25 Comments
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Virginia's avatar

It's about damn time!

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Jeannine Stearns's avatar

Agreed!

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Michelle Jordan's avatar

Thank you,thank you,thank you! I appreciate the work you are doing to bring this important issue to the forefront of women’s healthcare. Not only do we need accurate labeling requirements from the FDA but we also need to include menopausal and post-menopausal women in medical research for all types of pharmaceutical products for any medical conditions. When our hormones change we don’t necessarily process medications the same way as we did when we were premenopausal.

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HarrisWalz FTW 2024's avatar

Sounds good, but like so many women's health issues, will we see real results? I know women who are deathly afraid of using HRT because they've read/heard things similar to the questionable information posted above.

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Lori's avatar

Excellent write up. Please continue to post your incredible work here.

Warning: THANK YOU!!!

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Marcia King's avatar

There was an interesting interview on NPR’s Fresh Air today regarding research on menstural fluid. I was so surprised I nearly wrecked my car (JK).

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Octavia Redwood's avatar

In my 70's, never took extra estrogen, never had a hot flash all systems have been working fine.No prescriptions for my husband or me to be intimate. Too much of this Menopause Movement seems to be focused on estrogen replacement, the new opioid. Stick it inside, rub it on your skin, take a pill-for how long-women are doing this FOR YEARS, convinced they are "better" fir it. They are addicted, as fake blondes are to hair dye. And we are not MEANT to add more hormones for years. A couple months, fine. But I wonder if all this "federal support" is really about pushing estrogen? Have these pharmaceutical companies made donations to Dr. Levine, or NYU? This"Movement" would have credibility by not endlessly pushing estrogen. Why is the Exec. Director of a leadership center so focused on estrogen supplements?

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Davi Peraino's avatar

Probably because your anecdotal experience doesn’t provide scientific rigor, and because for every ‘Octavia’ there might be two women with opposite experiences. Or five, or ten, or less than one.

Without investigation, we won’t know.

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Octavia Redwood's avatar

you are correct-investigation. But in this article, Dr. RachelLevine is quoted by a non-clinical person endorsing use of estrogen to prevent "future UTI's" which stands out in an otherwise typical article with people praising each other for informing our government that menopause education is important, when they're taking books off the shelves in school libraries, cutting back on education from Pre-K to Post-graduate, and trying to topple UVA, Harvard, etc. Yes menopause is important to be included in the discussion about research funding, but take these comments in context!! And my anecdotal experience is as relevant as anyone else's, which I included because the article implied the symptoms were true of ALL WOMEN, which is not correct. 25% of all women have no menopausal symptoms. google it. plus, 90% of women do not have the brain fog, etc. But in common literature, it implies a much more common experience, which is frightening and misleading.

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Marcia King's avatar

All I can say, Octavia, is you are one lucky woman.

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Octavia Redwood's avatar

if only 75% are affected, why scare 100% of 35+ year olds? all I can say is that estrogen is over-used, over-prescribed; and poses serious medical risks. it should never be used after 70 but I know many over 70 who have prescriptions. in regards to THIS I might be "lucky" but you have no idea what challenges I have faced-and women need to stop using these substances so much and for so long. I worked in health care my whole life and have a graduate degree in health care administration. I'm not advocating anything, I'm just warning. Figure out another way to feel better.

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Marcia King's avatar

I did not mean to offend you. Having been one of the women who refused HRT and suffered from hot flashes, headaches, etc, At age 72, I still have flashes and now sweats. It’s miserable and never ending. I’m just glad women’s health is getting the attention it deserves.

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Octavia Redwood's avatar

No offense taken, but I can't help but wonder; hot flashes or sudden perspiration can have many causes, some with no treatment available. As women we are socialized to interpret the bodily reactions as something "wrong" that is someone's fault that you must suffer, that a medical doctor ought provide treatment for-but maybe not. What if you frame it as a "sign" of something else entirely which is completely normal for your body to experience sometimes. Part of life.I have disabilities from just getting older-arthritis- that I can't "blame" myself or someone else for(why would I use up precious energy?) Life happens and we we will not stay the same. "Normal" is a moving target. Best wishes.

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HarrisWalz FTW 2024's avatar

At what medical school did you specialize in gynecology? Just curious.

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Octavia Redwood's avatar

so your response to being doubted is to attack the messenger? I'm all for more help for menopause, but not if the hidden agenda supports Big Pharma and plays on women's fears of aging. how far can your "message" go if even other women question your motives? good luck going in circles.

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Davi Peraino's avatar

Two statements: one, as a 50 year old woman experiencing my 80 year old mother’s cognitive decline, I’m most concerned with the 23 years of scientific follow-up to the JAMA article regarding HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy and Incidence of Alzheimer Disease in Older Women

The Cache County Study). Without scientific acceptance for menopause research, we continue to be treated as second-class subjects.

Second: your comment about being ‘addicted’ to estrogen, like a ‘fake blonde’ is to hair dye, is wildly offensive. People who choose to color their hair, wear makeup, or choose clothing that they like to wear aren’t fake or addicts. They are people. We all get to decide how we want to look; it’s not an addiction to want to have gray or brown or blonde —or pink— hair.

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Octavia Redwood's avatar

I am sorry for your troubles. I have had and continue to cope with issues as well. Guess what- the medical profession is more concerned with their own issues regarding liability, a bunch of other patients in the waiting room, than you or me. A federal law can't change attitudes where most graduates of medical school see ALL their patients as "second class citizens." Reality sucks. Focusing on a 23 year old study when the issue is how to deal with your mother's cognitive decline, why waste these last months of her life ignoring her and focusing on blaming someone? Human bodies stop producing hormones as we age. I certainly agree that HRT has been shown to have more side effects in the long term than physicians so confidently

dismiss. In my experience, physicians offer HRT as a way to "shut up" women's "complaints." And yes, I do believe that addiction is not only meth and heroin, but HRT, make-up, hair dye as well. There are social and cultural forces which make women feel "less" if they don't live up to the beauty ideal. Actions taken are not merely "decisions"-they announce to yourself and the world that you are "less than"by being the way you really are. Very sad. Why live your whole life in fear of being viewed as unattractive? A fate worse than death? The world is not perfect and neither are we.

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Judith Hofeditz's avatar

Thank you for sharing this! I’m a three time breast cancer survivor in my early 70s and take a hormone blocker prescribed by my oncologist. The lack of estrogen has many side effects, not the least of which is extreme vaginal dryness. Thankfully my cancer prevention regime allows for estrogen tablets! I would have much discomfort without them and likely have avoided the dreaded UTIs as well.

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Eileen Knoff's avatar

This is good news!

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Lilla Russell's avatar

Thank you!!

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Elizabeth K. Baker's avatar

So true. So alarming. So shameful.

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