IT’S BECOME A CLICHE’
Whenever I mention to anyone that I am working to “help menopausal women with their hormones,” everyone assumes that it’s all about HOT FLASHES.
The Menopause Cliche’
If you do a Google image search for the word “menopause,”
you’ll get the same image over . . .
. . . and over
. . . and over
. . . and over again.
A menopausal woman, probably late 50s or so, red in the face and fanning herself to get a little bit of relief.
Frankly, this menopause cliche’ is getting annoying for me
and I don’t even suffer from hot flashes.
I can only imagine how irritating this oversimplified, pop culture, conventional wisdom view of menopause is for YOU.
Men Just Don’t Get It
Hot flashes are a big issue in menopause and, obviously, I’ve never experienced one.
My wife, Mary, has made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that I don’t understand, nor will I or any other man EVER understand what a hot flash feels like.
She had an infuriating experience a few years ago when
a well-meaning (male) radiation technician said something like,
“You’ll just feel a little warm, kind of like a hot flash.”
Mary recalled that comment with disdain, reminding me that hot flashes are not something that menopausal women take lightly.
In my practice as a pharmacist, I routinely ask my patients receiving hormone prescriptions
“Have you been experiencing hot flashes?”
“Yes.”
“How often would you say you get them?
Is it once a week?
Twice a week?
Three times a week?
Once a day?
More often?”
Almost 100% of the time after I ask that question . . . I hear a chuckle.
That chuckle says to me . . .
“Buddy, you haven’t got a clue!”
Then she says . . .
“Every 10 minutes!”
When I first heard that answer, I did a quick calculation on my phone . . .
. . . every 10 minutes is 6 times an hour
. . . 6 times an hour times 24 hours in a day
. . . that’s about 144 hot flashes a day!
That can’t possibly be right! Can it?
Turns out that, although they may not have 144 hot flashes a day, some women can have up to 50 or 60 in a day.
Not every women experiences hot flashes as a part of menopause.
In a survey taken in 2013, out of 801 menopausal women,
- 7% said they never had hot flashes . . .
- 30% said they’d experienced mild hot flashes . . .
- 40% said they had suffered moderate hot flashes . . .
- 21% said their hot flashes were severe.
Somewhere around 93% of menopausal women experience hot flashes!
Maybe that cliche’ is not that far off! (Although it IS still annoying!)
So for those 7% of women who don’t have any temperature issues in menopause – Good on you! Great news.
It’s Not About The Number
The number of hot flashes in a single day pales in comparison to the length of time women have to endure the inferno of hot flashes all day, every day.
As I mentioned in my last email, according to a study released in 2015, there are several groups of women when it comes to menopausal hot flashes.
- Asian women have hot flashes that are generally milder than women of other ethnicities. Asian women, on average, have about 3 or 4 years to wait before their menopausal hot flashes go away.
- Caucasian women have hot flashes that persist for 5 to 7 years. To put that in perspective, that’s the time your kids will go from junior high through high school, 7th grade to graduation.
- Hispanic women, suffer hot flashes for 7 to 9 years.
- African-American women endure hot flashes longer than any other ethnicity, around 10 YEARS – Some African-American women, especially if they went through menopause early, have hot flashes for up to 14 years!
I don’t know how patient you are, but 3, 4, 7 or 14 years is an AWFUL long time to wait out something as horrible as hot flashes, especially if you’re having them dozens of times a day!
Unbearable Heat . . .
Unending Fire . . .
Complete Misery . . .
No real way to escape . . .
Drenching Sweat . . .
Abject Humiliation . . .
It sounds like HELL!
No one should have to go through that!
BUT WAIT! HOLD THE PHONE!
There’s something that we have totally forgotten about . . .
The most obvious and most forehead-slapping realization . . .
YOU DON’T HAVE TO JUST SUFFER WITH HOT FLASHES AND WAIT UNTIL THEY GO AWAY!
Did you catch that?
YOU HAVE AN OPTION!
Whether you’re going to wait 3 years or 14 years . . .
JUST SAY “NO!” TO HOT FLASHES!!!!!
There’s ONE sure-fire (pun intended) way to get rid of hot flashes!
There are LOTS of ways that women have TRIED to relieve hot flashes.
Yoga . . .
Aerobic exercise . . .
Acupuncture . . .
Stop drinking red wine . . .
Stop eating chocolate . . . Indian food . . . Mexican food . . . red meat . . . carbohydrates . . . pasta . . . sugar . . .
Try Black Cohosh . . . Vitamin E . . . Oil of Evening Primrose . . .
Eat more soy . . . lentils . . . tofu . . . flaxseeds . . .
Some of them have worked . . . sort of . . . for some women.
But there’s ONE way that relieves hot flashes . . .
. . . dare I say it . . .
100% of the time!
Well, maybe not 100% of the time.
But the medical experts (who have always had a tough time agreeing on anything) agree . . .
ESTRADIOL IS THE SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO STOP HOT FLASHES . . . PERIOD!
As you may have read in my 2 Minute Guide to S.A.F.E. Hormones, estradiol is not that well known because, quite frankly, no drug company is going to make billions of dollars from it. In fact, a month’s prescription for oral estradiol tablets will cost you $4.00 at Walmart and will completely eliminate hot flashes in nearly all cases. (You may be the exception, but if your dose is right, that exception is extremely rare!)
There’s a BUNCH more that I need to let you know about estradiol . . . things that I don’t have the space to explain here but that you can find more about in my Hormones for Menopause course, which I will be letting you know about soon.
. . . like the fact that your estradiol level is what determines your risk for metabolic syndrome . . .
. . . and that estradiol is what will help you the most in your battle against the extra weight around your midsection . . .
. . . and that ESTRADIOL really should be prescribed along with PROGESTERONE, in every case, no matter whether you have had a hysterectomy (and don’t have a uterus) or not . . .
. . . and that ESTRADIOL is the number one primary BIOIDENTICAL HORMONE, exactly, identically the same as the main estrogen your body used to make . . .
. . . and that ESTRADIOL, while the most effective hot flash treatment, may not be the best for every single woman (depending on her health situation) BUT the cases where estradiol isn’t a good idea are a very small minority.
The bottom line is that
ESTRADIOL
IS THE BEST TREATMENT FOR HOT FLASHES.
I want to be clear and make sure you realize that ESTRADIOL is the specific name of the specific BIOIDENTICAL estrogen that has the MOST positive effect on hot flashes.
There are other estrogens, but estradiol is the one that will relieve your hot flashes most effectively, most efficiently and most completely.
If your hot flashes have been keeping you up at night . . . estradiol is the ultimate answer.
If menopause in general has been keeping you up at night . . .
Or if the anxiety of menopause has you “shaking on the inside” . . .
In a future post I’ll let you know how the PEACEFUL HORMONE . . . PROGESTERONE can help with that anxiety and sleeplessness.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.