Blog — menopause

Original of this artickle was Posted by Dr Kate Placzek, on ZRT Laboratory. Keeping awake, throwing blankets off at night. Fatigue and irritation punctuated throughout the day by heat dissipating from every pore, clouding thoughts, reinforcing forgetfulness. Hair falling out so stubbornly fast. Clothes choosing when to fit. Flooding periods coming sporadically, unexpectedly. They call it “the change of life” – but I feel like a different person altogether. What is happening?          In perimenopause, the physiological landscape is subject to tremendous change with estradiol and progesterone at the heart of the transition. Progesterone levels fall quickly – no ovulation...

One of the primary objectives of the Women's Health Initiative was to see if postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) improved long-term risk of coronary heart disease, among other chronic diseases. However, the combined estrogen/progestin (Prempro) arm was halted in 2002, citing that the participants’ risk of cardiovascular disease outweighed any potential benefit of HRT in the prevention of colorectal cancer and bone fracture [1]. The conjugated equine estrogen (CEE)-only arm was also halted in 2004 citing no improvement in heart disease risk but an increased incidence of stroke, and no benefit in terms of fractures, although there was a reduced breast...

Having breasts, or just being a woman, is indeed the biggest risk factor, since the disease is 100 times more common in women than in men. But given the controversies that continue to rage about the benefits of screening (for example, a mammogram may not pick up the most invasive and deadly types of breast cancer) it seems appropriate to step back and look at what breast cancer really is, what it is not, and who is at the most risk.  What Breast Cancer Is Not Breast cancer is not the leading cause of death in women, or even the...

By Dr Candace Burch, ZRT Laboratory.  WhoThere are approximately 40-50 million menopausal women in the US today with about 3,500 to 5,000 more entering menopause every day. An estimated two million women in menopause have been seeking more natural treatment solutions after a major study (WHI 2002) found greater risks of heart disease, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer among hormone replacement therapy (HRT) users. What Menopause is not a disease but a natural process, resulting from diminishing hormones and the end of ovulation as women age. This is the ovaries’ final act: lacking eggs and female hormones, they can no longer perform their reproductive role. Menopause...

Over 25 million women a year worldwide will enter menopause and make a decision about hormone replacement therapy. For healthcare practitioners, what dosage and what formulation these hormones take is open to debate. After many years of teaching and talking to practitioners, I’ve learned that: there are many strategies for approaching dosages, everyone thinks that theirs is the best, most of them work well for many patients but not all, and that we really, really need more research. There is very little to no research on different dosing strategies. Standard bioidentical hormones have research behind them, but they are looking at serum testing and...