Does Menopause Have Side Effects or Is Menopause a Side Effect?

Does Menopause Have Side Effects or Is Menopause A Side Effect?

There is a general consensus that menopause is inevitable and something every woman will have to endure at one point in her life.

Google "menopause" and you will see how most people view menopause. 

People talk about menopause as if it were a condition that causes a number of mental and physical side effects such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, weight gain, low sex drive, etc., that must be managed with drugs, procedures, surgeries, and supplements.

This is an incorrect way of looking at menopause.

Let’s be clear about what menopause is. Menopause is the one-year anniversary of not having a monthly menstrual period bleed. That’s it.

Losing your period is a direct result of female hypogonadism and can happen to any woman at any age.

Hypogonadism is when the ovaries stop producing testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone at levels that allow a woman to maintain a regular menstrual bleed.

This can happen in one of two ways.

Primary hypogonadism refers to the condition of the ovaries themselves. If the ovaries are unhealthy or functionally compromised, they will not produce the required main sex hormones at levels that establish and maintain a regular menstrual cycle.

Secondary hypogonadism refers to a signal failure from the hypothalamus or pituitary gland to the ovaries that tell them to produce enough of the right hormones to regulate all the processes in the brain and body including digestion, circadian rhythm, and the menstrual cycle, to name a few.

Whatever the reason for underperforming ovaries, the result is the same; the reduction or cessation of estrogen and progesterone production, which, in turn, shuts off the period.

This is where the side effects come in.

A reduction or cessation of estrogen and progesterone production puts a woman in a state of hormone deficiency (hormonal imbalance) which causes a long list of mental illness and physical malfunction side effects, including the loss of the period. And the longer women stay in a hormonally deficient state, the greater damage takes place to the mind and body until death.

Though it’s not the number one side effect of estrogen and progesterone deficiency, menopause is certainly one of the side effects of hypogonadism, not something that causes side effects itself.

When menopause is looked at as just another side effect of estrogen and progesterone deficiency like depression and anxiety, then we can properly address it by fully restoring estrogen and progesterone to healthy reproductive levels by way of an advanced HRT system.

When the female body has plenty of circulating estrogen and progesterone, the brain gets the impression a woman is in her reproductive prime by way of hormone signaling. When the brain of a woman is under the impression she is in a healthy reproductive prime, the brain and body try to heal and mimic a healthy reproductive woman for as long as the hormone levels tell it to.

When main sex hormones are plentiful, the brain and body try to stay healthy by regulating the processes in the body and repairing tissues and organs. When main sex hormones are low, the brain and body begin to deteriorate and decline.

And the longer a woman goes without her two main sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, the worse she will feel mentally and physically, eventually turning into just a shell of the woman she once was.

Understanding this concept gives women more control over how they age and how their brains and bodies function than ever before.

If menopause is addressed as an inevitable condition to be managed with drugs, supplements, treatments, surgeries, and procedures, then women will spend the rest of their lives doing just that. And it is not a happy life.

If menopause is looked at as the hormone deficiency condition that it is, then it can be delayed, prevented, and even reversed for some with an HRT system designed to fully restore hormones.

It will not be long until women figure out that they have a lot more control over how their brains and bodies age than what they have been led to believe.

With the advancements in female hormone medicine, women now have a choice whether they experience menopause or not. It just depends on how you look at menopause.

You can spend your life managing the symptoms of your hormone deficiencies like menopause and depression with low-dose HRT and drugs, or you can restore hormones with an advanced HRT system and not experience menopause or the other side effects of hormone deficiency at all.

Can it be that simple? For most healthy women, yes.

In my opinion, menopause is just another side effect of estrogen deficiency. I reversed my menopause several years ago with a good HRT system and can’t imagine ever experiencing it again in my lifetime. There is no need. Not only did I reverse my menopause, I got rid of the other mental and physical side effects of hormone deficiency as well such as depression, anxiety, low sex drive, and the inability to lose weight.

What You Can Do

If you are a woman

The Hormone Sweet Spot^™ is a place of optimal hormonal balance where a woman cannot imagine feeling better than she does, and her blood work concurs with how she feels. I’m a clinical hormone coach of 20 years and have helped thousands of women get their hormones balanced and keep them balanced, and I can do the same for you.

If you are looking for someone who understands the technique and process for optimal hormonal balance, I can help you. Book a consultation to see if my Balance Your Hormones Program would be a good fit for you.

If you are a functional medicine physician

Me and my team train and clinically coach physicians and physician extenders on how to effectively and sustainably restore female hormones to the Hormone Sweet Spot^™ using advanced HRT protocols. In The Art and Science of Advanced Female Hormone Restoration Program, you will learn how to confidently balance hormones for women and we will hold your hand and mentor you to success.  

If you are a healthcare practitioner or health coach

Are you a healthcare practitioner or health coach who knows that hormones are negatively impacting the outcomes of their programs but doesn’t know what to do about it?  Consider The Art and Science of Clinical Hormone Coaching Program.

_Reference:

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_{Greenblatt RB. Extended view of the menopause. Reproduction. 1982 Apr-Jun;6(2):107-12.}

_{Ilovayskaya I, Zektser V, Lazebnik L. Similarity of female central (hypogonadotropic) hypogonadism and postmenopause. Climacteric. 2017 Aug;20(4):356-361.}

_{McEwen DC. Ovarian Failure and the Menopause. Can Med Assoc J. 1965 May 1;92(18):962-9.}

_{Rothman MS, Wierman ME. Female hypogonadism: evaluation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. Pituitary. 2008;11(2):163-9.}

_{Sapre S, Thakur R. Lifestyle and dietary factors determine age at natural menopause. J Midlife Health. 2014 Jan;5(1):3-5.}

_{Wilson RA, Wilson TA. The fate of the nontreated postmenopausal woman: a plea for the maintenance of adequate estrogen from puberty to the grave. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1963 Apr;11:347-62.}

_{Wilson RA, Brevetti RE, Wilson TA. Specific procedures for the elimination of the menopause. West J Surg Obstet Gynecol. 1963 Jan-Feb;71(1):110-21.}