New research shows that estrogen replacement early may minimize menopausal symptoms and improve sexuality for mid-life women while reducing the risks of HRT.
Comment: Win Win for women yes, but on a broad basis its more like Win - lose - or - Draw.
Comment: It's all about personal, informed choice; the operative word being informed. I received a patch immediately following a complete hysterectomy when I was fifty and have been using estrogen since 1997. As lower doses have become available I've reduced the amount. I am 62 now and my bone density remains virtually the same. I had horrible PMS and began feeling the same symptoms all the time, irritability, explosive anger etc. I've experienced none of that since my surgery. I keep up to date on the available information, take aspirin regularly, have regular mammograms and do breast self-exams regularly. I continue to weigh the risks vs the benefits. Take control of your own health is my main comment!!
Comment: The companys that manufacture estrogen will obviously stop at nothing in order to sell their product to gullible women who are afraid of their own natural body processes. As a breast cancer survivor who took estrogen for 3 years beginning at age 50, I take offense. My breast cancer was of the estrogen dependent type and I did not have a family history.
Comment: My experience was very similar to Patti M. In my mid-30s I found out that I was in full blown menopause. I did not know what was wrong. I changed from a vibrate assertive professional who enjoyed a healthy sex life to someone who had difficulty concentrating or making a decision. I was anixous all the time for no reason. I had difficulty sleeping and had absolutely no desire for sex. I had a condition called atrophic vaginitis and a constant urge to urinate. I had nausating hot flashes so badly, I felt like my head was in an oven. Once I became so confused at the grocery store when the clerk asked me if I wanted paper or plastic that my 7 year old took my hand and said "Mom, don't we always get plastic". I knew I had to get help because my daughter was concerned and frightened. My doctor prescribed compounded HRT designed for me. Beause my symtoms were so severe my doctor does not recommend that I stop taking HTRs at this time. I agree because my quality of life was so bad, every day was a struggle. That was 15 years ago and now I have a normal well balanced life. I worry sometimes about HRTs but I do not know what my life would have been like without them because my world was spiraling downhill so rapidly. I imagine I could have ended up divorced and worse homeless because my job was also being effected.
Comment: Twenty years ago at the age of 31 I was completely in menopause. My periods were never normal and I would skip months at a time. Before I turned 30 I was having problems with mood swings and anxiety attacks and the symptoms were getting worse. A doctor decided I should have my FSH levels tested. The results were that I was in full blown menopause. I was told I need to start FSH right away because of my younger age. It took two frustrating years for doctors to get the HRT dosage levels right for me to start feeling and living a normal life again. I have been on HRT for twenty years now and have tried to get off it several times, but my current doctor doesn't want me off until I'm at the usual age of a postmenopausal woman. Even though HRT turned my life around for the better, I do worry about the long time use of HRT. My mother never had a problem with menopause.
Comment: At the age of 31 I was completely in menopause and was told I had to start HRT because of my younger age. My periods were never regular and many times I would skip months at a time. I thought I was having some kind of a mental breakdown until a doctor decided I needed my FSH tested. The results put me in full blown menopause. It then took two years for the doctors to get the dosage levels right for me so that I would be able to lead a balanced life again. It has been twenty years since I started on HRT. I have tried several times to get off of it, but my current doctor has been against it saying I should remain on it until I would be of the age when a woman would normally be postmenopausal. I have felt great all these years, but I do worry about being on HRT too many years. My own mother never had a problem with menopause.
Comment: I'm 48 and started experiencing symtoms of menopause when I was 41. A test of my FSH verified that I was in the beginning throes of menopause. Had I not started on HRT I would not be around today. The hot flashes and mood swings were so debilitating I didn't feel like living anymore. I couldn't sleep, I'd go from Dr. Jekyll to Mr Hyde in an instant, and my life became a living nightmare. I wouldn't trade my HRT for all the tea in China. Perhaps these traits are hereditary as my mother suffered immensely and now my 4 sisters have/are going through the same agony as I did. It's an individual choice.
Comment: I guess I was one of the fortunate ones, I sailed right through menopause with absolutely no "symptoms" of any kind. Now at sixty-three, thirteen years postmenopausal, I remain symptom-free, am feeling great and very much enjoying life! I wonder how much societal conditioning contributes to the "condition" in some women. While many may experience very real debilitating medical symptoms, others may be influenced by expectations and attribute perfectly normal fleeting experiences to the "ravages" of menopause that are often promoted by some doctors and drug companies. Perhaps a study would ease the minds of women embarking on middle age. Menopause does not have to be a big, dark experience. For some of us, it was a completely uneventful breeze. Women stop producing hormones as a natural course for a reason, perhaps nature knows best.
Comment: Menopause is NOT an illness. It is a natural process that medications and herbs may help to cope with. Treating menopause like a medical crisis is ridiculous. And, before you ask, yes I know whereof I speak. I had a hysterectomy (total) and woke up from surgery in full blown menopause.
Comment: Menopause is not just a collection of symptoms. It is a very real illness and its medical name is hypogonadism. Whether a woman has these symptoms or not, she still has untreated hypogonadism if she is not taking ovarian hormone replacement for ovarian failure (menopause).
The treatment for hypogonadism is the same for all women; replace all of the ovarian hormones. That means replacing estradiol, testosterone, progesterone, dhea, and oxytocin. The ovaries make many hormones and all of them are needed to keep a woman healthy. Replacing only one or two of them results in poorly treated hypogonadism.
A woman has a right to know that she has an illness and should be given the opportunity to choose treatment or not. The choice should not be left to her doctor.
Beth Rosenshein
Founder
Diamond Research Foundation
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