STRESS AND WOMEN'S HEALTH

Female hormonal health is not just related to menstruation and menopause - it is a matter of lifelong well-being and longevity

While a great number of women in our culture develop some kind of sexual reproductive organ dysfunction, most are misled about true sexual and reproductive health and what options exist to achieve it. People tend to think of women's "hormone problems" as starting in midlife with the onset of menopause. In fact, a dysfunctional pattern can begin during adolescent years or even before birth. The severity of hormonal problems may increase with age, but it is not aging per se that is the root of declining health. It is most often the cumulative physiological effects of stress that cause disruption of the natural rhythms and balancing mechanisms of women's hormones (see Quick Definition), thereby eventually compromising overall health as well as sexual and reproductive health.

Quick Definition - Sex and stress hormones are chemical messengers formed in endocrine organs and certain body tissues and then carried in the blood to other areas of the body. Depending on how specific their effects, hormones can alter either the functional activity or the structure of one or more organs. Synthetic hormones are different from naturally occurring hormones; they are structurally altered (so as to be patentable).

Allopathic (conventional) medical thinking fails to look for or treat the root causes of women's hormonal imbalances. For example, more young women today are experiencing infertility because they are not ovulating, yet they are being given fertility drugs like Clomid without comprehensive hormonal evaluations. Though these women often succeed in conceiving, they generally end up paying a price for short-sighted symptom management. The future health consequence is that other symptoms will appear and hormonal imbalance will progress.

Similarly, women are led to believe that it is normal to experience distressing menopausal symptoms. They anticipate having to accept the conventional treatment choice of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with synthetic hormones. Women are encouraged to do this in spite of the fact that estrogen supplementation places them at risk for breast cancer and other serious health problems. HRT and fertility drugs -- as well as birth control pills and other hormonal therapies -- were all designed to treat only specific symptoms with no regard for the effects they have on the entire body. Because of this non-holistic approach, we are seeing an increase in the incidence of not only breast cancer and sexual reproductive organ dysfunctions but also uterine and ovarian cancer.

Another problem with conventional HRT is that it generally employs the wrong forms of estrogen and progesterone. Synthetic estrogens or the estrogens that are excreted in pregnant mare urine are often used. And of the three estrogen hormones (estradiol, estriol and estrone) found in women's bodies, most conventional pharmaceutical products use only estradiol. Many HRT formulas also contain synthetic progestin (as opposed to natural progesterone), which is included to help balance the effects of synthetic estrogen. Yet an artificial hormone cannot function in concert with another artificial hormone to create balance in the body. Worse, these HRT formulas ignore the increasingly common wisdom that it is progesterone deficiency -- not estrogen deficiency -- that leads to early or difficult menopause and many other health problems affecting women.

A lot of women are discovering that conventional HRT does not give them the overall health and well-being they had hoped for, and they are seeking out healthier alternatives. What everyone will hopefully soon realize is that menopausal and sexual reproductive problems are actually symptoms of overall hormonal imbalances. Women need to get a complete picture of their hormonal status and find appropriate therapeutic steps to maintaining balance.

Meanwhile, millions of women continue to experience dysfunctions such as PMS, depression, decreased libido, fibrocystic breasts, food and sugar cravings, uterine fibroids, irregular or excessive uterine bleeding and endometriosis (see Quick Definition below). Those whose dysfunctions are extremely painful or debilitating are told that their "health is more important than their reproductive organs" and that "a hysterectomy would be the best thing." Unbelievably, an estimated trillion-plus dollars was spent during the twentieth century to remove women's reproductive organs. Hysterectomy now out-numbers almost all types of surgery performed in the U.S.

Reproductive organs play an important role in more than reproduction. Many studies show that each aspect of the female sexual anatomy serves an integral part in the health and well-being of the entire body. Each function is part of the whole, part of a system, or symphony, of interrelated parts and timing.*

*Reproduced from research by Mercola.com

It is so discouraging to see God's people becoming more and more unhealthy. Church prayer lists are filled with requests for help concerning health issues THAT CAN BE PREVENTED WITH THE RIGHT INFORMATION!

With all the changes in health care in America we must wake up to the fact that if we don't take care of our bodies we could end up with poor treatment, if it is available at all!

Apathy is one of the biggest contributors to these attitudes. The Bible tells us that we perish due to the lack of knowledge...if we don't due something about this there are dire consequences...THAT CAN BE PREVENTED!

Starting today I will be posting a series of articles dealilng with women's health challenges.