their sexual functioning. However, things that did make a difference were their satisfaction with their current relationship and the availability of a partner.

A second study examined sexual function and interest in more than 400 healthy women aged 35 to 47. This test showed that low levels of the hormone DHEAS were associated with sexual dysfunction, but there were no other significant hormonal changes. Again, the impact of sexuality in menopause was more related to partners, anxiety levels and the age of children living in the home.

Landa said another difference in the traditional hormone replacement therapy approach and prescribing bioidenticals is that most prescriptions are written never knowing a patient's hormone levels and therefore possibly never getting any balance at all.

"I'm convinced this is the way to go with my patients," Landa said. "With bioidentical hormones, your body knows how to break them down properly without forming toxins. There is evidence they reduce atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, colon cancer, decrease insulin resistance related to weight gain, and overall body inflammation along with other menopausal symptoms."

BodyLogicMD chief medical officer Dr. Alicia Stanton said she incorporated bioidenticals in her private ob/gyn practice two years prior to becoming a full-time hormone and nutritional therapist.

"I was already working with nutrition and anti-oxidants so this was a natural step for me," Stanton said. "You don't have to be an ob/gyn to do this. Thirty percent of my patients are men. You can be a family practitioner or internal medicine physician. There are a number of different places to get training.

Physicians can find out more online either at the American Academy of Anti-Aging, the American College for the Advancement of Medicine or the Institute for Functional Medicine websites."