hormones Archives - Page 10 of 11

Unite Walking Uteri: Repair the Economic Moral Fabric, One Woman at a Time

Published on October 20, 2011

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For a website devoted to women’s hormone health research, I seem to write a lot about the current economic and political situation. That may seem odd on the surface, but a deeper dive reveals an inextricable connection. The recession has forced American values into re-alignment and like or not, health is at the center. And women’s health, because we bear children, is at the nexus.

As a woman, who has born children, I take offense to the fact that in political, economic and healthcare debates, women have become no more than walking uteri. From both the political Left and Right, our choices to bear or not bear children seem to represent the sum total of the interest in our health. Sometimes our breast health is considered and on a rare occasion other aspects of our physiology enter into public discourse and even research, but mostly it is our childbearing that garners the attention.

Even so, the pretense that the debates currently dominating the public arena involve anything closely related to women or health is false. These are debates about money and power—getting it and keeping it– and we are simply the tokens of that economy. But we don’t have to be, because as walking uteri, they have failed to recognize one important point- we can walk the other direction.

Although we are only 50% of the population, we consume 80% of the medical care and we control the medical decision-making in most families – that is our power. The makers of HRT know this all too well. They saw their profits drop by as much 70% when the unfounded marketing claims that HRT cured everything came to light. Millions of women transferred their consumer purchasing power to the bio-identical hormone, nutraceutical and other health-related industries. As hospitals began dictating C-sections, a whole movement of home-birth evolved; home-birth in the 21^st century- who could have predicted that? As more and more toxins are found in our foods and especially baby products, companies marketing healthy, organic products are born. Our uteri are walking right out the door and creating entire industries that place health and well-being center stage.

So, while politicians covet big money from the corporations that obliterated the economy and decimated women’s health; while protestors protest the profligate practices of Wall Street (finally) and pundits decide which side of the ratings fence they are on, women are quietly re-building the economy. Inc.com indicates that women lead 40% of all business in the US (2010), but received less than 8% of investment capital. Perhaps as a result of the lower capital, we are better at bootstrapping, have higher growth, better returns and our businesses succeed more frequently than companies led by men. Our companies are less risky; none of the high-flying financial shenanigans that got us into this mess in the first place. Perhaps because of the inequities in healthcare and research perpetrated on women by men interested only in the functionality of our collective uteri, we’re building companies that address women’s health-beyond the uterus. Companies like Lucine, and many, many others.

Are the attempts to de-fund women’s health important, even though they pertain to the most narrow definition of health? Yes. They serve as a reminder that we have more power than we think. We are the consumer market that matters. We can take our consumer buying power and our voting power elsewhere. We can create the industries that matter to us. In doing so, we repair what David Brooks called the ‘moral fabric of our economy.’

Hormone health research and diagnostics matter to me and my colleagues at Lucine. What matters to you?

Underinsured, Underdiagnosed and Anonymous: Endometriosis

by Hormone Stories

Published on October 13, 2011

2297 views

Endometriosis

I am continuing to write this anonymously because I continue to fear the social repercussions and potential backlash of publicly revealing my real name in association with my endometriosis and other health issues. I am uninsured and told by many, uninsurable.

We left off from Part 1 of my story with a tentative diagnosis of endometriosis, a ruptured ovarian cyst, and ever-increasing doses of oral contraceptives. At that point in my life, I was scared, in pain and worried that I and the doctors should be doing more.

But, as it turned out, there was not much more that I could do. The doctors said that even if it wasn’t endometriosis, the pill would probably still be the least invasive and least risky treatment option available to me. They told me this without any intention of scheduling further abdominal inspections, pelvic imaging, endometrial biopsies, or blood draws for biochemical markers, despite my pleas for each. Then again, they had confirmed my endo’ diagnosis without a laparoscope, or CA-125 antigen test, as it was. So, what else should I really have expected from them now? Life on oral contraceptives continued because, apparently, my only other choice was living without a uterus (and risking paralysis due to prior cervical vertebrae injury) at only twenty-five years of age.

I had never had long, frequent, heavy, or uncomfortable periods, much less menstrual cramps, as a young teenager. But, as a woman on COCPs in her mid-twenties, I was experiencing altogether nonexistent cycles, regular breast discharge, ceaseless bloating, and unrelenting gastrointestinal pain and pressure (on top of chronic neck and back pain from the past car accident). One silver lining to my proverbial cloud was that I had finally regained most of the neck control and movement previously lost in the collision. Another consolation to this difficult situation was that I had also saved up enough money, working through physical therapy, to return to school. And, maybe best of all, I had found (without trying) a steady, supportive, and understanding boyfriend, who was not only my match in every way, but who always stayed by my side, through the ups and downs alike. Little did we know the coming financial and health woes to befall us, yet again, over the next few years.

Fast forward about three more years into the future—I had transferred to the university as a junior during the Fall term. My boyfriend and I had been together, going on strong, for four years. And, I had been working part-time at a job that I loved for nearly two years. The future again seemed bright. Healthcare access, however, remained bleak.

The COBRA benefits from my old employer had long expired, not that I could have afforded them at $600 per month anyways. I didn’t qualify for health insurance at my new workplace because I wasn’t full-time there, owing to a loaded class schedule on-campus. And, the only medical coverage that I had been able to afford since leaving the other company was a short-lived, hybrid POS-HMO plan, which I ended up having to cancel early as nobody in my area would accept it (there went another few hundred dollars, I couldn’t afford to lose, down the drain). We had been working around the system, paying out-of-pocket for generic prescriptions, and general lab procedures, at local understaffed health clinics, since no one else seemed willing to work with us. This got us by (it had to) until an unexpected slip-and-fall accident that December rendered a hidden colon tumor palpable in my lower body (something we wouldn’t learn for another four months or so).

The ER wouldn’t treat me, and only served in referring me to a GI/Endoscopy specialist, who in turn refused to see me because I didn’t have insurance. A major medical carrier subsequently denied me coverage as uninsurable due to pre-existing conditions (namely my C2 fracture from nine years earlier, and my endometriosis diagnosis from four years prior), essentially blacklisting me among all other healthcare providers. I couldn’t even qualify for government assistance of any kind. I had come close to dying in just a few short months without knowing what was wrong with me, and we were running out of time and options fast. That’s when my boyfriend popped the question, to get me on his insurance, and to save my life…

To Be Continued.

Underinsured, Underdiagnosed, and Anonymous: Endometrial Cancer, Part 5

by Hormone Stories

Published on October 13, 2011

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Endometrial Cancer

Since the last post, I had begun chemo to treat my cancer.

My radiologist became my primary doctor, as the oncologist remained largely unavailable to me, after hearing the news that my health insurance would lapse within the coming months. The oncologist increased my dosage of radiation, and rescheduled my GI, endoscopy, and radiology follow-up exams to earlier dates. The radiation office not only waived a significant portion of their own service fees for me due to the situation, but also helped us to handle a big part of the lengthy medical dispute we were facing with our insurance company. They eradicated most of the tumor, but could not remove my residual scar tissue, before our COBRA expired. Even with all that they had done for us up until then, there were still strict systematic limits as to what they were permitted to do for us after that time. Not only was I without insurance yet again (my husband was too), but I was also now without the support system that had been my radiologist and their crew—something that was much much harder to overcome than I had expected it to be.

Remission from Endometrial Cancer

I was in remission, but back to square one as far as access to medical coverage went. I was in remission, but I had undergone medically-induced premature ovarian failure, and was deemed post-menopausal before I would even reach my thirties. I was in remission, but couldn’t take hormone replacement therapy or herbal alternatives, because I was already at increased risk for recurring and/or second cancers. I was in remission, but had semi-permanent radiation scars and temporary post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment. I was in remission, but I still wasn’t well enough to return to work, go to school full-time, or to take a belated and long overdue honeymoon yet. I was in remission, but I was depressed, and didn’t know how to move forward without the regular group of doctors and nurses who had been there for me emotionally only a week before.

Why was my life saved (and through such extreme measures), only to be put right back at risk, through the ever-incipient denial of insurance, medical assistance, and access to healthcare? What was the point of it all?? It felt like maybe I shouldn’t have been striving so hard to live, but instead perhaps that I should simply have accepted the inevitability of my own death (something I am now faced with every day that I do wake up in the morning, anyways). My husband had only been able to find part-time jobs, since his old workplace had closed. So, we knew that we would have to move out-of-state to get the help that we needed. We just hadn’t anticipated that it would be even harder to get coverage, aid, or access, once we left. And, we still don’t know how much harder it will get, as we continue to race border-state budget cuts and residency requirements, just trying to keep me alive. Sometimes, it’s hard not to doubt that we’ll make it in time at all.

I have always worked hard, and I’ve always tried to give back to the community. I was glad to pay my dues, and happy to put in my time. So, I have an exceptionally hard time understanding how so many have come to turn their backs on me as I ask them to help keep me from dying, if not from hurting, particularly when that’s supposed to be their job. How come I’m not worth your time and attention? Why don’t I deserve to live? What’s so wrong with me, that you can’t even tell me what’s wrong with me?

I wish that I could leave you with a happier ending, but this never-ending vicious cycle has not left us witch much optimism, hope, or spare change, ourselves. Aside from knowing that my tumor is back, we don’t know just how bad it is. What we are gravely aware of is that I am out of the safety net and into the danger zone for lymph and bone involvement plus metastatic cancer growth. It’s proven impossible to get a standard colonoscopy and biopsy at my age (twenty-plus years too young) without a doctor’s order, and impossible to get a doctor’s order without insurance or assistance (but, you’ve already heard that story before)…all this, even in spite of my personal history of colon cancer. And, it will be equally impossible to get any traditional treatment if/when the cancer spreads to my liver or lungs, too. But, at least nobody will be talking about colostomy bags then, anymore. When we do find the rare body scanning clinic that will take cash patients on self-referral, they all also inevitable deny me the less-invasive virtual colonoscopy because I’m “still in my childbearing years” even though I’m medically documented as being POF, and haven’t had a period in over six years now. You’d think it would be a non-issue, but for some reason it isn’t. Maybe someone out there can understand our fear and despair, but a lot of other people just don’t seem to care.

Read earlier parts of the story. Part1, Part2, Part3, and Part4 .

Navigating Invisible Illness in the Age of Modern Medicine

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on September 26, 2011

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Much has been about said about empowering and educating patients to be partners in the healthcare dance. From the e-patient and e-health revolutions through the piles of research showing more engaged patients have better outcomes, all seem to point a more active role and increased responsibility for the patient in his or her own care. But how does that work when the illness is not clearly defined, is not easily diagnosed or for which effective treatments are limited? What does it mean to be an empowered patient with an invisible illness?

This is the question that many women face on a regular basis. Indeed, for a number of predominantly female disorders, whether hormonally modulated or not, there are often many years before the symptoms are addressed as real and not figments of the female imagination. Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are two such examples, but so are endometriosis and an array of other perhaps more subtle hormone conditions.

During those years before modern medicine and the research community recognize the reality that define a particular disease process; during the years when women are prescribed psychiatric meds for non psychiatric conditions; during the years when pain medications with diverse side-effect profiles blur the line between the original disease and the one that is induced pharmacologically; during those years, how does one become the e-patient, the e-woman, without becoming a physician herself?

Really, we want to know.
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Women’s Hormones: An Intellectual and Ethical Cul de Sac

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on September 21, 2011

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Menopause is barreling down with a ferocity that is difficult to ignore. Like many women my age, I’ve had my share of health challenges and, until recently, blindly trusted the pharmaceutical industry to fix all that ailed me. Health by chemistry was a great thing; oral contraceptives, a fabulous invention, allergy meds – ditto, pain killers – wonderful, and on, and on. Take a pill and feel better, isn’t that what we all want? But I, like so many women, have lost faith in pharmaceuticals. It’s not because the science isn’t cool, it is, in every area of pharmacology, except women’s hormone therapies. Here, intellectual curiosity and innovation have been replaced by status quo. Little has changed in this area of hormones and health in 60 years.

Hormones, Hormones, Everywhere and No Innovation in Sight

Since their inception, hormone replacement therapies (HRT) and oral contraceptives have dominated women’s health, immediately moving from seemingly narrow applications when first introduced to the almost mythical status as cure-alls for any female and many general health ailments. The history of both these pills is strikingly inglorious and utterly dumbfounding. Just on general principle, why would anyone believe any medication could be so widely beneficial for so many apparently disparate conditions? It is physiologically impossible.

For HRT especially, if one believes the marketing, the pills provide a veritable fountain of youth. Where is the science? But believe we did, and generations of women may now be paying the consequences.

From the very first estrogens synthesized and marketed to women everywhere (diethylstilbestrol- DES), through today’s HRTs and OCs, profit appears to override health concerns. Even in the 1930’s and 1940s before these drugs came to market, the carcinogenic risks were well known, and yet, they garnered FDA approval and were sold to millions, upon millions of women.

Synthetic Hormones

I have personal experience only with the often ignored side effects of oral contraceptives, as I have yet to reach the age of menopause. In my 20s, while on the presumable high estrogen dose of oral contraceptives that were common then, I had intense bouts of vertigo that would develop even when lying down and ever increasing blood pressure. After years of expensive testing could find no neurological cause for the vertigo and after repeated prescriptions to lower my blood pressure, I stopped taking the pill. I had enough. The vertigo stopped fairly soon thereafter and the blood pressure returned to normal. Over those several years, there was not a single physician that suggested I stop taking the pill, indeed I was prescribed more and more meds to counter the apparently unknown side effects of oral contraceptives and it was recommended I see a shrink because the vertigo had to be psychosomatic.

I look back at that time and I wonder how many other women suffered similar circumstances. What is this propensity to prescribe and continue prescribing medications in the face of apparent ill effects? Why are we ignoring, even at the patient level, the possibility that some meds may not work for some women (or men). The statistics bear this out, but there seems to be a natural inclination to minimize these risks. This is compounded of course, by intense marketing.

As I approach this menopausal stage, I again will be faced with yet another hormone-issue for which the choices are bad and worse. We know from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) in 2002, that HRT is not the panacea it was marketed to be and the risks associated with this medication are not benign.

Over a one year period, for every 10,000 women taking and estrogen plus progestin, the risk of developing these conditions increases by:

• Heart disease: 7 additional cases
• Breast cancer: 8 additional cases
• Stroke: 8 additional cases
• Blood clots: 18 additional cases

For estrogen only:

• Stroke: 12 additional cases
• Blood Clots: 6 additional cases

Consider however, the millions of women who will take or have taken HRT for years. As of 2010, over eight million women in the US alone take HRT, and will likely do so for at least a couple years. In this light, the increased risk of disease looks a lot scarier.

• Heart disease: 5600 new cases per year; 28,000 in five years
• Breast cancer: 6,400 new cases per year; 32,000 in five years
• Stroke: 6,400 new cases per year; 32,000 in five years
• Blood clots: 14,400 new cases per year; 72,000 in five years

When the WHI was published, some 17 million women in the US had been taking HRT for many, many years, even decades. That’s 13,600 new cases of breast cancer per year, 68,000 in five years! Despite these data, and the thousands of lawsuits that followed, HRT is still one of the most frequently prescribed medications worldwide. I think we can do better.

Statistics from the Mayo Clinic

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Every Man Knows a Woman with Hormones

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on September 14, 2011

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And we all have hormones. Those wonderfully mysterious chemicals circulating and cycling with the regularity and rapidity that makes one’s head spin, female hormones are at once the bane and the joy of man’s existence. Our hormones are what make us find you attractive, laugh at your jokes, date you, sleep with you and bear your children. Our hormones can also turn us into stark, raving lunatics at seemingly benign comments. Most men know and understand this, at least intuitively. You are prepared for the ‘wrath of raging hormones’ if not from direct experience with your mothers, sisters or girlfriends, then from the many locker room and sitcom epithets ever present in modern culture.

What most men (and many women) are not prepared for, and I’d venture don’t understand, is the very real chemistry changes behind the wrath. Much of this goes far beyond just mood changes, often eliciting a bevy of symptoms and disease processes that we’re only now beginning to understand.

In many ways, hormones are just like every other chemical circulating in our bodies, regulating this system or that, entirely responsible for certain functions, secondary and tertiary players in others. Men have the same hormones as women, just in different concentrations. And hormones cycle in men, but not so radically and regularly. What is different between ‘men’s hormones’ and ‘women’s hormones’ is not the hormones themselves, but the systems and structures on which they operate and the reproductive functions that ensue.

To state the obvious, women have ovaries and a uterus. Those structures, along with the brain form the foundation of a beautifully orchestrated and incredibly complex chemical feedback system that not only controls reproduction, but influences just about every aspect of our lives. Estradiol and progesterone concentrations increase several fold across an average cycle, preparing the uterus for a possible pregnancy. In the absence of pregnancy, hormone levels plummet and the lining of uterus, the endometrium sheds. The all-too-familiar mood changes and pain commence.

As a man viewing this process from the outside, it is difficult to appreciate the magnitude of hormone changes affecting the women in your life. When hormones act on the brain or in the body, they do so in much the same manner as many common drugs. In terms of chemistry, menstrual cycle hormone changes are very similar to a drug addiction/withdrawal pattern with increasing dosages of stimulants (like amphetamines) during the first two weeks, a combo pack of sedatives (like Valium or alcohol) plus a few stimulants during the second two weeks, followed by cold turkey withdrawal. Rinse and repeat, over and over again, approximately 450 times during the course of her lifetime. Pregnancy and postpartum follow the same pattern only the dosage of hormones, the duration of exposure and the magnitude of the withdrawal are increased exponentially. The veritable cocktail of hormones that make these functions possible is breathtaking.

What happens when one or more of these chemical messengers gets a little out of sync and the system become dysregulated, as is inevitable in any system that cycles so frequently? Or what happens when an illness or disease, maybe not caused by hormones, develops in the context of this ever fluctuating female chemistry? You get a bit of chaos (think butterflies, not randomness).

As a man, who has women in his life, you have two choices, ignore and avoid the chaos and hope there are no storms on the horizon, or embrace the chaos and find ways to anticipate and alleviate the pain. Many choose the former, including much of medical science. This is the avoidable ignorance, I wrote about last week. I’d like to think the men who love us, choose the latter. Certainly, the men who shared their wives’ and daughters’ stories recognize the need to investigate and develop better treatments for women. They may not understand fully the complexity of women’s hormones, but they understand the suffering, sense that symptoms are being ignored and want nothing more than to make it all better.

Avoidable Ignorance: Implications for Women’s Health

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on September 7, 2011

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It is difficult to read the stories of suffering expressed by the women featured in our blog and not become incensed. We can joke about women’s hormone health and deride the science to fringe status, but our failure to recognize, investigate and create options for women has serious consequences. In my mind, this is an avoidable ignorance.

I borrowed that phrase from a quote by Dr. Albert G. Mulley, the new Director of the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science. The full quote “no decision should be made in the face of avoidable ignorance” speaks volumes about the state of women’s health care.

How many women have sought treatment for a dysregulated menstrual cycle, menstrual cycle related pain, or other presumably hormonally modulated events only to be sent home without so much as a lab test but with oral contraceptives? Worse yet, how many women have had an endless array of invasive procedures only to receive an uncertain diagnosis and oral contraceptives. This is avoidable ignorance.

Why don’t women get routine hormone testing for what are presumably hormone related conditions? We wouldn’t treat high blood pressure without first measuring blood pressure or diabetes without first measuring glucose. Why then would we treat presumably hormonal conditions, with hormone modifying drugs, without ever measuring hormones before or during treatment? Is the pill so successful at treating all female symptoms that no testing is ever needed? Or is there some avoidable ignorance at play? Judge for yourself.

The most common arguments against hormone testing include:

1. The clinical reference ranges for hormones are too broad to be useful
2. The test results will not modify clinical decision making, so why test
3. Hormones are too complicated and variable
4. A good clinical interview suffices

It’s not that we cannot develop more robust hormone reference ranges, more sensitive hormone testing methods, perhaps link a woman’s unique biochemistry to her clinical symptoms, we just have not. The often repeated excuse that ‘hormones are complicated, variable and too difficult to analyze’ just doesn’t hold true given the state of science and technology today, neither does the clinical interview argument. A good clinical interview is always important and maybe even a lost art in this era of high tech diagnostics, but wouldn’t it be nice if the average time to diagnose some of these conditions wasn’t 5-10 years?

This brings me back to Dr. Mulley and his discussion on ending avoidable ignorance in healthcare. The responsibility, Dr. Mulley contends, rests with the patient. As a supporter of the e-patient movement, Dr. Mulley believes patients have the responsibility to educate the physicians and other decision-makers about what’s important to them. He says “unless we know what you care about, we have no information to inform investment or disinvestment” in any particular area of health.

In this context, it becomes clear, that maybe as patients, we have failed to own up to some of our responsibilities. Menstrual cycle disorders are uncomfortable to talk about. Who really wants to talk about never ending periods or blood clots—that’s just gross. And pain, one shouldn’t whine about menstrual pain, it’s unbecoming. Then there is the brain fog, fatigue, moodiness— all part of being a woman, or at least that’s what we’re led to believe. What if this isn’t normal? What if we, as women, are relegating our health prospects to ignorance? The Susan G. Komen Foundation did not come to prominence through silence, neither did the Endometriosis Foundation of America or any of the other women’s health organizations.

It is when we begin talking to each other and to our doctors that we can make it clear that these things are important; that the paucity of women’s health options is not acceptable. We need to become experts in our own health, to discern what’s normal and what’s not. We must drive the discourse, guide the research and build understanding for ourselves and our own well-being. We can’t wait for someone else to do this for us. Ignorance can be avoided.

See the full video clip with Dr. Mulley.

Does anyone come through womanhood unscathed?

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on August 30, 2011

3158 views

Over the weekend, as my colleagues and I were putting this issue together, we began talking about the hormone stories that were crossing our desks. More often than not, the women submitting these stories describe years of pain, suffering and uncertainty. In some cases, lab tests were done, in others they were not or not until years later. Inevitably, each woman was placed on oral contraceptives, sometimes for markedly different symptoms, and sent home, repeatedly. For most, oral contraceptives were not effective and in some cases, significantly exacerbated the conditions for which they were prescribed.

Gradually, each of us began to share our own health stories and those of our friends, sisters, mothers and daughters. It’s not that we hadn’t shared our stories before. We are, after all, a bunch of women working on women’s health issues. We talk about everything. Before this weekend, however, I don’t think any of us understood the depth of experience uniting us in this mission. There was not a single woman in the room or in our immediate friend or family circle who did not have a hormone health story. And these were not benign complaints of moodiness or feeling hormonal, those are a given. Rather, most of us and everyone we knew had experienced serious, often chronic, life-changing, presumably hormonal, health events. Many of us have had multiple surgeries.

This left me wondering, does anyone come through womanhood, unscathed? Is it just the nature of being a woman and having a uterus that predisposes us to these many ailments? In other words, is this normal? Statistically, apparently it is.

When epidemiological data are added up, most, if not all women, can be expected to have at least one hormone-related health issue at some point in their lives, not including menopause. Many women have multiple. And even if the etiology some of these conditions is not entirely hormonal, it’s a given that hormone cycles or synthetic hormones will moderate the condition in some manner. Which brings me to my second question; could these health issues be prevented?

At the moment, no, because we simply do not measure, attempt to predict, or manage women’s hormone health and disease in any discernible manner. Why don’t we have baseline hormone measurements when girls begin menstruating? Why isn’t hormone measurement a standard part of women’s health care, like blood pressure or cholesterol? Sure, excuses abound about why we can’t or shouldn’t measure women’s hormones, but bottom line: we cannot manage or even understand what is not measured.

Then there is the question about what is and is not a hormone-related condition. Until puberty boys and girls have almost equal rates of many conditions, but after puberty there are significant, sex-based divergences in the areas of mental health, immune function and pain-related disorders, among others. These differences are often attributed to hormone differences. Of course, matters of the reproductive system are hormonal but for many diseases the hormonal connections are not as clear.

Where is the dividing line between a symptom or condition that is considered hormonal versus one that is not? If a hormone binds to a receptor on a cell and elicits a reaction that modifies the cell’s behavior, can that be considered hormonal? I would say yes. Maybe at a very basic level, many diseases, not normally considered hormonal can and do have hormonal components that we ought to be addressing.

Another question to consider, why do we label some hormones male and others female? We all have the same complement of hormones, albeit in vastly different concentrations. Women have all the androgens that men have and men have progesterone and all of the estrogens that women do. Why are we not measuring more androgens in women and for that matter, more estrogens in men?

As a woman, among many women, I am acutely aware of the limitations of current medical science. As a scientist, I am dumbfounded that the solutions have not come to fore. As mother, most especially as a mother, I don’t want my daughter to suffer the way I and so many women have and still do. The obstacles to understanding are not as complex as we think. The first step is simply being open to the possibility that there is problem that deserves a solution. When you read the stories, posted by the brave women willing to speak, consider who you know that has had similar experiences. Consider the impact telling your story could have.

It is my hope that as more women share their stories, it will become abundantly clear that this problem deserves a solution. Join the conversation. If not for yourselves, for your daughters.

Hormones Matter

Where health, hormones, and a whole bunch of other stuff, make sense.