"Treat the disease, you win some, you lose some. Treat the patient, you always win."
~Patch Adams~



Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Tackling Menopause’s Side Effects

Good morning! Just a brief post here, I wanted to share with you this article from the NYTimes.  The article was posted about a month ago, but I had trouble linking it at that time (not exactly a computer expert here!)  First of all, that the American College of Obstetricians/Gynecologists took this long to actually come out with guidelines about the care of menopausal women is absurd.  The article is an interesting read, but paragraph 14 particularly caught my eye:

"Data do not support the use of progestin-only medications, testosterone, or compounded bioidentical hormones".

First of all, I am living proof that testosterone not only help with libido, but also increases bone density.  For those of you who are new readers, I had a DEXA (bone density scan) in 2006 that showed I had osteopenia.  I started the bioidentical hormones shortly after that scan, and had a repeat test done in 2009.  Not only did I no longer have osteopenia, but my bone density was comfortably in the normal range.  I strongly suspect that the carefully worded phrase "data do not support" means they simply weren't studied.  Mainstream medicine would rather fill patients up with expensive medications (all of which have side effects) rather than simply replace (bioidentically) what is in our bodies that we lose as we age. Frustrating, to say the least.