What If I Can’t Take HRT?
By Hannah Charman, Medical Herbalist
HRT is hailed as being the answer to all our menopause prayers, but it’s not for everyone. Some women are advised not to use it for medical reasons, particularly those who’ve been through treatment for an oestrogen sensitive cancer. Others have a family history of these kinds of cancers, leading them to avoid HRT, and a number of the ladies I’ve worked with have had other serious health issues such as strokes in the past. Of course, some women simply like to use a natural approach when it comes to supporting their health, and the same applies in perimenopause.
The Other Way of Looking at Menopause
You might have heard that menopause is a truly awful experience, and that you’ll probably spend the rest of your life battling osteoporosis, dementia or heart disease. That’s because as well as helping to regulate your menstrual cycle, oestrogen has a role in protecting your health. The thinking is that after menopause, we spend the rest of our lives in ‘oestrogen deficiency’ and lose that protective effect, but there’s much more to menopause than that.
Menopause is a swap in oestrogen. We’re swapping over from the most potent form (oestrodiol) which we needed for reproduction, to less potent forms, which will help protect our health for the rest of our lives. It’s quite an intricate and complex process, but it’s all about the body adjusting to life with a different set of hormones than before. In a nutshell, it’s adolescence backwards, and there are lots of positives that come with it!
When we understand menopause from this different perspective it all becomes much easier to navigate. Far from being the start of a slow decline, it’s actually quite empowering! We find ourselves establishing stronger boundaries and putting our own needs higher up the list of priorities, often for the first time ever. It’s different for everyone, but traditionally menopause was a natural slowing down, and time to consolidate all of the life experience we’ve gathered so far. Depending on circumstances, we may find ourselves with new opportunities when it comes to career, relationships or broadening horizons. It was also seen as an initiation into our elderhood, where we’d be highly revered and respected for our wisdom.
But initiation inevitably comes with a challenge beforehand, and for some that can come in the form of menopause symptoms! What are the options if you’re struggling and wanting a natural approach?
Natural Alternatives To HRT
Self care & Health Coaching
I always recommend upping the self-care to begin with. Not only is it a good way to practice self love and compassion, it supports your body in finding its own equilibrium. Upgrading your nutrition, exercise, stress management, and lifestyle in general encourages a gentler menopause, and brings lots of long term health benefits too. For example, 30 minutes of exercise a day can drastically reduce your risk of certain cancers, dementia, heart disease, osteoporosis, and poor mental health as well as helping you manage your weight. It’s a small and simple change which makes a huge, lasting difference. You may need to make some rather drastic changes, but they do pay off. Often the difficulty is with finding the motivation to make the changes rather than knowing which changes to make, and that’s where health coaches come in! Being accountable to someone else makes it much easier.
Prescribed Herbal Medicine
A lot of women are interested in alleviating their symptoms with herbal remedies, but aren’t sure where to start. I’ve been using prescribed herbal remedies to manage my own perimenopause symptoms for a number of years now, and I honestly don’t know what I’d have done without them! I’ve also used them to treat thousands of women in my natural menopause clinic, and in my experience they literally work miracles. There are a growing number of scientific studies backing the benefits of herbs for menopause symptoms, bone density, brain inflammation and lots more.
Whilst it might cost more than self-medicating, getting yourself properly assessed by a Medical Herbalist ensures you’ll get the right herbs at the right time. I work by establishing the deep underlying causes of your symptoms, and those patterns often start decades before you notice your body changing. I then put together a personalised herbal prescription for you, taking into account any other medication you’re taking or other health conditions you may have. Herbs are generally safe and gentle, but they need to be used correctly. As well as putting your medicine together, I often need to explain medical test results, suggest more tests, or liase with a patient’s wider healthcare team so they get the best care. And then there’s the moral support that comes with treatment, which sadly, lots of my patients don’t get anywhere else.
Hypnotherapy
Cancer patients in particular can be nervous about taking any herbs, even if they’ve been proven safe. Hypnotherapy can offer another option for dealing with perimenopause symptoms by working on a different level. There are some studies showing that hypnotherapy is effective in treating hot flushes, brain fog and fatigue.
Do HRT Alternatives Actually Work?
HRT is just one of many ways to alleviate menopause symptoms, and most of the alternatives have been around for much longer. There are references to menopause in the Bible and other ancient texts, and medieval Abbess Hildegaard von Bingen wrote about how she treated symptoms with herbs.
There’s also growing evidence for the protective effects of herbs on health after menopause. Women who can’t take HRT often worry about developing diseases associated with low oestrogen levels, but low oestrogen is one of a number of potential risk factors. Making improvements to diet and lifestyle and taking herbs as early as possible all help to have a protective effect.
What To Look For In A Practitioner
As most alternative therapies are not state regulated, you need to make sure that you’ll be working with a suitably qualified and insured practitioner. Here are a few things to check before signing up:
- Can they tell you about their initial training and show you their qualifications if asked?
- What ongoing training have they done since qualifying?
- Are they a member of a governing body?
- Are they insured to practice?
- Can they provide testimonials from other clients?
Working with an alternative practitioner throughout your perimenopause can make the whole process work much more smoothly, and if you find the right one, it’s well worth the investment.
Hannah Charman is a qualified Medical Herbalist, Health Coach and Advanced Hypnotherapist specialising in natural alternatives to HRT. She runs the UK’s first drug-free menopause clinic in south Shropshire, and offers online appointments too. You can find her at www.physichealth.uk