4 Tips if Estrogen’s Not For You

As the author of The Estrogen Window, a #1 best selling book on how and when to take estrogen safely, I’ve spent a lot of time researching estrogen therapy. But you and I both know that there are a lot of women who either won’t or can’t take estrogen. So what’s a girl to do?

For that reason, I talk about estrogen alternatives in my Estrogen Window book.  What I want to share with you now is a philosophy of how to think about alternatives to estrogen.

Estrogen has the ability to impact just about every organ in your body. And menopause affects just about every organ in your body. that’s one of the reasons it can be very helpful…or worrisome for some women.

But alternatives to estrogen tend to focus on one part of the body or another.

So tip #1 is

1.  Take care of the SUM of you and not just SOME of you.  It’s likely you’re going to need more than one estrogen alternative to get you through menopause or you’re likely leaving some of you unprotected.

Tip #2 adds to the confusion of treatment with estrogen alternatives.

2.   Everything works for someone and nothing works for everyone. Almost every treatment and occasionally even placebos will help your symptoms for a short while.  Clearly, I’m talking about placebos possibly helping symptoms such as hot flashes, not osteoporosis.  My point is that something that helps your hot flashes may not help your bones, bladder, brain, etc. So, you’re not taking care of the SUM of you.

3.   Things may need treatment even if you don’t have symptoms. To take care of the SUM of you, you need to set up a framework of treatment with your healthcare provider.  Even if you aren’t having a problem with some part of you, it still needs protecting.  An example is osteoporosis, which is often silent until you break a bone.

4.   The fourth tip is my approach to taking supplements that are treatment for symptoms of menopause.  Most supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA and few have had clinical trials to support how effective they are.  But whether they are studied or not, these guidelines will help you.

• Try one thing at a time.  Otherwise you’ll never know which one is helping you.  I’m a firm believer of seeing how much benefit one thing offers you; otherwise you’ll end up taking many things you don’t need.

• Try a 2-3 month trial.  Supplements are medication and it takes time to determine if they are effective.  By three months, you should be feeling the results of what you’re taking.  If it hasn’t helped by then, stop taking them and move on to the next option for 2-3 months.

• Take them in divided dosages.  Most supplements don’t last more than 12 hours in your bloodstream so repeating the dose keeps more even blood levels.

• Set achievable expectations.  Even the most effective supplements/herbs/remedies typically don’t eliminate the symptom they are taken to treat.  They tend to improve the symptom so it’s more tolerable.  And that may be enough to allow you to feel better.