Meaningful Midlife: Create a life you love!

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Hi, Reader,

Not long ago, I mentioned that I began taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). It's been 5 weeks now and I'm starting to see some results... more on that in the PS section so if you want, you can skip to that section. This is a long but important newsletter.
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For a topic that used to be a behind-closed-doors subject (if talked about at all), menopause has really hit the airwaves! Almost every day now, I'm seeing an article or feature in mainstream media about menopause and peri-menopause.

The New York Times published an article on May 8th that talked about the staggering costs of menopause for women in the workplace.

In our 4-week courses Fab After Fifty, we hear from expert Dr. Z. Colette Edwards, on the topic of menopause, its 37 symptoms and how many physicians are just not interested in dealing with it and may even be gaslighting their patients. Symptoms include hot flashes, brain fog, night sweats, painful sex but also so much more. They can be ignored or misunderstood by health care practitioners.
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The Oprah Daily on line subscription magazine hosted " “The Menopause Talk” with Oprah, Drew Barrymore, and Maria Shriver" featured several experts on the subject. (unfortunately you need to be a subscriber to view it).

Yesterday, CNN announced the FDA approval of a new drug called Veozah, or fezolinetant, made by Astellas Pharma, an alternative to traditional hormone replacement therapy to help manage hot flashes.

And just this morning on the Today Show, Maria Shriver hosted "A new look at the benefits of hormone replacement for menopause."​

The National Women's Health Week is an annual observance that takes place in May. This year's theme was "Menopause: It's Your Time." The week was an opportunity to raise awareness of menopause and its impact on women's lives.

So what is up with all this new discussion? I think this is because there is growing awareness of the importance of women's health, especially from women themselves.
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Interestingly, The U.K. has been at the forefront of helping women through menopause because it had affected their workforce so significantly. In fact, in England, you can get Low-dose vaginal estradiol over-the-counter without a prescription.

It's been proven that for most women, the benefits of hormone replacement therapy outweigh the risks. Benefits can include reduced risks of osteoporosis, decrease in urinary tract infections, better sleep, less painful sex, and even a decrease in the risk of Type II Diabetes.

But in the U.S., women are not getting the relief they need. One reason is because of lack of education on this topic in the healthcare industry. Another is that they are still fearful of hormone replacement therapy... probably because of information they heard 2 decades ago after a press conference held by the NIH. Women are still afraid of getting heart disease or breast cancer.
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In the 90s, the National Institute of Health (NIH) funded a study called The Women's Health Initiative which was abruptly halted in 2002 and all women were taken off HRT. The results were alarming, to say the least. Researchers said that for women taking hormone replacement therapy, the risk of heart disease increased by 29% and the risk of stroke increased by 41% and the risk of invasive break cancer increased by 26%.

As more studies have been done, they found that the results of the NIH study were overblown and they didn't apply at all to younger women (in their 50s and lower) at all.

But if you go to the NIH website and look under hormone replacement therapy, you'll still find a list of articles focused on the health risks rather than the benefits. But I think we all know by now, there are a lot of updates needed to the site.
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If you're considering hormone replacement therapy, speak to a healthcare practitioner who is knowledgeable on the topic and is willing to listen to your symptoms.
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If you'd consider an online option, You may want to check out Thrive Labs program, the one that I'm enrolled in. You can find more info here: https://www.thrivelab.com/​
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That's it for now!
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XoXo Shelley
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PS 5 weeks into my bioidentical hormone therapy treatment, I am sleeping better, have less hot flashes and I feel that I have more energy. I often wore out by 2 pm and needed to either lie down for a bit or grab another cup of coffee but haven't needed to do that at all for a couple of weeks. I haven't lost any weight though so I'm still hoping for that.
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