An article recently published in Postgraduate Medicine: Volume 121: No.1, aimed to evaluate  the evidence comparing bioidentical hormones (progesterone, estradiol, estriol) with the commonly used nonbioidentical version (conjugated equine estrogens, medroxyprogesterone acetate and synthetic progestins) of HRT for clinical efficacy, physiologic actions on breast tissue and risks for breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. The author studied published papers from PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases, which included keywords associated with bioidentical hormones, synthetic hormones, and HRT. Papers that compared the effects of bioidentical and synthetic hormones, including clinical outcomes and in vitro results were chosen. The results found that "patients report greater satisfaction with HRT's that contain progesterone compared with those that contain a synthetic progestin. Bioidentical hormones have some distinctly different, potentially opposite, physiologic effects compared with their synthetic counterparts, which have different structures." The author concluded that "physiological data and clinical outcomes demonstrate that bioidentical hormones are associated with lower risks, including the risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. They are more efficacious than their synthetic and animal-derived counterparts and are the preferred method of HRT." *

To view this article CLICK HERE.

* Postgraduate Medicine: Volume 121: No. 1, January 2009