Menopause and Artificial Sex Hormones
Many women go through the menopause without suffering any symptoms. So why do others have such a hard time, with hot flushes, sweats and sometimes other symptoms like fatigue, depression or vaginal dryness? To medical science the quickest, easiest solution is to give artificial hormones (also known as sex steroids) to make up for the natural ones which the ovaries no longer produce.
But not everyone is satisfied that putting artificial substances in the body is a good solution. Too many questions remain unanswered about the long-term health effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT—sometimes known as estrogen replacement therapy—ERT). And there is very little difference between the artificial hormone preparations used for HRT and those given before the menopause as contraceptives.
Dr Ellen Grant, author of The Bitter Pill and Sexual Chemistry, doesn’t believe that any of these drugs are safe. She points out that the so-called safety studies carried out on these drugs often distort the truth, for instance by leaving out the women who have suffered side effects and not including them in the analysis.
Research into side effects
Dr Grant knows more than most doctors do about the side effects of artificial sex steroids. As part of a specialist team of researchers in the 1960s who were investigating the effects of the contraceptive pill, at first she was enthusiastic about the drugs but soon became appalled at the problems which hundreds of women who entered the trials began to experience. Nausea, dizziness, headaches, loss of sex drive, depression and even suicidal feelings were all too common.
Many will say that side effects have improved with more modern, lower dose pills. But in 1982 Professor Wynn published his study on the lowest dose pill then available. Three years before, he had given 210 healthy young women the lowest dose combined pill then on the market. After fifteen months, 60 per cent of the women had stopped taking it and after three years only eight per cent were still using it… Of the 39 women who started their third year, two developed deep vein thrombosis and another woman had superficial venous thrombosis. Four had a sustained rise in blood pressure after one year of use, which reverted to normal when they stopped the pill, and one woman developed an abnormal electrocardiogram. Six women developed abnormal blood sugar and some of the women actually became diabetic, improving when they stopped the pill. Just over a quarter stopped the pill for ‘minor’ side effects: weight gain, headache, depression, reduced sex drive, breakthrough bleeding, loss of periods and nausea—while another eleven per cent asked for a change of pill.
Artificial sex hormones dilate and thicken veins and arteries. They also cause changes in metabolism, such as reduced levels of zinc, magnesium, B vitamins and vitamin C in the body, and raised levels of copper. Resulting enzyme dysfunction can lead to immune abnormalities, hence more infections, more allergies and more cancer.
Cancers
Dr Grant points out that the risk of early cervical cancer was less than 1 in 100,000 in 1965 before the pill became widely used. By 1980 1 in 25 women had a positive smear test at a London Family Planning Clinic. Can this really be passed off as due to greater sexual promiscuity as the drug industry would have us believe? Eighty per cent of women under 40 who develop ovarian cancer are known to have taken the pill. A study reported in the Lancet in 1989 shows a 70 per cent increased risk of breast cancer in young women who have taken the pill for more than eight years.
Endometriosis
This is a disease in which tissue behaving as womb lining grows in other parts of the body. Wherever the tissue may be, it bleeds when the woman menstruates. The worst symptoms of the disease are usually prolonged menstrual pain of overwhelming intensity, as well as painful sexual intercourse. Endometriosis now affects one in ten women in the UK and is nearly twice as common among pill users as among women who have never taken the pill, according to a 1993 study reported in the BMJ, known as the Oxford/FPA study.
Addiction
Many women on HRT find that if they try to stop using it, hot flushes come back with a vengeance, often accompanied by depression and fatigue. But these severe symptoms are actually a ‘withdrawal’ reaction. Even after the menopause other parts of your body such as your adrenal glands (which lie just above your kidneys) are able to make a little oestrogen. It is this oestrogen which is thought to keep many women free of menopausal symptoms. But if you take HRT your body gets the message to stop making its own oestrogen because there is plenty of the artificial stuff around. This leads to unpleasant symptoms—perhaps worse than the original ones—if you stop HRT. It can take a long time for your body to start making its own oestrogen again.
Some women also find that the longer they use HRT and the more their body gets used to it, the less benefit it seems to have. They may take larger and larger doses, which of course could aggravate any potential long-term problems like cancer risk.
Official side effects
These side effects are listed in official drug databases.
- Oestrogen-containing contraceptive pills can cause a deficiency of the B vitamin folic acid. It is now known that folic acid deficiency predisposes to heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and can cause birth defects in children born to mothers who have it.
- The possibility of a liver tumour should be considered in any woman receiving oestrogen who develops sudden severe tummy pain.
- Taking oestrogen can make you more likely to develop vaginal yeast infections.
- Taking oestrogen can change the surface of your eyes, causing problems with wearing contact lenses.
- Taking oestrogen can cause breast changes, including tenderness and enlargement.
- Taking oestrogen can increase your risk of stroke, heart attack, gallbladder disease, birth defects in children born to you, disturbances in vision, cataracts, cancers and high blood pressure.
- Taking oestrogen can cause irregular brown patches to develop on your face within one month to two years. These may be permanent.
- Taking progestogens can cause bleeding and spotting even when you do not have a period.
- Taking progestogens can cause severe depression.
- Taking progestogens can increase your risk of heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and embolism of the eyes (eye damage due to small blood clots).
- Taking progestogens can cause changes in sex drive, headaches, nervousness and hair loss.
The Naturopathic Approach
There are plenty of natural methods to help women going through the menopause. If you train with the School of Modern Naturopathy you can learn about these methods and how to counsel women in need of help. Many have tried all the ‘usual’ things: soy and vitamin supplements, herbal supplements and so on, without much success. That’s likely to be because most of their information is gleaned from popular magazines which are written by journalists, not naturopathic practitioners.
At the School of Modern Naturopathy you will learn a thorough, holistic approach to combat this and many other health problems.