Menopause can occur between age 42 and 56, and is not predictable.
Recently Women have begun asking the questions about Menopause that should have been answered years ago by their OBGYNs. Unfortunately, OBGYNs have not been trained in hormone replacement (HRT) for menopause for the last 23 years, so there are no OBGYN experts to guide women through this tricky time of life. For over 20 years women have been told an untruth, that estrogen is dangerous and that they must suffer through menopause, because there is no treatment. In the last 5 months the FDA miraculously changed their stance about menopause and estrogen and through press releases informed women that after menopause women should take estrogen and that it treats many symptoms and makes women LIVE LONGER!
Question #1: “Are my symptoms normal?” Women want to know whether what they’re experiencing is typical or average for menopause. However, I think that women are really asking, “Are these symptoms of menopause that I am experiencing mean there is something wrong with me?” There is, your body is screaming for estradiol!
 “Will it hurt me to have these symptoms and not treat them?”-Maybe
  “Will untreated menopause lead to diseases of aging? “-probably.
The symptoms of Menopause are signs that a woman is not fertile, that she is aging, and her body is no longer producing the vital hormone estradiol! The symptoms are hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disruption, bladder infections, urine incontinence, mood changes, vaginal dryness, painful intercourse, memory loss, hair loss, dry skin, migraines, osteoporosis, obesity and the beginning of insulin resistance, a precursor to Diabetes. Menopause is when a woman has not had a period for a year (and has not had a uterine ablation or a Mirena IUD) then she is considered menopausal. The severity of the symptoms of menopause varies between individuals, however most older women complain of some or all of the symptoms of menopause.
Timing of menopause can occur between age 42 and 56 and is not predictable by asking female relatives when they entered menopause. Some medical problems can cause menopause to begin early and sometimes temporarily. For example, women who have chemo for cancer usually stop having periods, sometimes forever and sometimes temporarily. Hypothyroidism can cause no ovulation so no periods, and Polycystic Ovaries (PCO) can cause periods to be only a few a year which may cause women and their doctors to misdiagnose PCO as menopause. Your doctor can order 2 blood tests to check your FSH (the pituitary hormone that rises when the ovaries don’t make estradiol) rises and your estradiol is low at the same time, 6 weeks apart, then that is another way to diagnose menopause.
Question #2: “How do I manage these symptoms?”
This is the second most frequently asked question about menopause. The answer is both simple and complicated. If you look at menopause from a logical perspective, the cause of menopause is lack of the hormone estrogen, “estradiol”, so the treatment is to replace estradiol. That is the easiest and most physiologic answer, replace what is missing. Â
The problem is that the US government through the NIH and FDA condemned HRT by accusing estrogens of being evil or the cause of cancer and heart disease. We have all been brainwashed so most women had to struggle through the symptoms of menopause instead of treating it with the obvious treatment, estrogen replacement.
Over the last 2 decades medical research has published hundreds, maybe thousands  of research articles proving that women need estrogen after menopause for quality of life, sleep, metabolic balance (to prevent diabetes), longevity, to prevent heart disease and breast cancer. Just recently has the NEW FDA reviewed and endorsed the use of estrogen for menopausal women. Now we have a clear and simple answer—women should take estrogen if they want to be healthy and live a long a productive life.
Question #3: Can I treat Menopause myself?
Let me say that the answer is yes for less than 5% of the population and no for the rest of the female menopausal population. Â
Treatment options for the symptoms of menopause without replacing Estradiol: Women have tried to live through the menopausal era of their lives by taking both prescription drugs and supplements, but they never feel completely back to normal with the non-estrogen-method.
These non-hormonal treatments include:
- Anti-depressants,
- Soy based phytogenic supplements,
- vitamins,
- exercise,
- low carb diet,
- relaxation exercises,
- hypnosis,
- massage
DIY treatments can take the edge off, but they basically distract a woman from her symptoms but they do not cure the problem like taking Estradiol hormone replacement does.
Question#4 Extra Credit: When will the symptoms of Menopause go away?
Every woman is different, however most women begin menopause (the time in their lives where they stop having periods) and that state continues until they die. Women don’t re-start producing estrogen again, after the ovaries shrink and “dry up”. There is no end to menopause!
Without estrogen, some women may deny the symptoms of menopause, but generally they must replace estrogen with a drug store full of medications. Some of the substitutes for taking estradiol include:
- Vaginal lubricant for intercourse,
- Antibiotics for recurrent bladder infections,
- Ditropan or surgery to treat stress incontinence,
- Anti-depressants for depression and anxiety
- Statins to lower cholesterol because it increases after estrogen is deficient.
- Drugs for osteoporosis
If a woman says she doesn’t have symptoms of low estrogen after menopause, then I can tell you that she is either ignoring her own suffering, or she is on 4-6 drugs to take the place of replacing one hormone, estradiol, after menopause.
Next week more questions about menopause!
This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please check “ Like “. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at BioBalanceHealth.
