Human hormones for human women

Is there any reason for a human woman to use non-human hormones?

Premarin is the prototypical example, a mixture of around 30 different compounds, some of which resemble human estrogens (estradiol, estrone, estriol), many of which do not.

What conceivable reasons could there be to use a non-human form of a hormone over the human form? There are several theoretical reasons:

--The non-human form has been shown to be superior in some way

--The non-human form is cheaper to produce, reducing the cost

--Human women prefer the non-human form


Have any of these potential reasons ever played out in real life? NO, absolutely not.

There's one reason why non-human forms of hormones may be preferred over human forms that I've not listed: Non-human forms are more profitable and/or possess greater patent protection.

Well, that might explain it all.

1 comments:

colette said...

Sounds a lot like the breast milk/ formula debate. When I was a baby (40 years ago) I'm pretty sure my mom believed the formula was better than her own milk. Certainly the formula companies would love for people to believe that. Doesn't it all come down to money?

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