From Proyar Laboratory we want to share with you the 1st part of an exclusive article for Proyar Laboratory, written by Dr. Jorge Alonso. Physician, MN 67,640, Director of the Phytomedicine postgraduate program at U.B.A. and President of the Latin American Society of Phytomedicine.

Menopause: Why not enjoy it? (Part 1)

We understand Menopause as that period of a woman's life cycle characterized by the cessation of menstruation (more precisely it begins after one year has passed since the last period) and which coincides with a decline in hormonal activity. The age of onset is generally situated between 45 and 52 years, although there are some exceptions. As everyone knows, the cessation of hormonal activity does not occur suddenly but is preceded by a series of premonitory symptoms and disorders known as Climacteric, among which stand out alterations in menstruation (lengthening or shortening of periods), decreased libido, edema, emotional alterations, etc.

The arrival of menopause should be understood as a new stage in a woman's life and not as an antechamber to old age. It is also not a disease, as some hormone-producing laboratories tend to suggest. In short, we can define menopause as a stage of emotional and intellectual maturity, where a normal decline in the hormonal production of estrogens occurs, and where the experience accumulated in life becomes the main treasure of this new cycle. Even on many occasions, women going through it turn out to be more interesting and have other attractions that make them feel equally splendid.

However, the appearance of some new symptoms should be taken as part of this change and not as signs of decline. One of the classic symptoms tends to be hot flashes or flushes, which express that latent and normal hormonal alteration of this stage. Simultaneously, transient depressive states, headaches or migraines, joint pain, greater loss of calcium in bones, skin and vaginal dryness, greater capillary fragility, fluid retention and tendency to weight gain may appear.

Logically if no action is taken on the matter, said symptoms expressive of this transformation, can be bothersome and even become established, which here would give a character or entity of "pathology" to those who suffer from them. However, the vital force with which this stage of life must be faced, must prevail and overcome any contingency. It is clear that to be able to face this change better, the positive mental attitude can be accompanied with some products that manage to soften or attenuate all that bothersome symptomatological retinue.

Generally gynecologists tend to recommend to their patients the intake of synthetic estrogens, understanding that a large part of these changes are due to the lack of hormonal response at this age. For them, logic indicates that if the organism no longer manufactures estrogens, they will have to be administered by some alternative route to continue maintaining the woman's hormonal activity. The results? Undoubtedly women who receive hormones orally or by injection experience subjective improvements in mood, with reduction in the level of decalcification and attenuation of hot flashes. However, all this is not free. On many occasions, and especially with very prolonged treatments, these benefits are overshadowed by the appearance of arterial hypertension, varicose veins, weight increase, greater hair loss, liver disorders and, most seriously, the appearance of hormone-dependent malignant tumors.

Faced with this dilemma, the doctor must evaluate the cost/benefit of said therapy. Many gynecologists insist on relativizing these dangers arguing that the percentage in which they occur is very low. However, for the patient who develops a uterine or breast tumor due to hormonal therapy, the percentage is 100%. How do we explain to her that statistically the probability was very low? How do we make her understand that if she had not received said therapy very probably nothing would have happened to her? All these questions arise before accomplished facts where little can already be done.

Continued in second installment.