Alternatives to Hormones

To hormone or not to hormone? That’s the question many women ask as they approach menopause. Trusting their physician to prescribe exactly what they need, few women ever hear about herbal alternatives, progesterone creams or all-natural hormone replacement therapies. Symptoms associated with premenstrual syndrome, early or difficult menopause, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, polycystic ovary disease, fibrocystic breasts and some infertility can all be managed using natural alternatives that carry no side effects.

A woman’s choice in this matter is controlled by physicians who have forgotten their endocrinology classes and by the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry. Let’s look at a few facts surrounding Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT).

There are three main types of estrogens: estrone (E1), estradiol (E2) and estriol (E3). Many physicians can’t name all three. Most ERTs contain only E1 or both E1 and E2. E1 and E2 are cancer-causing, while E3 is thought to prevent cancer.

ERT containing only E1 is the only known cause of endometrial cancer.

Proper hormone balance prevents bone loss. ERT, however, only slows it. It neither halts nor rebuilds it. Between the ages of 30 and 50, a woman loses 1 to 1.5 percent of her bone mass each year. By age 50, she may have lost 20 to 30 percent, and it takes a 30 percent loss to even register on an X-ray. During menopause, this bone loss increases to 2 to 3 percent per year. After menopause, bone loss continues at about 1 percent per year. By age 70, even with ERT, 35 to 45 percent of bone mass might have been lost.

Studies have shown that ERT increases the number of good High Density Lipoproteins (HDLs), and prevents heart disease, but only in populations of women who take no other aggressive, natural, preventative steps such as healthy diet, exercise and proper calcium supplementation. Only some forms of calcium can rebuild bones. And despite ingenious marketing efforts, milk products, Tums and calcium carbonate are the least effective.

Some ERTs contain progestin, a synthetic progesterone, known to counter the cancer-causing effects of E1 and E2. But because it’s synthetic, it carries an extensive list of its own side effects, including fluid retention, nausea, insomnia and depression. Estrogen dominance, particularly of E1 and E2, worsens estrogen dependent conditions such as spotting, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian cysts and fibrocystic breasts.

At-risk women are not given ERT, because a certain percentage of breast cancers are E1- and E2-sensitive. Remarkably, in breast cancer patients given E3, 37 percent have shown a remission or no further progression of metastatic breast cancer. E3 does not cause endometrial cancer, and it prevents hot flashes, insomnia, depression and vaginal atrophy. It has the added benefit of increasing the numbers of good HDLs and prevents heart disease, just as E1 and E2 do.

Because hormonally-induced spotting from ERT is hard to distinguish from the pathological bleeding from cancer, many women are subjected to diagnostic D&Cs and sometimes unnecessary hysterectomies that the use of natural therapies could have prevented.

Diagnostic lab tests are helpful, but blood tests in your physician’s office are not. These tests only give you a picture of the blood at the moment it was drawn. Hormones are cyclical and may be very different even a few days later. A holistic physician will order a female hormone panel, a test that uses 11 different saliva samples taken over the course of a month to get an accurate picture of E2, E3, progesterone and testosterone. With proper information, a personalized treatment program can then be designed.

Additionally, periodic osteoporosis risk evaluations (urine tests), beginning at about age 35, should be considered to monitor elevated levels of bone loss and to design preventative treatment before excessive bone loss occurs.

The puzzle has many answers, all of them natural. E3 and natural progesterone help prevent cancer, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, fibrocystic breasts and endometriosis and might aid some cases of infertility. They eliminate menopausal symptoms, use fat for energy, are natural diuretics and anti-depressants, restore libido and stimulate the rebuilding of lost bone mass.

What your physician probably hasn’t told you is that in younger, pre-menopausal women, there are very effective herbal therapies. If saliva tests suggest a deficiency of progesterone, use natural progesterone cream or take it orally. For more difficult symptoms or women with complete hysterectomies and no risk factors, there are pharmacies that specialize in the formulating natural hormone replacement therapies containing 80 percent E3, 10 percent E2, 10 percent E1 and natural progesterone. For PMS symptoms, use herbs or natural progesterone. For vaginal dryness, use Estriol (E3) vaginal cream. For those with risk factors, use Estriol (E3) and natural progesterone.

The agonizing decisions that most woman have to make are usually made without knowing the alternatives. The biochemistry is known, and the studies support the biochemistry. Arm yourself with the right information. Your health might depend on it.

This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2001.