If you've been around Rebellious Wellness at all, you know that BHRT, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, is a therapy I support for relief of perimenopause and menopause symptoms.
And that's what most people think of it for. But it's so much more than just symptom relief. My guest, Monica Molenaar, shares her story, the science, and the reasons she co-created MyAlloy.com.
We started with what exactly BHRT or MHT (menopause hormone therapy) as they call it at Alloy, is.
If you've heard negative reports about this therapy, it's likely because of The Women's Health Initiative. This study was flawed from the participants they invited, the data they did and didn't collect and the results released, and the way they used the HTs.
(TWHI is still gathering data on many subjects. I'm referring to a specific study on hormone replacement therapy and its influence on heart disease risks.)
This is a shame because hormone replacement was at one time commonly prescribed to women without incident.
Fast forward to today. Many studies on the safe, natural forms of estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone have been done and the results show that BHRT can improve health markers, not just relieve symptoms.
Monica was thrown into instant menopause with the removal of her ovaries to prevent ovarian cancer.
"What really nobody prepared me for was menopause. All of a sudden was left without any estrogen in my body. And I did gain 20 pounds pretty fast, and I didn't sleep through the night for six months until I started taking HRT. But the bigger problem is that I felt like nobody was talking to me about this. Nobody was giving me the information that I was looking for.
I will continue to interview experts on this topic and beat the drum about BHRT so that there are more conversations about it, to show women how it can help with aging and symptoms and so that no one has to suffer like Monica did.
We want to dispel the myth that so many women hear from medical professionals, "the sort of prevailing idea out there is like, it's natural. You should just deal with it."
As I pointed out at some point, if men had to go through menopause, we would not need these conversations.
One of the reasons Monica and her partner, Anne Fulenwider, started MyAlloy.com was to, as they call it, democratize menopause care. They want to make it easier for women to get information and prescriptions of safe, natural, hormones.
Their chief medical officer is Dr. Sharon Malone. Monica tells a great story about Michelle Obama and hot flashes on Air Force One. It was Dr. Malone who came to her rescue.
More on Monica's why. "I think for so many women is they don't really understand what the treatment possibilities are, what the safety profiles are, what their personal risks might be or not, usually less than they think."
MyAlloy.com helps the women who come to them find out those things. They also answer your questions.
If you want to see if you are a candidate for hormone therapy, you start on the home page of MyAlloy.com, where you'll see the take the assessment button. That information goes to one of MyAlloy's docs for review to see if hormone therapy is right for you. If yes, and you agree, the script goes to their pharmacy, is filled and shipped to your home.
Convenient and it saves time and money on an office visit. The fee for getting started with them is $0.
If you aren't ready to give BHRT a try, there are articles addressing the various joys of the post estrogen producing life, on topics like hair loss, meno fatigue, painful sex, and more. Learn all you need to know about estrogen and progesterone.
Besides the hormones, they offer peroxetine, which is a non-hormonal treatment for hot flashes, a low dose birth control, (seems we are more fertile than we realize in the last few years of transition) and a proprietary symbiotic, which is a prebiotic plus probiotic.
If you can't find a doc who understands what you are going through or have never considered using hormone replacement therapy but are curious, MyAlloy.com is a great place to be heard and get started.
PS, I am not an affiliate for the company.
I'm happy to share my experience with 2 decades of hormone therapy. Grab a time to chat if you've got questions.
