Modernizing treatment of menopause

How do we bring treatment of menopause into the 21st century?

It is actually not a difficult thing to do. First, we recognize menopause for what it is, hypogonadism, and that we were healthier before our ovaries failed, and second, that once they have failed we simply need to replace the hormones the ovaries once produced.

The ovaries produce many hormones so replacing just estrogen is not enough. The ovaries actually produce testosterone, of which a small amount is converted to estrogen, leaving enough testosterone for the rest of the body to use. To not include testosterone is to ignore ovarian physiology. They also produce a small amount of Dhea, and of course progesterone. All of these hormones work together to help protect women from breast cancer and maintain sexual response. Not having enough of any of these hormones is like being all dressed up with nowhere to go. You may feel better but you will still feel that something is missing.

So how should menopause be treated? Hypogonadism (menopause) should be treated just like any other organ failure. The success of healthy hormone replacement regimens is based on the gold standard of medicine. The gold standard in medicine is always the healthiest approach to an illness. The gold standard for any hormone deficiency is to replace what the body no longer produces in the same amount and with a hormone that looks exactly like the hormone that is being replaced. This is called physiologic, bioidentical replacement. Successful treatment of every hormone deficiency is based on this gold standard of medicine. The treatment of diabetes, low thyroid, low growth hormone, and low testosterone (men) are all based on only putting back what the body is missing and typically in a bioidentical form.

For hypogonadism (menopause) this starts with estradiol, testosterone, progesterone, and Dhea.

To help you and your doctor understand how to bring the treatment of menopause into the 21st century you can request a free copy of a booklet that I wrote, Understanding Menopause, Understand what it is, Understand why it happens, Understand your options at http://diamondrf.org/gp/sendbooklet.php