In honor of Women’s Health Month, I’d like to discuss “Optimizing Your Feminine health”. The truth of the matter is that much of what I’m speaking about today for women will also apply to men and the onset and control of hormone balance for them. Most symptoms women experience as we age are related to declining estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone production by the ovaries.
After more than 20 years of experiencing early onset menopause myself, I am still a firm believer in the value of a comprehensive approach to optimizing feminine health, both in alleviating symptoms and improving function. While hormone therapy became very controversial nearly two decades ago, in fact, there is evidence now that estrogen is anti-aging and cardioprotective when started soon after the onset of menopause.
Hormone therapy provides chemical messages to every tissue in the body to control the actions of cells and organs. They are very effective at relieving moderate to severe menopausal symptoms and can be protective of bone, heart, and brain function among others as women age, and they are low risk for most women.
I encourage all women and men to have a well-informed consultation with their practitioner about this subject and the integrative alternatives that often may also be effective at alleviating symptoms. What should happen in all women and men is a very individualized approach to hormone health with comprehensive hormone testing along with comprehensive functional blood testing followed by a detailed consultation about the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy while considering patient risk and current health status.
So, you should consult with your practitioner or visit with one of the practitioners at Willowbend Health & Wellness to get better informed about your feminine health. However, I would be remiss if I left out the most important part of this conversation and that is about our lifestyle and the huge role it plays in both the early onset of and the acceleration of onset of symptoms of menopause for women and andropause for men and often the failure of our body to respond appropriately to whatever therapy we choose because of that.
We must identify and actively address several lifestyle factors that contribute to and may accelerate the early onset of changes associated with menopause and andropause. We can then better address the underlying imbalances that result and are contributing to these changes. These lifestyle factors include things like a poor diet that’s full of sugar and processed foods, a sedentary lifestyle with little to no physical activity, inadequate or poor-quality sleep, excessive stress affecting our nervous system and our hormones, and the presence of excessive toxic load.
We address all of these in Willowbend Health & Wellness’ Restore Your Health Metabolic Reset program. I created the Restore Your Health Metabolic Reset Program to give you the skills and confidence to be your own health advocate, all from the comfort of your home, while addressing these core principles. This program is designed to help you shed excess weight at the same time.
Please click on the link below to hear more about this powerful program and how we can help you become your best self.
