Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sucks

My mother died of breast cancer.  She had been using a body cream that was loaded with estrogen.  It was the hot new thing for women going through the "change."  This was in the sixties.  The jar contained enough estrogen to grow breasts on The Rock. Although he's not doing bad on his own.

You'll notice that you can't get over the counter creams any more that contain estrogen.  Was it because the estrogen caused cancer?  Do you think?

Meanwhile, since everybody else is putting their two cents in about breast cancer this month, why should I be an exception. 

However, my two cents is about all the smoke and mirrors created by the pharmaceutical companies to make women think that HRT and birth control are GOOD THINGS. 

Last week there was a new report that said, in a nutshell, your birth control pills were good for you.  Again.  Here's another opinion:

Birth Control Pill Heart Disease "Study" Unreliable

October 25, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Beginning early last week hundreds of news outlets around the world reported that a new study had shown that using oral chemical contraceptives reduced the risk of heart attack.

The UK's Telegraph wrote, "Women who take the Pill are protecting themselves against cancer and heart disease." The Hindustan Times of India reported, "new research claims that the tablets, on the contrary, reduce chances of heart attacks." Health 24.com of South Africa ran the headline, "Pill cuts heart disease risk."

One BC pharmacist, Christina Alarcon of Canada's Pharmacists for Life called one manufacturer of the drugs, Wyeth Ayerst, asking for a copy of the 'study' and was told there was no study to send. Alarcon pointed out that the claim that women who take oral contraceptives have lower instances of heart disease is deceptive. "Doctors don't normally prescribe oral contraceptives to women with a history of heart disease anyway. So of course looking at the data of women who take the pill will show that most of them have a lower history of heart disease, their doctors wouldn't give it to them otherwise."

Closer examination shows the 'study' is actually not a new independent study but a reassessment of statistical data drawn from the US Women's Health Initiative, a 15 year examination of the effects of hormone treatments on rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis, in postmenopausal women. The information that made headlines last week was composited by a team of analysts from Wayne State University headed by Dr. Rahi Victory.

The new report was not conducted with the normal rigorous controls of a double-blind, placebo-controlled scientific study and has not been published in any peer-reviewed scientific journals. The research was presented at the conference of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Philadelphia and no information has been made public as to who funded it.

Alarcon said, "The journalists, especially in the Canadian press, took verbatim what was released and didn't ask any questions."  [Lifesitenews.com]

 

Like this bending of the data to make a press release is new.

In other words, scratch the report and you get a load of BS. The same BS that has been floating around since the early sixties.  Who pays for the studies? Whoever will benefit most. The pharmaceuticals.

Doesn't anybody realize that the companies that make these pills have known for decades that they kill women, but they've been painting lipstick on this pig for so long it's starting to look like a date for the prom.

Think tobacco.  Same thing.  We ought to be suing the pharmaceuticals for the cost to our public health system.  For mammograms and breast reconstruction.  For chemo and radiation. For the lie they've perpetrated on women that pumping your body full of more than nature intended could ever be a good thing.

There is some symmetry here.  Women pay money for birth control pills and HRT.  They get cancer. Then they pay money again for the privilege of running in fundraising races to help eradicate breast cancer now that they've got it. So the pharms get them coming and going.

They're only in it for the money.

And my mother paid with her life.

 

 

P.S. While I can't bear to attend the races, I did create a very nice video [if I say so myself] for a client in conjunction with the Komen Foundation's efforts.