At the Ageless and Wellness Medical Center, we’ve helped countless menopausal women find natural solutions to lessen their symptoms and restore their hormonal balance.
If you’re struggling with symptoms that are disrupting your life, we hope that you can find comfort knowing that there’s a more natural way to combat menopausal symptoms without putting your body at risk for other hormone-related conditions.
What Happens to Hormones During Menopause?
If a woman goes through natural menopause, the hormonal changes are not brought on by any type of medical or surgical treatment such as a hysterectomy. Symptoms typically come on very gradually and the process includes three stages: perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause.
Perimenopause
Perimenopause typically begins about ten years prior to menopause. At this stage in life, a woman is still having menstrual cycles and can get pregnant. During perimenopause, estrogen levels and progesterone gradually decrease. That decrease accelerates in the last two years of this stage, and this is when symptoms can begin surfacing. Additionally, shifts in hormones produced by the adrenal glands (such as dehydroepiandrosterone) begin to occur. These shifts set in during menopause.
Menopause
Once a woman hasn’t had a period for at least twelve months and her blood work reflects a permanent down-shift in hormone levels, we consider her officially in menopause. This typically happens around the age of 51 (earlier in smokers), though many perimenopausal symptoms can begin earlier.
Once a woman is in menopause, her ovaries stop releasing eggs and produce significantly less estrogen. In some cases (15% of the time) a menopausal woman will continue producing adequate levels of estrogen but also produce drastically lower levels of progesterone. This can also cause estrogen dominance which can be a cause for concern. Dr. Randolph explains the implications of this scenario here.
Symptoms of Menopause
Menopausal symptoms can include any of the following:
- Hot flashes
- Night sweats
- Weight and body fat gain
- Slowed metabolism
- Waking insomnia
- Brain fog
- Mood swings
- Vaginal dryness
- Decreased libido
For many women, these symptoms can be life-altering, causing changes to overall health, relationships, and even sense of self worth. But with the right hormone replacement therapy, these symptoms can be easily relieved.
Postmenopause
During this stage, symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats will improve. However, lower estrogen can increase the risk for health conditions such as osteoporosis and heart disease. Individualized hormone therapy can help to reduce these risks as well.
Approximately one in every four American women will enter an abrupt, “artificial” Menopause, as the result of a complete hysterectomy. When a woman has had a complete hysterectomy, her body will immediately enter menopause regardless of her biological age, as there are no ovaries to produce any level of hormones. In order to combat the lower levels caused by menopause, many physicians make the mistake of only prescribing estrogen. But, this just isn’t the right approach. By neglecting to take progesterone levels into account, these treatment plans can cause “estrogen dominance” and put women at higher risk for breast cancer and hypothyroidism.
Why You Should Consider Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT)
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy has helped millions of women relieve menopausal symptoms and restore hormone levels.
Unlike synthetic hormones, bioidentical hormones fit perfectly into the hormone receptor “locks” of the cells in the body, meaning that they are 100% identical to the hormones your body produces naturally.
Over the last seventeen years, researchers have found that synthetically produced hormone therapies can put patients at high risk for serious health conditions such as breast cancer, heart attacks, and stroke.
One of the most effective natural hormones for relieving menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats is progesterone. Our plant-based progesterone cream is made from Diosgenin, extracted from the root of the wild yam, and is synthesized in a laboratory to be bioidentical to your body’s natural hormones. Countless women have had success using the cream to balance the negative effects of estrogen on the body and improve blood circulation to the brain. It also decreases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by balancing the negative effects of estrogen. The best part is that all of this is done naturally, making it easier and safer for your body to process.
Additionally, our DHEA cream, Estro-Fem, and Thyroid Boost products can also help to relieve menopausal symptoms and support bone health, reducing the risk of osteoporosis later on in life.
How to Get Started
At the Ageless & Wellness Medical Center, Dr. Randolph recommends supplements based on very specific criteria per patient. Age, life cycle, symptoms, and many other factors are considered to determine an individual’s supplemental needs.
Consider visiting our medical practice to set up and appointment to start finding your balance. If you can’t visit our office, consider a Personal Hormone Tele-Consultation, which includes a self-test kit plus a phone consultation with one of our clinicians. Our goal is to help patients find wellness and balance in their everyday lives through natural and effective methodologies. We’d be proud to help you on your journey!