HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY AND HEALTHY BONES: ANN’S STORY
I really wanted a “natural” menopause. I didn’t want to put something into my body every day for the rest of my life that by Mother Nature’s design wasn’t meant to be there. Of course, my regular doctor recommended hormone replacement therapy to me as soon as my periods became irregular, though I don’t remember her making any connection to bone density, or my family history of osteoporosis, and she certainly never sent me for a bone scan. But as I said, I was determined to let my body do its own thing, so I declined a prescription.But after a couple years, when my periods stopped altogether, the fun really began. I had hot flashes, of course, and night sweats that drenched the sheets. I was gaining weight no matter what I ate or didn’t eat. I became depressed as I never have been in my entire life. Worst of all, I couldn’t sleep (no wonder I was depressed!), and developed the bad habit of lying awake and counting up all the days of my life ruined from lack of sleep.I went to my chiropractor, and a homeopath he recommended, for help with my symptoms. You know, they always tell you what they do is good for everything. And truthfully, chiropractors have been an enormous help to me with other health issues. But nothing helped the symptoms I was having now.After a year, I couldn’t stand it anymore, and called up my doctor for a prescription. I was ready to try anything! Within the first month on a standard dose of estrogen and progestin, my insomnia was gone and I was sleeping through the night and generally feeling like my regular self again.I never experienced any unpleasant side effects from taking the hormones. But after a while, I wanted to try taking lower doses, to make sure I was giving my body what it needed and nothing more. My doctor gave me the go-ahead to try taking my pills every other day, with a phytoestrogen supplement on the off days. I was pleased with the plan, but my sleeping problems came back right away. I’d already been through enough, and then found relief with HRT, that I didn’t have patience now for enduring any more in an attempt to just lower the numbers on the prescription form. So I made my peace with the standard dose.I figured if what I really wanted was what was right for my body, well, I had found it. Just not in the place I expected to. I also learned more about the benefits of HRT beyond relief of menopause symptoms, and in particular the protection estrogen seems to offer against Alzheimer’s disease. My mother suffered for more than ten years with Alzheimer’s, and if there was any way I could spare myself and my family that, I would do it. The protection for bones, too, was important to me, since my mom and grandmothers had osteoporosis.After several years of taking hormones, I saw a sign at my local drugstore advertising a day where they would be doing inexpensive bone density screening. Because of my family history, I decided to get tested. Once I saw the results that said I still had the bone density of a 30-year-old, I never thought about giving up the hormones again.And one thing, at least, is still the “natural” way: because I take estrogen and a progestin every day, I do not get a period.*133\228\2*
