What are your thoughts on Bio-Identical HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy)?
I am reading reports from scientists and healthcare professionals claiming that they offer all sorts of wonderful benefits to menopausal women. At the same time, I'm reading literature from the FDA and all sorts of various associations, organizations and bureaucracies claiming that this is false, and that anyone who claims otherwise is an idiot and unfit to practice medicine.
Who is right? Are bio-identical hormones just the latest form of snake oil? Or is the relationship between the drug companies that profit from the synthetic HRT products, the FDA and various state and federal bureaucracies (the government) and influential private organizations fearful of the government's wrath (and/or benefiting directly from federal earmarks and/or illegal bribes) incestuously corrupt to the point of outright bullying and making villains out of honest individual doctors, nurse practitioners and professionals of various other healthcare/medical specialties for the purpose of appeasing the big-money pharmaceutical lobby?
Can we believe the research on the topic, nearly all of which casts Bio-Identical HRT in a positive light, or are we to believe that virtually all of the objective studies and clinical trials conducted were flawed, used faulty methodology and/or processes or were influenced by bribes? I suppose for the sake of covering all bases, we could believe the government's claim that anyone who says anything other than the official government line about the topic (research be damned) is an imbecile who should never have been allowed to practice medicine in the first place?
Who is telling the truth, and what's really going on here with this issue? What is clear is that one side is lying. Which side isn't being fully forthcoming on the topic, and what is their motive for propagating such a vast, seemingly petty conspiracy that could potentially adversely affect the health of millions of women in the United States and abroad?
This whole topic reeks of a sinister coverup. What remains to be seen is what exactly is being covered up, by whom and for what reason.
Anyone who is informed about this topic and/or who knows enough about it to either speak objectively or form a coherent opinion one way or the other is kindly asked to reply with either your objective assessment/commentary or your opinion regarding this too-important-to-overlook issue.