MARY CLAIRE HAVER IS A FRAUD
Misinformation about Bioidentical and Compounded Hormones The Dangerous Legacy of Suzanne Somers
The sexual Myths of Menopause
Menopause is a natural and transformative life stage. To not highlight this reality underpins the emerging narrative that menopause is a bad thing and that HRT is the answer.
Is menopause getting worse? How obesity, birth control and 'forever chemicals' in water are making hot flashes more intense
Peddling HRT as the ‘must have’ for all women in menopause, such are its life-saving properties, protecting against heart disease, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s, AND that most women should be on it well beyond menopause, smacks of snake oil sales with bells on. Women are now even asking if they need to be on HRT to protect themselves from dementia!
BIOIDENTICAL HORMONE SCAM
This narrative is taken up by some leading menopause professionals who, to my mind seem to be as damaging as the doctors who prescribe anti-depressants for menopausal women.
How to stay juicy through menopause
The narrative needs balance. Diet and life changes are probably more important for menopause issues and long-term health than defaulting to synthetic drugs.
HRT and hormonal insecurity is lucrative business. We are in a culture of wanting our cake and eating it. Excess without consequence. We will pay anything for a panacea.
How many of us swallowed the lies of the cosmetic industry and have felt reduced by body image, hair type, greying hair, wrinkles, spots, skin colour or felt guilt for eating the wrong things, drinking too much or being the weaker, fairer softer sex?
The most important thing for women to know is that their hormones don’t disappear after menopause. They simply return to the levels at which they were before you got your period. But – and this is a big but – a diet that elevates blood sugar and insulin levels will wreak havoc with hormones. And that is the problem many women face at menopause.
Billions have been made by creating insecurities and ‘needs’, then exploiting them. We have been crushed, silenced, side-lined and lied to. Sadly, we do have a tendency to be shaped by the nonsense we are told. I was.
From puberty women live on a hormonal and societal roller coaster. By our 50s many of us have had and raised children, tried to make safe homes, we’ve been undervalued, objectified, underpaid. We’ve juggled, loved, strived and known fear. Menopause is a gift that takes us off the rollercoaster. Perhaps HRT keeps us its slave?
Women have been oversold HRT for decades
Menopause is a transition as major as puberty. It is not to be feared. It is not a permanent state. It is a gateway that takes us into deep calm waters where we can thrive in new ways.
The 90-something yoga teachers and 80-something gym bunnies—these are my role models.
Why am I passionate about diet and lifestyle changes? After my early menopause, I went to see a nutritional therapist who put me on a special diet. I was to have no alcohol, sugar, caffeine, dairy, processed foods, eat as organic as possible and eat a healthy source of protein every three hours to make sure my blood sugar levels were balanced.
Within five weeks of changing the way I ate and what I ate, I had a menstrual bleed, and a further hormone test showed I was back to being pre-menopausal. This only lasted another nine months, but it was a wake-up call that showed me the impact of diet.
Wet, Wet Menopause
Hippocrates (460-370 BCE) is perhaps a thorn in the flesh for ‘modern medicine’ and the HRT industry, as his wisdom regarding health tends to mindfulness, which is free, as opposed to intervention, which is costly and profitable. ”If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.” “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”
Replacement estrogen and progesterone is not necessary for menopause. The adrenal glands make the steroid hormones needed by all organs. In spite of this knowledge, women are still being prescribed replacement hormones that cause endocrine imbalance and side effects.
#menopause #goodfatisgoodforwomen #perimenopause #hrt
On reflection, my resistance to HRT was bound to resisting the negative sexist and ageist narratives about women and ageing. Like most women, I was never taught about health, perimenopause, menopause and being post menopause. As a consequence, my work has now become sharing what I’m learning, being alongside other women experiencing menopause and living life beyond, and to help challenge the narratives that enslave us.
Report: 9 out of 10 Drug Companies Spend More on Marketing than Research
With HRT it is women with money who pay to go private and keep paying, if that is the only way they can access HRT. The more women can be persuaded HRT is the golden ticket, the more money can be made.
In her 2020 book, The XX Brain, The Groundbreaking Science Empowering Women to Prevent Dementia, Dr Laura Mosconi, PhD, Director of the Women’s Brain Initiative and Associate Director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC)/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, says:
“Let me underline that the primary indication for MHT (HRT) remains relief of hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness. MHT is not recommended for prevention of heart disease, Alzheimer’s, cognitive decline, or any other conditions.”
Dr Mosconi goes on to say:
“I must reiterate that prescription medicines come with many potentially dangerous side effects of their own, and the last thing any of us needs is to accidentally exchange one negative side effect for another. Another reason to look beyond estrogen replacement is the fact that estrogen is not always a friendly and helpful substance—especially when it’s not your own. It doesn’t cost much to start with the safer strategies that focus on ameliorating hormonal levels by means of diet, exercise, and other natural therapies. These methods are known to boost hormonal production in the brain as well as in the body, while improving memory, sharpening our minds, and supporting resilience, all the while reducing risk of dementia for all women, no matter what stage of the game they’re at.”
After doing some research, I found evidence that HRT may help prevent and treat osteoporosis, for example, but even that research says:
The Dark Side of hormone prescription
“Therefore, in postmenopausal women at risk of fracture and younger than 60 years, or within 10 years of menopause, HRT can be considered as one of the first-line therapies for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis-related fractures. Conversely, the initiation of standard HRT after the age of 60 years for the exclusive reason for fracture prevention is not recommended since the potential risk of long-term complications, namely breast cancer, can outweigh the benefits [24]. Thus, the extension of HRT after the age of 60 years must take into account potential long-term benefits and risks of the specific dose and route of administration, compared to other proven non-hormonal therapies [24].”
Marco Gambacciani and Marco Levancini 2014 Hormone replacement therapy and the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis
We now know the breast cancer risk is much less than previously reported and current forms of HRT are safer than early versions, but are still not without risk. Some practitioners say HRT breast cancer risk is no more than drinking alcohol or being overweight. But what if you’re on HRT, drinking too much and overweight? Your risk load could get quite high.
Some say women need HRT now because we didn’t live long past menopause in the past. In parts of the world, some women have lived past menopause for hundreds of years. In 1680, life expectancy for a woman at age 15 (having survived childhood) in England and Wales was 56.6 years, rising to 64.6 years by 1780.
Women in the Blue Zones, where people live the longest, don’t rely on HRT for their long healthspan. I believe it pays to be wary of big bold claims, stay curious and continue to ask questions. We are all guinea pigs when it comes to long term use of HRT. No one knows.
Some people believe we should be able to replace the hormones we’ve lost through menopause. But that suggests menopause is a disease that needs to be fixed (some want it rebranded as Female Hormone Deficiency) not embraced for the powerful changes it naturally brings.
This harks back to the misogynist book Feminine Forever written in 1966, which affirmed a narrative about women being subpar post menopause and that we need to be on estrogen long term ‘to stay agreeable and attractive for our husbands’. We’re not less anything post menopause and can be healthy without synthetic hormones. I don’t want older women (let alone younger ones) to believe they are in any way less because of menopause, or in danger healthwise without HRT.
There are abundant natural sources of plant hormones, amongst many other things, that we can add to our healthy diets to help achieve hormonal balance and long-term health. These work for many women and are often important traditional components of the diets of women in places like Japan and China, where menopause often appears to be less of an issue than it is for Western women.
Believe me, sexual attractiveness has nothing to do with age. It has everything to do with how much Divine life force you are allowing into your body.
Did you want to keep on with the 5 cups of coffee a day to keep you going, lots of sugary food, burning the candle at 6 ends, smoking, drinking too much booze to wind you down, using products laden with 100s of potentially hormone-disrupting ingredients, sitting down all day, not sleeping well because of the sugar, caffeine and booze, and not dealing with your stress, but take HRT to stop those your hormones screaming for attention?
I see many midlife women doing that and wondering why their body is rebelling. We’d rather demand a fix-all, than get curious about other ways to feel better, longer.
I think of menopause symptoms as the body’s early warning system, the canary in the coalmine, telling us we need to make changes if we want to live a long healthy life. We can take HRT and it may make us feel better. We may also miss the chance to make the changes our bodies are telling us to make, if we’d just start listening.
What is different about us or the way we live to make our menopause experience different to elsewhere or other women? To what extent does our society’s view of older women impact how we experience midlife and menopause? How is life different now to in the past? We need to talk about menopause more. And much earlier too.
The medical profession is woefully under-resourced for helping menopausal women. We need to increase medical and public education so doctors recognize perimenopause and women aren’t fobbed off with anti-depressants, or fear they have Alzheimer’s when it’s hormonal brain fog.
HORMONE “REPLACEMENT” THERAPY
I’d also like doctors to know about the role of diet, lifestyle, environmental toxins and stress when it comes to managing menopause. I want an holistic approach. I’d like women to see menopause as a chance to adopt a healthier lifestyle and embrace the different hormonal profile we’re supposed to have post menopause. Then we will find the true healing power and magic of menopause.
https://magnificentmidlife.com/blog/menopause-hrt-and-staying-curious
https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/05/companies-portray-menopause-as-medical-problem-and-push-women-towards-ineffective-treatments-papers-find?fbclid=IwAR06S02E7_gx3dCfXKrQtKjqgfv0WBXg9Yfm7AZ-eRn14LVOYXvcmUsFtSs_aem_ATLhBzPSsvuuKdIclP-DgTgybW63H1-FT1nJnF-SkiY6J0IYYN5Zaa42PGlQpQ0F5Uc
