Review of the TV Show "The Doctors"

I went into watching this show with absolutely no hope that anything substantial would be discussed, because quite honestly, I thought the Dr. Phil show last week was more interested in promoting Robin's book than actually educating women on the facts surrounding bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

However, I will say that I thought this presentation was marginally better than the Dr. Phil Show last week. Of course, there were the requisite shots of Robin playing with her dog in the front yard of her home, and of her posing for the cover of her book, and I think that time can be better spent. She sat at the table with the four doctors who are the "regulars" on the show. One of the annoyances for me was this whole hype of how talking about menopause is "shameful" and women were shown in taped pieces saying they never talk to their girlfriends about this, that their mothers and grandmothers went through this behind closed doors (who cares, this is 2009), and on and on. Again, wasted time.

Robin talked about how she was in full blown menopause at the age of 43, and her doctor told her "life as you know it is over". I've heard that until I am ready to barf. She talked about having night sweats and hot flashes, which as most of you know, are very common, and sometimes debilitating symptoms of menopause. Then she went to a doctor who put her on bioidenticals, and suddenly menopause is "ok", "fun" , and my personal favourite, "the time of your life". OK, Robin, we get it, that's enough now.

Of course, the next step is to take a perimenopausal woman to the Prudence Hall Center in Los Angeles. I swear this is giving women the idea that she is the only hormone doctor on the West Coast (if you want a great one in the Palm Springs area, email me, his name is Dr. John D. Carr, he is without a doubt the most knowledgeable and compassionate doctor I have ever dealt with, and he is super easy to talk to---phone number is 760-779-5511). Dr. Hall spoke to the woman (with Robin sitting right there, of course, for moral support) and Dr. Hall told the woman she has hormone deficiencies and that they will only get worse without bioidentical hormones. Next stop, a compounding pharmacy (I don't know where the pharmacy was located, I suspecct its the one that the Hall Center sends its patients to). Actually, I have to say that segment at the pharmacy was pretty interesting, they showed how the creams are prepared, how troches are prepared (they're a gummy/candy like substance you take orally, another delivery system for hormones, I think the example they used was DHEA).

Next segment was the patient and Dr. Hall sitting in the audience, and the patient gushing about how great she felt, and of course, thanking Robin for her help. Dr. Hall went on to speak about how bioidentical hormones are usually compounded so that each patient gets the dose best for her individual needs. One thing I did notice is that andropause (the male version of menopause) was not discussed.

On the upside, the show at least BROUGHT UP the topic of the cost of bioidentical hormone therapy, a subject that was totally ignored on the Dr. Phil show. The young female doctor said that actually some bioidentical hormones are commercially available (and she's right, the two most common are the Vivelle Dot --- which is a patch, and Climara, also a patch). I believe there are some oral hormones that are also considered "bioidentical" but are not used because they turn into a different hormone once they hit the liver. Dr. Hall said that she in fact, does use some commercially prepared hormones in some instances, but pointed out that some compounded preprations turn out to be cheaper than the copay for a commerical preparation. I think the example she used was estrogen, and that one was true for me, I was surprised by how cheap estrogen (estriol) is.

Another positive note is that Robin talked about how when she first went on BHRT, she talked to a compounding pharmacy, who directed her to a doctor for the proper care. That's another thing the Dr. Phil show never addressed, and boy, their message boards went CRAZY with women screaming that Robin/Dr. Phil just had to tell them how to get to a physician in their area (and many of them, I suspecct, strongly hinting that they should be whisked to CA to be "saved" at the Hall Center). This is information I have emailed to a number of women.

For those of you who are new readers to my blog (because you heard about it on the message boards for the show The Doctors), welcome, please look around, I hope you will like what you see. Feel free to comment or shoot me an email, I always love hearing from you! Enjoy the rest of your day, it's in the mid 80's in Charlotte today!