Someone I know, thinking she had finally reached the stage of menopause because of frequently occurring hot flashes that were driving her mad, made an appointment with her doctor. The doctor set her up to have a hormone panel done. With the positive results of the tests, her suspicions were confirmed, she had indeed reached menopause.
Before we go any further in this posting, let me tell you a few facts about my friend. She is a very joyful woman, is very happily married, an active sex life with her husband, has two wonderful teenagers and a positive attitude towards life. Enough about my friend.
Let me tell you her horror story.
So she went to her doctor to discuss her hormone testing results and, after enough reading the research from some books and the internet, she decided she wanted to get bioidentical hormones. Her doctor told her they don't work and refused. What her doctor prescribed for her was a rather horrific solution for her menopause problems. Her doctor prescribed Premarin (pregnant horse's urine), a D&C and anti-depressants.
Horrified, my friend left the doctor's office.
We would like to ask why would a doctor prescribe anti-depressants to a happy person? Anti-depressants cause among other side effects: suicidal thoughts, dry eyes, loss of libido and a dry vagina. My happy friend said the last thing she wanted was a dry vagina, loss of libido and suicidal thoughts.
We ask also, why would a doctor prescribe a D&C? Very interesting.
The overall problem is that very few doctors understand menopause. Not many doctors stay up to date with the latest research on menopause. Many ordinary people believe that most doctors finish their Med school and that's it. This particular doctor is in her late 50s, so this doctor would have completed her training about 20 to 25 years ago.
Another problem is that there is not the money to do more research into bioidentical hormones. A fact to consider is that the all-powerful pharmaceutical companies have seen their profits decline because of the latest negative research on traditional HRT (chemical hormone replacement theory) and would not profit from BHRT because its mixtures cannot be patented. One pharmaceutical giant has even launched legal action against the makers of compounded bioidentical hormones.
So, millions of women in North America and Europe do their own research, find a compounding pharmacy and find a doctor capable of prescribing and monitoring their hormones with BHRT. It's time that governments do the official research. Women are rebelling.
An update on my friend: I asked her two weeks after starting a bioidentical hormone therapy how her symptoms were. She asked, what symptoms?
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