Women in Menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy - What Should They Do?

Hormones are chemicals produced in your body. The hormones role is to influence tissue or organs within the body. Some hormones we produce are Thyroid, Insulin, Growth Hormone and the sex hormones Testosterone, Estrogen and Progesterone. In the last 20 years the list has grown to over 100 different known hormones.

Menopause is the cessation of the menstrual cycle for one year. The estrogen that had been abundantly produced previously, is now at a much lower level. Symptoms occur as the hormone ratios change. Women who have experienced this know that they can experience:

• liability of emotions


• sleep disturbances


• temperature regulation problems like hot flashes, sweats and chills


• change in sexual desire


• loss of the ability to orgasm


• inability lubricate enough to enjoy sexual activity

Some women complain of word finding difficulty they sometimes call "Foggy Brain". These symptoms are a great source of discomfort and anxiety for many women.

Not that many years ago it was recommended that women take hormones to "replace" those they no longer produced. Over time it was discovered that these pharmaceutical grade hormones predisposed the individual prescribed them to some serious problems. These problems seem to be related to the

• dose,


• ratio,


• length of time taken,


• age of the patient and


• smoking habits


• as well as hereditary risk factors.

Bottom line, they made symptoms go away but caused blood clots, breast and uterine cancer. They did not prevent many of the diseases for which they were being taken. The pendulum swung completely away from hormone therapy. Then women began taking hormones from plants but those plant estrogens might cause some of the same problems.

Now enter "bio-identical hormones". These are hormones derived from plants and chemically altered to "exactly" resemble human estrogen and progesterone. Also, about the time these bio-identical hormones became available, new studies indicated that topical use and use up to age sixty probably solved some of the symptom problems but did not cause the side effects.

Some studies suggest nonidentical progesterone actually predisposed a woman to greater inflammation and possibly increased risk of cardiovascular disease.