What is Menopause in Women?

There are a lot of baby boomers residing in the US who are women. In fact, in 2006, the oldest of the baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 began turning 60 years old. There were an estimated 78.2 million baby boomers, as of July 1, 2005, and 50.8% of them were women. That means according to projections, 7,918 people turned 60 everyday in 2006, or about 330 every hour. (Source: US Census Bureau)

This is the main reason why there are a lot of women today who are experiencing menopause symptoms. If you are one of more than 40 million women feeling discomfort from menopause, then you should know the facts.

Just exactly what's menopause? It can be defined as the cessation of menstruation for a full year. Because it happens at the time when the ovaries stop producing estrogen - on or about 51 or 52 years old - menopause signals the end of a woman's reproductive years.

Some women can experience immediate menopause at any age when the ovaries are removed surgically. But in either case, the symptoms of menopause impact women's health, mental state of mind, and quality of life for the remainder of her lifetime.

In 2003, however, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) scared both women and doctors with their warning of not taking hormones. This is, in large, due to the fact that many women don't know the real facts about WHI. Those women above 65 years old who are taking PremPro and Premarin, for example, were found to have experienced cardiovascular diseases, cancer and osteoporosis - these results were comprehensively discussed, no less. Bioidentical hormones were not part of this study.

The WHI was instituted to address the most common causes of death, disability, and impaired quality of life in postmenopausal women. It was an organized attempt to amend the inequities in women's health research and therefore provide practical information to women and their doctors. The WHI centered on synthetic hormone replacement therapy, dietary patterns plus calcium and Vitamin D supplements and their effects on the prevention of heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. These 3 diseases were the main focus of the research because they become more prevalent in menopausal women.

In 2003, there was an estimate of 9 million women who are still taking a certain form of Premarin. One of them is PremPro. The other one is Premari-, which stands for PREgnant MARes' UrINE or PMU for short. These are both synthetic hormones.

The release of the WHI results had an effect on the above-mentioned statistics. In 1999, for instance, the number of women taking PMU-based medications decreased to 25%.

The facts suggest that among the 55 million post-menopausal women in the US, approximately 1/3 of them are on estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) or hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Interestingly, only 49% - instead of the high 79% in 1999- of those are presently using PMU based products.

Despite these figures, it is still observable than many women don't fully understand hormone therapy - for those who are afraid of HRT, however, the concept of natural bio-identical hormones has intrigued them a lot. And with so many products on the market, even that has become perplexing. Plus the government continues to try to control all of the bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) remedies that are being sold.

Women no longer need to be confused about hormone replacement therapy. Interestingly enough, several women have gotten used to taking BHRT in menopause medicine. There's a confusion in the use of the terms, though, because hormones are not truly bio-identical. They cannot be considered as restoration unless what has been lost is actually replaced; natural hormones are not bio-identical and can only be considered so if the body can recognize them as hormones. In large part, they can only be mimicked, and will never be identical. They can only be restored, and never replaced. And in order for hormone therapy to be truly accurate, it must be rhythmic, or biomimetic.

How do biomimetic hormones vary from bio-identical hormones? Biomimetic hormones are derived from natural sources, and mimic in the body the natural undulating rhythms of the hormone blood levels in a usual menstrual cycle. Undulating, as defined, is the tendency of causing something to move in a smooth, wavelike motion.

Bio-identical hormone products are normally formulated from plant sources to match the chemical structure of hormones produced naturally by the human body. The premise is that, technically, the body cannot differentiate bio-identical hormones from the ones the female ovaries release; however, different forms of human-produced hormones are recognized differently by cells. So it makes sense that bio-identical hormone results might also be different.

For bio-identical hormone compounds to be authentically the same, biologically, as human hormones, they should be presented Biomimetically. Recognition at the receptor cites are largely about presentation (such as serum level, timing and molecular structure.)

The accurate terminology then is biomimitec hormone restoration therapy - it is biomimetic and it mimics the rise and fall of hormone blood levels during a normal menstrual cycle. That is Biomimetic - not bio-identical.

What is the rhythm then? The body's rhythms are governed by a master clock that operates much like a conductor. It activates one section of the body's orchestra as another quiets down, taking its primary cue from light signals in order to stay consistent with the 24-hour day. Our body's hormones gush and ebb to this maestro's wand.

The circadian clock that our cells follow is in reality, one 24-hour rotation of the planet. The moon - and your body - tracks that repetitive cycle for twenty-eight days. There is only one patented bioidentical hormone product on the market that utilizes this natural rhythm of nature to establish the proper doses of estradiol and progesterone that mimic the natural hormones produced by your body. The topical creams and their amounts vary throughout the 28-day cycle to recall the hormone levels of youth.

The multi-phasic rhythmic dosing of bio-mimetic hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) using natural hormones in a bio-mimetic way is the latest treatment for menopause in women. Statistics suggest that more than 2 million of the women in the United States use customized hormones to address the symptoms of menopause.

Another projection: by 2030, there'll be 57.8 million baby boomers and 54.9% of them will be female. That year, boomers would be between ages 66 and 84. With the relief given by BHRT, hopefully, all these women will have a merrier post-menopausal life.