# Are Doctors over-reacting to Suzanne Somers touting "bioidentical hormone" therapy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319 "2006-10-13T16:04:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/1 "2006-10-13T16:04:37Z")
[‘Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones’](http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix/pagesix_u.htm) Why are bio-identical hormones dangerous? > [@](#): > > October 13, 2006 – SOME concerned physicians say that Suzanne Somers’ new book on hormone therapies is filled with “non-medical, misleading and unsubstantiated” claims that could be harmful to women. > > “We believe ‘Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones’ is detrimental and dangerous to the thousands of women who will read it,” Dr. Erika Schwartz, a Manhattan internist on the board of the SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, told Page Six. “The book freely and repeatedly blurs the line of medical ethics and science with hearsay.” > > Schwartz and five other top docs have written Somers and her publisher, Crown, to complain because “we cannot stand by and allow non-experts to dispense medical advice that could potentially harm women.” > > The “Three’s Company” star - best known for hawking the ThighMaster exercise gadget - touts “bioidentical hormone-replacement therapy,” in which supplemental doses of synthetic sex-steroid hormones replace conventional hormone-replacement therapy for menopausal women. > > Somers says her book is a “medically validated approach” that can help reverse “the aging process” and maintain “a healthy, vibrant, mentally sharp, sexually active life - while building the body’s natural defenses against age-related diseases.” > > But Schwartz says that many of the claims in the book are “scientifically unproven” and that Somers mixes “quotes from qualified physicians who are experts . . . with those of a person with no medical or scientific background” - which “will further confuse women and, we believe, may potentially put their health at risk.” Book on Amazon [: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones’](http://www.amazon.com/Ageless-Truth-About-Bioidentical-Hormones/dp/0307237249) > [@](#): > > Book Description > Can you really feel better as you get older? > > Is aging without illness possible? > > Is your own internal fountain of youth waiting to be discovered? > > Yes, yes, and YES! says Suzanne Somers, the bestselling author of The Sexy Years. It can all be true when you take advantage of the new science of antiaging medicine—a revolutionary approach to achieving the ageless life. > > Suzanne Somers introduced millions of women to bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and changed the way we look at menopause with her groundbreaking book, The Sexy Years, and the overwhelming media response to its publication. Now, in Ageless, Suzanne introduces an inspiring, medically validated approach to reversing the aging process and maintaining a healthy, vibrant, mentally sharp, sexually active life—while building the body’s natural defenses against age-related diseases. ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/2 "2006-10-13T17:22:15Z")
I think this is the part that probably concerns them: > [@](#): > > …in which supplemental doses of synthetic sex-steroid hormones \*\*replace \*\*conventional hormone-replacement therapy for menopausal women… (bolding mine) It may not be that the bio-identical hormones are dangerous, _per se_, but replacing the conventional medical treatment with some kind of quackery would be a bad idea. That’s my guess. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/3 "2006-10-13T17:29:38Z")
i think this has a lot more to do with doctors’ natural aversion to playing god. we’ve known for ages that we can use hormones and all sorts of things to enhance our bodies without too bad a side-effects. i mean we give the stuff to all our animals, for chrissakes. yet no one even discusses giving it to humans, and we ridicule people who take steroids. it’s ok if you have some wasting disease, but impermissible if you’re healthy. this is an ethical issue i’m not arguing it for it or against it. i think that once we begin toying with the ingredients that make us human, it’ll be soon that we destroy ourselves. (not by some accident or some “omg image what could happen” scenario. by purpose) anyway, it’s an ethical issue and little else ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/4 "2006-10-13T17:37:03Z")
[QUOTE=Alex\_Dubinsky] i think this has a lot more to do with doctors’ natural aversion to playing god. we’ve known for ages that we can use hormones and all sorts of things to enhance our bodies without too bad a side-effects. i mean we give the stuff to all our animals, for chrissakes. yet no one even discusses giving it to humans, and we ridicule people who take steroids. it’s ok if you have some wasting disease, but impermissible if you’re healthy. this is an ethical issue i’m not arguing it for it or against it. i think that once we begin toying with the ingredients that make us human, it’ll be soon that we destroy ourselves. (not by some accident or some “omg image what could happen” scenario. by purpose) anyway, it’s an ethical issue and little else [/QUOTE] Um, yeah, touting quackery as medicine is definitely an ethical issue, and it’s a pretty major one. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/5 "2006-10-13T17:41:59Z")
[QUOTE=Alex\_Dubinsky] i think this has a lot more to do with doctors’ natural aversion to playing god. we’ve known for ages that we can use hormones and all sorts of things to enhance our bodies without too bad a side-effects. i mean we give the stuff to all our animals, for chrissakes. yet no one even discusses giving it to humans, and we ridicule people who take steroids. it’s ok if you have some wasting disease, but impermissible if you’re healthy. this is an ethical issue i’m not arguing it for it or against it. i think that once we begin toying with the ingredients that make us human, it’ll be soon that we destroy ourselves. (not by some accident or some “omg image what could happen” scenario. by purpose) anyway, it’s an ethical issue and little else [/QUOTE] I did kind of wonder about that in the extremely negative reaction to Jose [Canseco’s book](http://www.amazon.com/Juiced-Times-Rampant-Roids-Baseball/dp/0060746408) where he was touting steroids as a virtual health elixir. I’m a 48 year old man, strong and in good health, but the joints are a little creaky some mornings. Why would a testosterone (or whatever) steriod like supplement be bad for me if taken in moderation? ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/6 "2006-10-13T17:43:40Z")
I’m not sure what she means by “bio-identical hormones,” but I know one can get formulations of estrogen and progesterone - very similar to the synthetic versions women take to reduce symptoms of menopause - that are called “bio-identical.” Those, at least, are not quackery, unless one is claiming that they are a fountain of youth. Most people should know better than to go to Suzanne Somers for health advice, though. Isn’t she the one who also had breast cancer and refused to treat it with conventional medicine? ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/7 "2006-10-13T18:48:32Z")
Actually she had a lumpectomy and radiation, which are conventional medicine. But she chose not to have chemotherapy, and used some kind unconventional treatment instead of that. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/8 "2006-10-13T20:52:39Z")
Are these really identical? Hormone _mimics_ are a serious threat to animal and human health, since they bind to receptors blocking actual hormones from doing so. I’m not familiar with the term “bio-identical” (after 10 years in biology), so I’m not certain whether these are mimics or not. It sounds like the term someone would come up with because production of the actual hormone is patented, so producing one that has the same effect but a different synthesis or chemical structure would produce a “bio-identical” one? I’m just stabbing in the dark here though. Does anyone have a definition handy for “bio-identical?” ---
**Author:** ![Roog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@Roog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roog)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/9 "2006-10-15T14:14:38Z")
[QUOTE=wevets] Does anyone have a definition handy for “bio-identical?” [/QUOTE] The term “bio-identical” is not a scientific one. It relates to the fact that many people believe that a pure synthetic substance is different from the same substance isolated from a natural source. Your body (or any other biological system) cannot tell the difference. A synthetic hormone has exactly the same effect as the natural one, although there could be differences due to the dose or the way it is administered. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-over-reacting-to-suzanne-somers-touting-bioidentical-hormone-therapy/376319/10 "2006-10-15T15:37:41Z")
Well, as far as I am concerned, she looks very young for a sixty year old woman. 🆒