I don’t know… I had a terrible time during menopause. I about lost my mind. However, I didn’t want to take the horse hormones, or any other pharmaceutical product. That’s just me.
I in no way judge those that feel they need this type of intervention.
Made it through and feel like my normal self again. Took a good eight years…
That's the thing, we have more options now that are not horse derived. Bioidentical HRT has been amazing for me. I don't think my marriage would have survived if I hadn't started it, and my quality of life would be horrible. I am only 43 and wish I had known about it in 2020 because I was surely depleted then, in retrospect.
There are bioidenticals and the right combination and timing can make a huge difference. For me it was thyroid and progesterone replacement that completely restored my health.
GREAT POST! I tried weaning off HRT, last year due to PTSD from WHI MSM and health professionals putting the fear of adverse events in me. I couldn’t cope with the insomnia, brain fog, mood swings from lack of sleep and especially the hot flashes! My doctor wanted me to try Veozah,(number one side effect, insomnia) and Quiviviq, (side effects include: persistent drowsiness, dizziness, mood and behaviour changes that may include suicidal thoughts). He also told me estrogen causes breast cancer and progesterone causes endometrial changes that may lead to cancer, (likely from WHI derangement syndrome). I corrected him on the above and told him I wasn’t interested in a prescribing cascade.
I watched the great all knowing "medical professionals" torture my mom and make her endure extra suffering over this very thing. She went into early menopause and suffered for years, then was given HRT only to have it yanked out from under her causing mental and physical issues for years to come. I'm 57 and started on bioidentical hormone replacement pellets about 20 months ago and my now 86 yr old mom was terrified that I was singing up for a cancer diagnosis because it had been beaten into her for years that HRT was a very bad thing and a sure way to get cancer. So, it was better just to suffer and have other health issues than address the hormone situation. The bioidentical HRT was a game changer for me (and actually for my husband who now also uses this treatment) and I will not allow doctors, many who are hormone illiterate, to bully or fear monger me into giving up these treatments. I've spent a significant amount of time trying to educate and share information on this treatment with healthcare providers and it is truly mind blowing how little they know and how many lack any type of intellectual curiosity about the subject. Gone is the joint pain, racing heart, off the chart's anxiety, insomnia, hot flashes, mood swings and many other menopausal symptoms from hell. I don't know about the safety of synthetic hormone replacement, but the bioidentical hormone replacement is a God send for me.
I suspect the women who went through that same experience as my mom did is a huge number of silent sufferers. We recently relocated to another state and the new gyn I saw recently was reluctant to discuss HRT and had nothing particularly flattering to say about it. Thankfully, I found a competent provider for the bioidentical HRT and that understands hormones.
So, I get the estrogen and testosterone pellets and then compounded sublingual progesterone troche. My husband is getting the testosterone pellets as well.
Estrogen Matters is a really good book that aligns with this article. What confuses me is that Dr. Mercola claims estrogen should not be taken; he only recommends progesterone. My gynecologist said some women do not 'get through' menopause to the other side; their symptoms continue to worsen over time. There is a slight increase in risk of a thrombotic event from HRT during the first year of administration. The upsides trump this small risk. HRT is expensive. I hope a savvy entrepreneur will provide cheaper patches and pills. It is a niche market that is potentially wildly profitable as soon as doctors come on board with prescribing hormones to the women who need them, and that will be a lot. Also, wondering about women who take Testosterone, is that beneficial over the long haul?
My testosterone was basically zero. Bioidentical HRT compounded creams for me (progesterone and testosterone, I am estrogen dominant and do not need estrogen yet) started about 2.5 years ago was a life changer. I went from miserable and bitchy, to vibrant and feeling like myself again. My dose for testosterone needed to be lowered and that is the beauty of compounding, it can be mixed specifically for my needs. Progesterone keeps me calm, and testosterone helps my motivation in addition to libido. I can definitely tell if I skip the testosterone for too many days in a row. I use it nearly daily but if I start noticing irritability creep in, I back off for a day or two.
Thanks for the information. My friend just began HRT, and she said something about how some Testosterone converts to estrogen, so she has to wait to check her estrogen levels using the patch before adding Testosterone. Dr. Mercola has done several videos advising against Estrogen HRT, which is counter to what Dr. Bluming writes. As soon as I started the estradiol patch, my dry eyes were history. Dr. Louise Newson in the UK also has good online conversations on the subject.
Oh that's very interesting about your eyes no longer being dry! That's very interesting. I've noticed my eyes feel more dry lately, and I do notice my estrogen metabolites going down (I use Mira at home hormone tester). My estrogen is still higher than most, but it's "low" for me so my body is doing different things.
Excellent decision to use at home hormone testing. I did an entire month with my doctor's participation as an experiment to see how the HRT I was taking affected the hormone levels in my body. That's how we were able to find the right balance for me.
Estrogen is nature's moisturizer. When it plummets, all the mucous membranes and skin tend to become dry. I didn't know there was an at-home tester. I am going to check that out. I do think the key is the balance between E and P. Also, we need our levels to be high enough to maintain bone health.
I know I also disagree with him. The WHI is still influencing the medical world with erroneous information. I prefer obtaining the information on HRT in general from women doctors and scientists, although Dr. Bluming is intimately connected to the topic and to the issue of breast cancer. He has researched thousands of studies on HRT.
I went to natural remedies following the information in the book The Pause. I did not want to take horse estrogen, which I understand takes a rather cruel way to get that. I did fine. For eons women have gone through the pause without medical intervention, often taking natural remedies. I see no reason to medicate a natural event. As the article says, nutrition has a lot to do with how menopause goes.
It's been 20 years, I don't remember. As I recall, she looked at all options including hormones. The book it still out and updated. She has a site now. https://thepauselife.com/
I’m 55 and am officially in menopause. My periods stopped a year ago. I feel fine except for occasional hot flash and brain fog . I am an avid cyclist I lift weight . I walk . I read where nitric oxide is the key to keeping your body going instead of hormones . Not sure . But the clean food I eat and exercise that I do does help me. My friends take the HRT pellets and swear by them but gee … I can’t afford $400 every 3 months for something that I don’t know that I really need . I have no mood swings or weight gain . I actually have to keep myself from loosing weight . I take creatine and collagen . I think everyone is different and needs different things . Not a one size fits all solution
My compounded Bioidentical HRT is about $50 for each Rx, and they last probably 2 months. Are your friends going pellets or something that's more expensive? It doesn't have to be very expensive, there are options.
Great article! As one who had to jump from doctor to doctor over the years to keep getting my estradiol patches that gave me my brain and my passions back, I can attest to the difficulties the WHI study caused for menopausal women. Another important point to convey to your audience is about the "estrogen window" hypothesis. In the perimenopause period, women may not be ovulating every month. And when we don't ovulate, we don't make progesterone in the empty follicle. Thus, there's no progesterone to soften the uterine lining when there is no signal of pregnancy, so we may build up multiple months worth of linings. We may skip periods, sometimes two or three months, or have light ones. Then, on the next period we might feel as if we're going to hemorrhage to death, with an incredibly heavy period. During this time when we are making the usual amount of estrogen but no progesterone, estrogen is allowed to do what it does best: make cells divide. Progesterone balances the rapid cell growth of estrogen in the breasts as well as the uterus. When there is only the flood of estrogen without the counterbalancing (opposition) of progesterone, all sensitive cells, including the random mutated ones that pop up in our bodies all the time, can be influenced to grow rapidly, just like uterine and breast cells. They may grow too fast for the normal immune processes that find and kill such mutant cells before they can become self-sufficient tumors. An important solution to this problem is for women and their doctors to immediately recognize these no- or light-period cycles as opportunities for estrogen dominance to cause or allow cancer tumors to form. And when they see it happen, it's important for the women to take progesterone (oral micronized, or transdermal cream) during the second half of the 28-day cycle so that estrogen isn't flooding their bodies unopposed.
Just FYI, I was too sensitive to transdermal progesterone, saw that it converted too efficiently into testosterone (with all the side effects: acne, yeast, anger) in about 3 days like clockwork. My awesome doctor (before she retired), suggested compounded transdermal pregnenolone. Pregnenolone is one level higher up in the metabolic food chain. It can break down into the adrenal hormones as well as the sex hormones (estrogens, progesterone, testosterone). I've been using that...along with a tiny bit of estriol/E3, the weakest but most abundant estrogen to help with sleep at bedtime. Unfortunately it wears off after about 3-4 hours. If only somebody would make a timed-release patch for that.
Man, I’m 73. This would have been helpful for my bones. I did do a compounded hrt for about two years at 52/53. I did stop due to hot flashes returning mildly; but I was feeling better on other fronts. I was afraid to stick with estrogen due to Breast cancer scare. Now I have osteoporosis despite working out. And I’ve known for years estrogen was key to bone health. So osteoporosis or cancer 🤔I didn’t want cancer. But we don’t have good test to determine true bone strength just the DEXA xray. I wish we could change to the system UK uses I read about. I think it’s ultrasound and it reflects bone strength better. Article on Midwestern Dr wrote the osteoporosis scam. 3/24/24. Tnx for your article here.
Just to clarify, it sounds like you're saying if a woman is in her later sixties, starting HRT is basically not useful, right? Since the estrogen receptors will have given up waiting and shut off their lights? I will say that menopause for me was very asymptomatic. I had very mild, occasional hot flashes but otherwise felt fine. (As far as natural remedies, I took black cohosh for a while and also a bit of DHEA, which I continue to take to this day). However at this age I do have increasing joint pain and wonder if a hormonal approach might be useful in mitigating that, along with depressing things like crepey skin. Like other commenters, however, my main thought all along has been that menopause is a natural event and that we should not need any medication for something like that. It's all a bit confusing.
NAMS. Our society as Gynecologists has been helpful throughout my medical career . They were quite behind with bioidenticals sadly, but overall helpful and was the impetus behind changing the black box warning. They still have a ways to go .
And this, right here, is why I'm opposed to any federally funded study conducted on a large population for Lyme/MSIDS for primarily the same reasons. For once again it's 'turtles all the way down.'
Thank you for this important work on hormones. Thankfully, the very same doctors who treat Lyme/MSIDS appropriately also understand the concerted suppression of HRT.
My mother took HRT after going through premature menopause (in her early 30's). She died at 55 from cancer (lung cancer & she was a never smoker). I think the studies are flawed, and many may be safe to take HRT, while others are not. We should be better screened & be advised of the risks according to our own medical & history and family history (genetic predispositions). There shouldn't be universal recommendations.
I don’t know… I had a terrible time during menopause. I about lost my mind. However, I didn’t want to take the horse hormones, or any other pharmaceutical product. That’s just me.
I in no way judge those that feel they need this type of intervention.
Made it through and feel like my normal self again. Took a good eight years…
That's the thing, we have more options now that are not horse derived. Bioidentical HRT has been amazing for me. I don't think my marriage would have survived if I hadn't started it, and my quality of life would be horrible. I am only 43 and wish I had known about it in 2020 because I was surely depleted then, in retrospect.
I understand and if I had it to do over again I’d probably go for it because I about lost my mind and my marriage.
So glad you found yourself again!
There are bioidenticals and the right combination and timing can make a huge difference. For me it was thyroid and progesterone replacement that completely restored my health.
GREAT POST! I tried weaning off HRT, last year due to PTSD from WHI MSM and health professionals putting the fear of adverse events in me. I couldn’t cope with the insomnia, brain fog, mood swings from lack of sleep and especially the hot flashes! My doctor wanted me to try Veozah,(number one side effect, insomnia) and Quiviviq, (side effects include: persistent drowsiness, dizziness, mood and behaviour changes that may include suicidal thoughts). He also told me estrogen causes breast cancer and progesterone causes endometrial changes that may lead to cancer, (likely from WHI derangement syndrome). I corrected him on the above and told him I wasn’t interested in a prescribing cascade.
I watched the great all knowing "medical professionals" torture my mom and make her endure extra suffering over this very thing. She went into early menopause and suffered for years, then was given HRT only to have it yanked out from under her causing mental and physical issues for years to come. I'm 57 and started on bioidentical hormone replacement pellets about 20 months ago and my now 86 yr old mom was terrified that I was singing up for a cancer diagnosis because it had been beaten into her for years that HRT was a very bad thing and a sure way to get cancer. So, it was better just to suffer and have other health issues than address the hormone situation. The bioidentical HRT was a game changer for me (and actually for my husband who now also uses this treatment) and I will not allow doctors, many who are hormone illiterate, to bully or fear monger me into giving up these treatments. I've spent a significant amount of time trying to educate and share information on this treatment with healthcare providers and it is truly mind blowing how little they know and how many lack any type of intellectual curiosity about the subject. Gone is the joint pain, racing heart, off the chart's anxiety, insomnia, hot flashes, mood swings and many other menopausal symptoms from hell. I don't know about the safety of synthetic hormone replacement, but the bioidentical hormone replacement is a God send for me.
Same, bioidentical HRT has been a life changer!!
I'm so sorry your mom had to suffer like that. I wonder how may other women also were tortured because of bad science and bad medicine.
I suspect the women who went through that same experience as my mom did is a huge number of silent sufferers. We recently relocated to another state and the new gyn I saw recently was reluctant to discuss HRT and had nothing particularly flattering to say about it. Thankfully, I found a competent provider for the bioidentical HRT and that understands hormones.
Are you using the testosterone pellets?
So, I get the estrogen and testosterone pellets and then compounded sublingual progesterone troche. My husband is getting the testosterone pellets as well.
Estrogen Matters is a really good book that aligns with this article. What confuses me is that Dr. Mercola claims estrogen should not be taken; he only recommends progesterone. My gynecologist said some women do not 'get through' menopause to the other side; their symptoms continue to worsen over time. There is a slight increase in risk of a thrombotic event from HRT during the first year of administration. The upsides trump this small risk. HRT is expensive. I hope a savvy entrepreneur will provide cheaper patches and pills. It is a niche market that is potentially wildly profitable as soon as doctors come on board with prescribing hormones to the women who need them, and that will be a lot. Also, wondering about women who take Testosterone, is that beneficial over the long haul?
My testosterone was basically zero. Bioidentical HRT compounded creams for me (progesterone and testosterone, I am estrogen dominant and do not need estrogen yet) started about 2.5 years ago was a life changer. I went from miserable and bitchy, to vibrant and feeling like myself again. My dose for testosterone needed to be lowered and that is the beauty of compounding, it can be mixed specifically for my needs. Progesterone keeps me calm, and testosterone helps my motivation in addition to libido. I can definitely tell if I skip the testosterone for too many days in a row. I use it nearly daily but if I start noticing irritability creep in, I back off for a day or two.
Thanks for the information. My friend just began HRT, and she said something about how some Testosterone converts to estrogen, so she has to wait to check her estrogen levels using the patch before adding Testosterone. Dr. Mercola has done several videos advising against Estrogen HRT, which is counter to what Dr. Bluming writes. As soon as I started the estradiol patch, my dry eyes were history. Dr. Louise Newson in the UK also has good online conversations on the subject.
Oh that's very interesting about your eyes no longer being dry! That's very interesting. I've noticed my eyes feel more dry lately, and I do notice my estrogen metabolites going down (I use Mira at home hormone tester). My estrogen is still higher than most, but it's "low" for me so my body is doing different things.
Excellent decision to use at home hormone testing. I did an entire month with my doctor's participation as an experiment to see how the HRT I was taking affected the hormone levels in my body. That's how we were able to find the right balance for me.
Estrogen is nature's moisturizer. When it plummets, all the mucous membranes and skin tend to become dry. I didn't know there was an at-home tester. I am going to check that out. I do think the key is the balance between E and P. Also, we need our levels to be high enough to maintain bone health.
My dry eyes improved too
I like Dr. Mercola but I respectfully disagree with some of his advice regarding HRT.
I don't even agree with my husband on everything. I figure it's okay to disagree with others while still appreciating other stances they have 😁
For sure, more tolerance for differences means more harmony.
I know I also disagree with him. The WHI is still influencing the medical world with erroneous information. I prefer obtaining the information on HRT in general from women doctors and scientists, although Dr. Bluming is intimately connected to the topic and to the issue of breast cancer. He has researched thousands of studies on HRT.
I went to natural remedies following the information in the book The Pause. I did not want to take horse estrogen, which I understand takes a rather cruel way to get that. I did fine. For eons women have gone through the pause without medical intervention, often taking natural remedies. I see no reason to medicate a natural event. As the article says, nutrition has a lot to do with how menopause goes.
There is wisdom here!
For eons only a small percentage of women lived past the age of 50.
Fine, for centuries. Good grief.
What natural remedies did you use?
It's been 20 years, I don't remember. As I recall, she looked at all options including hormones. The book it still out and updated. She has a site now. https://thepauselife.com/
Thank you Mouzer. I will look into her site and book. :)
I’m 55 and am officially in menopause. My periods stopped a year ago. I feel fine except for occasional hot flash and brain fog . I am an avid cyclist I lift weight . I walk . I read where nitric oxide is the key to keeping your body going instead of hormones . Not sure . But the clean food I eat and exercise that I do does help me. My friends take the HRT pellets and swear by them but gee … I can’t afford $400 every 3 months for something that I don’t know that I really need . I have no mood swings or weight gain . I actually have to keep myself from loosing weight . I take creatine and collagen . I think everyone is different and needs different things . Not a one size fits all solution
My compounded Bioidentical HRT is about $50 for each Rx, and they last probably 2 months. Are your friends going pellets or something that's more expensive? It doesn't have to be very expensive, there are options.
Good for you! You are very lucky and/or are doing all the right things.
Great article! As one who had to jump from doctor to doctor over the years to keep getting my estradiol patches that gave me my brain and my passions back, I can attest to the difficulties the WHI study caused for menopausal women. Another important point to convey to your audience is about the "estrogen window" hypothesis. In the perimenopause period, women may not be ovulating every month. And when we don't ovulate, we don't make progesterone in the empty follicle. Thus, there's no progesterone to soften the uterine lining when there is no signal of pregnancy, so we may build up multiple months worth of linings. We may skip periods, sometimes two or three months, or have light ones. Then, on the next period we might feel as if we're going to hemorrhage to death, with an incredibly heavy period. During this time when we are making the usual amount of estrogen but no progesterone, estrogen is allowed to do what it does best: make cells divide. Progesterone balances the rapid cell growth of estrogen in the breasts as well as the uterus. When there is only the flood of estrogen without the counterbalancing (opposition) of progesterone, all sensitive cells, including the random mutated ones that pop up in our bodies all the time, can be influenced to grow rapidly, just like uterine and breast cells. They may grow too fast for the normal immune processes that find and kill such mutant cells before they can become self-sufficient tumors. An important solution to this problem is for women and their doctors to immediately recognize these no- or light-period cycles as opportunities for estrogen dominance to cause or allow cancer tumors to form. And when they see it happen, it's important for the women to take progesterone (oral micronized, or transdermal cream) during the second half of the 28-day cycle so that estrogen isn't flooding their bodies unopposed.
Just FYI, I was too sensitive to transdermal progesterone, saw that it converted too efficiently into testosterone (with all the side effects: acne, yeast, anger) in about 3 days like clockwork. My awesome doctor (before she retired), suggested compounded transdermal pregnenolone. Pregnenolone is one level higher up in the metabolic food chain. It can break down into the adrenal hormones as well as the sex hormones (estrogens, progesterone, testosterone). I've been using that...along with a tiny bit of estriol/E3, the weakest but most abundant estrogen to help with sleep at bedtime. Unfortunately it wears off after about 3-4 hours. If only somebody would make a timed-release patch for that.
How is "research" like this ever published!?!?
And some of us are more than a little bit pi**ed.
I've been ill for more than 20 years with a bunch of random but debilitating conditions which I now know could have been hormonal issues.
I finally brought up the convo myself late last year. Better late than never
Man, I’m 73. This would have been helpful for my bones. I did do a compounded hrt for about two years at 52/53. I did stop due to hot flashes returning mildly; but I was feeling better on other fronts. I was afraid to stick with estrogen due to Breast cancer scare. Now I have osteoporosis despite working out. And I’ve known for years estrogen was key to bone health. So osteoporosis or cancer 🤔I didn’t want cancer. But we don’t have good test to determine true bone strength just the DEXA xray. I wish we could change to the system UK uses I read about. I think it’s ultrasound and it reflects bone strength better. Article on Midwestern Dr wrote the osteoporosis scam. 3/24/24. Tnx for your article here.
Just to clarify, it sounds like you're saying if a woman is in her later sixties, starting HRT is basically not useful, right? Since the estrogen receptors will have given up waiting and shut off their lights? I will say that menopause for me was very asymptomatic. I had very mild, occasional hot flashes but otherwise felt fine. (As far as natural remedies, I took black cohosh for a while and also a bit of DHEA, which I continue to take to this day). However at this age I do have increasing joint pain and wonder if a hormonal approach might be useful in mitigating that, along with depressing things like crepey skin. Like other commenters, however, my main thought all along has been that menopause is a natural event and that we should not need any medication for something like that. It's all a bit confusing.
NAMS. Our society as Gynecologists has been helpful throughout my medical career . They were quite behind with bioidenticals sadly, but overall helpful and was the impetus behind changing the black box warning. They still have a ways to go .
And this, right here, is why I'm opposed to any federally funded study conducted on a large population for Lyme/MSIDS for primarily the same reasons. For once again it's 'turtles all the way down.'
Thank you for this important work on hormones. Thankfully, the very same doctors who treat Lyme/MSIDS appropriately also understand the concerted suppression of HRT.
Today's "Big Pharma and Medical" making Millions and even Billions, remind me so much of a similar story in the Scriptures. Luke 8: 43 KJV
>And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, <
So can I ask a question, "What has changed"?
My mother took HRT after going through premature menopause (in her early 30's). She died at 55 from cancer (lung cancer & she was a never smoker). I think the studies are flawed, and many may be safe to take HRT, while others are not. We should be better screened & be advised of the risks according to our own medical & history and family history (genetic predispositions). There shouldn't be universal recommendations.