Hi English Rose. I know it does seem to be that it is not easy to find out. All I can find so far is that synthetic HRT is made from a pregnant mules urine (CEE) and bio identical man made are made from soy, which explains why I've found by going the natural path is working. X
Hi there - it is important to recognise the difference in definitions and what they all mean ie "natural" and "synthetic".
Many people say that Premarin (CEE) is NATURAL rather than SYNTHETIC because the oestrogen preparation is EXTRACTED and purified from pregnant mare's urine rather than SYNTHESISED from raw ingredients. However most of the oestrogens in it are not the same as those found in the human body (ESTRADIOL).
Estradiol is the name given to our dominant oestrogen and the most widespread biologically active one - produced by the ovaries and which declines at menopause. Any HRT product containing estradiol is therefore BIO-IDENTICAL or BODY-IDENTICAL ie structurally identical to the estradiol produced in our own bodies. Most HRT types now contain estradiol - there are just a few which contain the conjugated equine oestrogens - and these products' names begin with PRE-.
All estradiol used in HRT is SYNTHETIC in that it has been synthesised from raw ingredients - in this case soy or yam, and as Connolly says there are several steps that need to be taken to convert the raw ingredient to estradiol.
That's quite a concoction to be putting in our bodies. No wonder I had such awful side effects from hrt.
Estradiol is the active ingredient in estrogen gels. Most of the other ingredients are what makes it work and to help the estradiol absorb. People could be allergic to any of these ingredients. For oestrogel/oestrodose the list of additional ingredients (fillers or excipients) is here (scroll down to section 6):
https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/19898/SPC#POSOLOGY and for Sandrena gel here:
https://www.medicines.org.uk/EMC/medicine/1392/SPC/Sandrena+1.0+mg+gel/ - also section 6. You will see that actually oestrogel contains very few ingredients which is probably what makes it so widely tolerated. Anything used transdermally - the fillers have far less effect on the body than stuff taken orally which has to go through the digestion and liver.
Re concoctions in our bodies - if you eat any processed food of any sort or take any medication or supplements - then look at the ingredients list - you are already putting concoctions into your body - not sure if vitamin supplements for example are any more natural than HRT!
Edit: also having looked at the link, I'm not sure what concoction you are referring to as the paper was not discussing components of HRT
. It was talking about the biochemical steps involved in making all sorts of different steroids. Rest assured that what is going into or onto your body as part of HRT- is contained in the list of ingredients for that product and will be as pure as it can be - if made in EU at least!
Hurdity x