Erika Schwartz
Erika Schwartz, MD, is a physician who has made numerous television appearances promoting the use of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to treat The Symptoms of menopause, and has written books on hormones and teen weight loss.
Advocacy for bioidentical hormones
When experiencing early menopause, Schwartz became dissatisfied with conventional hormone replacement therapy and began using bioidentical hormones for herself and her patients, developing protocols and reviewing research on the topic. Shortly before the termination of the Women's Health Initiative study that demonstrated the previously unappreciated risks of HRT, Schwartz published a book for general audiences AbOUT alternative approaches to hormone replacement. In 2008, Schwartz co-authored a paper on hormones in wellness and disease prevention.
Though bioidentical hormones are promoted as a panacea by advocates, there is no evidence that these hormones are any more effective, or present any fewer risks than conventional hormone replacement therapy. The Endocrine Society and United States Food and [...] Administration Concur that "the term bioidentical is a marketing term and not one of scientific or medical merit."