Serious Health Problems
Prempro is a pill taken orally, comprised of two synthetic hormones, estrogen and progestin, prescibed as a hormone replacement treatment (HRT) for menopausal women to relieve hot flashes and the other discomforts of menopause. Prempro was designed to replace natural hormones that normally fluctuate and fall during menopause, creating the familiar menopause symptoms.
Known popularly by patients and physicians as HRT or hormone replacement treatment, Prempro has been shown, in a series of American and British studies, to cause serious health problems in many women, including breast cancer, heart attacks, and strokes, as well as ovarian and gall bladder cancers, lupus, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, sclerederma, venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer’s and asthma.
As a result of the series of studies reported in prestigious medical journals, current medical recommendations for women with normal rather than surgical menopause, are to take prescribed hormone treatments, if at all, at the lowest feasible doses, for the shortest possible time. For women at-risk for osteoporosis, a health problem associated with menopause which only a small percentage of postmenopausal women are prone to, lifestyle changes and other medications are advised.
Since 1995, when Prempro was first introduced, 40 million women have taken Prempro on their own or with their physician’s advice. It was not only considered a useful aid for women in menopause, but a drug that could be taken long-term, well into the post-menopause years, to prevent heart attacks as well as osteoporosis (brittle bones). Perhaps your physician discussed these options with you during an office visit.
False Hopes, Bogus Claims
Unfortunately, this approach, although heavily promoted by drug maker Wyeth, is entirely bogus and unproven, more spin than medical necessity. In a sad irony, heart attacks were shown to be caused by Prempro in the aborted Women’s Health (WHI) clinical trial. There never was a scientific rationale for post-menopausal women to take Hormone Replacement Treatments. In fact, now we know that it was counter-indicated and detrimental, particularly to older women.
It probably never occurred to you or your doctor that Prempro (HRT) could be directly responsible for many of the serious, chronic health problems women face in growing numbers, today. At least, not unless you heard that a big government study was shut down in 2002 because the drug being studied was found to cause breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and other life-threatening diseases. That drug was Prempro, the popular, combination hormone replacement therapy made by Wyeth.
In the largest clinical trial ever undertaken by the federal government, the WHI showed that Prempro was causing excessive numbers of cases of breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, dementia, and other health crises in women. Because of these dire and unexpected outcomes, the clinical trial was stopped years ahead of its scheduled end, and thereafter, the FDA required Prempro to carry a black-box warning about the potential of serious side effects from taking the drug, a rare and highly significant public caution, second only to pulling the drug from the shelves entirely.
The government’s clinical trial of HRT for menopause was halted after it had been underway for only five years. The reason was that after five years it was apparent that, one out of four women taking Prempro (26%) developed breast cancer, one out of three (29%) heart attacks, four out of 10 (41%) strokes, and double the number of Prempro users experienced blood clots, dementia, lupus or urinary incontinence, compared to women in the control group. Is it any wonder that after the results were announced, 50 percent of women taking the drug stopped filling their prescriptions and, today, there are more than 10,000 lawsuits filed against Wyeth in state and federal courts.
Many Misled
Plaintiffs in many of these actions argue that Wyeth misled them and their doctors using deceptive advertising techniques, and persuading them that the drug would keep them looking and feeling youthful, a totally unsubstantiated claim, and protect them against heart disease, another false claim. Wyeth failed to warn physicians and patients about Prempro’s side effects and health risks, even though a series of earlier studies had shown Prempro to be a causal factor in breast cancer. But it was not until 2002, when results of the Women’s Health Initiative trial were released, that evidence of a positive link to breast cancer and other deadly, chronic diseases were confirmed.
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