Passage 3

We have to admire Suzanne Somers's persistence. She doesn't give up—even when virtually the entire medical community is lined up against her. Three years ago, Somers wrote a best-selling book called The Sexy Years in which she promoted so-called bioidentical hormones as a more natural alternative to hormones produced by drug companies for menopausal women. Somers, now 60, claimed that these individually prepared doses of estrogen and other hormones, sold via the Internet or by compounding pharmacies, made her look and feel half her age. As the popularity of bioidenticals soared, major medical organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists grew so alarmed that they mounted publicity campaigns to convince Somers's readers that these alternative treatments, which are usually custom made for each patient, haven't been proven safe or more effective than traditional hormone therapy for symptoms like hot flashes.

This month Somers is at it again wit her latest book, Ageless. Subtitled The Naked Truth About Bio-identical Hormones, the cover features a coquettish shot of the actress unclothed from the collarbone up. Inside, she calls bioidenticals “the juice of youth” and also promotes the questionable dosage advice of a former actress and “independent researcher” named T. S. Wiley who thinks menopausal women should have as much estrogen in their bodies as 20-year-olds. Now, even some for the bioidentical doctors Somers quotes in her books are screaming foul. “Many of the claims throughout the book are scientifically unproven and dangerous,” three of these doctors assert in a letter sent a few weeks ago to Somers's publisher, Crown.

Somers adamantly defends her book and bio-identical. “From a woman's standpoint, this is the first time we've gotten some relief in a non-drug way,” she says in an interview with NEWSWEEK. “Doctors are embarrassed that they don't know about this.” Somers says. “When doctors don't have an answer, they like to pooh-pooh it.”

The word bio-identical is a marketing term, not a scientific one, and it means different things to different people. To most doctors, bio-identical refers to a wide variety of FDAapproved drugs that are virtually identical to the hormones produced by women's ovaries. They come in many forms and doses, some of which have been used for years. Somers uses the term to refer to made-to-order treatments created by compounding pharmacies with dosages usually determined by the results of blood tests every two weeks (the method Somers herself uses), or regular saliva tests, a method most experts say is an unreliable way to measure a women's specific hormone needs. Somers claims that she is so “in touch” with her body's needs that she can “tweak” her hormones even without the benefit of these tests.

Proponents of Somers's program say only hormones prepared specifically for each woman can meet her unique needs. But since the Women's Health Initiative, the FDA has approved many new hormone products, including some in very low doses. While the FDA process isn't perfect, it's certainly better than what consumers get with compounding products: no black box warning about side effects, no package insert, no data on relative safety, no check on advertising claims and no manufacturing oversight.

Somers says these custom-made treatments are natural and not really drugs. That's just not true. Bioidenticals may start out as wild yams or soybeans, but by the time this plant matter has been converted into hormone therapy, it is in fact a drug. All of these products—whether or not they're approved by the FDA—are chemicals synthesized in a lab. Another thing you should know: there are only a few labs in the world that synthesized these hormones. Everyone—from small compounding pharmacies to big pharmaceutical companies - gets their ingredients from the same places.

Somers argues that bioidenticals are safer than FDA-approved hormones even though there are no high-quality studies to prove that assertion. In the absence of any reliable research to the contrary, most women's health experts say it's prudent to assume that all hormone products (FDA-approved or not) carry the same heart disease and cancer risks.

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that ________.

Which of the following statements is TRUE about some doctors Somers quotes in her books?

The word “pooh-pooh” in the third paragraph probably means ________.

The author's attitude towards bio-identical hormones is ________.

According to the author, all the following are the traits of compounding products EXCEPT ________.