ardeith l carter said:
Subject:

>>>I will grant that women who have extremely painful menses, or
women who have extreme reactions during menopause, or
those tiny slim women who are the ones most subject to
osteoporosis can benefit from HRT....even with the associated
risks of taking it.......

Actually, these women would likely benefit much more from a change in diet
(which intimately affects one's hormones and the severity or absence of
menstral difficulties).  There are many foods that modern women eat that are
incredibly disruptive to the human organism (margarine, hydrogenated oils,
and supermarket vegetables oils, to name just a few).  Eating a diet of
highly processed foods can also compromise liver function and the body's
ability to break down and excrete excess hormones, which can then
recirculate and cause problems.

There are many herbs that can be used to help to rebalance a woman's
hormones, herbs that cost must less than drugs and do not have the side
effects.  I know of a handful of women who have taken estrogen replacement
therapy and then ended up developing cancer.

From all I have read it is not a lack of estrogen that is the problem with
so many female hormonal problems.  On the contrary, it is estrogen dominance
and progesterone deficiency!

There are many estrogen mimicking chemicals that people subject themselves
to daily (many of which can be avoided), that can wreak havoc on the
hormones (at any age, including infancy and childhood!).  For example, many
women use bleached paper products (toilet paper, kleenex, tampons, and
sanitary pads, to name a few), which contain dioxin bleaches.  There are
unbleached alternatives available.  Many women also drink tap water, which
has been chlorinated, contains disinfection byproducts, and may also contain
PCBs, TCEs, THMs, and other estrogen-mimicks and endocrine disruptors.

There are more natural hormone balancing products such as natural
progesterone (sold not only as a cream, but also as an oil); such products
for this may vary in potency and source.  But these are things a woman can
use on her own or under a doctor's supervision.  Unpatentable products are
less profitiable than those which can be patented and sold through the
medical establishment/system.

Rachel