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Dr. Kathy Maupin and family therapist Brett Newcomb talk about stories in the news today linking hormone therapy with cancer. In this interview, Dr. Maupin explains how the subdermal hormone pellet treatments that she offers at BioBalance Health are safe.

What are your reactions to the way the press covers the issue of hormone therapy for postmenopausal women?

How do you see the way the press handles these stories? Do you have concerns or reactions as a professional to the way the science of these stories is covered by reporters who are not scientifically trained?

Talk about the WHI study in 2002 that was one of the beginnings of the concern spike regarding hormone replacement as a health care strategy for postmenopausal women?

The use of generic labels such as “hormones” are misleading because they are non specific, and do not make use of distinctions among specific hormone groups that have clinical significance .

Historically in medical research women have been minorities as research groups. Much of what was researched and the conclusions from the research was generalized from research done on men. One of the reasons for this was a concern about doing research on women who might be pregnant. Only in the last decade or so has serious broad spectrum research focusing on women been at the forefront of medical science. Can you speak to the reasons for these distinctions and the changes in the way science is beginning to look at medical research data on women.

There was a period of time when hormone replacement therapy was the gold standard for the treatment of menopausal symptoms and the treatment of aging issues in women. There were 25000 studies documenting the efficacy of estrogen replacement for women.

Then the WHI study came out in 2002. How has this changed thinking with regard to treating women?

There is a story in the press today about hormone therapy increasing the risk of breast cancer. In a logic class this would be an example of what is called an undistributed major term. What does that mean and how does it apply to the article today and to other articles that appear in the mass media?

Some people are afraid to consider hormone replacement therapy because they have heard “things” about it:

1. they have heard that it causes cancer
2. they do not make distinctions between types of hormones
3. they do not know or make distinctions among types of or options for hormone replacements
4. there are several types of hormone replacements delivery systems.

What are the different types of hormone replacements or delivery systems that are available?

Why are bioidenticals better?

Why do pellets work better for what you do than other types of applications? What are the pros and cons?

So in the end the takeaway is that you should ask your doctor?

What are the risks to me if I take hormone replacement treatments?

What are the risks to me if I do not take these treatments?