What is Menopause in Women?
There are many baby boomers living in the US who are women. In fact, in 2006, the oldest of the baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 began turning 60 years of age. As of July 1, 2005, an approximation of 78.2 million baby boomers was noted, and 50.8% of which are women. Therefore, you would expect that everyday in 2006, 7,918 people turn 60 – in hours, that would be 330. (Source: US Census Bureau)
The figures above best explains why a large percentage of women are experiencing the symptoms of menopause today. If you are one of the over 40 million women feeling discomfort from menopause, then you should know the facts.
So what is menopause? To define, it’s the cessation of the menstrual cycle for a period of 12 consecutive months. Menopause marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years, and usually happens naturally around age 51 or 52 when the ovaries stop producing estrogen.
There are several women, however, who experience menopause immediately – this occurs when their ovaries are surgically removed. Regardless of the time of the experience, menopause indeed has a great impact on women’s health, mental state of mind and quality of life.
It was in 2003 when the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) frightened women and doctors alike with the recommendation of not taking hormones. Several women don’t know the real facts about the WHI. Those women above 65 years old who are taking PremPro and Premarin, for instance, were found to have experienced cardiovascular diseases, cancer and osteoporosis – these results were comprehensively discussed, no less. Good thing, however, that bioidentical hormones were not included in this study.
The WHI was set up to address the most prominent causes of death, disability, and impaired quality of life in postmenopausal women. It was an organized attempt to amend the inequities in women’s health research and therefore provide practical information to women and their doctors. The research was focused on how synthetic hormone replacement therapy, dietary patterns with calcium and Vitamin D supplements could assist in the prevention of heart diseases, cancer and osteoporosis. These three diseases were the main focus of the study because they become more common in menopausal women.
In 2003, there were approximately 9 million women who are still taking a particular form of Premarin. One of them is PremPro. The other one is Premari-, meaning PREgnant MARes’ UrINE or PMU for short. Both of these forms are synthetic hormones.
The release of the WHI results had an impact on the above-mentioned statistics. There was a decrease of 25 percent of the roughly 12 million women taking PMU based medications in 1999.
Around 1/3 of the 55 million post menopausal women in the United States are on synthetic estrogen replacement therapy (ERT), or hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Interestingly, only 49% – rather than the high 79% in 1999- of those are currently using PMU based products.
Despite these figures, it’s still observable than several women do not fully understand hormone therapy – for those who are afraid of HRT, however, the idea of natural bio-identical hormones has intrigued them a lot. And with so many products available, even that has become confusing. The fact that the government is regulating all bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) remedies adds to all this confusion.
The great thing is, women should no longer have to perplexed about hormone replacement therapy. Interestingly enough, several women have gotten used to taking BHRT in menopause medicine. There’s a confusion in the use of the terms, though, because hormones are not really bio-identical. Natural hormones are not bio-identical unless the body can recognize them as hormones, and they’re not considered restoration unless what has been lost is truly restored. In large part, they can only be mimicked, and will never be identical. Furthermore, they can’t be replaced, rather, they can be restored. And in order for hormone therapy to be truly accurate, it should be rhythmic, or biomimetic.
What’s the difference between biomimitec hormones and bio-identical hormones? Biomimetic hormones are taken from natural sources, and mimic in the body the natural undulating rhythms of the hormone blood levels in a normal menstrual cycle. Undulating, as defined, is the tendency of causing something to move in a smooth, wavelike motion.
Bio-identical hormone products are usually formulated from plant sources to match the chemical structure of hormones produced naturally by the human body. The premise is that, technically, the body can’t distinguish bio-identical hormones from the ones the female ovaries produce; however, different forms of human-produced hormones are recognized differently by cells. So it makes sense that bio-identical hormone results might also be different.
For bio-identical hormone compounds to be authentically the same, biologically, as human hormones, they should be presented Biomimetically. A great part of recognition at the receptor cites depends on presentation, i.e. serum levels and timing, as well as molecular structure.
Biomimetic hormone restoration therapy is accurate, it is biomimetic and mimics the up and down rhythms of hormone blood levels in a normal menstrual cycle. Note that it’s not bio-identical, but biomimetic.
What is the rhythm? The rhythms of the body are governed by a master clock that works much like a conductor. Cues from light signals are taken (partly to be in-sync with the 24-hour day) and depending on the time of the day, a section of the body is activated while another is quieted down. Indeed, the body somehow ebbs and surges at the command of that master clock.
The circadian clock that our cells follow is actually one 24-hour rotation of the planet. For 28 days, the moon tracks the repeating of that cycle – and so does your body. Among all the patented bio-identical hormone products available, only one makes use of the natural rhythm in establishing the proper doses of estradiol and progesterone. To restore the hormone levels of youth, topical creams have to be applied in varying amounts throughout that 28-day cycle.
The latest treatment for women in menopause is multi-phasic rhythmic dosing of bio-mimetic hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) using natural hormones in a bio-mimetic way. Over 2 million women in the U.S. utilize customized hormones for menopause symptoms.
Another projection: by 2030, there’ll be 57.8 million baby boomers and 54.9% of them will be women. That year, boomers would be between ages 66 and 84. Thanks to the relief of the rhythm of Biomimetic Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), hopefully they will all live more happily.
