Premarin: A Prescription for Cruelty

Every year, doctors prescribe hormone replacement therapy (HRT)—also referred to as  menopausal hormone therapy—to hundreds of thousands of women experiencing menopausal symptoms. One of the most widely prescribed drugs for HRT is made from animal waste. The drug is Premarin, an estrogen-therapy drug manufactured by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which also produces Prempro, an estrogen/progestin combination. Both drugs contain horse urine, specifically pregnant mare urine (PMU). Not only has this form of HRT proved to be dangerous to humans, but horses raised for their urine are kept confined and pregnant and their foals often end up in the slaughterhouse.

Where Premarin Comes From
There are about 100 ranches in remote areas of North Dakota and Canada that house thousands of pregnant mares who produce urine for Premarin and Prempro.(1,2) For most of their 11-month pregnancies, these horses are confined to stalls so small that they cannot turn around or take more than one step in any direction. The animals must wear rubber urine-collection bags at all times, which causes chafing and lesions, and their drinking water is limited so that their urine will yield more concentrated estrogen.(3) Once the foals are born, the horses are reimpregnated; this cycle continues for about 12 years.(4)
 
PMU ranchers are only expected to follow the “Recommended Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Horses in PMU Operations”—a document produced by a “study committee” that included a Wyeth representative—on a voluntary basis. The document states that horses may be allowed only “as much exercise as is necessary for their welfare,” leaving the exact amount open to interpretation.(5)

The Fate of the Foals 
The fate of the thousands of foals born on PMU farms each year is equally disturbing. Some are used to replace their exhausted mothers. Some are offered for adoption (although Wyeth-funded farms are not permitted to work with rescue organizations), but the remaining foals—along with worn-out mares—are sold at auction, where most are purchased by buyers for slaughterhouses.(6) One PMU industry insider says, “See, the foals—and the mares which [sic] can’t get pregnant any more—they are the byproduct of the PMU industry. ... We crush ’em and recycle ’em, just like [aluminum] cans.”(7)

Risks Outweigh Any Benefits 
In 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a study of more than 16,000 women using Prempro, was abruptly halted by the federal government after it concluded that HRT raises a woman’s risk of having a stroke by 41 percent, risk of suffering a heart attack by 29 percent, and risk of getting breast cancer by 26 percent. Dr. Claude Lenfant—director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which sponsored the study—said the cardiovascular and cancer risks were “too high a price to pay” and urged women who want to ward off heart disease to “focus on well-proven treatments” instead, such as controlling blood cholesterol and keeping their weight down.(8)

The WHI also found that Prempro has no meaningful effects on women’s physical or emotional health, pain levels, memory, sleeping patterns, or energy levels. The researchers concluded that Prempro is effective for short-term relief from hot flashes but nothing else. Many women find that they can control hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms by making easy lifestyle changes—like eating a low-fat vegetarian diet and getting regular exercise—rather than contributing to animal suffering. Dr. Jennifer Hays from the Baylor College of Medicine commented, “The average woman will not experience an improvement in her quality of life by taking this pill.”(9)

Wyeth currently faces more than 5,000 personal-injury lawsuits filed by more than 8,000 women who took Prempro or Premarin.(10)

What You Can Do
If your doctor prescribes HRT, discuss your options and ask for one of the many humane alternatives to Premarin, such as hormone replacement tablets made from plant-derived estrogens called phytoestrogens.(11) Other herbal-based, over-the-counter remedies are also available. Visit MenopauseOnline.com for details about alternatives to HRT.

For more information about PETA’s efforts to encourage Wyeth to improve its animal welfare policies, visit StopAnimalTests.com.

References
1) Canadian Press, “Man. Pregnant Mare Urine Ranchers Continue to Struggle,” Portage Daily Graphic 4 May 2005.
2) Susan Donaldson James, “Adopt a Horse and Save It From the Slaughterhouse,” ABC News, 4 Jan. 2007.
3) James.
4) James.
5) Manitoba Department of Agriculture, “Recommended Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Horses in PMU Operations,” 1 Jun. 1990.
6) James.
7) David Jones, “The Price of a Wonder Drug. What Happens When the Medical Men Have Got What They Came For,” Today 17 Jan. 1995.
8) Charlene Laino, “Due to Risks, Hormone Trial Halted,” MSNBC, 9 Jul. 2002.
9) CNN.com, “More Findings Against Long-Term Hormone Therapy,” 17 Mar. 2003.
10) RTT News, “Wyeth Backs FY07 EPS Outlook; Re-Inspection of Guayama Facility Underway,” TradingMarkets.com, 28 Feb. 2007.
11) Ransdell Pierson and Jed Seltzer, “Plant-Derived Estrogen Wins FDA Approval,” Reuters, 11 May 2004.