Progesterone Replacement Drugs: Made With Cruelty

If you love animals and are facing your menopause, please do not take any estrogen or progesterone replacement medications if you possibly can. These medications are made in a very cruel manner. If you wouldn't dream of wearing a fur coat or eating veal, then you already have the willpower to refuse estrogen or progesterone medications, especially Premarin (which is only estrogen replacement and not progesterone replacement medication). However, many progesterone replacement medications also get their active ingredient from the same source – horses.

What's So Wrong About Premarin?

First off, have you wondered where pharmaceutical giant Wyeth came up with the name Premarin? It's short for PREGnant MARes' urINe. A fantastic amount of estrogen is found in the urine or pregnant mares. This urine is then dehydrated and pulverized into powder form to make Premarin.

If that's not repugnant enough of an image to throw you off estrogen and progesterone replacement medications, then the method of how the urine is harvested will. Draft horse mares (usually Belgians) are artificially inseminated. They are then forced to stand in tiny stalls 24/7. Their stables are similar to cow byres where they stand on cement and their waste goes into a trough behind their stalls, which means their stalls don't have to be cleaned. Unlike cows, though, these mares never leave because they are never done being milked.

They have to wear uncomfortable harnesses to collect their urine. These harnesses only come off so they can give birth. The foal is immediately taken away and killed. The lucky ones get to be auctioned off, but their odds of surviving aren't good. All mares go into heat about nine days after foaling – whether they have a foal nursing or not. They are then immediately re-impregnated and the whole cycle of estrogen and progesterone replacement ingredient harvesting starts again.

Any Alternatives?

There are many alternatives to taking estrogen or progesterone replacement medications. Although this might sound odd, taking natural hormone replacement is not one of them. This is not because they are completely ineffective, but because you never know exactly what you are buying when you buy such products. There aren't any regulations or a watchdog body for the making and selling of bioidentical hormones.

Your best bet of dealing with menopause is to go through it and just treat the symptoms as they come (if your doctor agrees). You also need to greatly uptake your calcium intake to offset osteoporosis. And, believe it or not, many women go through menopause without much problem at all.