HRT does not grow on trees!

There are lots and lots of inaccuracies associated with the menopause narrative right now and I normally keep my head down and focus on what we are achieving, which is to ensure that anyone delivering menopause education and support is safe, sensible, and supportive. But enough is enough.
I am an HRT advocate, but the trend to refer to standard or non-standard HRT/MHT/ other creams as 'natural' is a misdirection.

It has taken decades to reach a point where menstrual and menopause health is being talked about often, so please let's keep the information clear. It is not appropriate nor responsible to take people down a pathway that claims to be an informed choice and then mislead them.

Words matter, and if we use ones with an intent to deceive, we create confusion and anxiety.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) also known as Menopause Hormone Therapy (MHT), as prescribed by the NHS in the UK does not grow on trees and neither do its direct ingredients. Therefore it is not 'of nature' and should not be referred to as natural. (This includes others calling progesterone cream to be natural, to be clear). Neither should these medications be referred to as 'sourced from natural ingredients', because that wouldn't be completely true either when several laboratory chemical processes are involved before it becomes a hormone suitable for use by humans.

Menopause hormone therapy can be an amazing supplement to homegrown endogenous hormones because of its biology. It can be life-restoring, save relationships, and improve health. But I think it's important to make sure informed choices are based on accuracy.

The source ingredient that many body-identical (and bioidentical) hormone drugs are made from is disogenin. Diosgenin was used to make the first birth control pills in the 1960s.
Disognenin is an important natural pharmaceutical active ingredient found in wild yams. Human bodies can't convert disogenin to a hormone, so it's important to note that the therapeutic value is down to the actions of disogenin.
Disogenin must be removed from the wild yam before it can be converted to a usable hormone structure. The wild yams are not nestled in the foothills of some exotic location and gently squeezed with aged-oak presses to remove the disogenin. It is first extracted and then converted by large-scale chemical processes, before turning into hormones. This now makes the synthesised exiting compound not natural, and the bad actors are clinging to a thread to refer to it as 'made from plant sources'.

The tentative 'natural' connection, used by many a media marketing spin-artist, comes from the biological fact that scientists discovered they could do all that magical synthesising and create hormones that were exactly the same (identical) shape and function as the hormones made by humans (in their bodies).

Remember, the plant source does not make these body/bio-identical hormones, the laboratory magicians do.

Using exogenous clinically prescribed hormones to treat peri/meno/posmenopause signs and indicators, comes with some very small risk factors. However the fact they can be created as identical in shape and function to homegrown hormones is also the key factor that makes treatments made from this method of creation, less likely to increase the risk factors, when compared to using medication containing hormones that are not the same shape.

The next step in the misdirection then occurs, because the relative reduced increased risk then readily gets merged into saying that biologically/body-identical hormones are safer than non-bio/body-identical. This is true by a very small percent, but the route to get there is convoluted and is not clear to those wishing to make personal health care decisions with fully informed choices. All types of MHT bio or non-bio have very low increased risk factors. There are higher long term health risk factors associated with having a BMI over 25 and smoking.

It may be incredibly important to someone that the treatment they choose is natural. The truth is MHT is not natural.
My advice is to choose MHT because of how it functions to relieve symptoms plus your personal risk-benefit ratio, not because you think it's natural.

However the fact they are identical in shape and function to homegrown hormones is also the key factor that makes treatments made from this diosgenin sourced method, less likely to increase the risk factors that may arise from using medication containing hormones that are not the same shape.

The next step in the misdirection then occurs, because the reduced increased risk then readily gets merged into saying that biologically/body-identical hormones are safer than non-bio/body-identical. This is true by a very small percent, but the route to get there is convoluted and is not clear to those wishing to make personal health care decisions with fully informed choices.

It may be incredibly important to someone that the treatment they choose is natural. The truth is MHT is not natural , and although it does come with some increased risk factors, there are higher long term health risk factors associated with having a BMI over 25 and smoking.

My advice is to choose MHT because of how it works, and your personal risk-benefit ratio, not because you think it's natural.

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