Menopause Madness— How We Got Hormones So Wrong

For decades, we’ve been told menopause is just part of life—grin, bear it, and maybe take an antidepressant. Turns out, that’s complete garbage. Let’s talk about how bad press, horse hormones, and fearmongering left millions of women needlessly suffering.

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Recently, I read a book that not only confirmed what I've always thought about post-menopausal states but also helped me understand why "the change" doesn't have to be the end of life as we [females] know it. The author not only provides personal testimony but further delves into debunking the long-quoted gospel about hormones and cancer.

If you're not familiar with what I'm referring to, there was a study called the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) that not only stopped early due to an uptick in invasive breast cancer but then one of the leading medical journals, the Journal of the American Medical Association, published a press release adding that the WHI was stopped due to an increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and pulmonary embolisms.

So now...

Stop it all. Stop all the hormones. If an 8.5-year planned study with thousands of "healthy" menopausal women are dropping dead, then hormones are harmful, and we mustn't ever consider them again. There is a magic number in life where hormones turn against you, and the same ones that were always good for you and protected you are now inadequate. They will kill you.

That was in 2002. That is the gospel—the word.

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For decades, we told kids to stay in school, don’t talk to strangers, and don’t do drugs.

For many years, we told menopausal women: Don’t do hormones, don’t talk about menopause, and exercise more. Have an antidepressant.

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What some providers don't explain, differentiate, expand upon, or maybe even understand...

The infamous WHI study? Participants received:

Conjugated equine estrogens (Premarin, 0.625 mg/day)

Medroxyprogesterone acetate (Progestin, 2.5 mg/day)

All in one tablet (n = 8,506), compared to placebo (n = 8,102).

Let’s break that down:

• Premarin (conjugated equine estrogen)

• Progestin(s) (medroxyprogesterone acetate)

• Depo-Provera (medroxyprogesterone acetate)

• Provera (medroxyprogesterone)

• Prempro (Premarin + medroxyprogesterone)

These were your grandmother’s hormones. Manufactured with good intent, sure. But I assure you—your body doesn’t naturally produce horse estrogen or synthetic progestins.

And yet, without this crucial differentiation, bio-identical hormones—like progesterone, estradiol, testosterone, liothyronine, and levothyroxine—got unfairly lumped in as the domino that starts the contagion.

Case in point: Look at the warning labels. Even for bio-identical estradiol, they read:

"Estrogens +/- progestins not indicated for cardiovascular disease or dementia prevention; increased risk of stroke and DVT (from WHI estrogen-alone substudy) ... WHI regimens = conjugated estrogens 0.625 mg/day with or without medroxyprogesterone 2.5 mg/day. Other doses or estrogen/progestin combos not studied; BUT ASSUME SIMILAR RISK..."

Spoiler: That exact same warning appears under Premarin, Progestins, Depo-Provera, Provera, and Prempro.

So, what does this actually mean?

It means… everyone stopped giving a second glance at the potential benefits of:

Bio-identical estradiol & progesterone

Testosterone therapy for women

Thyroid optimization

...

Hormones that actually match what the body produces.

Instead, we let a one-size-fits-none study from 20+ years ago shape an entire generation of fear and misinformation. We continue to let menopausal women walk around fanning themselves in subzero temperatures, exhausted from insomnia and overstimulated from anxiety that they never used to have until they hit menopause.

Your health deserves better.

Menopause? She can be tamed. We can return what she's missing in a bio-identical formula and regain her lost libido, tolerance, patience, and temperature regulation.

-Sarah

Here is a link to the book I referenced. It's a good read for anyone wanting to understand menopause, the importance of estrogen, and the entire angle from which I'm coming with this post.