Menopause Hormone Debate Rages On – Are added hormones safe?

It’s an on-going menopause debate.

If you have menopause challenges that bother you, should you consider using conventional hormone replacement or bio-identical hormone replacement, no added hormones at all – and choose a natural remedy instead?

Naturopathic doctor and consumer advocate Holly Lucille who writes and speaks about a range of medical issues, has a “Menopause is not a disease.” perspective. She writes: “Just ‘replacing hormones’ is not helping women live longer, healthier and richer lives. More hormones in a body where hormones are out of balance is, most of the time, the last thing a woman needs. In fact, this course of action could be harmful. Hormone imbalance… can lead to cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.”

There’s an assertion by people who earn their living selling bio-identical hormones that this type is safer than the ‘horse pee’ variety of estrogen that was identified as the source of higher incidents of breast cancer and heart disease during the Nurses’ Study back in 2003. An added hormone, is still a hormone that your body did not produce – and that qualifies as unnatural for me. As Dr. Lucille wrote: harm could be caused by adding any type of hormones when a woman’s own hormones are out of balance.

And those studies that say hormones are safe? They’re not long-term studies conducted by unbiased experts. How can you trust their results as the ‘definitive’ green light for using any type of hormone?

So, what is the answer for distressing menopause symptoms?

The answer is the best choice you can make for yourself.

Consider this: if you could eat a natural food or take an herb or use an essential oil that could nourish your body and help it produce more, or less, estrogen, or more, or less, progesterone to balance itself, wouldn’t you rather do that for a few months to see if it’s enough to make an improvement, than immediately add a genetically altered compound from soy or yams that could contribute towards the development of bigger problems down the road?

And the belief that natural remedies can’t prevent heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, diabetes or cancer – well, that’s just not true! Healthy lifestyle choices can make a huge difference in your health and wellness – now and long-term. These include:

• Eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, less meat and dairy
• Supplementing with key nutrients that are missing from our food such as 4,000 to 6,000 IU (or more) Vitamin D before your largest meal of the day
• Regular nutritional cleansing to remove toxins
• 30-minutes of exercise daily
• Drinking more water – 2 to 2 ½ liters of water every day
• Eating every 2 to 3 hours to keep your blood sugar even
•  Identifying food allergies and staying away from those foods to reduce inflammation and digestive upset
• Finding and using a stress-relief strategy that works for you
• Dealing with ‘old’ emotional stuff that still causes shame, guilt, fear or upset – Emotional Freedom Techniques works for me, my husband and thousands of others!

Adopting healthy lifestyle choices will help reduce the likelihood that you’ll have a difficult menopause and that you’ll develop a ‘lifestyle disease’. Don’t wait to get sick so the doctor can try to ‘cure’ you with drugs, surgery or added hormones. Take action NOW to safeguard your health and wellness. Do what you can to prevent disease and keep your mobility.

Will it be added hormones, or natural remedies and healthy lifestyle choices for your menopause? Will it be all three?

It’s your choice. Make it a good one.

I welcome your comments and questions about finding the right menopause solutions for you!