MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS AND NATURAL PROGESTERONE
Dr. John R Lee wrote “This should have been the easiest chapter to write. After all, menopause symptoms are the defining characteristics of the menopause “problem.” Yet much mystery prevails.”
He went on to reveal that women don’t have to go through menopause as we know it. In fact it is something that our culture seems to bring upon us rather than being a woman. In the U.S. passing through menopause brings with it a host of symptoms that third world countries never exhibit at this time in their lives. It is actually industrialized, “more civilized” countries having more menopause as we have come to understand it.
Let me say there is BIG bucks in hysterectomies AND menopause. Dr. Lee states that “50% of women in the U.S. experience some degree of hot flashes during menopause, and only 15% seek medical treatment for them.” Considering my feelings on HRT vs Natural Hormone Replace Treatment I believe this to be a positive statistic.
It is interesting to note that 100% of women WILL however, have a drop in estrogen. Interesting wouldn’t you say? Think about it. Menopause, as we know it in the U.S. is mentioned as the result in the drop of estrogen. If we were to look at this logically, wouldn’t that mean that all women would have hot flashes, weight gain and the host of other symptoms related to menopause?
Not so. Let’s explore why menopausal women in other cultures do not experience the same symptoms.
Here is a story by Dr Lee:
“Early in my career, when I still felt assured of the medical education I had received and before I knew anything about natural progesterone, I was visited by a patient who first brought home to me the inadequacy of mainstream medical treatments. She was a 62year old lady with persistent, quite severe flashes despite years of estrogen replacement therapy. She could tolerate the hot flashes but, as she apologetically explained, she was worried about the loss of libido, her inability to lose weight, and the thinning of her scalp hair. She was overweight and aware that the more estrogen she took the fatter she got and the more water she retained.
My medical examination and laboratory workup found nothing abnormal. In my naivete’, I thought I would be able to help her. I put her on my favorite low-fat, low sugar diet,added small doses of essential vitamin and mineral supplements, and tried manipulating herestrogen supplements to avoid water retention and fat buildup. Nothing I did helped her.With estrogen she had normal vaginal lubrication, but she still had hot flashes and her libido was just not there.”
He went on to say that it was cases like this that lead him to the studies he has done about estrogen and then leading to his finds about natural progesterone cream. As he said “Failure is often a better instructor than success.”
Points to ponder about estrogen and menopausal women:
1: Not all women with hot flashes are helped by supplemental estrogen.
2: Fat increases estrogen levels in post-menopausal women.
3: Fatter post menopausal women generally have higher estrogen levels than thinner women.
4: Post-menopausal women with normal estrogen levels can suffer hot flashes.
His conclusion was, and still is, that something more than estrogen deficiency is going on.
Let us look again at the symptoms associated with menopause with some women. Such a list would include:
*hot flashes
*vaginal dryness and atrophy
*water retention
*fat and weight gain, especially in the hips, thighs, and abdomen
*sleep disturbances (insomnia, less REM-time sleep)
*decreased libido
*mood swings—-depression, irritability
*headaches, fatigue
*short-term memory lapses, lack of concentration
*dry, thin, wrinkly skin
*thinning of scalp hair, some increase of facial hair
*bone mineral loss (osteoporosis)
*diffuse body aches and pains”
