Saturday, March 20, 2010

hrt or no hrt?

{let me preface this with saying this is just my opinion, and you should always consult your physician if you have questions regarding your health. i am no a physician, so don't try to sue me if you dont comprhend~o}

...that is the most annoying and temper causing questions i see, almost every week? plus, these women are in the most annoying hormonal funk ever, why are they even questioning no hrt anyways?

i hear this in my offices all day?

"i want to go through menopause "naturally"! one woman exclaimed

"i'm taking black cohosh for my menopause symptoms." one lady said. "but dr., these migraines are just aweful! can you just give me something to treat the migraines, because i just can't focus and i just can't take it!"

ok, so as i stand there waiting for dr to finish up with this patient, i hear dr try to explain to the patient that, since she is only couple weeks post surgery, it is going to take some time for her body to regulate itself hormonally. so dr., continues to explain to the patient that it is because she just had a hysterectomy {due to her continuous fibroid problems} and her body is just trying to understand itself. "so" the dr continues, "until your body recovers you should take...

hrt {hormone replacement therapy}!

{aaaaahhhh! the biggest misinterpreted medication because of a botch news report. this disease state has some of the best medications that have saved more women lives than it has hurt}

the patient looks out into the waiting room at her daughter in disbelief. as if this dr is crazy and wants to kill her before it her time to go!!! mind you the patient is only 55 years old.

"uh. no! dr i don't know about all that. i want to go through this naturally dr."

naturally? seriously. why go through such emotional pain un~medicated? your body is in pain, why not give it some relief?

ok, ok, you get the picture. right? bottom line is the patient is at the dr office because she's getting these excruciating migraines after the hysterectomy, and just wants to medicate the migraines {i'm thinking~ maybe because headaches are more common in the patients mind than a hysterectomy, is why she just wants to medicate the migraine}. however, what this patient is failing to realize is that the dr is trying to explain her decision for hrt, but the patient can't get past the h! dr was even explaining to the patient the drop in her natural estrogen production, from the loss of her uterus, is not at the same level as before. and the patient was looking at her daughter like a deer in headlights. dr says, very seriously "...the decrease in estrogen production...the body automatically notifies the brain somethings' not balanced in here, and creates a migraine." the poor patients was just not registering the dr. plus, her daughter yells out to her mom, if you don't feel comfortable with the medication don't let her rx it. tell her to wait until your next follow up visit.

remember when your friends or yourself for that matter would suffer from a headache right before your menstruation. your endogenous estrogen {the estrogen your body creates} drops because there is no baby in the womb, so there is no need for the body to continue building a wall in the uterus for the fertile egg. since there is no fertile egg...your estrogen drops, hence you shed your walls.

so even if the dr rx's a migraine medication, it's pointless because your not doing anything to regulate your hormones, so the migraines are not going to go away, until you regulate your body with the same amount of hormone everyday. eventually the hormone puts your body at ease with what ever dosage your body responds to. it may take allot, and it may take a little. every womens' body is different. one thing that i can tell you, is that black cohosh, doesn't have enough ingredients to help any women and the gamut of emotions she is going to go through during peri or full blown menopause.

does the dr have all this time to explain this? no! why? because your company doesn't want to pay alot of money for health care insurance. that's another topic it itself.

gyn's {gynecologist} see patients with uterine, endometrium, & vaginal problems, at least 20 times a day.

do ya! think the dr doesn't know what they're talking about? of course they know what they're talking about

so, case in point, the patient that i talked about earlier, that said she's not secure with hrt, and wants to go through the process "naturally" and without hrt, how long do you think she'll last?

not long at all.

do you think the dr., is going to make her take hrt?

hell no!

why?

because with all the liability that this dr is up against, these dr., in ob/gyn, do you think they are going to sacrifice their license if they rx a medication, that you were totally against. no way. then come to find out, you by some crazy coincidence have a reaction {rare to almost non-existant in the "vasomotor symptom" stage. none that i've heard of in women 40-55 in my 10 years}by the medication, that they "made" you take...here comes the family, the attorney, and the dog to pay the dr a visit. do you not think that most patients or their families wouldn't be on the phone with an ambulance chaser, ready for a settlement out of court? um...yes. {btw~this is just from what i've heard.}


"so...let's do it your way" dr says.

that way, when your over your google questions, and you can trust my expertise, you'll see that "naturally' is not the best policy!!!!

ladies, you don't have to suffer through menopause, with all the options out there.

sometimes dr find it hard to communicate with patients, because on one hand they want to guide your health in the right direction, but if it goes in the wrong direction, they don't want you to turn around and sue because of what they said. and, sometimes they can't communicate what they're trying to say, because they can't put science into lamens terms for the majority to understand.

plus, your company doesn't want to pay for the dr expertise. they just want you to have some coverage to cover themselves.