Is Menopause a Disease?

by Gail Bowman

When did this natural part of a woman’s life become a disease to be dreaded, hated and “cured”? In previous centuries, and in other cultures, menopause is a happy time to be celebrated! A time of freedom, health and maturity. So what happened to us?

According to Dr John Lee in his book, What your Doctor May not tell you about Menopause, our current situation is a result of environmental pollutants, poor nutrition, and a huge advertising campaign by the pharmaceutical companies!! According to Dr Lee, a doctor named Dr Wilson published a paper on menopause in 1964 (which was based on scanty research) expounding the ability to stop menopause by giving women estrogen. The ball was picked up by a journalist named Ann Walsh, then by Newsweek and then we were off and running with a dangerous and ineffective cure for a disease that is not a disease.

The original research was done on a small group of women in Puerto Rico. 20% of the women complained of bad side-effects and 3 women died! In her book, The Menopause Industry: How the Medical Establishment Exploits Women, Dr Paula Doress-Worters states “…assertions promoted a stereotyped view of postmenopausal women as asexual, neurotic, and unattractive. As a result, exogenous estrogen was approved for prescription use without adequate testing and soon became one of the five top-selling prescription drugs.”

By 1975 women who were taking Estrogen Replacement Therapy were developing uterine cancer at a rate four to eight times greater than in untreated women!! So why is it so popular that most doctors practically insist that you take it? Profit. Drug companies make millions off of it . The media makes millions advertising it for the pharmaceutical companies, who then jam it down our, and our doctor’s, throats.

So, if you don’t want ERT, and you are having the very real (in our industrialized society) symptoms of hot flashes, weight gain, mood swings and lack of interest in sex, what can you do?

There are many things that we can choose to do. We can reduce the toxins in our systems by avoiding things that we know are toxic including paint fumes, new carpet fumes, nail polish remover, chlorine, commercially available cleaning products and soaps, pesticides, herbicides, solvents, plastics, etc. We can choose to eat organic foods, not to do our nails, not to put regular soaps on our skin, to wear gloves when we have to use cleaning products on our homes, not to use pesticides in our gardens, not to drink or eat from plastic containers that let off toxins when they are heated, etc. We can choose to eat right and exercise.

The other thing we can do is to educate ourselves about natural progesterone treatment. I am convinced about natural progesterone treatment and toxin avoidance, and the difference that they can make to our thyroids, our hormones, our weight, our sex drive, our cancer risk, and our lives! I very much believe that every woman should read What Your Doctor May not Tell You about Menopause by Dr John Lee!

Educate yourself about the effect toxins have on our bodies and our hormones. Join me in telling others about the risk of Estrogen Replacement Therapy and take the time to read the book for yourself! Your life might depend on it!