Ok, you caught my curious bone.  Why are you not a fan of  the Premarin family?  I have a vested interest in this.  I read Christiane Northrup's book "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom"  which is where I began my quest for the perfect hormone, and I started at the top of her list.  I wonder if it says something about me that I ended up at the bottom of the list--ha ha.  No, seriously,  I love legumes.

Peace and love.

Personally, I don't think I could take anything that was made out of any kind of urine.

BTW, if you don't know already, Dr Northrup has been Dearest's guest in Power Surge.  Just look at those Power Surge Quick Links at the top right of every page here on the boards and choose "Transcripts"  You'll see what Dr Northrup...and many hundreds of others have had to say over the years

For those on Premarin who have found relief for troubling menopausal symptoms, it obviously makes no sense to change if you feel well. But for those who are searching for symptom relief, there are so many better alternatives to choose from.

Please do the horses a favor, and don't support an industry that makes hundreds of millions of dollars from the suffering of these wonderful creatures.

Mainstream medical doctor and Power Surge guest, Alan Altman, M.D. has said, Premarin, while it's been well studied, and it's been a good drug over the years, comes from horses' urine -- and because it is animal based, we don't know exactly what's in it other than the main ingredient, and you can't tell the horses what to pee, says Dr. Alan Altman, assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.  

Dr. Altman was Power Surge's Ask The Doctor, but due to a very tight schedule, Power Surge is transitioning to a new  Ask The Doctor -- Dr. Phillip Warner, an Ob-GYN for 35+ years who has followed both conventional and alternative methods of treating menopause.

In a very candid statement, Dr. Warner  said, I’m not an animal-rights person. If I felt Premarin was the best product, I’d say take it and to hell with the horses. But it isn’t, so I don’t prescribe it. – Dr. Phillip Warner, director of the Menopause Institute of Northern California.

Dr. Warner also reported as a result of a study among physicians that 66 percent of  physicians have patients who complain of side effects from taking Premarin.

As for me, Premarin, made by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, is the only estrogen replacement drug  made from animal waste. Other drug companies produce ERT drugs from plant sources, which more closely mimic the estrogens in the human ovary.

Women aren't horses. The idea of hormone replacement therapy is to replace a woman's female human hormones as closely as possible to those her body naturally produces. Equine estrogens made from horse urine, aren't equivalent to human female estrogen. Coupled with that, there are numerous other equine hormones and chemicals with which the female body isn't familiar.  

In addition to the usual risks associated with HRT - liver problems, gall bladder problems, elevated blood pressure, stroke, blood clots, breast and uterine cancer --  conjugated estrogens, in particular, have been known to cause elevated triglycerides, one of the most significant contributing factors to heart disease

In addition to increasing the risk of disease in older women, Premarin is taking its toll in another population, young female horses. The Premarin industry spells misery and death to hundreds of thousands of horses and foals. There are approximately over 450  producing PMU farms. Each year, more than 100,000 mares are impregnated each year and tied in stalls six out of the eleven months of their pregnancy - for the duration of their pregnancy and re-impregnated as soon as possible after the birth. Stalls so small, these innocent mares cannot turn around, nor even take a few steps, nor comfortably lie down, nor can the horses lie on their side, their natural sleep position and can't groom themselves.. They get relatively no exercise - allegedly they are exercised outside their stalls no more than once a week. Many are not let out from mid-September until late March. Horses are accustomed to trotting and running. How much can you deprive a living thing?

They are then fitted with a rubber collection cup attached to a hose, irritating rubber sacks strapped around the mares' groins so their urine (known as PMU, or pregnant mares' urine) can be collected to make Premarin, Prempro and Prempac.

The mares are kept thirsty, denied free access to water, so their urine will yield a more concentrated estrogen. The foals resulting from these pregnancies are usually slaughtered and considered unwanted byproducts of the industry.

For those who believe the allegations of animal abuse are the result of only radical animal rights organizations, be advised that many mainstream animal's rights associations have been very vocal in speaking out against Wyeth-Ayerst's inhumane treatment of animals in the production of these drugs. Power Surge has never been silent on this issue. In fact, back in '96 or '97, I invited Wyeth-Ayerst to participate in a forum on Power Surge to answer the animal abuse  allegations and many questions by women who were taking or considering taking Premarin. I brought together representatives from Wyeth-Ayerst and PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, for an open discussion. You can read the transcripts in the Web site's Library.

Bottom line - it's not just a question of animal abuse, but that with so many options available, I can't imagine why any woman would knowingly swallow anything with horse pee in it.  And, as I've said before, if you don't believe it, take one of your Premarin pills and pulverize it. Drop a little water on it and see how your room begins to smell like a stable.

Dearest