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Are You Frustrated by Conflicting Advice on Menopause?

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Are You Frustrated by Conflicting Advice on Menopause?

 

Because there’s still a lot confusion, misinformation, and controversy when it comes to the menopause transition, Lindsay Dixon BSP RPh interviewed me on her Friendly Pharmacy 5 YouTube Channel to address important and relevant issues that aren’t talked about often enough.

 

In this interview we dive into the influential findings and flaws of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trial that still prevent many women from receiving adequate treatment during menopause, and I share my expert perspective on the persistent problem of conflicting advice surrounding menopause.

 

Discover how the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) has played a role in shaping the landscape of menopause education and management, and explore the options available to women today. Watch The Menopause Journey: Symptoms, Treatments, Supplements, Expert Insights here.

 

CHAPTERS:

 

00:00 Why menopause is confusing for women and healthcare professionals

02:19 Menopause Educator Teresa Isabel Dias

02:53 Teresa’s Menopause Story

05:24 How the Womens Health Initiative Trial change our approach to Menopause

08:53 Menopause Education for Healthcare Professionals

09:50 Definitions of Perimenopause and Menopause

12:18 Signs of Perimenopause

15:17 How Menopause Affects the Brain

17:15 Difficulty losing weight after menopause

18:32 Muscle Mass and Menopause

19:36 Bone Health and Menopause

21:35 Treatments for Menopause Symptoms

22:48 Breast Cancer Patients and Menopause Therapies

25:23 Non-Hormone Therapy Position Statement: NAMS 2023

26:22 Bioidentical Hormones and Topical Therapies for Menopause

30:32 Knowing you personal Risk in regards to Menopause Therapies

34:12 Hormone levels as data sets for menopause

36:25 Heavy Period and Bloating with Menopause or Perimenopause

38:27 Normalizing and Navigating Menopause

41:06 menopaused.org

 

 

Teresa Isabel Dias BSc Pharm RPh NCMP

I am a pharmacist and North American Menopause Society certified menopause practitioner (NCMP) residing in Canada with over 25 years of healthcare experience in women’s health. Specializing in midlife hormonal changes, I offer guidance on managing physical, emotional, and mental challenges, aiding women to regain balance and vibrancy in their lives, both professionally and personally.

My educational programs and supportive resources have been deployed to prestigious institutions and corporations including the Open Societies Foundation, CAA, Royal Bank of Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, Brock University, and Stantec. I’ve also contributed to valuable articles to pharmacy associations and the Pharmacy Practice + Business magazine.

My holistic approach to midlife women’s health aims to ensure women not only navigate the challenges of menopause successfully but also continue to lead fulfilling, productive lives during this transformative phase.

 

RESOURCES:

Teresa Isabel Dias BSc Pharm RPh NCMP

Website
LinkedIn
Email
Instagram
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Lindsay Dixon BSP RPh

Lindsay Dixon is a Registered Pharmacist residing in Canada. She’s the recipient of the Ben Gant Practice Innovation award from the BC Pharmacy Association in 2021 and was most recently selected by Pharmacy Practice & Business Magazine as the recipient of the Raise Your Voice Award in 2022.

On her Friendly Pharmacy 5 YouTube Channel Lindsay provides advice, from the perspective of a pharmacist, to viewers like you about important and relevant topics such as gut microbiome, vitamin D, brain health, vitamin K, migraine prevention, sleep and immunity, and much more.

The channel has almost 30,000 subscribers – join them, subscribe, and watch here.

 

RESOURCES:

Lindsay Dixon BSP RPh
Website
Facebook 
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIN
Email: friendlypharmacy5@gmail.com

 

DISCLAIMER: Friendly Pharmacy 5 health videos are for medical information only, and are NOT intended to replace recommendations and individualized assessments from your Primary Care Provider.

Please consider supporting the Friendly Pharmacy 5 channel – your support allows pharmacist Lindsay Dixon to improve the content quality and create more content for viewers like you! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LindsayD…

 

Did you like the video The Menopause Journey: Symptoms, Treatments, Supplements, Expert Insights?

 

Share with your friends and family.

 

The more we talk about menopause the sooner we’ll normalize it and the better women will be supported through this inevitable change.

 

For every challenge that (peri)menopause poses there’s a solution. I can help you!

Do you know another woman who might like to read this blog? Share it with her.

Breast cancer treatment may cause induced menopause

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Menopause is the end of ovulation, menstruation, and fertility, and it usually happens between 45 and 55 years of age. Breast cancer treatments such as some chemotherapies and radiation treatments for breast cancer can damage the ovaries and cause induced menopause – women receiving such treatments may go through menopause earlier. Moreover, medications used to treat and prevent breast cancer (tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors) further decrease estrogen levels.

 

Estrogen is the predominant female sexual hormone – it has an effect in many cells, tissues, and organs of your body. When it decreases rapidly, as in induced menopause, you may notice rapid changes and bothersome symptoms to varying degrees, such as:

 

  • Vasomotor symptoms (VMS) – hot flashes and night sweats (hot flashes that happen during sleep)
  • Brain fog (memory and concentration changes)
  • Changes in metabolism and fat distribution – weight gain and change in body-shape
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Fatigue and lack of energy
  • Headache
  • Dry, itchy, crawling skin
  • Mood swings
  • Irritability
  • Sadness and tearfulness
  • Depressed mood
  • Anxiety and worry
  • Decreased self-esteem and self-confidence
  • Self-doubt
  • Panic
  • Palpitations
  • Anger
  • Vaginal dryness, discomfort and pain with sex, itching, burning, soreness, urinary problems such as incontinence and urinary tract infections (UTIs), and decreased sex drive.

If these symptoms negatively affect your quality of life then you should seek treatment.

 

If your breast cancer was estrogen-sensitive then you may not be a candidate for menopause hormone therapy (MHT), aka HRT, the most effective treatment for menopause symptoms. But there are other treatment options such as:

  • cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
  • selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
  • gabapentinoids
  • oxybutynin
  • herbals
  • supplements

Estrogen has a protective effect on the heart, bones, and brain. When estrogen levels fall, as in menopause, you’re at increased risk of diseases such as osteoporosis, heart attacks, strokes, and dementia.

 

Lifestyle interventions—such as eating a healthy diet, engaging in regular exercise (at least 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day), sleeping properly, non-smoking, low consumption of alcohol, and consuming calcium and vitamin D supplementation—may help decrease disease risk.

 

You’ve probably heard this before: “you must be your own best advocate”. Many healthcare providers are not trained in menopause. Unless they work in this space, they may not have the best up-to-date information on how to help women with induced menopause.

As a pharmacist and NCMP—a menopause practitioner certified by the North American Menopause Society (NAMS)—I can help you manage your induced menopause and improve your quality of life and relationships. If you’d like to find out how then book a FREE Discovery Call.

 

BioIdentical Hormones – Be Informed! Part 3

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3. HT is made from plants or herbs, like yams, soy, or chasteberry. Bioidentical hormone therapy doesn’t contain drugs. Does it?

Some women choose bioidentical hormone therapy (BHT) because they believe it is natural, meaning that it is made from plants, not drugs, therefore it is safe.

According to  Dr. Margery Gass, a NAMS-certified menopause practitioner in Cleveland, Ohio, “There is no hormone out there that women can use that can be harvested from the field, or the trees, or anyplace else” , “All go through laboratories and have to be processed with multiple chemical steps to be in the form that humans can use.”

If a custom-compounded cream claims to contain only plant-base, natural ingredients i.e. yams, it will not be used effectively by the body. If you want to use natural yams to stop hot flashes you’ll have to eat several bushels a day …     

One of the definitions of drug by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is “a substance (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body”. Therefore, if a compound, whether made from plants or manufactured by a pharmaceutical company, has a measurable physiologic effect in the human body it is a drug.

If a hormone, a plant or an herb helps treat symptoms, it is a drug.
 Beware of false marketing claims regarding products containing only natural ingredients and offering great relief for menopause symptoms. Like everything else in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

 Post-market product testing done by FDA has uncovered inconsistencies in ingredients, dose, and quality. The frequency of problems investigated by the FDA concerning compounding pharmacies’ false claims regarding efficacy, manufacturing, and safety has increased since 2008, e.g., products claimed to be all natural actually contained hormones. Custom-compounded preparations may vary among pharmacies and aren’t necessarily exactly the same each time you purchase them. Bioidentical hormones are sought by women looking for natural treatments for menopause. That’s understandable since the Women’s Health Initiative Trials results made public many years ago scared women and healthcare providers about hormone therapy (you can read more on this in the previous, second, blog of this series- BHT is natural, therefore is safe. Is it?).  

The lack of accurate and up-to-date information on the safety of hormone therapy makes women vulnerable to unsubstantiated, unethical claims made by companies focused on profit.
The natural product business is a billion-dollar industry, very well marketed and advertised, fraught with misinformation and false claims. Many of the claims are made by celebrities disguised as experts, with no medical background, who are being paid to tout the benefits of such products.

With so much information in the media it is difficult for most women to separate the wheat from the chaff; to tell apart evidence-based information from paid commercials disguised as real information.

Custom-compounded bioidentical hormone products must be used with caution.

Women have to educate themselves—question compounders of bioidentical hormone therapy about the ingredients used in the products, demand proof of efficacy and safety of BHT; ask their healthcare providers for accurate, evidence-based therapies that have been tested, are regulated and approved by FDA and Health Canada, and backed by respectable Societies. Before choosing a product, be informed, be safe!

The first blog of this series Bioidentical-Be informed! is

1. BioIdentical Hormones 

and the second blog in the series is

2. BioIdentical Hormones – Be Informed! Part 2:  Biodentical Hormone Therapy is natural, therefore bioidentical therapy is safe. Is it?

Teresa Isabel Dias is a pharmacist and Certified Menopause Practitioner (NCMP) who provides education and support on symptom management for women at work and at home so they’ll feel like themselves again and enjoy a vibrant and productive life.

Grab a quick guide and subscribe to the MenopausED Newsletter on the MenopausED home page.

If would like to know how Teresa can improve your menopause transition then schedule a complimentary Discovery Call at MenopausED.org.

 

Helping women thrive through every stage of menopause

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