Written By Sandra Miranda, ND

The answer is simple – NO!!!  But unfortunately, this remains the conventional medical mindset.  Our cultural negativity surrounding menopause leads us to think of this new stage in our lives as a hormonal deficiency disease and not as a natural process.   Women are encouraged to “stay forever young” with synthetic hormones that cause many undesirable side effects.  Women are usually not told of the risks involved in taking these conventional therapies.

In 1995, The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) began a very important 10 year study that was sponsored by the National Institute of Health.  The study was on the effects of Premarin 0.625 mg (conjugated estrogens and NOT the natural estrogens), combined with Provera 2.5 mg (synthetic progestin and NOT the natural progesterone).   This study was suddenly stopped after only 5.2 years because women receiving these synthetic hormones had a high incidence of complications such as breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, clots and colon cancer.    Now, the new medical recommendation is that synthetic hormones should be taken for NO MORE THAN 5 YEARS.

But the truth, is that women can live through a perfectly healthy menopause without the use synthetic hormones at all.  We now have the science to know how to help women with just diet, herbs or if needed the use of natural hormones (bio-identical hormones).

Our bodies are meant to be self-sufficient and they are perfectly capable of taking us through this “change of life” without any symptoms. Because although it is true that during menopause we do have a decline in ovarian function and therefore production of estrogen and other hormones, there is at the same time a twofold increase in production of androgenic hormones from our adrenal glands.  Therefore, the healthy menopausal woman is naturally equipped to deal with hormonal changes in her ovaries.

I encourage every woman to challenge all the existing negative cultural believes by deciding to age with power, strength and beauty. We need to start thinking of menopause as a natural process during which we will be creating the healthy body we need to last us until the end of life.

For more information and help on how to deal with menopause using natural therapies call us at 905-239-3900.