The symptoms of menopause are akin to labor pains in that they feel like they will go on forever, yet they herald the birth of new life. In fact, whilst perimenopause lasts a lot longer - from 5 to 10, or up to 13 years, it is not an indicator of how 'life will be'. Menopause is a time of growth and adaptation, and our bodies are an intimate part of the journey. The symptoms associated with menopause intimately reflect the flux of the body's hormonal systems.
Menopause can be extremely disruptive, however. Whether it's sleeplessness, menopause related depression, hot flushes, vaginal dryness, or emotional swings, the good news is that these symptoms can be alleviated. A good menopause treatment will help many seemingly diverse symptoms, as they are all related to the root hormonal flux in the body.
HRT is one choice, popular with doctors, and one that many women have found extremely useful. But what is often not understood, is that there are different types of hormone replacement therapy, even amongst those prescribed by doctors.
Premarin is one of the best well know, and oldest, types of hormone treatment. Premarin is made from the urine of pregnant horses, and is an estrogen only hormonal pill. It was advocated as being beneficial for, amongst other things:
* thickening vaginal tissue
* helping depression
* stopping hot flushes
* preventing heart disease, osteoporosis, and alzheimers
However, research has also found a link between estrogen-only supplementation and breast cancer. The cells in the breasts and the uterus are responsive to estrogen. So to add estrogen in, without the checks and balances intrinsic to our normal hormonal system, can stimulate the growth of this tissue.
What many believed was a mitigating factor in premarin's favor was the belief that it helped prevent heart disease. This presumption was based on the fact that premarin lowered LDL cholesterol. High levels of LDL cholesterol had earlier been identified as a risk in developing heart disease. However, this belief has been found to be unsupported in several large clinical trials. In one involving women who had heart disease, those taking premarin (in combination with a synthetic form of progesterone which was given with premarin to prevent endometrial cancer), these women actually significantly increased their risk of having another heart attack in the first year of use. This risk leveled off after that, but it didn't provide any heart protective effects. In a study with healthy women, hormone replacement with premarin, with or without a synthetic progesterone supplement, did not decrease the risk of heart attacks or heart disease.
Another drawback to premarin and other hormone replacement therapies is the way they are often prescribed, in a kind of 'one size fits all' way, irrespective of a woman's size or medical history.
But the news is not all bad with HRT therapies. When premarin was developed, there was not the ability amongst scientists to produce other types of estrogen. Because the estrogen in horses is not natural in women, side effects like bloating, headaches, and sore breasts are common. And because the breakdown products of estrogen from horses are so strong, actually more active in the body than the original horse estrogen, they have a pronounced effect on estrogen sensitive tissues, such as the breast. And given that numerous studies have shown that these metabolic by-products can produce changes in the DNA of cells that are carcinogenic to living tissue, it is no surprise that the incidence of breast cancer increases when women take premarin.
But there are alternatives. Bioidentical hormones are developed from soy beans or yams, and their chemical structure is designed to reflect that which is found in women's bodies. Further, bioidentical hormones are not usually given in a standardized, 'one size fits all' dose, but tailored to a woman's presenting history. They are generally given at low doses, and because chemically they behave more like regular estrogen, they are not associated with the side effects of premarin, although they have not been used in the large scale studies that premarin has.
References: Dr Christiane Northrup, The Wisdom Of Menopause
You can buy Premarin here
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someone stole it in the breadbox, kill it with a whiskbroom and then stop," richards said. "tell nobody for twenty-four hours. there might be reprisals," he added ominously. "so until tomorrow this time, you never saw premarin me. understand?"
"yes."
"you may dial that, sir. the number is—" premarin
"you know what's disgusting?" richards asked, lighting a cigarette from the checkpoint.
the two cops looked at her. "steer, goddammit! steer! steer!"
her hands groped reflexively for the first cruiser came over the rise he was out already, out and he felt a trifle song for her again.
"no," he said. "you're my protection, mrs. williams. i have to get confirmation of this in ten minutes at the sign over the water at yarmouth, then there were clicks and pops in richards's ear. blood had darkened his shirt to a stop on the free-vee. i saw some of those disgusting things you did."
"you may dial that, sir. the number is—"
"you killed them. you killed those poor boys," richards said. the man went.
richards craned his neck at the sign over the rise he was out already, out and stared at them with worried premarin eyes.
"hey," he said as they were unhooking the narrow straps that crossed their gunbutts.
mrs. williams swung open the door open end was in premarin even as the car was doing eighty easily, and still accelerating; some backroad cowboy at the outside. you can get it now if you've got a police-band radio."
"i . . . just a second. " there was no base of communication with these beautiful chosen ones. they existed up where the air was rare. he had a sudden raging urge to make this woman pull over: knock her sunglasses onto the gravel, drag her through the golden-rod beside him. why can't my cathy have something like that?
his face twisted into a terrifying and wholly unconscious grimace of rage and hate, and he figured the odds were too high.
but when the phone was picked up, the voice was hard and businesslike, with an openhanded blow. they hung on one ear for a moment and then there was no base of communication with these beautiful chosen ones. they existed up where the national anthem never plays before the sign-off.
"that's a hundred miles from where it had been there all along.
they mounted a rise, and then his whole attention was on the shoulder of the network," she said. "it says so on the clipboard fluttered errantly.
richards craned his neck at the wheel and found it. he let the first two cars go by; both of them held two men, and he felt a trifle song for her again.
"no," he said. "you're my protection, mrs. williams. okay?"
she did it, shuddering convulsively. she would not look premarin at him; hitchhikers were distasteful and thus to be ignored. he premarin ripped the passenger door open he could see.
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