Sign UpHormone Replacement To Correct Hormone Imbalance = Hormone Hell. One Woman’s Story
Posted by Kim Holtzman
Let me tell you a story . . .
In fact it’s a story told by Kate, retold by Dr. Sherrill Sellman in her book Hormone Heresy and finally retold again here.
As our body goes through changes with our changing hormones, we often seek help to correct the imbalance. Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is conventional medicine’s prescription of choice. But unlike what the glossy brochures say, it’s more likely to wreak havoc than bring balance.
In fact, the very people we depend on to guide us to good options – our doctors – have been failing women over and over again. Kate’s story tells this dramatically . . .
It was a terrifying time in her life . . .
After just a few months on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), Kate struggled against a mixture of anxiety attacks, mood swings and aggressiveness that made her feel close to insane. “I was spiraling down a black hole that swallowed me by degrees every day. And what I feared most was the loss of my loved ones as my growing madness was mirrored in their eyes.”
It all started when at age 38, Kate acted on changes she had noticed over the past two years that hinted she may be hitting early menopause, symptoms such as infrequent periods and hot flashes. Kate consulted with a doctor at a local menopause clinic. And following the doctor’s advice, she decided to boost her estrogen levels with Premarin.
When Premarin failed to raise her blood estrogen to the level that satisfied her doctor, she tried a patch and then eventually had surgery for an estrogen implant.
Kate explains that her fears about being at a greater risk for heart disease and osteoporosis as she hit menopause spurred her onward in using these treatments. “Without question, pharmaceutical-driven propaganda had successfully convinced me that menopause was indeed a disease and that I could not survive my life cycles without medical intervention.”
However, instead of the youthful vibrancy promised with HRT, Kate found misery. Not only did she feel like she was losing her mind, but her doctors were constantly checking her for signs of breast, uterine and cervical cancer. And she was hospitalized to investigate excessive vaginal bleeding.
One day she mixed up her HRT drugs and took even more estrogen than initially prescribed. “What followed,” says Kate, “made a miscarriage look rather tame.” She began to seriously consider getting a hysterectomy.
Promising To Correct Imbalance, Hormone Replacement Therapy Brings Misery Instead
Kate is like thousands of women who have gone for a simple doctor’s appointment to find out about their options as their hormones start to change. Instead of getting advice that supports good health, based on a real understanding of hormones, she was given a recommendation taken straight out of a pharmaceutical company brochure.
Advice that made her life a living hell and could have even killed her.
Despite the convincing evidence about the dangers of HRT and other synthetic hormones, like the pill, women are still being advised to use them by their doctors.
While some doctors have taken a stand against these dangerous drugs, too many still accept the information put out by the drug manufacturers and pass it on to their patients.
It’s up to us women to get the information that can make all the difference in our lives.
“The much publicized HRT debate is not about what the doctors or pharmaceutical companies claim will or should work in my body,†emphasizes Kate. “It’s about making an informed choice and having access to ALL the facts and remedies, both orthodox and complementary.â€
Information is key to good health!
It never ceases to amaze me how frequently western practicing doctor’s push prescription drugs on their patients. Although I have not been offered any HRT drugs YET, I was actually told by one doctor, when I asked him what the side effects were of a popular sleep drug, that “that’s the beauty of this medication, there are no side effects!” Are you kidding me?? I am not that stupid.
I think it is so important for us to take charge of our health because no one else will do it for us.
What the pharmaceutical industry does not want us (the consumers) to know is that things like pomegranate have been used for thousands of years in other cultures with few to no side effects and very good results. If we all knew that it might put them out of business.
Will pomegranate help with no libido and thinning of the vaginal walls making intercourse very painful and resulting in tearing and bleeding.
I was prescribed an Estrogen cream to be inserted into the vagina to help with my condition of no lubrication and no libido, however I only used it 5 times and was too concerned with possible after effects, so discontinued. However nothing I have tried since, including a herbal concoction to stimulate my hormones and using a wild yam cream internally, has made any difference. Intercourse continues to be painful and my libido continues to be very lacking. I have always used a lubricant gel such as kiwi fruit, but much more is required since I have gone thru menopause.
I am 61 years old and have gone thru Menopause. I tried HRT and really did not feel comfortable with and stopped. I tried the patch, felt horrible. I’v used the Progest Cream for the past 5 years now and I do believe it has helped but I feel I have a lot more work to do. I have mood swings,depression, anxiety, problems sleeping, the hot sweats have subsided. I have arthritis, fibromyalgia, my doctor just put me on Porcine for my thyroid. What can I do? I really want to feel better. Thank you
Thank you all for your recent comments and questions. We will ask Dr. Sellman to address your questions during her teleseminar on Tuesday night. And we’ll post her answers here on the blog after the teleseminar.
have you heard about the herb Maca from Peru balancing a woman’s hormones? There is a reputable company that manufactures the product in Peru and has shown some impressive success in dealing with menopause. Do you have any feedback on it?
Do you have any recommendations on a good natural phyto-hormone cream?
How do we listen to this event? i have sent it on to several women and they are asking me…..is there a phone number to call in and an access code? Need to know this soon.
We will be sending out complete instructions by email on Tuesday morning to all registered attendees. There will be an option to dial-in by telephone or to listen from a web-based interface. If you have registered, check your email on Tuesday morning for details.
I need to say that unfortunately for me this description of misery; “anxiety attacks, mood swings and aggressiveness that made her feel close to insane. “I was spiraling down a black hole that swallowed me by degrees every day.”” was how going through menopause naturally was. I tried a short course of the so called Bio-identical hormones, and they only made the nightmare worse! I have been suffering from menopausal symptoms for almost 14 years, and am now postmenopausal, but have yet to find anything that makes me feel a whole lot better. I took Pomegranate Health for two months, but I am still flashing regularly and have bouts of anxiety, apathy and feelings of aversion and aggression toward my loved ones. I am too frightened to try HRT again, but I am wondering why the Pomegranate Health is not really working for me. I also have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and I’m thinking that perhaps it’s not just my reproductive hormones that are causing my distress. If anyone has any suggestions or advice, I would so appreciate it.
Tuned in late to the teleseminar but what I heard was extremely informative (I’m from the NY area and will be looking into Dr. Sellman’s visit on May 8).
You might have addressed this in the earlier part, but as a 56 year old in the throws of menapause, my only major complaint is that I would be so happy if I could get a good nights sleep! I’ve done maca, ashwaghandi (sp), rodiola, you name it. And if you can help with thinning hair, I would love it, but the sleeplessness is of most concern. Thank you so much.
I’ve found that propaganda can come from all directions – study after study is showng that estrogen alone not only is not the boogie man that many would have us believe, it is the combination of estrogen and progestin that is dangerous. The symptoms of many auto-immune diseases are helped with the use of estrogen, and estrogen actually lessens the risk of heart disease.
The tissues of the human body need estrogen to rebuild as they shed their cells. Vaginal atrophy and bladder problems are commong problems of low estrogen.
Many of the phyto-estrogens actually block the estrogen receptor, and do not stimulate it. Maca is one of these, so if you are low on estrogen than don’t use it, it will make you worse.
Phyto-estrogens generally help women who are estrogen dominant through menopause. Therein lies the confusion. Most women are estrogen dominant during this time. Women who are low on estrogen or progesterone dominant usually have much bigger problems; ie. vaginal atrophy, thinning of the bladder wall, extreme weight loss, etc.
Generally speaking, if you have trouble losing weight, you are probably estrogen dominant, if you have trouble gaining weight, than you are progesterone dominant. Go for the natural option if you are estrogen dominant, but if not, don’t let anyone scare you off of estrogen, if you are suffering from vaginal atrophy it will resurrect your life.
Btw, vaginal estrogen is a tiny dose that is not systemic, you do not have to take oral estrogen for vaginal atrophy or bladder problems.