Natural Hormones

"Natural" is the buzzword in marketing today.  Consumers generally need to be highly suspect of the use of the word natural.   Medical consumers particularly need to look for clear definitions in relation to the use of the word natural in regard to health claims.

 

Although the word natural usually implies something positive, this is not always the case. One meaning of natural defines the source of the product as being found in nature.  Using this definition, cigarettes are natural  because tobacco is a plant.  Therefore, the word natural doesn’t always connote safety, and  medical consumers should be aware of the variety of meanings that the word can have when applied to medicine and treatment.

 

In the case of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), most of the hormones are derived from natural sources--animals and plants.  The plant source, usually yams or soy, provides sterols that are converted in the laboratory to usable hormones, which are biologically identical to the body’s hormones. This means that they have the exact chemical structure as the hormones that your body has produced for your entire life.  The animal source is usually the urine of pregnant mares; half of the hormones from this source are not biologically identical to the body's hormones.

 

Many feel that the best hormones for HRT are those that are biologically identical. Therefore, when considering natural hormones, remember that the chemical structure not the source will provide the most natural hormone to your body. It is also important to remember that just because a hormone is natural does not mean that it is completely without side effects.

It is well known that one of the risks of breast cancer is the combination of an early puberty and  a late menopause because this situation increases your lifetime exposure to your own natural estrogen.