What Women Need to Learn About Hormone Replacement Therapy
Women face a change in hormonal levels throughout life from the dramatic changes of puberty to the symptoms of the perimenopause as these levels decline. Each month the hormones surge and wane during the monthly menstrual cycle with quiet noticeable impact. As a result, a great many women want solutions to these changes and more and more want a more natural solution than popping hormone pills.
Although estrogen hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was once widely accepted and used by women undergoing PMS and menopause symptoms, it has now been shown that HRT can have a damaging effect on the health of the women who use it. This finding is in stark contrast to the once popular opinion that HRT was an effective and safe treatment for women experiencing changes in hormone levels.
Although hormone replacement therapy (HRT) had been used to alleviate symptoms of hormone level changes, it was found that the same therapies were increasing the risk of breast cancer in the women who used them. Despite the symptoms they were experiencing, most women gave up the use of HRT in favor of safer alternatives due to a very real fear of female reproductive cancers.
In early centuries, hormone replacement did not exist, and women found natural substances to treat their discomfort. Asian women consumed far more soy bean products than Western Women, for example, and consequently have only 10%-20% as many hot flashes. Soy isofavones work as a substitute to estrogen and make an excellent alternative to HRT.
Native American women have found herbs from their traditional medicine that help as well. Red clover has been seen to help decrease the number and severity of hot flashes, while black cohosh works well on cramps and bloating and many other PMS complaints. Each of these has found a role in natural HRT alternative care.
Natural wild yam extract was among the first substances studied by researchers trying to develop the first oral birth control pills. The chemicals in the wild yam act as natural estrogen. It makes sense then that women seeking natural, herbal hormone replacement therapy would return to the wild yam and use it.
In addition, many natural extracts and compounds work as diuretics to help reduce fluid retentions and others reduce spasms and help with cramping. Most effective products will contain a mixture of natural extracts that work together for maximum relief. Sources of plant-based estrogen may work as well for some women as the prescription ones with less risk. Always discuss alternative therapies with your doctor, but there are many effective alternatives to hormone replacement therapy to discuss and use.
Women are forced to deal with a constant hormonal change throughout their lives. It was once thought hormone replacement therapy would be a panacea for women of all ages. For some women, soy estrogen supplements will work as well as prescription medications with fewer side effects and risk. Other herbs used in traditional medicine by Native Americans help as well. The most effective supplements contain mixtures of natural extracts that will work together for the most effective relief. For example, red clover decreases frequency and severity of hot flashes, and black cohosh relieves cramps, bloating, and other PMS complaints.
Published November 13th, 2007