Female hormones...

In my early 30's I used to take hormones. Premarine and Provera. I stopped when that big thing came out about the combination of those two particular hormones causing a 30% higher risk of heart attack in women. I called my endocrinologist first to ask some questions, however she would not give me any answers simply because I wasn't in her office on a visit. So I started doing a little research and found out that the way premarine is made is from a pregnant mare's urine, thus the name. Supposedly there are some horrendous farms out there, somewhat like puppy mills, where they just have these mares standing there pregnant over and over. The baby's? Supposedly most of them are killed. They just want the mare pregnant to retrieve the estrogen from her urine... eeeewww... anyway. We all know how I feel about horses so that coupled with the fact that my endocrinologist seemed to care more about the money she'd get from a visit with me than actually caring about me knowing and understanding the risks to my health because of the hormones I was taking made me decide to stop taking them.

I never did find an article regarding the higher risk of heart attack. I heard about it initially from my doctor, a very good doctor by the way. I went in for a regular check up for all the lovely "women" things we have to do and she was in a total tizzy telling me to call my endocrinologist NOW NOW NOW... So I know that not taking estrogen causes a much higher risk of osteoporosis in later years. I know that not taking it will weaken my bones and effect my bone density. I honestly don't have a whole lot to go on here with this. So, since there seems to be such a wealth of knowledge here at A2K I thought I'd throw this out there and see if anyone else has taken these hormones or is taking these hormones. And who might have some practical knowledge to share with me about possible alternatives to taking these, well anything of the likes really.