Let’s face it: bioidentical hormones can be a “miracle” for many menopausal women, eliminating or significantly reducing hot flashes and helping them to sleep, think, and enjoy sex again. What’s not to love? Seventy-five percent of American women experience symptoms due to menopause, and one-third of these report symptoms as severe. Since the 1930s, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) using largely synthetic hormones were used to mitigate symptoms. However, a large 2002 study associating use of HRT with elevated cardiovascular risk caused many women and health professionals to drastically curtail their use.
Enter bioidentical hormones, which have proliferated on the market as topicals, oral pills, patches, and pellets. Increasingly embraced by both conventional and holistic health practitioners, use of these products has exploded in recent years. But are they truly safe for long-term use? Since adequate long-term safety studies have not been conducted to date, should we really be dishing them out at the rate that we are? Or are there other solutions to naturally raise our own, endogenous hormones?
In fact, long-term bio-hormone use can create more problems while preventing us from focusing on what we truly need to heal!
When you provide external hormones instead of attempting to repair the related gland, over time the gland becomes lazy, creating a vicious cycle of dependency. The adrenals are the glands that take over production of sex hormones when the ovaries shut down at menopause. The adrenals are adversely affected by stress, caffeine, alcohol, and sugar, all of which weaken them over time. In our busy, frenetic society, most women have depleted adrenal function by the time they reach menopause, and reduced hormonal output results. Yet it is possible to repair adrenal function, so a woman can once again produce enough hormones naturally for her needs.
We are constantly being exposed to hormone disrupters (xenohormones) in our environment. Xenohormones, for example, are found in tap water, birth control pills, pesticides and herbicides, plastics, and even cosmetics and common house products. These “pseudo” hormones bind with hormone receptors, blocking our naturally occurring hormones from attaching—and artificially lowering hormone response in the body. Clearing our environment of these compounds, while strengthening our detoxification systems, significantly helps rebalance hormone levels.
Finally, decades of demonizing fats and cholesterol have created significant hormone deficiencies in both men and women, even though the cardiovascular connection to cholesterol has been quite thoroughly debunked. In fact, sex hormone production is heavily dependent on cholesterol and saturated fat in large part obtained through healthy dietary fats. Worse, the nearly ubiquitous use of statins for our middle-aged and senior populations puts them at great risk for decreased hormonal output.
At Vital Health, we dig deep to uncover the true causes of your menopausal symptoms or hormonal imbalances. We then provide you with natural solutions including diet, herbs, detox programs, and supportive acupuncture that enable your body to naturally regain a happy hormone balance, regardless of age or phase in your reproductive life.
©2022 Darcy Greenwald, M.S.O.M., L.Ac. and Vital Health
