Madison, the PMU Rescue--or Why I Don't Use Premarin - by B Kane, MD

Madision is a HUGE bay horse--brown body, black mane, tail, and lower legs. We always use her on the first day of Medicine and Horses due to her big, pushy, possessive personality. She is one of the stars of the Emmy nominated NBC-TV Medicine and Horses News Video.

Madison is also a PMU rescue. PMU stands for PREgnant MAre urINe. Sound familiar? Premarin. Premarin is a hormone made from mares who are kept constantly pregnant, constantly confined in tiny quarters, like veal calves. "PMU foals," as they're known, (and eventually the mares) from this ghastly process are often simply disposed of if no one rescues them. Kudos and blessings to Webb Ranch for rescuing Madison!

Premarin is used for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for, especially, post-menaopausal women. When I was in clinical practice, I virtually refused to prescribe Premarin due to the cruelty to horses.

In 2002, in an almost karmic adjustment, the results of the NIH Women's Health Initiative--15,000 women--showed that HRT actually -increased- heart disease and breast cancer. The study was even stopped due to early results. Premarin fell into disfavor as physicians and patients rethought risk factors and the physiology, psychology, and philosophy of normal aging and menopause.

It would have been a nice karmic readjustment if Wyeth, which makes Premarin and also some widely used and highly beneficial horse medicines, had approved our grant application for funding Medicine and Horses. But they declined. And anyway, Stanford now has a strict policy against pharma phunding.

Still, every time I see Madison, I hope that doctors and menopausal women will shun Premarin in favor of synthetic and "natural" alternatives.