Selling the Fountain of Youth by Arlene Weintraub

Author:Arlene Weintraub
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2010-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

Stanton patient Holly Dreher, 61, was following the Wiley Protocol and taking an even bigger dose of estrogen than the program recommended. But when she arrived at Stanton’s Manchester office in January 2009, she told the doctor that she’d been suffering from cramps and that her period had come a day early the last time. “Increase the progesterone,” Stanton advised her. “I don’t like progesterone,” replied Dreher, explaining that the hormone made her feel bloated. “So decrease the estrogen,” said Stanton. “I can’t do that,” said Dreher. “I can tell by my symptoms I need a lot of estrogen.” She chose to tolerate the side effects instead.

Dreher didn’t pay much attention to the experts who said that too much estrogen can cause breast cancer and that not balancing the estrogen with progesterone can endanger the uterus. “When people say you’ll get cancer if you take hormones your whole life I don’t believe it,” said Dreher, a vivacious blond who sought out Stanton after her internist questioned her hormone routine. “I showed him my schedule,” she said, pointing to a green calendar, provided by Wiley, detailing the dosages for each day. “His eyes bugged out. He said, ‘This is a lot of hormones.’ But it’s what I need. I have four grand-daughters. I can still run around with them. If I stop, I’ll be worse, because I’ll be older. I read in Suzanne Somers’s book that she needs a lot of estrogen.” Dreher seemed to understand that she could maintain her youthful energy by exercising and watching her diet, but she preferred the hormone route to youth. “I know it’s not natural to be getting a period at my age, but I wanted it. I could give up my wine. I could give up my cookies in the afternoon.” She paused, turning to her husband, Mark, who had joined her for the consultation with Stanton. “But you have to enjoy yourself,” Mark said. “I don’t want to drink alone.”

Despite her support for Holly Dreher’s massive hormone doses, Stanton seemed to have a gut feeling that Wiley’s methodology was flawed. The protocol demanded that women get regular blood tests to measure their hormones, even though hormones given in cream form don’t show up in the blood. “I don’t completely follow how she gets her numbers,” Stanton said. “If you test anyone on a Wiley Protocol by any other method—if you use saliva or urine—their hormone levels are very, very high. But in blood they stay low. I just don’t understand.” She didn’t encourage new patients to try Wiley, but she didn’t try to talk women out of the program, either.

Mark Dreher was so impressed with his wife’s anti-aging routine that he shelled out $495 for a battery of BodyLogic blood and saliva tests for himself. Stanton told him that the saliva tests revealed abnormally high levels of estrogen; it had clearly rubbed off on him while he was sleeping next to his wife. High estrogen can cause heart trouble in men. Yet

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