Health and Hormones Part 2

What happens when your hormones go away

I covered “What happens in menopause and what is lost” in Health and Hormones Part 1. Now we will get into the details of what exactly happens when the hormones go away in a woman. I will cover what the bad effects are on the body with the loss of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. We already covered hot flashes. Let’s go over the medical conditions blow by blow.

Let’s start with Osteoporosis. Look at the stats below.

Thin Caucasian and Asian women are at very high risk. You have seen thin elderly women hunched over with a curve in their backs. I found this on WebMD.

So here are some of the important risk factors. Anything that increases the loss of calcium puts you at risk. With menopause, the breakdown of bone and loss of calcium is faster than the rebuilding of calcium stores. It was estrogen that kept the bones strong by keeping the building ahead of the breakdown.

Traditional medicine gave these options of treatment starting out with estrogen replacement. There are alot of other new drugs out there that help this condition such as Bonita, Actonel, Prolia, Evista, Recast, Forteo. The key was to start them early as you entered menopause or right at menopause. Of course calcium supplements, Vitamin D, weight bearing exercise were a standard therapy too.

Going along with the theme of bone and mineral loss is Tooth Loss. Jawlines start to recede, gums recede, and it just goes downhill.

Next, Heart Disease. The risk of heart attacks and strokes in women go up after estrogen production stops.

Few realize the protective effects of estrogen for women and all you heard about was breast cancer, breast cancer, breast cancer. But it was the estrogens that was actually protecting the heart.

You never heard of the studies that showed the benefits of estrogen. You just heard about the breast cancer, heart attacks, and stroke associated. But actually, many studies showed estrogens to reduce risks of blocked vessels. It kept the freeways for blood clear, reduced plaque formation.

But why did the media and medical institutions tell us that hormones were bad for women? The studies showing the bad effects were using oral estrogen, mostly Premarin (Pregnant Mare Urine) plus a synthetic progesterone, most Provera. And indeed those meds combined showed increase risks of cardiovascular disease. Interestingly, the studies that used “natural” estrogen and progesterone, the same hormones a woman made throughout their lives, showed a DECREASED risk of cardiovascular disease! Could it then be the formulation of what was taken that was important? The “natural” stuff (Bioidentical hormone or same structural hormone as what the woman used to make) did not increase the risk of heart attacks! Many studies actually showed a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes when “natural” estradiol and “natural” progesterone were given. The term “natural” just means the chemical structures are identical whether it came from a plant such as yams or if made by the woman’s ovaries. Hence the term Bioidentical Hormones.

Let’s cover another topic: SKIN. The problem is the loss of Collagen as a result of loss of estrogen and resultant blood flow! Wrinkles and dryness. Ughhhh. You have seen women with paper thin and see-through skin from loss of estrogens. You have heard about the vagina getting dry as a dessert. All from loss of estrogens and blood flow.

With the loss of collagen and elastin comes the skin changes that also affect the genitals and the bladder. More leakage, more urgency, more frequency of urination. Things start to sag such as bladders and rectums that bulge out of the vagina. The damages of childbirth are amplified with the loss of collagen the supporting stuctures, the rebar of the pelvic stuctures, get all stretched out. Loss of collagen in the long leads to a paradoxical rigidity of the vagina and the walls get stiff, less stretchy, and the canal and opening can close down to the size of a dimple. That makes comfortable sex difficult or impossible.

I use the slide below in almost all of my presentation regarding menopause. It summarizes what happens with aging and the effects of gravity on the vulvovaginal structures. The skin there gets loose and as the collagen is depleted the skin can shrink and get very very dry and uncomfortable.

This can then lead to Sexual Dysfunction. You can see why gynecologists love vaginal estrogens specifically because it can help the issues listed below:

What about the brain and its function? Estrogen is associated with the items listed:

With menopause women may have a reduced sense of well being. A sense of impending doom. A low grade depression called Dysthymia. Just the Blahs and loss of motivation. This is usually the time in life when the kids are out of the house, on their own, out of the area. You have to take care of your mom and dad, they are needing more medical and nursing care. Interpersonal relationships start to suffer. Interest in sex diminishes and sex itself is getting painful and not satisfying. The mid life crisis when couples suffer. It can be overwhelming. Though not a panacea, estrogen therapy may be what’s needed and not an antidepressant.

The research on estrogen and Alzheimers is not clear but there is some consensus. It may help but not cure.

Now how about Colon Cancer. Is there a link to this disease? There is so much of it. It is often said that Colon Cancer is a disease of the Western World and highly correlated with red meat use. Does the risk go up with menopause?

This is known, that estrogen reduces your risks of colon cancer! I encourage the usual rectal exams, colonoscopy at age 50, stool blood tests. But my best advice is that if you are safe to use estrogens then consider it for colon cancer prevention. Specially if you have the family risk factors.

Let’s take a look at the eyes. These are what can happen:

There are benefits to the eyes with estrogen use but not mind blowing. If you have had strokes or clots or breast or uterine cancer then you should not be on estrogens.

Finally, let’s cover the Big One. Breast Cancer. Did you know that there are mores published studies showing a decrease in breast cancer risk using estradiol than showing an increased risk? Here are some stats on the Chance of Breast Cancer at different ages:

Statistics can be tricky and can prove just about anything. Here are some actual statistics that can be misleading but have been published:

This slide summarizes the current opinion of most experts dealing with hormones for women:

Synthetic hormones such as Provera (Medroxyprogesterone Acetate) were the culprits in increasing breast cancer risks. Premarin was pretty neutral and Estradiol and Progesterone lowered the breast cancer risks. Lots in the media and the medical field glossed over that one and just blanket stated that hormones were bad and that they killed you. Not true. In fact see the Advantages and Disadvantages below. It is alot more nuanced and family history, receptor status, and type of cancer have to be looked into. But in general, those that did get breast cancer had them smaller, in the earlier stages, found earlier, traveled to other places less. Hmmmm. Talk to your doctor and ask them about this.

Taking another look at an important study found that Provera is the problem.

Let’s end with a little fun. When women were surveyed they said that the leading cause of death in women was breast cancer. By a mile. Then came heart attacks and stroke then ovarian cancer, other cancers, flu, colon cancer. When you look at the actual numbers it turns out that heart attacks and strokes are the real killers of women. By a mile.

Here are details if you want to look:

So my suggestion is to reduce your risk to the thing that kills you most. Take a look below at some published data:

Hope you found this summary on what happens when hormones go away. In the next post I will cover Part 3 called Get Your Moxie Back. For now, for those of you who really want to dig deeper, go to Dr. Jeffrey Dach’s website. It is really a tremendous resource for “Natural Solutions with Bioidentical Hormones.” Go here in Section Four: Bioidentical Hormones and get super educated with the research listen in plain print. His book called Bioidentical Hormones 101 is a Bible for my hormone practice and is $8.49 on Amazon in the digital Kindle edition. It is $26.93 on paperback. It is free on his website.

Lastly, If you want to look ahead and watch my whole presentation then go here to my recorded Health and Hormones webinar that covers this entire topic. It is slightly over an hour long. It may change your attitudes and open your eyes. Check it out. Do share this with you pals as it may help change their lives and their practices. Bioidentical Hormone Therapy is fast becoming a standard among doctors wanting to escape the insurance world. Be a paid subscriber and continue to improve your surgical and non-surgical practices.