Premarin: What 8 Million Women Need to Know

Persuasive essay

Hormone Replacement

Premarin: What 8 Million Women Need to Know

Here, Eat This ... Did I Mention It's Made From Horse Urine?

According to Australasian menopause Society (n.d), Menopause is the time in a woman's life when her period stops. It is a normal part of aging. In the years before and during menopause, the levels of female hormones can go up and down. This can cause symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness. Some women take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to relieve these symptoms. HRT may also protect against osteoporosis. However, HRT also has risks. It can increase your risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke. What isn’t commonly known is that HRT is derived from horse urine. The way this urine is collected is morally wrong.

It almost sounds like someone's idea of a joke, but no one's laughing. Premarin is a drug composed of conjugated estrogens, for the treatment of menopause symptoms. Over As many as 8 million post menopausal women take the drug Premarin, making it the most prescribed drug in the United States. Most do so without knowing it is indeed made from horse urine.

According to the Physician's Desk Reference (1996), Premarin is a mix of estrogens "obtained exclusively from natural sources". I find nothing natural about the way Premarin is obtained. It is harvested from urine of pregnant horses. Yes, you read that right, if you have any doubts, crush a Premarin pill and smell it for yourself, there will be no doubting it's origin.

Wait, Premarin has even more dirty little secrets. It was appalling to hear of the atrocities associated with the hormonal replacement therapy drug known as Premarin. In this day in age you would think that as science and medical advances evolved, synthetic alternatives to drugs such as Premarin would become the norm, not at all. Drug companies are far more concerned with their profit margin than the welfare of a few horses and drug companies are far more concerned with their profit margin than the welfare of a few horses. But, it's more than just a few horses that are dying, every year.

Estimates are as many as 75,000 foals are born each year according to Hihopes (n,d). To some farmers these foals are an unwanted byproduct, and many end up going to slaughter each year. To this is why it is necessary to examine the process of urine collection for the production of Premarin.

Only the urine from pregnant mares is used to produce Premarin. Often, pregnant mares are stallbound wearing a catheter bag to collect their urine for processing. Reports from Hihopes (n,d), differ, some claim regular rotation of the mares for exercise and relief from the catheter, with generally decent care of the horses. Others report of abuse and intolerable living conditions with everything from chafing from the urine bags to crippling injuries. There is no way of confirming these reports, and feel like all energies are best utilized in informing horse lovers how they can adopt a premaring foal rather than endlessly debating the issue.

Imagine you have a huge barn full of horses, now imagine for arguments sake that every horse in the barn is pregnant, now imagine you deal with this cycle of pregnancy and birth year after year after year. Where do you put the babies?

Some of these farms can be quite large, producing anywhere from a handful to large numbers of foals every year. While a few of the fillies are put into future production lines, most are not and the colts have little to no value for Premarin production. Yes, farmers can sometimes sell the foals, but caring for them until they can be weaned costs money. Most would be lucky to recoup their costs when selling a foal. Look at the numbers, how could any farmer keep up with that number of foals?

These foals are quickly finding their way to auctions across the U.S. and Canada, this fact can not be debated. With the number of killer buyers frequenting auctions to send horses to the slaughterhouses, their future is uncertain at best. At every sale loving homes buy premaring foals, but at the same sale the odds are some of those foals are going home with a killer buyer as well.

While