Balancing Hormones in Menopause

Gynecologist and hormone specialist Dr. Prudence Hall, OB/GYN Dr. Lisa Masterson and Robin McGraw, Dr. Phil’s better half and best-selling author, discuss menopause and hormone replacement therapy.

Balancing Hormones in Menopause Dr. Lisa Masterson: It's your health in the headline today for women. I have a great panel today Robin McGraw, Patty Stanger, Jill Zerick and also joining us is a founder and medical director of the Hall, Dr. Prudence Hall, Gynecologist and Hormone Specialist. And we’re going to kick it off with hormones and women are very hormonal beings, and basically is the estrogen and progesterone and androgens which is sort of the male type of hormones and it starts with puberty. A light gets flicked on, and it's almost a relay race, because the hormones interplay and they start the breast forming, the androgens will give armpit hair, and hair down there. So these hormones effects like so many different things in our body, as well as our personality and you know how we just function. Robin McGraw: You know I have to say I think that two of the smartest things that I've ever done in my entire life was to make sure I have balanced my hormones, and to really embrace menopause and look at it in a positive way and really in a life changing way to the better, to a healthier me. And that’s what the reason what I see Dr. Hall, I call her Prudence, because she’s like a girlfriend when you find the right doctor, I think that’s very important to you, you have to find the right doctor, who can hear you and listen to you and relate to you and really want to help you. And she is so good at that. Dr. Lisa Masterson: And that’s so true, and you actually in your new book “What Age Got to do With It” you actually devoted a whole chapter to hormones. Robin McGraw: Because I think we’re raised to believe that menopause starts in your 50s and 60s and you have to dread it. But actually women can be hormonally imbalanced as young as their 30s. Dr. Prudence Hall: Right, that’s absolutely right. It starts in our 20s. At 20s we have nice balanced hormones and that’s the goal, is to have balanced estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, these are the natural hormones that I use a lot. They're testosterone, estrogen. Yes, it's many different hormones, the thyroid, the adrenals, the brain hormones. Estrogen attracts every aspect of our body, which we dispense in this pink container right here. And what you do to dispense the natural hormones is you simply push the bottom like this, and it's cream that you can apply to your skin and Robin knows this one. Robin McGraw: So I do three clicks, one-two-three, and then I just put it here and I rub it all the way up my arm, under my arm on both arms, just rub it back and forth, and then of course, you have the testosterone cream, I rub that on the inside of my leg, and sometimes a progesterone cream on my stomach. And I know that – Prudence just say find where you have the least amount of hair follicles because it absorbs better. Dr. Prudence Hall: In fact there's a big difference between the non-bioidentical hormones, the synthetic hormones and the bio-identical hormones. Dr. Lisa Masterson: Bioidentical just means what is similar you produce in your body of the three estrogens: estradiol, estrone and estriol. And actually the pharmaceutical companies do make those type of things as well. Again, these are different mindsets, you need to discuss these with your doctor. Robin McGraw: You have to decide what's works for you, what's best for you, you can’t get too much information when it comes to your own healthcare. And so for me, when I started the menopausal symptoms and having hot flushes and starting things, I went to my doctor and she only offered me the synthetic hormones. But what I did is I go home, and isn’t this really what I want. I research everything and I thought for me, what's going to work best for me, is bioidentical hormones, the natural hormone replacement therapy. Dr. Lisa Masterson: Well it's great to always know what your alternatives are. Robin McGraw: You know I think there are a lot of women in their 30s and 40s who think, oh I'm exhausted, I can’t sleep, I'm irritable, and it's all because I'm a wife, and I'm a mother, and I have a career. And I think we need to stop and realize maybe that’s not it, maybe it's really how we feel because of our hormones, you start on your 30s, don’t wait for a period – Dr. Prudence Hall: And that’s exactly when perimenopause again, 35 to 39, 40. Dr. Lisa Masterson: Because the average age of menopause, that’s when your period actually stops. But all of those changes is the symptoms, and the period actually change because of the hormones. And there's a recent study that hormones fluctuations during the woman’s menstrual cycle may affect the brain like Ritalin. So in some instances they're saying, a working mother is dependent on the chemical dopamine that maybe some women don’t need medications, some women do need medication. Because they're saying estrogen will make you focus, you know like sometimes during woman’s period, certain times of her cycle, she may be able to concentrate more than other times of her cycle. Dr. Prudence Hall: Estrogen affects the brain, we were talking about Ritalin and how estrogen affects the brain, that’s the number one complaint I have with menopausal women, is they come into class and they can’t remember and they have an ADD and they lose the sense of who they are --