Drug-Free Ways to Help Balance Female Hormones

by **Nanneerose** Wed May 01, 2019 8:09 am

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

While I continue to discourage traditional hormone replacement therapy (HRT), if you are a woman in middle age, safer, natural options exist to soothe menopause symptoms and help you balance your hormones
Essential oils such as clary sage, geranium, lavender, pine and rose are potent, natural alternatives to balancing female hormones, especially during menopause
Diet and lifestyle changes can have a tremendous positive effect on your overall health, while helping to alleviate many of the distressing symptoms of menopause

By Dr. Mercola
Essential oils have been used for millennia to treat a myriad of health concerns. Given their potency, versatility and effectiveness, it comes as no surprise that essential oils can be useful in helping you balance your hormones. Many women have been successful in applying essential oils topically to alleviate premenstrual syndrome (PMS), menstrual cramping and other symptoms.
Some enjoy essential oils aromatically by diffusing them into the air, while others combine them with Epsom salts for a therapeutic bath. Evidence continues to emerge suggesting essential oils can play a beneficial role during menopause. This is certainly a topic relevant to many of my readers and may be worthy of consideration.

Menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy

Although you may think of menopause as a season of life, it is medically defined as marking the cessation of a woman's menstrual period for 12 months. Menopause signals that your ovaries are producing less estrogen and you no longer have the ability to become pregnant. While some arrive at this stage earlier or later, the typical range for menopause is 45 to 55 years of age.
The average age is 51, but most women experience this "change of life" at an age similar to that of their mothers.1 Previously, women going through menopause had limited options for managing the wide range of signs and symptoms that accompany it. One of the primary treatments — hormone replacement therapy (HRT) — has been linked to some forms of cancer.
The Women's Health Initiative (WHI), which involved a landmark study of 160,000 postmenopausal women, showed that hormone therapy involving estrogen and progestin may not be suitable for all women. In fact, for women who had not had a hysterectomy, HRT dramatically increased their risk of breast cancer, dementia and strokes.

Signs and Symptoms of Menopause

If you have already reached menopause, you are likely familiar with many of the common signs and symptoms that accompany it.2,3,4 Keep in mind some of the following concerns may also arise during perimenopause, the transitional phase leading up to menopause, which may last as long as 8 to 10 years.

Bone loss and brittle bones	Libido impacts, particularly a decreased interest in sex	Sleep changes, including insomnia
Hair changes, including texture or thickness, or increased body or facial hair	Mood changes, including anxiety, depression and irritability	Vaginal dryness and pain during intercourse
Hot flashes	Muscle loss	Voice changes
Irregular periods during perimenopause	Night sweats	Weight gain, particularly around the waist

Beyond HRT, doctors will often propose treatment or medications to target specific symptoms that arise before and during menopause. Rather than attempting to treat a collection of individual symptoms, I recommend you devise a treatment plan that addresses menopause as a whole — not bone loss, hot flashes or the like individually.
Fortunately, though I am told menopause symptoms can be annoying, with proper treatment, they generally should not diminish your overall quality of life. That said, some women may experience horrifically debilitating symptoms before and during menopause. If that is you, please consult a physician before undertaking any form of treatment, especially prior to experimenting with alternative remedies.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/06/29/how-to-balance-female-hormones.aspx

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