Wiley Protocol - One Woman's Experience

I know how many women desperately want to maintain a healthy body after a hysterectomy and/or menopause. I also know how many have shown an interest in learning more about the Wiley Protocol.  To say it's a controversial topic, is an understatement.  There are those who think the Wiley Protocol is the greatest thing since sliced bread, while others think it's a major catalyst responsible for other medical problems.

There is no treatment available to to us today that is ever 100% effective. Even aspirin isn't for everybody. That's why you and your doctor have to decide what is best for you.

What you will now read is one women's dairy entry describing how she is doing after six months on the Wiley Protocol.  She had a Laparoscopically Assisted Vaginal Hysterectomy (LAVH) to remove ovarian ovarian cysts in 2004. 

Here it is:

As promised, I'm reporting after 6 months on the protocol and still doing great. As a matter of fact my FSH has dropped to almost normal levels!! I've got about 10 points to go to be within normal range. A big difference from when I started in the 70's! Estradiol was within range, and my Progesterone is slowly going up.

Some things that have been notably different are:
-skin (ode to my beautiful skin! Sounds conceited I know, but after dealing with acne all the time before, I am so ecstatic that my skin has improved so drastically. I even feel like the wrinkling has decreased, not sure if that's from improved moisture I experience or what, but it's great! My feet and lips are not dry and parched either.)
-libido
-energy levels (except on the higher end of the P phase, I feel like not doing much, which was so like when I was cycling normally so it doesn't bother me at all.)
-mood (Again, on the higher end of the P phase, I feel more "into myself", but just like I was when I had periods. I actually don't feel indifferent or numb anymore. I feel flirty, talkative, and open for the most part.)
-nails & hair (My nails are no longer brittle, and break easily. They look healthy, without the lines I had before. My hair grows!)

Some things I don't like about the protocol so far
-felt pretty bloated this last month at the end of the P phase (I messed up my doses this last month because I wasn't paying close attention to the calendar so I'm going to pay closer attention this month and see if I still have symptoms of this.)

-noticing on Day 13 there is a pretty big drop in E, which gives me headaches and anxiety, so the doctor may bring this up a little. We're going to give it one more month and see how I do.

-on the higher P days this last month I did not sleep well. Could be due to me messing up the calendar. Will keep you posted on this too.

-I still experience some vaginal dryness a few days of the protocol. I'm not sure why that is and hate to even mention this fact because compared to how I was before, I feel like I'm just getting plain picky about minor symptoms. However, I promised I would report it all. So that's the journey thus far..

To read more about Hyster Sisters and their forums click here.

Comments

[Josie]

Hi Ladies,

I am on the Wiley Proticol and have been for about a year, would not go to anything else again. I am looking for a Dec Calendar and they seem to be hard to get except from the pharmacy and mine got shreded, it is Christmas and the compounding pharmacy I use is closed until Monday.Tonight is Dec. 22nd and I do not want to mess up my doses.

Thank you!
ardvark@cruzio.com
Can someone tell me what today s day is

[Susan Edson]

I have been on the Wiley Protocol for a year now, and my experience is so positive it probably sounds ficional. I assure you it's real, and has happened to me.

I became myself again on Wiley, almost from the first day. Every menopausal symptom I had, and I had them all, disappeared within days of beginning the protocol. My symptoms had been so severe that I couldn't function. I had not been able to work for most of the 4 years prior to beginning Wiley.

Now, I'm happy, symptom free, having a period again. My hair and skin look like it did when I was 20. I can think again. My emotions are in control. I'm calm and happy. My weight has gone down. My life feels worth living again.

I won't say Wiley is easy. It takes patience and the will to find answers, sometimes on your own. I need to adjust my dose often, and I have to stay attuned to my body constantly. But what's wrong with that? We should all stay attuned to our bodies, especially as we age. And besides, nothing that makes a real difference in my life has ever been easy.

[Elizabeth]

Fellow women,
I have been on the protocol for 3 years. I feel wonderful. I am 53 and look 40. I have energy, feel "normal" again. I can think clearly in spite of the stress of taking care of an aging mother and voluteering and working full time.

I am wondering why people continue to say these hormone levels are "high". They are normal hormone levels in a normal 25 year old.

Normal sex hormone cycles decline as we age and as we age we get the diseases of age - stroke, alzheimers, heart disease, cancer. Until we do the trials and prove that normal hormone levels of youth protect us older women from the diseases of aging, I am on the Wiley protocol. I am siding with a billion years of evolution, until we can complete a few years of trials.

Everyone's journey is different; so everyone's voice is important. We all want each other to be healthy and our time on this Earth to be joyful.

I know that an open mind is better than not. What else do we know for sure?

[KATE GOGGANS]

LIVE IN ESTERO,FL. AGE 62 AND EXPERIENCING HOT FLASHES, VAGINAL DRYNESS, SOME HAIR LOSS, DRY SKIN BLOOD TEST RESULTS: PROGESTERONE .5 //ESTRADIAOL 10 //TESTOSTERONE 35 AND DHEA 58. I HAVE BEEN TRYING EVERYWHERE TO FIND A DR. TO HELP. PLEASE IF ANYONE IS LISTENING THAT MIGHT BE ABLE TO GUIDE ME. E-MAIL

[Deb Vanderstadt]

T.S. Wiley is not a scientist so she is perhaps not aware that normally one waits for a study to be completed before drawing conclusions. Also, a small, observational, comparision study like the one she refers to cannot establish the safety or efficacy of a treatment like the Wiley Protocol. And when this study is completed, the women who suffered on the Wiley Protocol will not cease to exist. The testimonial I posted below will not suddenly disappear. T.S. Wiley's history of lies and manipulations will not be expunged.

Nothing will be erased. We will perhaps know a little more than we already do. It depends on the quality of the study, which remains to be seen.

As any scientist could tell you.

[TS Wiley]

The University of Texas at Tyler has now been put in charge of determining what is and is not valid in terms of safety, effacacy and reliability pertaining to my work on the Wiley Protocol, so the valiant efforts on behalf of the public's protection by Ms. Vanderstadt and Ms. McCubbin are on longer necessary, unless they have the audacity to believe that an academic study is valueless.

Should you choose to watch the tape of the Senate SubCommittee hearing, at which I was invited to testify as an expert about the safety of compounded hormones, you'll see that the Senator asked me if I would welcome federal funding and oversight...to which I responed "Absolutely."

I welcome the scrutiny of the Wiley Protocol by all of the regulatory arms of HealthCare that I shared the panel with that day. It is my opinion that women in this country deserve healthcare that has been studied by real experts in the field and determined to be safe and reliably effective.

Otherwise, the landscape of hormone replacement, bio-identical or otherwise, will always be rife with pretenders, rumor-mongers and hysterical paranoia. This climate only fuels the drug companies hold on the government's regulation of our healthcare, which unfortunately, no matter what good the intentions might have been, always ends up solidifying the drug company's position.

[Sissy]

I'm trying to figure out why Wiley thinks Deb V. "admits" to not taking the Wiley Protocol. That implies guilt. Huh? Guilty of not being stupid?

Deb V. only volunteered to check out Wiley's outrageous claims. She wasn't as stupid as the rest of us who did the protocol. I "confess" I took WP. Does that make me more qualified to track Wiley's lies? No. I was totally fooled. Deb V. wasn't.

Deb is a smarter woman than I am. If anything Deb is more qualified to catch the Wiley organization because she is so objective-- and she has demonstrated that admirably at wileywatch.org

[Susan]

Linda,

With all due respect for the wonderful work you do, I don't think you can accurately characterize the Wiley Protocol as "controversial" anymore. The jury is in. The protocol is a failure. Doctors are dropping it because they don't want so many complaining patients. At the last medical conference I went to, most of the doctors did not want to be seen anywhere near the booth where TS Wiley was marketing her hormones.

There is a also documented list of unsolicited complaints from women who tried Wiley and are now suffering with bleeding, hair loss, depression and weight gain and hypothyroidism.

I'm actually glad this one person came forth to say she was only getting headaches, bloat and depression. I'm glad because it brings out those poor souls who lost months of their lives to a woman who's main reputation is for repeatedly lying about her lack of credentials.

Also, Linda, today my attention was drawn to an alarming Wikipedia web page about how the "Wiley Protocol" entry on Wiki has been manipulated for months by Wiley's husband: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wiley_Protocol

Anyway, thank you, Linda for giving this issue a forum!

[TS Wiley]

Reading the last most recent post from Ms. Vanderstadt, I must remind you that the woman posting has never taken the Wiley Protocol - by her own admission.

Misuse of my name and ideas makes it harder for all of us to run the upcoming Study of statically dosed bioidenticals vs the Wiley Protocol at the University Texas.

[Deb Vanderstadt]

Your readers deserve better than this -- cherry-picking one positive testimonial, when you know it fails to represent what so many women have gone through.

How about these recent reports?

"I started the WP four and one half months ago and I'm a mess. My hair is falling out, I've gained weight (the least of my problems), have linea negra, horrible cramps, huge bloated stomach, the list goes on."

"Began Wiley end of Feb 2007. Am having problems with weight gain/craving for carbs, anxiety, severe insomnia, chin whiskers. Am thinking about cutting back to a couple lines of estrogen and only 1 line of progesterone last 14 days of month and see what that does. Cannot get an answer from Wiley folks - have sent email and phoned 2 users from web site."

"I recently took myself off the Wiley Protocol after barely getting through the third month. I was experiencing anxiety to the point of panic attacks and now am having insomnia along with anxiety, depression and crying spells. I am looking for other women who have experienced this and how they have recovered. Help!"

These kinds of reports are hardly surprising. Wiley's science mentor, Dr. Bent Formby, describes the protocol's extremely high dosages as "a nuclear blast to the endocrine system" and "fantastically irresponsible." (He broke with Wiley over the ethics of promoting an extreme yet untested hormone protocol to the public.)