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opinions on Hormone Replacement Therapy
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 60930" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Sounds like I'm the only one going through a conventional menopause here! Technically I'm perimenopausal, but I hit 50 and hit menopause like a brick wall, in my opinion. No hot flushes (I don't think) but I do get the hot face etc plus sweats anyway, especially in summer. Not sure if it's just me, or menopause.</p><p></p><p>I can't take iron, but I was losing so much that I was rapidly becoming anaemic. Each period (which suddenly changed from a clockwork 28 days to 14 or less) I would lose a vast amount. I've had flooding before, but never like this. Even post-partum was never a patch on this - I was wearing double everything and having to change every fifteen minutes. Being of a scientific bent, I actually weighed it all before and after, calculating I was losing close on 100 ml every half hour.</p><p>And it would last for 10-14 days, then start again almost immediately!</p><p></p><p>The doctor put me on HRT. It was either that, or take it all out. And the HRT stopped it like turning off a tap. Literally, within hours. And it stayed stopped, so my iron levels not only stopped falling, they've been slowly creeping back into the normal range (by eating lots of red meat - the only iron I can have).</p><p></p><p>We keep hearing that HRT is linked to this cancer, or that problem - we don't hear what doctors have also known, that post-menopause, we lose calcium like I was losing iron. HRT stops this. The loss of calcium is directly connected to the change in hormone status after we stop producing so much estrogen. </p><p>Dang - I went looking for my textbook and can't find it. So from memory - when we stop producing the usual hormones from our reproductive organs, our pituitary gets worried (sorry to anthropomorphise) and sends out chemical messengers to trigger hormone production. But the factory has gone out of business. The pituitary doesn't understand and keeps sending out more. And it is these stimulatory hormones that get produced in big quantity by the anterior pituitary (plus the absence of estrogen & progesterone, which we've cut back on making), which can cause some of the weird things we notice, as well as the massive increase in leaching of calcium from our bones. We can take extra calcium which will help, but it won't prevent it. You just can't force that calcium into the bones fast enough. We WILL lose it. Can't be avoided. Load-bearing exercise encourages our bones to take up more, so walking regularly will help reduce calcium loss.</p><p></p><p>Basically, we weren't meant to live this long. While a few rare women in past centuries would have reached menopause, this would have been rare. Back in the cave days, it would have been almost unheard of. </p><p>But now, we live a lot longer and want to live with quality. So medicine invents a way to mimic how our bodies function.</p><p>HRT won't turn back the clock, but it does stop the pituitary from throwing a hormonal tantrum. Whether from your body or a pill, the pituitary doesn't care. If it thinks there's enough hormone, it stops asking for more. And without the corpus luteum (from the recently-ovulated follicle) to push out more hormones monthly, the pituitary can have a rest.</p><p></p><p>Does it cause cancer? maybe. But simply being female is a cancer risk. If you have a family history, then screening is a darn good idea. Reading up on the implications for you personally is a good idea. But for the most of us, HRT while we're still fairly young (middle-aged, at most) shouldn't be a health risk. If anything, it improves our prospects by saving calcium. It's later on as we get even older that we need to re-think and maybe let nature have its way with us.</p><p></p><p>I'm going to have to find that textbook now.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 60930, member: 1991"] Sounds like I'm the only one going through a conventional menopause here! Technically I'm perimenopausal, but I hit 50 and hit menopause like a brick wall, in my opinion. No hot flushes (I don't think) but I do get the hot face etc plus sweats anyway, especially in summer. Not sure if it's just me, or menopause. I can't take iron, but I was losing so much that I was rapidly becoming anaemic. Each period (which suddenly changed from a clockwork 28 days to 14 or less) I would lose a vast amount. I've had flooding before, but never like this. Even post-partum was never a patch on this - I was wearing double everything and having to change every fifteen minutes. Being of a scientific bent, I actually weighed it all before and after, calculating I was losing close on 100 ml every half hour. And it would last for 10-14 days, then start again almost immediately! The doctor put me on HRT. It was either that, or take it all out. And the HRT stopped it like turning off a tap. Literally, within hours. And it stayed stopped, so my iron levels not only stopped falling, they've been slowly creeping back into the normal range (by eating lots of red meat - the only iron I can have). We keep hearing that HRT is linked to this cancer, or that problem - we don't hear what doctors have also known, that post-menopause, we lose calcium like I was losing iron. HRT stops this. The loss of calcium is directly connected to the change in hormone status after we stop producing so much estrogen. Dang - I went looking for my textbook and can't find it. So from memory - when we stop producing the usual hormones from our reproductive organs, our pituitary gets worried (sorry to anthropomorphise) and sends out chemical messengers to trigger hormone production. But the factory has gone out of business. The pituitary doesn't understand and keeps sending out more. And it is these stimulatory hormones that get produced in big quantity by the anterior pituitary (plus the absence of estrogen & progesterone, which we've cut back on making), which can cause some of the weird things we notice, as well as the massive increase in leaching of calcium from our bones. We can take extra calcium which will help, but it won't prevent it. You just can't force that calcium into the bones fast enough. We WILL lose it. Can't be avoided. Load-bearing exercise encourages our bones to take up more, so walking regularly will help reduce calcium loss. Basically, we weren't meant to live this long. While a few rare women in past centuries would have reached menopause, this would have been rare. Back in the cave days, it would have been almost unheard of. But now, we live a lot longer and want to live with quality. So medicine invents a way to mimic how our bodies function. HRT won't turn back the clock, but it does stop the pituitary from throwing a hormonal tantrum. Whether from your body or a pill, the pituitary doesn't care. If it thinks there's enough hormone, it stops asking for more. And without the corpus luteum (from the recently-ovulated follicle) to push out more hormones monthly, the pituitary can have a rest. Does it cause cancer? maybe. But simply being female is a cancer risk. If you have a family history, then screening is a darn good idea. Reading up on the implications for you personally is a good idea. But for the most of us, HRT while we're still fairly young (middle-aged, at most) shouldn't be a health risk. If anything, it improves our prospects by saving calcium. It's later on as we get even older that we need to re-think and maybe let nature have its way with us. I'm going to have to find that textbook now. Marg [/QUOTE]
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