Menopause & Hormones Tips

Hormones-What is Untrue

3. The only purposes of progesterone are to preserve and protect an embryo in the endometrial lining, supporting pregnancy, and to oppose estrogen in preventing uterine cancer. Other than that, low or non-existent progesterone levels are not a problem. This is untrue.

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What is Untrue #5

5. Blood tests accurately test for the presence or deficiency of steroidal hormones. This is untrue.

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Hormones-What is True

1. As a woman ages, her body loses its ability to make enough estrogen. This is untrue.

The vast majority of women continue to make plenty of estrogen after a natural menopause or a hysterectomy; it is progesterone that is deficient! We make estrogen in our body fat. Both estrogen and progesterone can be made in the adrenal cortex. However, since stress limits the production of both progesterone and estrogen in the adrenal glands, many of us fail to make the needed progesterone to balance our biological need for progesterone. However we do make estrogen from high glycemic food intake and in our body fat, so we are often not deficient in our natural estrogen synthesis. Therefore, a heavier woman will make more estrogen, than a thin woman. They also have a higher tendency toward a dramatic progesterone deficiency. The ability to make estrogen only diminishes, but does not stop in menopause/post-menopause, regardless of the reason for the menopausal onset.

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Hormones- What is Untrue #4

4. All hormones, whether created in a pharmaceutical laboratory, or by a living animal or by a human are equally effective. Bio-identical hormones are not necessary, as the synthetic ones work just as well. This is untrue.

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Menopause Myth #5 – Menopause means hot flashes.

While hot flashes are a common symptom in menopause, they are by no means universal. Some women never experience hot flashes but may have other symptoms of hormone imbalance, including anxiety, depression, foggy thinking, headaches, insomnia, weight gain, water retention and vaginal dryness. Some women, 10-15%, have the fortune to not experience any symptoms of menopause, they just stop having periods.
For more information please visit this webpage: Menopause Myths & Facts

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Menopause Myth #2 – Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prevents heart disease and osteoporosis.

The myth here is surrounding the term "prevention". Whereas the use of the term implies that if you take HRT you won't get certain diseases, this is not entirely the case. HRT can diminish some risk factors for certain diseases, while at the same time potentially increasing the risk for others. If you have risk factors for either of these diseases, and you are considering the use of HRT, ask that your doctor discuss with you the particular risks or benefits that you might expect in light of your specific health picture. In many situations there will be several options you can choose for disease risk reduction, from lifestyle changes, to nutritional supplements, to medications. It will be necessary to make choices that best meet your individual needs.
An article released 07-23-01 stated: For the first time, the American Heart Association Tuesday is advising postmenopausal women with heart disease not to go on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and those without heart disease not to count on the treatment to protect them against it.
For more information please visit this webpage: Menopause Myths & Facts

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Menopause Myth #2

The myth here is surrounding the term "prevention". Whereas the use of the term implies that if you take HRT you won't get certain diseases, this is not entirely the case. HRT can diminish some risk factors for certain diseases, while at the same time potentially increasing the risk for others. If you have risk factors for either of these diseases, and you are considering the use of HRT, ask that your doctor discuss with you the particular risks or benefits that you might expect in light of your specific health picture. In many situations there will be several options you can choose for disease risk reduction, from lifestyle changes, to nutritional supplements, to medications. It will be necessary to make choices that best meet your individual needs.
An article released 07-23-01 stated: For the first time, the American Heart Association Tuesday is advising postmenopausal women with heart disease not to go on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and those without heart disease not to count on the treatment to protect them against it.

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Hormones-What is True

What is TRUE
1. Salivary testing for steroidal hormones is necessary to accurately measure them. Most of us, women and men, of all ages, are making sufficient estrogen for our bodies. Some are not, but most are. We should never assume a deficiency of estrogen, because the most likely reality is a deficiency of Progesterone instead.

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Menopause Myth #3

Myth: Hot flashes are due to low estrogen levels.
Hot flashes are a heat release response by the body with dilation of peripheral blood vessels causing flushing followed by sweating. They occur because the body's thermostat setting is narrowed and minor temperature changes trigger an exaggerated response. While hot flashes are seen in women with low estrogen levels, they can also occur with high estrogen levels (during pregnancy) and with fluctuating estrogen levels. Other hormones also play a role – hot flashes occur with low progesterone, low testosterone (even in men), high FSH (follicle stimulating hormone), surges of LH (luteinizing hormone), increased cortisol, increased stress hormones and low beta-endorphin levels. Even low levels of antioxidants in the body can contribute to hot flashes. Hot flashes occur in up to 85% of postmenopausal women, but significant numbers of perimenopausal women and women with PMS experience hot flashes. Hot flashes that occur at night are called night sweats.

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Hormones- What is Untrue #7

8. All menopausal women need estrogen. Natural estrogen is ok; it's the prescription estrogens that are the only bad ones. This is untrue.

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Menopause Myth #1

Myth: Menopausal symptoms don't start until your periods stop.
Perimenopausal hormone changes can begin as early as the late 30s or early 40s. Many perimenopausal women begin to experience symptoms like night sweats, hot flashes, insomnia, anxiety, mood swings, headaches, changes in sex drive (libido) and changes in the menstrual cycle long before their periods stop. Many of these symptoms are due to an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone in the body, which occurs as ovulation becomes irregular in the perimenopausal period.

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Hormones - What is Untrue #6

6. Only women need to be looking at the balance of estrogen to progesterone for their health. Men's bodies are not in need of Progesterone supplementation to offset the many environmental "Estrogens," called Xenoestrogens, in their lives. This is untrue.

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Hormones - What Untrue #2

2. After a hysterectomy, a woman completely loses her ability to make estrogen. Progesterone becomes unimportant. Both are untrue

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