Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods and hormones
Body-identical or bioidentical menopausal hormone therapy uses hormones that are exactly identical to human hormones. Bioidentical hormones are safer than other types of hormone replacement, both in terms of cardiovascular risk and breast cancer risk. Examples include transdermal estradiol patches and oral micronized progesterone.
Progesterone has been both ignored and mistakenly blamed for side effects it does not cause. How did that happen?
First, progesterone was discovered after estrogen, so, according to endocrinology professor Jerilynn Prior, missed being part of the tidy hormone dichotomy of “testosterone for men and estrogen for women.”
Night sweats, mood swings, and crazy heavy periods. Is this menopause already? And you’re only 42? No, menopause could still be a decade away. This is perimenopause or second puberty, which is up to twelve years before your final period.
Perimenopause is different from menopause (or post-menopause), which is the life phase that begins one year after your final period.
If you’re a woman of reproductive age, making sufficient estrogen is important for mood, bones, muscles, and metabolism.
Signs you’re making enough estrogen include the presence of cervical fluid and regular ovulation.
Signs you’re not making enough estrogen include a lack of periods and vaginal dryness.
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In your forties, you may find you don’t cope as well with stress. It happens because losing progesterone during perimenopause can destabilize the HPA (adrenal) axis or stress response system.
This recalibration of the nervous system is why perimenopause is associated with an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and insomnia.