Menopause & HRT - Safe or Risky?
- Ralph Quinlan Forde BSc Hons MA
- 18 hours ago
- 2 min read
After the recent scares in the media about the risks associated with HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) there is a strong case for using alternative medicine to balance the body, especially when you get to supply your body with plant hormones rather than ones derived from horse's urine.
Most HRT offered today is body identical and plant derived.
HRT MRT Research
Research 24 years ago highlighted the side effects of taking HRT to include breast cancer and heart disease. HRT has also been linked to gallbladder diseases.
These study results were from the use of the HRT tablet and not the patches but the PR did lasting damage.
This study in 2002 by the Women's Health Initiative declared a small increased risk of breast cancer.
HRT benefits far outweigh the risks.
Menopause Hormone Treatment MRT patients were recently given a financial discount by the Health Minister in Ireland.
What is the Menopause?
Menopause is the point at which a woman stops ovulating and menstruation ceases, indicating the end of fertility.
Many years before the menopause, levels of estrogen production slow down.
This can start fifteen years before the menopause and is called the 'circadian'.
Apart from being a sex or reproductive hormone, estrogen acts on many organs and systems in the body.
Cells in the vagina, bladder, breasts, skin, bones, arteries, heart, liver, and brain all contain estrogen receptors and require this hormone to stimulate these receptors for normal cell function.
Estrogen is required to keep the skin healthy and contributes in the bone formation process.
Menopause Symptoms
Many women experience few if any symptoms during this time but others may suffer from some or all of the following; anxiety, hot flushes, dry skin, fatigue, feelings of bloating, headaches, heart palpitations, insomnia, irritability, decreased interest in sex, loss of concentration, vaginal dryness and weight gain.
Twenty five per cent of women go through the change without as much as a night sweat. So not all menopause experience has the commonly known symptoms so it is possible to just sail through if you are in that lucky quarter.
In 2022 national radio in Ireland RTE gave five days air time to allow women to discuss the symptoms, transition and dispel some myths. This was a watershed moment for Irish women.
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