SLEEP + INSULIN RESISTANCE: When we think of insulin resistance, sugar and carbs leap to mind. But other factors are drivers too, including stress and lack of sleep. According to a small study published in Diabetes Care Journal, a group of 38 women ages 25 to 75 who slept an average of 6.2 hours per night experienced impaired insulin sensitivity – independent of their body fat percentage. Researchers said the impact was more pronounced on the 11 women in the group who were post-menopausal, and who were more prone to sleep issues.
HrT: I had one thought when I saw this article in the December issue of Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society of North America: 'Tis but a scratch: a critical review of the Women's Health Initiative evidence associating menopausal hormone therapy with the risk of breast cancer. I’m not sure about using a Monty Python reference to minimize the risk of breast cancer from taking combined hormone therapy (that’s estrogen with medroxyprogesterone, a progestogen, not oral micronized progesterone) – however small that risk actually is. Even if it is just one additional person in 1,000. Even if estrogen alone (only available to women without a uterus) reduces the risk of breast cancer, and breast cancer mortality.
HERBALS VS HrT: You don’t see this kind of study often! A very small randomized clinical trial comparing oral herbal supplements with hormone therapy (EPT: Estrogen plus progestogens) for managing symptoms. Sixty women, three months: “In this small single-blind exploratory trial, the oral herbal supplement was more efficacious in reducing global, physical, and psychosocial menopausal symptoms in the short term than EPT.” Check out the lower cholesterol scores, too. The herbals? Glucosinolates, which are found in cruciferous vegetables, phytosterols (more plants) and citrus flavonoids.
PERIMENOPAUSE + PERIODS: A survey published in Post Reproductive Health asks women how they feel about their periods, and finds that if we knew more about them going into perimenopause, it probably would have helped. Also, no one has been asking women about this, and that’s a gap in research that needs to be addressed, the researchers found.
HEART: Persistent and frequent vasomotor symptoms increase the risk for later cardiovascular incidents significantly, so why not use them now as an opportunity to make lifestyle changes backed up by an array of data? Adding in more fruits and vegetables, which we know reduce symptoms, for starters. That’s a short and long-term gain, and that was the message from Dr Michelle L. Tollefson, lifestyle medicine expert and professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, presenting at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Conference.
peri product that seems a bit silly
Thanks to Lucy Sweet from the Lucyverse for writing about this tea, which has a jaunty +sage label and lots of nature-y pictures on the box so it must be good for you. Bottom line? “We’re all so desperate for a solution to menopausal hell that we’ll buy any old shite.”
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the burgeoning biz of menopause
• The bioidentical hormone therapy market was valused at US$33.8 billion in 2022 and is expected to almost double to $61.5 billion by 2032, according to DataHorizzon Research via Yahoo Finance.
• “There is clearly a huge business opportunity and also a need to fill gaps in care and overcome medical barriers for the millions of women experiencing menopause”. This article in Fierce Healthcare offers a great rundown on what’s going on in this space, and while the investments in menopause are paltry compared to health overall, the only place to go is up.
• German femtech startup Frieda Health secured €2.5 million in VC funding to further develop its digital platform aimed at providing support for women in menopause.
pharmacology + policy
I’m still working my way through the this workshop from the US FDA on menopause but I wanted you to have it case you had a spare 3+ hours.
Hotflash inc PC
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What I’ve learned from menopause
None of us get out of childhood without some pain. If you don’t start healing this in your 20s and 30s, chances are it will hit you like a baseball bat cross-side the head when that progesterone starts receding in the earliest stages of perimenopause. The most effective remedy in the world isn’t going to the necessary work we are being called to do to processing that pain, or give you anything close to the peace that comes across once you do.
Editor’s note
Thing that’s bothering me lately: the tendency to minimize side effects of menopause hormone therapy.
Thing that I’m studying up on so I can write about it more effectively: the side effects and risks of menopause hormone therapy.
Also: people have been putting vaginal estrogen on their face for quite some time now. A
That is all.
AMx
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