PREMARIN

Where can I start...well, I'll start when I started taking Premarin.  So I began taking Premarin when I was 12 years old and weighed 100 pounds maybe less.  This was the summer before my Freshman year in High School  It was my first form of HRT and everything was new.  I began on a  .065 dosage of the drug.  The little Maroon pill is all I remember from taking the Premarin. (second from the top)

My Experience:  I think one of the reasons my experience with Premarin was so unpleasant was both the doctors the drug and the fact that this was my first HRT and I was confused.  

Regardless,  I did not like Premarin.  I was only on Premarin for a few years, but in that time I grew taller and started to gain weight after the first year.  I assumed I was gaining weight because I was growing and because I was playing sports.  Ergo Facto weight gain.  I also had a major sweet tooth/carbohydrate craving, not like I had not had one before, but this was unnatural.  The hot flashed were not getting any better and neither was my insomnia.  

Every time I went to Children's Hospital in San Diego, where my former endocrinologist worked I was told that I was gaining too much weight, I was obese and that I needed to exercise every day.  I ALREADY WAS working out close to 20 hours a week between swimming, water polo a running regiment my parents put me on to loose the extra pounds.  Nothing helped.  

I went off Premarin at my mother's request, she found out how they made it(see below), and switched to Estrogen derived from wild Mexican yams.  I believe the name was Estradiol or Estrace...I will look into my medical records.  My cysts, extra lbs, hot flashes, insomnia did not subside with the new hormones.

Overall

Premarin is derived from PREgnant MARe's urINe.  Hence the name Pre-mar-in.  In order to maintain a high concentration of the hormone the Mares (female horses) are repeatedly inseminated.  Their   This perma pregnancy is what keeps Premarin stable.  (I pose this question, How can a horses hormone level in their urine stay constant? Regardless of the fact that they are pregnant each pregnancy and the hormones that go along with it are different.)

Here is a link: Images and Link.  Shows how they harvest the drug, gives a little more info.  

Lastly, the producer of Premarin is Wyeth.  This same company has a Anti-Bio Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy Campaign.  It is all over the Internet.  Being an Individual on Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy,  I can not support Wyeth.