The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed On Women

by Seaman, Barbara

• ISBN13: 9780786868537
• ISBN10: 0786868538
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-09
• Publisher: Hyperion

Summary

"For almost a century women have been taking some form of estrogen to combat the effects of menopause and aging, and more recently to prevent a host of diseases, from osteoporosis to Alzheimer's to heart disease. For most of that hundred years, doctors have been prescribing estrogen in either its organic or synthetic forms, and women have gone to their pharmacists and dutifully filled their prescriptions. In some cases, menopause sufferers who were experiencing the most extreme symptoms were in search of relief from hot flashes, night sweats, dryness, and more, but increasingly in recent years, women began receiving estrogen sometimes with progesterone as "hormone therapy," not because they were in immediate danger of anything but rather as a preventative. But was this regimen warranted? Did doctors know enough about estrogen and its effects to be widely prescribing it for such a range of ailments? Or were women being used as guinea pigs in a great experiment, an experiment the author terms "The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women"?"--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

How Did All This Happen?
Introduction I: Smart Doctors, Foolish Forecasts	p. 3
On the Path to Premarin	p. 7
Fountain of Youth or Golden Fleece?	p. 17
How Has Premarin Fared in the United States, and Who Was Robert Wilson?	p. 47
A Daring Program to Keep Women Young	p. 61
Crazy People in America	p. 73
Censorship, Class-Action Lawsuits, and Dangerous Off-Label Prescription Drugs	p. 85
Madeline Gray: When Nature Throws the Book at the Menopausal Woman	p. 109
Poison by Prescription	p. 118
Ladies' Night Out	p. 129
If the Truth Be Told	p. 137
Alice Keeps Busy and the FDA Comes Through	p. 143
What Do We Know Now?
Introduction II: Between a Rock and a Hard Place	p. 155
Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Estrogen, Heart Disease, and the Triumph of Suggestion over Science	p. 161
Health in the Balance: Understanding Bones, Bone Loss, and New Methods of Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatment	p. 169
Losing Our Minds to Hormones: The Premature Prescribing of Estrogen for Alzheimer's Disease	p. 190
And Bear in Mind ... Swimming in the Sea of Estrogens
Over the Menopausal Rainbow	p. 223
Notes	p. 279
Index	p. 321
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