Diagnosing and Treating Menopause
To women it’s known as the M word or “the change”. During menopause, a woman’s body begins to produce less of the hormones estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. This loss is both sudden and dramatic, resulting in hot flashes, lack of sleep, decreased libido, weight gain and mood swings. It also marks the end of a woman’s menstruation cycle and her ability to conceive a child.
This decrease in hormone levels occurs naturally and is part of the normal aging process.
Although many women coast through menopause without any symptoms at all, many are not so lucky. While these hormonal fluctuations can cause a variety of uncomfortable symptoms, they are treatable. Your body’s hormones are essential to your good health and well-being. Bringing them back into balance can help to improve your quality of life during the aging process and help you to feel good again.
Are you suffering from Menopause
- Are your menstral periods irregular?
- Do you have hot flashes and/or night sweats?
- Have you gained weight even though you are exercising and eating right?
- Do you feel run down or lack energy?
- Do you feel like your sex drive is lower than it once was?
- Do you have vaginal dryness?
- Do you have problems sleeping or sleep too much?
- Have you become more depressed, enjoy life less?
- Do you often feel tense, nervous or easily irritated?
- Do you feel not as mentally sharp as you once were?
- Is it harder to maintain muscle mass even though you work out?
If you answered yes to most of these questions, chances are you are experiencing a drop in your hormone levels which causes many of these symptoms. You may be wondering what options are available.
What treatments are available?
In 2002, the National Institute of Women’s Health Initiative came forward with the bad news that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) could increase the risk of breast cancer, stroke and blood clots. Doctors immediately took action by discontinuing the therapy in their patients. Unfortunately many women were now faced the problem of how to combat these symptoms.
With HRT no longer the most commonly prescribed option, women were struggling to find other treatments to combat their menopausal symptoms. Since this study came out, there have been some new thoughts within the medical community.
The original studies on the use of HRT only took into account the use of Synthetic Hormone Replacement. This method could be defined as the replacement of the missing hormones with look-a-like chemical substitutes with such names as Premarin, Prempro and Provera.
There have been new studies, however, that are gaining support from doctors nationwide. These findings recommend that HRT can be used at the lowest dose possible for the shortest time possible during the first few years of menopause.
But the associated risks still remain. These fears have lead many women desperate for relief to seek alternative treatment.
Many women have found relief of their symptoms with the use of bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).
