January 25, 2006

Attention: FDA

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to you today so that my voice will be joined along with
many other voices of women all over the USA who have found relief and a
chance at a normal everyday life because of the caring and knowledgeable
compounding pharmacists who have provided us with Bio-Identical
Estrogens, Progesterone and Testosterone. These pharmacists have done so
by using their God given talent and their education to pay attention to
a woman's body and its hormone levels and therefore needs, to prescribe
safe and effective hormone replacement. Without this avenue of hormone
replacement, women will once again be subjected to what the FDA
considers to be high standard hormone replacement, prescribed by our
doctors who know absolutely nothing about how damaging these "drugs" are
to our bodies. We do not want drugs -- we want hormones that our bodies
actually recognize as sound and usable estrogen and progesterone.
Personally, I will never ever allow anyone to tell me that the only way
I can have relief is to put vial progestin into my body. You are sorely
out of line with regard to the pathetic excuse for hormone replacement
you offer women in this country. Shame on you.

We are intelligent women who do our research and are not mindlessly
being led down a wrong path by these compounding pharmacists. Quite the
opposite is going on here. We are finally being told the truth about
hormone replacement and guess what, it's not that big of a mystery. Put
garbage in, you get garbage out!! Put something into your body that it
does not produce on its own or even resembles what our bodies produce,
our bodies cannot process this substance. It will stock pile it
someplace if it cannot slough it off and the end result is disease
within the body. Why on this earth would you even consider taking an
offensive posture on this subject? Why wouldn't you embrace the progress
these compounding pharmacists made and support them in any way you can
so that you mothers, wives and daughters can have the best solution
available? You want to regulate us to death.

Oh yes, I have read your reports about the quality of the product that
these compounding pharmacists provide and the strength variances. That
on its own is not enough to make any decisions on. You have to also
consider that there are always going to be highly knowledgeable and
reputable pharmacists and then there are going to be those who just want
to get in on it and while I do not believe they have any intention of
harming us, they just may not have all the information they need to do
it right. We do our home work, we know who is good and who is not good.
We see the results and we make our own decisions about our bodies.
Remember results? We are tired of doctors who look down on us, talk down
to us and then prescribe something we have no intention of taking. We
politely take the prescription slip, leave the office and go find our
own hormone replacement by someone who listens and who takes the time
and effort to check our hormone levels. The best part, they work with
our doctors so that our doctors are in on it and can write the
appropriate prescriptions for us. Imagine that, a teaming effort!

I personally have been compounded with the following over the past 3
years:

80% estradiol/20% estriol cream

USP Micronized Progesterone cream

Testosterone Troeches

Now that I am through peri-menopause and well into menopause, I use the
Vivelle Dot (.05 mg) prescribed by my doctor and a compounded
progesterone cream. I take 15 mg. of DHEA daily as well. I feel
fantastic and more importantly, I am not putting anything harmful into
my body. I have had 2 bouts with endometriosis over the past 17 years.
The first time was about 6 months after I let a doctor perform a tubal
ligation, that was 15 years ago. I lost one ovary and fulopian tube due
to the endo but retained my other ovary and uterus. The second time was
about 5 years ago after being on birth control by my doctor 7 years ago.
I developed endo again and I blame the synthetic garbage that I was
putting into my body daily -- talk about estrogen dominance!! Someone
with endo should not be on birth control for heaven's sake. I should
have been using a progesterone cream twice daily and cycling it so that
I could have had my periods at normal intervals. No one bothered to tell
me that. As I went into peri-menopause, my doctor put me on Prem-phase
for relief of hot flashes, etc. It made me sick but I kept taking it for
relief. I developed endo again and this time the doctor performed a
hysteroscopy and was able to save my uterus and ovary again. I have not
taken anything unnatural since that day. I began to do research about
natural hormones and I found my own path to take. My doctor dropped me
when she learned what I was doing. Love you too! So, the wonderful
pharmacists at Women's International Pharmacy helped me. I found a woman
locally who is a R.N., F.N.P. and can prescribe hormones through
compounding pharmacists. I found out what my level of estrogen,
progesterone and testosterone was and was prescribed the right dose for
my needs. All natural -- something my body could recognize. Throughout
the past 4 years, we have adjusted the dosage to meet my needs and I am
healthy, lively, happy and most important, I have had no recurrences of
endo!

So please, consider not getting involved in this process. Forget about
the money you are losing out on and just leave us alone. We both know
it's all about how much money you are losing and could be making if you
get control of it. You and the drug empire have done enough harm with
regard to hormones as it is. You and the drug empire have pushed
progestin down our throats until we are all dying of breast cancer. You
have further pushed estrogen on us without giving any consideration to
the fact that tissue proliferates with too much estrogen, unopposed
estrogen and we need REAL progesterone to keep estrogen at bay. We know
this, why don't you? Please walk away and let us have this for
ourselves.

Kathryn L. Barton

6236 Gold Dust Drive

Sacramento, CA 95842