I write about women’s health issues, especially about perimenopause and menopause. I work with a lot of medical health professionals and write for medical websites. So, I spend a lot of time reading medical books, medical studies and reading medical websites.
I know quite a bit about bioidentical hormones. Many physicians and healthcare providers prescribe bioidentical estrogen to help with depression based on what I said in my previous comment.
I personally use bioidentical testosterone, which is a substrate for estrogen. Which means that our body manufactures estrogen as testosterone as a base, for lack of a better explanation.
There is and probably always will be continued debate about the safety of estrogen in menopausal and post-menopausal women. Personally, I’m all about trying to maintain levels that keep certain symptoms at bay, such as osteoporosis, heart disease, depression and vaginal atrophy, just to name a few that happens when we have little to no estrogen in our bodies.
It is true that synthetic estrogens were deemed dangerous and unhealthy, so says the Women’s Health Initiative study, but it should be pointed out it was the combination of estrogen with the synthetic progesterone called “progestin” that caused the problems for the women in the study.
I would highly recommend that you educate yourself on the benefits of estrogen therapy along with all of the risks and then find a good doctor who is holistic in his/her approach.
Just taking hormones is NOT the answer. It is hormones (if you decide to use them) along with the right kind of foods and exercise (what we all know to be true but so often don’t pay enough attention to it).
~ Vibrant Nation blogger Magnolia Miller
http://www.vibrantnation.com/health-fitness/menopause/hormone-replacement-my-take-on-the-debate/