Kareem Iliya
While her hormone replacement routine is extreme (she even continued taking hormones after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, a controversial move), she does seem to have beaten off what she calls “The Seven Dwarves of Menopause: Itchy, Bitchy, Sleepy, Sweaty, Bloated, Forgetful, and All Dried Up.” Seeing Somers (she’s 62, but looks younger), you can’t help but wonder if she isn’t on to something.
But hormones? It wasn’t that long ago that a large clinical trial, called the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), showed that estrogen-progesterone hormone replacement therapy (HRT) upped women’s risks of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and blood clots. The research caused a global panic and led to a dramatic drop in the use of HRT.
Later, the results of the trial were questioned, but the backlash remained: Some doctors and experts are still leery about hormones—even as the buzz about them grows. In fact, earlier this year, while Somers was touting her hormone therapy on Oprah, researchers were putting the finishing touches on a new study that links HRT with an increased risk of ovarian cancer.
No wonder women are confused! To complicate matters, this debate is being played out at a time when women’s bodies are already steeped in hormones. We start our periods earlier and absorb estrogenlike chemicals from the environment. That makes the questions—Are hormones safe or not? Are bioidenticals like Suzanne Somers takes better than traditional hormone therapy?—even more urgent. Here, the answers.
