OK, gal pals.
You know, I’m not a doctor. So this is not a recommendation. But I am in a tizzy over the recent article from the NY Times Magazine on April 18, 2010 on estrogen replacement in perimenopausal or early menopausal women. The article is called The Estrogen Dilemma, written by Cynthia Gorley.
The article is balanced and intelligent. It details the research errors in the W.H.I study of the early 90’s that damned hormone replacement therapy [the misinformation surrounds the age of the women in the study (10+ years beyond menopause), the kind of therapy (the pregnant horse urine-derived hormone), and how conclusions about stroke and cardiac problems were surmised].
I don’t know about you, but I’m wrestling with this strange phase and wondering about how to manage it. And there I was, in the voices of the scientists and the reporter in this article. It is balanced, yes, and delineates all the uncertainties in any hormonal regimen. But make no mistake: when the author talks about Alzheimers, my phone is dialing my gynecologist asap.
Here’s a blip from the article. The author is referring to her conversation with a woman, a scientist studying the brain at USC:
“We were sitting in a campus garage in her Prius one day, and I asked her what made her so sure her own midlife difficulties — she had the hot flashes, which were obvious, but also the sleep disruption and the infuriating distractibility — were the product of hormonal events, not some womanly existential crisis. We get a lot of that, societally. It’s meant to be empathetic. Your role in life is changing, Mrs. Brain Seized by Aliens! Your children are growing up, you’re buying expensive wrinkle cream, ice cream makes you gain weight now, of course you’re distraught! ‘Because with estrogen —’ Brinton looked at me sharply, and then smiled — ‘I don’t have attention-deficit disorder.’”
Read on, girlfriends. Let me know your thoughts.