Concealed conflicts

The message of the movie Hot Flash Havoc (click here) is that millions of menopausal women are denied the benefits of hormone therapy (HT*) by regulators who misinterpreted the results of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials. The regulators’ unanimous advice is:

Take HT for symptoms only, in the lowest dose and for the shortest time possible, and never for health promotion

The film disputes the evidence for increased risks of breast cancer, heart attacks and strokes, and claims that HT may even reduce cardiovascular disease.  The message seems to be that:

Women should demand HT for health promotion

The authority for these extraordinary claims comes from a long list of “experts”, (click here) mostly self-styled pundits, TV doctors, complementary therapists and the like, but including the following apparently reputable clinicians and scientists:

Dr Anita H Clayton, Professor of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia
Dr Sheryl Kingsberg,  Chief of Behavioral Medicine, and Associate Professor Departments of Reproductive Biology and Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.
Dr James A Simon, Clinical Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C
Dr Leon Speroff, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine.
Dr Wilf H Utian, Professor Emeritus of Reproductive Biology, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

The producers claim that the film was made without support from HT manufacturers, and none of the above experts mentioned any conflict of interest on the website.

However a brief search of the internet reveals:

Dr Clayton – consultant, speaker, research support from Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Wyeth and Sanofi-Aventis (click here)
Dr Kingsberg  – financial relationships with Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer (click here)
Dr  Simon – consultant, speaker, on advisory boards of:  Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Schering-Plough, Solvay, and Wyeth (click here)
Dr Speroff – consultant and research support from Warner Chilcott, Organon, and Wyeth (click here). Dr Speroff is already on our name and shame list (click here)
Dr Utian – consultant or advisory board for Bayer, Bionovo, Merck, and Novogyne (click here)

All these companies sell HT.  Wyeth alone lost over $1 billion a year in reduced HT sales in 2003, when the WHI trials showed that HT increased heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer. Viewers might be interested.

I guess it just slipped their minds.

Jim Thornton

*Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) changed to hormone therapy (HT) Jan 2016