Menopausal Women: Should You Have HRT or Not?

Hormone replacement therapy is one of the most controversial issues in the field of wellness and wellbeing. Many women are prescribed it to deal with the huge sexual and emotional changes that come as part of the menopause, but few can be sure that it is entirely safe.

 

Commonly referred to as HRT, women have been treated with replacement oestrogen and progesterone in this way for many years, as it provides a good relief for symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness, as well as reducing the patients chances of suffering from menopause-induced heart disease and other chronic illnesses.

 

Progesterone is found in both sexes, but predominantly in women. It is very important for health during pregnancy, and women who find themselves having difficulty carrying a pregnancy to term are often prescribed progesterone to help them get over a progesterone deficiency in early pregnancy. Progesterone helps to balance oestrogen in the female body.

 

As women get older, the progesterone levels naturally start to decrease (usually starting at around the age of 30). A cream form of progesterone is also sometimes used to help combat symptoms that come with falling levels of progesterone, and this is applied topically – such as to the head, for headaches. It is also sometimes used to help lessen the symptoms of PMS, such as cramping, bloating and irritability, and is used in pill form in certain cases to help combat problems sleeping that are associated with hormones.

 

The safety of progesterone replacement drugs has come to light because of studies that link cancer and heart disease to oestrogen and progesterone supplements, and so the tide of public opinion has steadily started to turn away from this type of treatment. A lot more research is needed, however, before we can be sure that hormone replacement therapy is actually unsafe, and so many women feel that the risks are minor and that the benefits of the treatment outweigh any potential issues.

Categories: heart disease, hormone, hormone replacement, hrt, nbsp, oestrogen, progesterone, replacement, replacement therapy, Women

Is it Important For Your Partner to Understand Menopause?

While we all understand what menopause is, sometimes it can be easy to pass it off as a natural process and leave it as that. Often, this leads to relationship problems, though, as your partner may not truly understand the various symptoms and effects that menopause brings with it. Chances are that they will simply think it means an end to periods, but that isn’t the case – going through menopause can be an emotional time and has numerous symptoms which can make dealing with menopause all the more difficult. Going through these symptoms with someone who understands and can be sympathetic makes life easier for you both, so here are some of the things which your partner should know.

For your partner, menopause is more confusing than the PMS symptoms they’ve no doubt become used to – menopause isn’t simply a week once a month, it is a daily offering of stress, anxiety, night sweats and mood swings. If you’re in a relationship, it isn’t just you who needs to understand the menopause. This stage in your life will change elements of your personality for a while, which impacts on your relationship, so it’s vital that your partner understands that and can prepare for the changes which will occur. There are three ways in which you can open up a conversation about this though, which will help create a dialogue from which to expand on what menopause is, the symptoms it brings and how it will affect you.

Firstly, you should state how you feel about it. While it may feel natural to take the solo approach and try to battle it out on your own, your partner can help you get through this. Be honest about your emotions towards this change in your life, as well as the physical changes you’re feeling, to help your partner understand what you’re going through. Secondly, you need to make it clear that the mood swings and emotions you’re feeling aren’t you, it’s the hormones. Your hormones will be all over the place during this stage, so you’ll no doubt be feeling more volatile and emotional than normal. This can make others around you feel slightly on edge, but explain to them why this is so that they can better understand.  Lastly, your sex drive may be affected by menopause – the decrease in oestrogen levels means that your body’s natural lubrication drops, making sex painful at times. This can be a difficult time for both you and your partner, leading to worry and anxiety. But there’s no need to worry – this is perfectly natural during menopause and can be resolved with lubricant or hormone therapy, which can be sought from your GP.

Is it Important For Your Partner to Understand Menopause?

Categories: hrt, Menopause, Sexual Relationships

Black Cohosh: What is it And How Can it Help You?

Menopause is a key aspect of any woman’s health concerns, so being aware and in control of the symptoms is vital when it comes to dealing with it. Around two-thirds of all women develop symptoms when they go through the menopause, which include hot flashes, night sweats, aches, disrupted sleep patterns, fatigue and mood swings. Generally, the most common way to treat these is with Hormone Replacement Therapy, or HRT, which helps to alleviate the symptoms. This form of treatment helps to replace the hormones that the female body no longer generates following menopause. However, although it was once considered a routine treatment for menopause, large-scale trials suggest that there may be health risks attached, including blood clots, cancer-female/">breast cancer, stroke and heart disease.

With this in mind, researchers have looked for herbal replacements to help treat the symptoms. Herbal extracts have been used traditionally to help address the effects of the menopausal stages – the extract currently being studied is that of black cohosh which is a botanical extract. As it doesn’t contain any phytoestrogens, it is considered to be a great replacement to avoid the health risks attached to oestrogen related medications. While there have been studies previously questioning the safety of this herbal treatment, the lack of oestrogen in the plant does offer benefits to female health. When analysed, black cohosh helped to reduce the risk of cancer-female/">breast cancer by as much as 61 percent, as well as helping to reduce night sweats and hot flashes. It’s thought that it could also help with irritability and depression, too.

Researchers are keen to study this further to see whether black cohosh could be a viable alternative for HRT treatments in menopausal women. They believe that while it may not currently be seen as an all-round solution, it could be useful in helping women manage hot flashes, depression and night sweats.

Black Cohosh: What is it And How Can it Help You?

Categories: black cohosh, hrt, Menopause

Could Taking HRT Stop You From Getting Alzheimer’s?

Millions of women could be protecting their mental health by taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) according to a recent report.

Studies have been carried out on 63 women in the post-menopausal stage of life, all of whom were taking HRT. Their mental wellness and wellbeing was carefully assessed, particularly in relation to a genetic variant called APOE-e4 and also telomere length, which can be an indicator of cell ageing.

The gene APOE-e4 gene is liked to an increased risk of the carrier developing Alzheimer’s disease in later life, and there have also been studies which have indicated a link between the telomere length, and the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

A relationship between the female hormone oestrogen, which drops sharply during the menopause, and the length of telomeres has been proposed. This particular study seems to back up the theory that telomere shortening is somehow linked to the APOE-e4 gene.

Tests showed that the post-menopausal participants in the study who were carriers of the gene had a much higher chance of having shorter telomeres. The study then proved that these women has less chance of the telomere length reducing if they stayed on an extended course of HRT, which replaces hormones. Conversely, women who were not carriers of the gene actually showed less reduction in the length of their telomeres if they stopped taking HRT.

Whilst previous studies have seemed to indicate that taking hormone replacement therapy does not prevent patients from developing Alzheimer’s, what this new study may indicate is that the efficacy of HRT is dependent on whether or not the patient carries a specific gene variant. This research was carried out at the University of California in the United States and was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

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Could Taking HRT Stop You From Getting Alzheimer’s?

Categories: alzheimers, hrt, oestrogen