"For decades, standard-practice medicine has advocated some form of hormone replacement as an almost routine protocol for women transitioning through their menopausal journeys. Since April 2002, a series of pronouncements from the conventional medical community itself has shed a glaringly bright light onto this wholesale prescribing of pharmaceutical hormone therapy to address women's health. Women, as always, are left to their own best judgment as to their personal course." -
Carol Trasatto
Women and Hormone
Replacement
By Carol Trasatto, Herbalist
For
decades, standard-practice medicine has advocated some form of hormone
replacement as an almost routine protocol for women transitioning through
their menopausal journeys. Since April 2002, a series of pronouncements
from the conventional medical community itself has shed a glaringly
bright light onto this wholesale prescribing of pharmaceutical hormone
therapy to address women's health. Women, as always, are left to their
own best judgment as to their personal course.
A
brief review of relevant recent developments:
April/June
2002: The International Position Paper on Women's Health and
Menopause was published, a macroanalysis of existing studies on
the efficacy of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the range
of its claimed beneficial applications. The panel of 28 physicians
and scientists from the United States, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland
and Australia chose to emphasize "evidence-based medicine," defined
as treatments tested in randomized, controlled clinical trials.
Their review concluded that while hormone therapy might be an effective
way to relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night
sweats, they found insufficient evidence to back claims that it
benefits heart disease, severe depression, incontinence, Alzheimer's
disease, and broken bones caused by osteoporosis. Dr. Vivian W.
Pinn, an editor of the report, said: "As we're learning more from
long-term studies and better defined studies over the past few years,
all these things we've thought about the wonders of hormone replacement
may not be holding up under scrutiny."
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July 2002:
A federal study involving 16,000 healthy post-menopausal women was
halted by the physicians directing the study. Investigators observed
a "slight but significant increase" in the risk for invasive breast
cancer after women had taken the drugs for an average of 5.2 years.
An increased incidence of heart attack, stroke, and blood clots
was also observed; a decrease in colorectal cancers and hip fractures
was reported. The study, part of the Women's Health Initiative,
was administering a combination of estrogen and progestin. Although
the combined drugs are routinely taken by an estimated six million
women, this was the first and only large study to compare the effects
of HRT with placebos in healthy women. The decision to halt the
study was made in May; it was scheduled to continue until 2005.
July 2002:
A study, also part of the federal Women's Health Initiative, found
that women treated only with estrogen after menopause ran a higher
risk of ovarian cancer than women not taking any form of hormone
replacement. This study involves 44,241 post-menopausal women who
no longer have uteruses. Investigators have found that increasing
duration of use of the HRT was associated with "significantly increased"
incidence of ovarian cancer, especially after 10 or more years of
use. The study is expected to continue until 2005.
Hormone
replacement therapy for women is a huge industry. Forty million women
in the United States are 50 years old or older and, according to the
Journal of the American Medical Association, 38% of post-menopausal
women in the U.S. use HRT. In the year 2001 alone, $2.75 billion was
spent on HRT. Pharmaceutical maker Wyeth recorded more than $2 billion
in sales of HRT last year. Wyeth stock plunged 24% the day after the
study using its Prempro drug was halted.
For
generations before pharmaceutical hormones were even conceptualized,
women have been relying on substances from the natural world to support
their ongoing well-being. Plant medicines and specific foods can greatly
ease the menopausal transition and, perhaps even more importantly, can
support the various organ functions and integrity of tissues against
the natural decline in resiliency and self-repair that often accompanies
aging. Plants are amazingly beneficial tonics that have thousands of
years of proven value for promoting longevity and optimal health in
cultures around the world.
Tonification
is the very heart of the art of herbal medicine. This is one of the
greatest gifts of the green beings. Herbalists and wholistic-minded
natural medicine practitioners are skilled at understanding the subtleties
of myriad plant qualities and how to select and apply them to the circumstances
and nature of a given individual. Regarding menopause, it is a very
limited application of herbal wisdom to simply seek to mimic the effects
of naturally circulating hormones with plant substances. That has its
place, but it is relatively small piece of what is possible and desirable.
For instance, it may be that a woman would more deeply benefit from
working with plant medicines that directly support cardiovascular health
instead. Or, perhaps focusing on mineral-rich herbs to enhance bone
and muscle strength is more to the point. The art of herbal medicine
has a much more sophisticated, nuanced, and nutritive approach to wellness
than what pharmaceutical medicine has to offer. It is a different paradigm,
with a different view of both the body and the materia medica and our
relationship with the earth herself.
There
is much more that could be said. May this moment of reconsidering what
may truly be of benefit for your ongoing health be a wonderful opportunity
to investigate the healing world of plant medicine in its fullest sense
of possibility.
Herbalist
Carol Trasatto has been studying and practicing the healing plant
arts for almost 25 years. Currently, she works several days a week at
Radiance Herbs and Massage
in Olympia, WA as an herbal educator and buyer. She also writes, maintains
a private wellness counseling practice, teaches in
the community, and works with interns on a tutorial basis. To contact
Carol, call 360-705-1430 or email her at blsstara@visionseed.com
Wellness
Counseling
Carol offers a two-part, 3+ hour wellness session utilizing iris analysis,
tongue and facial assessment, listening, and dialogue to ascertain how
best to support your particular constitution in the quest for optimal
well-being. From the interweaving of what she understands of plant energies
with what she learns of you, will come a detailed personal wellness
program-featuring at least two synergistic tea or tincture blends composed
of tonifying herbs, practical dietary and lifestyle suggestions, flower
essences, and other ideas on how to make the healing relationship with
nature more of a daily practice. Most, if not all, of the nutritive
herbs discussed will be plants you can grow or gather yourself.
Herbalist
Carol Trasatto has been studying and practicing the healing plant
arts for almost 25 years. Currently, she works several days a week at
