For over 80 years, the medical approach to menopause has focused on our hormones and symptom suppression.
It’s 2023! Time to finally put that approach to rest because it doesn't serve women!
At first, the approach seemed so simple. We were told that from menopause onward, women lack estrogen. Take some estrogen replacement therapy and you’ll feel better. Some women did feel better but then it got complicated. There were risks involved. The answer? Take progesterone too!
Some felt better with estrogen and progesterone but then there were more risks involved. The answer? Mix it up! Listen to your doctor! Sometimes you’ll be offered estrogen, sometimes progesterone, sometimes both and why not add some testosterone?
For many women who opt for medical support through midlife change, it will be trial and error until they find a hormone therapy that agrees with them. And when they have to come off their chosen therapy after about seven years, if they’ve only relied on supplemental hormones to suppress symptoms, the chances that their symptoms will return are high.
What does the science say? Well, it’s constantly changing. And there are new scares and new promises every few years.
However, one thing is sure: the medical approach convinces women that they are somehow lacking, broken and requiring an external fix.
But what if we don’t need an external fix?
What if we already have everything we need to heal perimenopause and menopause symptoms, and experience our innate well-being without tinkering with our hormones?
In my new book, The Wiser Woman’s Guide to Perimenopause and Menopause, I explain how it cannot be that external fixes are required to feel better through midlife and beyond. I also explain how it makes much more sense that we indeed have everything we need to experience good health right now, even while our hormones are in flux.
Moving from an approach which keeps you looking outside for health fixes to one which encourages you to look within can feel destabilizing – like someone has pulled the rug from under your feet.
When we are used to believing that a pill/patch/cream/treatment will cure us (if only we can find the right one!) – it can seem more comfortable at first to hold on to such a belief.
But health doesn’t work like that. In fact, rather than focusing on fixing our hormones and symptom suppression, it is my experience that a journey to true health isn’t bought over the counter. Rather it occurs within our consciousness and embraces the themes I chose as chapter titles in my book: 1. Creation 2. Departure 3. She's Calling 4. Trust 5. Promise 6. Sovereignty 7. Love
Once we take the first steps on this path, it no longer feels like the ground is unstable. It feels empowering and it feels like we're coming home. What better way to start the year?
Find THE WISER WOMAN'S GUIDE TO PERIMENOPAUSE AND MENOPAUSE on Amazon and in all places where good books are sold!