Not quite menopause. Throwing blankets off at night, keeping awake. Fatigue and irritation punctuated throughout the day by heat dissipating from every pore, clouding thoughts, reinforcing forgetfulness. Hair falling out so stubbornly fast. Clothes choosing when to fit. Flooding periods coming sporadically, unexpectedly. They call it “the change of life” – but I feel like a different person…

Tags: Menopause, Neurotransmitters, Estrogen, Progesterone


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Mood and Menopause – Going Through "The Change"

The diversity of the microbiome has profound implications for metabolic health. The micro-organisms that we host in our gastrointestinal tract maintain our gut integrity, break down complex carbohydrates to improve energy extraction from food, produce vitamins and minerals, aid in digestion and absorption, ferment dietary fibers and protect us against pathogens. Maintaining a delicate balance in…

Tags: Menopause, Estrogen Dominance, Metabolic Health, Weight Management, Microbiome


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Estrogen: The Link Between Microbiome, Menopause & Metabolic Health

One of the primary objectives of the Women's Health Initiative was to see if postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) improved long-term risk of coronary heart disease, among other chronic diseases. However, the combined estrogen/progestin (Prempro) arm was halted in 2002, citing that the participants’ risk of cardiovascular disease outweighed any potential benefit of HRT in the prevention…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, BHRT, Research


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Research Updates – Trials of HRT Started in Early Menopause

Providers routinely call ZRT for support in addressing low libido for their patients during the menopausal transition. Busy lifestyles, everyday stress, not enough or poor quality sleep and many other factors can all contribute to putting sex at the bottom of the to-do list, well after laundry, scrubbing the floor, and taking the dog to the vet. Low libido is a multidimensional issue that can have a…

Tags: Menopause, Estrogen Dominance, Adrenal and Cortisol


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How to Address Low Libido in Peri-Menopausal Patients

How well I remember the dismaying shock of menopause storming into my life...I was in my late 40s then and had just moved back to the States from England – a culture clash and-a-half. My daughters were still pretty young, 9 and 6 years old, and having a hard time adjusting to new schools on top of coping with an older mom whose hormones were suddenly in full revolt. As I recall, Christmas was fast…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, Patient Education


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5 Tips to Being a Balanced Menopausal Mom

Estrogen. We've heard Dr. Zava call it the "angel of life, and the angel of death." Too much can be hazardous. Too little can be problematic also. Not many people realize this, but estrogen plays a role in more bodily functions than just reproduction. In fact, estrogen has many important functions in the brain. Studies show that decreasing levels of estrogen can cause two of the most common…

Tags: Menopause, Neurotransmitters, Estrogen, BHRT


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Menopause – Is It All In Your Head?

When a patient says that she wants “natural” hormone therapy, does the term mean the same thing to you as it does to her? Let’s explore that question further by dissecting the terminology most commonly used by patients (and even some experts) when discussing hormone restoration therapy: “natural,” “synthetic” and “bio-identical.”NaturalThe term “natural” cannot be used to describe hormones or…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, BHRT, Patient Education, Dosing, Bioidentical Hormones


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Confused About Hormone Therapy Terminology?

In the 13 years since the landmark Women’s Health Initiative (WHI 2002) revealed greater risks for heart disease, stroke and breast cancer among women taking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), the dialogue around women’s health has changed dramatically. Back in 2002 when the bad news about hormones hit the headlines, millions of menopausal women stopped using HRT overnight and big-Pharma profits…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, BHRT


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Learning the Nuts & Bolts of BHRT

September is Menopause Awareness Month, but if you listen to certain talking heads in the media you’d think we were in the midst of Menopause UNAWARENESS month! Just the other day on a woman’s talk show, a so-called menopause expert was warning about the perils of using progesterone cream for symptom relief “because it can cause cancer.” This is the type of misleading information that makes my blood…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, BHRT


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Banishing the 7 Dwarves of Menopause

Many women going through menopause start to see changes in their ability to remember things. Women can find this very worrying; such symptoms are not unlike early signs of dementia, or even Alzheimer’s Disease. However, age-related memory impairment is quite common and can be explained in part by hormonal changes, in particular loss of estrogen, and it involves a small part of the brain that…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, BHRT


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Of Seahorses & Menopause

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