Why do research
Exorcising fear, treating better
Good research is essential to exorcise the institutionalized fear of female hormones and to treat women better. Even though more and more Quebec physicians prescribe female hormone therapy to treat menopausal symptoms, fear of hormones remains pervasive, and the preventive role of hormone therapy is the subject of great confusion.
That confusion arises mostly because the different types of female hormone therapy are confused with one another, therapy is prescribed haphazardly, and the importance of female hormones for women’s health — at any age — is not recognized at its true value. Yet many studies have shown that female hormones are essential to good cardiovascular, endocrine, bone and brain health.
At perimenopause, progesterone and then estradiol levels fall progressively and substantially, so that at menopause women generally have lower estradiol and progesterone levels than men; by about age 65, they have roughly five times less estradiol than men. Many women suffer serious health problems — osteoporotic fractures, heart disease, refractory depression — whose primary cause is a deficiency in female hormones.
In Dr. Demers’ view, judicious use of bio-identical female hormone therapy would play a leading role in preventing and treating many women’s health problems. It is an important public-health question: if women’s health truly matters to us, we must act collectively by encouraging research on sex hormones.
Three research projects
Dr. Sylvie Demers has developed three major research projects, the first of which requires substantial funding; depending on the funding available, others may follow. All would help us better understand the role of sex hormones in human health, and thereby use female and male hormone therapy better.
First project
The Gaby project
The Gaby project’s main objective is to determine, in menopausal and hysterectomized women (without a uterus), the effects of taking bio-identical female hormones on cardiovascular, endocrine, bone and brain health, according to the serum levels of estradiol, progesterone and testosterone obtained through hormone therapy. It is designed as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study with a control group and ten groups of women following different hormone regimens. The goal: to establish the serum levels that optimize the hormones’ multi-system benefits while minimizing their risks. More precisely, it would:
- →seek the serum levels of estradiol, progesterone and testosterone — and the ratio between them — that optimize their protective effects on the cardiovascular, endocrine, bone and nervous systems, while avoiding health risks;
- →test whether one mode of administration (cyclic or continuous) is superior to another;
- →analyze the preventive aspect according to the time elapsed since the estimated onset of perimenopause and menopause.
Second project
Project A — breast cancer
Project A’s main objective is to determine whether the effectiveness of aromatase inhibitors, used to prevent breast-cancer recurrence, stems from an anti-estrogen or, on the contrary, a pro-estrogen effect — a crucial question for understanding the role of estrogens in the breast. The project would also study these inhibitors’ effect on estrogen precursors (DHEA, androstenedione, testosterone). These results would ground innovative research protocols, toward better treatments — both curative and preventive — for breast cancer.
Third project
Project B — natural products
Project B’s main objective is to study the effects of popular health substances on the cardiovascular, endocrine, brain and bone systems, and their influence on the levels of sex hormones and their precursors.
Funding this research
These projects require substantial funding. Dr. Demers is exploring the creation of a foundation, or other funding sources, to carry them out.
