Sent to Live on a Pee Farm Upstate

     Thousands of women enter menopause each day and the vast majority will spend one third of their life in this phase.  The jury is still out on whether the risks of hormone replacement therapy, including increased risk of certain cancers, gall bladder disease, and heart problems, outweighs the discomfort of menopause. These medicines have been proven to nearly halt the effects of osteoporosis and have been, falsely, linked to a decrease in dementia and the effects of Alzheimers.   For those who choose to go on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) the most prescribed medicine is Premarin.

     The secret ingredient in Premarin is PREGNANT MARES URINE (PMU).  The brand name is derived from PREgnant MARes urINe.  Whether in cream, pill, or patch form, it is essentially conjugated estrogens extracted from the urine of pregnant mares. It is superior to synthetic estrogen because the hormone is harnessed through an all-natural source.  (that would be urine) 

    HorseAid is a nonprofit organization that crusades for the rights of horses forced to work on pee farrns.  When farms were shut down in Ontario, Canada after documented horse abuses, they reopened in Manitoba and Alberta among other places.  Pregnant mares are tied up indoors for at least six months out of the year while their urine is being harnessed via the use of a catheter.  After they can no longer reproduce the horses are sometimes fattened at the feed lot and sold off for slaughter.

Advocates argue that the pee farms are good for the Canadian agriculture industry and support privately owned farms. The producers of the drug, Wyeth Organics, announced in 2003 that they would be decreasing the production of urine by one-third.  However, Wyeth earns roughly 1.2 billion dollars a year from the sale of Premarin and is unlikely to make further cuts until the FDA approves the synthetic form of the urine as a genetic replacement.