Why is it that so many women are being prescribed anti-depressants to deal with the problems of the menopause?
Agreed it is not uncommon for women to feel depressed at the time of the menopause but this is normally due to an inbalance of the female sex hormones not the chemical balance of the brain which causes the type of depression that is normally treated with anti-depressant drugs and for that reason that they dont work.
The only effect they often have is to make the woman feel even more depressed.
Often you will have been given traditional HRT and this may have made the feeling of depression worse which is why you doctor offers antidepressants. The reason traditional HRT often makes women depressed is because it produces the situation of oestrogen dominance.
Traditional HRT contains oestrogen and a chemical progestogen. Too much oestrogen can make a woman feel depressed and so can the chemical hormone progestogen so it is not surprising that traditional HRT can have this depressing effect.
What is actually needed is the balancing effect of natural progesterone. Progesterone is normally made by our ovaries and it is our natural feel good hormone. Taking progesterone will usually alleviate the depression that some women experience at the time of the menopause.
Why is this not more recognised?
More information
Dame Dr Shirley Bond has been prescribing bioidentical hormones for many years and one of the first in the UK to recognise the pioneering work of the late John Lee, MD.
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