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Crowdfund Hormones Matter – Buy an Unsubscription Now

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Chandler Marrs

Hormones Matter is a labor of love, but an unfunded labor of love that needs your help. Hi, I am Chandler Marrs, PhD, founder, editor and chief trouble-maker at Hormones Matter. I want to continue our offerings and provide our community with as many resources as possible. This takes financial and human resources that I simply do not have. So I am offering you, our readers, community members, supporters, friends, family, and fellow health advocates, the opportunity to help crowdfund Hormones Matter.

Crowdfunding with a Twist – The Unsubscription

As with everything we do here at Hormones Matter, this crowdfunding campaign is a little bit different than others. Technically it’s not a crowdfunding campaign at all, because I am not going to offer you any kitschy certificates, t-shirts or other products you don’t need or want. Nope, I will not offer you any of the standard fair associated with traditional crowdfunding campaigns.

What I will offer is the continued health advocacy, science and medical reporting, and the research that you have come to trust, plus the much needed additions to the website that our community desperately needs. I will offer the opportunity to change healthcare dramatically, by giving voice to those with the invisible, difficult to diagnose and seemingly impossible to treat, diseases. And finally, I will offer the opportunity to contribute to a deeper understanding about medication safety and efficacy. If you believe in what we are doing here at Hormones Matter and want to be part of the healthcare solution, help us stay online and help me fund the next steps in our development.

Contribute Now by Purchasing a Hormones Matter Unsubscription

Yes, you read that correctly, an unsubscription. Why an unsubscription?  Well, I want our reporting, our research, everything we do, to be open to all. The unsubscription model, also called the pay-what-you-can model, allows those who can pay, to pay, and those who can’t afford to pay to still have access to all of the great health and science information we provide. I believe very strongly that one’s ability to access the latest health research should not be contingent on income, and hence, the unsubscription model.

If you have a few bucks and like what we do, send them over. If you have a few more and want to really see us grow, then buy a big unsubscription. If you’d prefer a one-time contribution, click the donate button.

Subscribe to an Unsubscription Now

$12.00 per year – $1.00 per month
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Donation in any Amount

Is this a Donation?

Well, yes and no. Hormones Matter was formerly an arm of a  B-Corp (for benefit corporation), that I ran for many years as a service to the community. Without the resources to run this type of business endeavor any longer, and in an effort to keep Hormones Matter alive, I have closed the corporation and moved Hormones Matter over to a single entity LLC. What this means is that any money you contribute is not tax deductible, for that I would have to be a not-for-profit enterprise. So while the donation is a contribution to our on-going operations, it is not a donation to a non-profit.  Your financial contribution will help keep Hormones Matter online.

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On the Radio: Chandler Marrs and Leslie Botha Talk Hormones and Health

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Chandler Marrs

Earlier this week, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Leslie Carol Botha on her radio show, Holy Hormones Honey, the Greatest Story Never Told, KRFC FM Fort Collins. We spent an hour discussing everything from pregnancy – postpartum mental health and the state of hormone research to women in clinical trials and vaccine safety.  We even talked politics, just a bit.

Front and center was the need for more research and data in all areas of women’s health and the Hormone’s MatterTM solution, a series of crowdsourced studies under the Real Women, Real DataTM, program. Currently, we have three studies underway with many more planned.

In the end, we decided, that we needed to found the Hormones MatterTM University or HMU. Seems like a good idea to me, what do you think?

I had a blast talking about women’s health and hormones and look forward to doing it again. If you want to know why I do, what I do or just want to learn a little bit more about me and why hormones matter in health, have a listen.

To listen to the interview: Do Hormones Matter in Women’s Health? Leslie Botha Interviews Dr. Chandler Marrs on Holy Hormones the Greatest Story Never Told.

To keep abreast of all the latest women’s health news, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

 

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Why Hormones Matter

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I’ve been writing for Hormones Matter for several months now and I’ve been thinking a lot about just how much hormones really do matter. After all, we’re all only alive because of hormones when you get right down to it. Yet, most of us give very little thought to our hormones or why they matter until we’re forced to do so for some reason.

As young adolescents, we’re taught mostly in health class that hormones prompt our bodies to develop into those of men and women. We recognize that underarm and pubic hair growth is an indication that all is going well. Boys voices deepen and girls develop breasts. New sexual feelings slowly emerge and the world takes on new meaning and all things become more colorful. We become alive as it were and suddenly have another purpose – that of connecting sexually and of reproducing at some point. There’s a good amount of information about how hormones influence sex and reproduction. Sadly, the information seems to mostly end there. It wasn’t until my hormone-producing organs were removed through an unconsented hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo oophorectomy that I began to realize how much my hormones had mattered.

In simplest terms, hormones are chemical messengers which travel through our blood and enter cells, tissues and organs where they turn on switches to the genetic machinery that regulate everything from reproduction to emotions, overall health and well being. Certain hormones have an effect on particular cells known as ‘target cells’. A target cell reacts to a particular hormone because it bears receptors for that hormone. This is why there’s never a time in a woman’s life when she doesn’t need hormones. Hormones can be thought of as the life giving force that ‘animates’ us physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually. When a woman undergoes hysterectomy, hormone-producing organs are permanently removed and hormones are lost forever. It’s important to know that hormones aren’t only involved in the production of a new life (as in baby in the womb new life), they sustain all life.

Realizing How Much Hormones Matter

At the time of my father’s death from a massive heart attack in 2009, I was still reeling from hysterectomy and ovary removal in 2007. I’ll never forget the first time I saw my father’s body after he passed away. It hit me really hard to see him full of life one day and then see him completely and utterly lifeless the next. It hit my son Christopher even harder I think. I’ll never forget his comment as he looked at his grandfather’s ‘lifeless’ body just before the dreaded funeral. He said matter-of-fact like “Papaw’s spirit is gone. There’s no more animation.” Christopher’s observation was a very profound one indeed. In a very real sense, I suppose that is what death means – no more animation. I’d never thought of it exactly like that before.

Suddenly, I couldn’t help but think about how much I had changed since hysterectomy. It was as if the very life had been sucked right out of me too. I wasn’t dead, but I wasn’t really alive either – at least not in any way that mattered. Along with the loss of my female organs, I had lost my animation in many ways too. My eyes no longer sparkled. My skin no longer glowed. All things became dry, dull and lackluster. Everything became an effort and ‘feelings’ were no longer present. Remember how it felt when you became sexually aware? Well think of the opposite of that. While I once viewed the world in living color, things appeared mostly grey to me after hysterectomy and the loss of hormones. In short, I lost my animation.

Beyond reproduction and the other physiological functions ovarian hormones control, in many ways, these hormones animate us. They provide the subtle nuances that make life interesting – a life giving force that colors our physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual selves. To be animated is to have life, interest, spirit, motion and activity. What happens when a woman undergoes hysterectomy and castration? Pretty much the same thing that happens to a man who is castrated, she loses her animation, her color – everything that makes life interesting and worth living disappears. And this is on top of the health issues that arise from the loss of hormones.

There can be no question that hormones matter. It is too bad that we don’t know this until after they are gone. Please give this much thought before ever agreeing to removal of your hormone-producing and life-sustaining organs. Always weigh the benefits and risks.

Hysterectomy Research

Hormones Matter is conducting research on hysterectomy outcomes. If you have had a hysterectomy, please take a few minutes to complete The Hysterectomy Survey.

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Progesterone in Poetry – Can it be done?

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I got some progesterone in my eye
And now my vision is slow
My acuity is hungry and yet
Not sure what to eat –
Except for potato chips
Or perhaps chocolate
Followed by potato chips,
Chocolate, and
French fries.

Each eyelash wants to take a nap –
But each one also wants
To take a nap, separately,
But with the cat.

I got some progesterone in my eye
And now my eyelid is much heavier
Than normal,
And my eye itself
Is slightly miffed
At my heavy, cheerful eyelid –
But just too apathetic
To address the issue.

I got some progesterone in
My eye
And although
I have plenty of work to do,
I’ll gaze fatly out this convenient window
And not look very hard
At any one thing.

 

Lisa lives in Homer Alaska with her amazing husband, and is an advocate for endometriosis awareness, education, and higher standards for women’s health worldwide.  She works in Quality Assurance, and she dreams of saving the world with poetry and organic vegetables.  She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Project Management. 

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Hormones, Hysterectomy and the Hippocampus

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hormones, hysterectomy and the hippocampus

New research, conducted on rodents, suggests that pre-menopausal hysterectomy with ovariectomy induces changes in the hippocampus (memory center of brain) making it hypersensitive to ischemic stressors (reduced blood flow). In contrast, ischemic stressors did not cause hippocampal damage in non-ovariectomized female rats or even gonadectomized male rats

The hippocampus, located in the temporal lobe of the brain, is responsible for working memory formation, storage and retrieval. Researchers have long known that damage to cells in the hippocampus cause significant problems in short-term, long-term and working memory, ranging from mild cognitive decline to complete impairment. Certain cells in the hippocampus are particularly sensitive to the amyloid protein buildup associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

In the current study, removal of the ovaries and the associated long-term estradiol deprivation made the hippocampus hypersensitive to ischemic stressors and induced a myriad of events leading to significant hippocampal CA3 cell damage and cell death. The long term estradiol deprivation also led to increased amyloid production and associated neurodegeneration. As one might expect, damage and disruption to the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, was associated with the animal’s ability to learn, remember and function.

What was particularly interesting, female animals who retained their ovaries and were exposed to the same ischemic stressor demonstrated neither the brain damage nor the decline in cognitive function.  Similarly, male animals whose gonads were removed, suffered no notable brain damage or cognitive decline either. It was only the female animals whose ovaries were removed and whose systems were deprived of estradiol for a long period of time.

When estradiol was added back to the ovariectomized female animals shortly after the surgery, the female animals were able to weather the ischemic stressor and hippocampal damage was reduced significantly. However, when the estradiol was added back after an extended period of deprivation, it had no effect on the hippocampal damage or subsequent decline in memory.

Estradiol is important for cognitive function.

It is important to note, that animal researchers use 17B-estradiol, the same form of estradiol produced in the ovaries. In contrast, researchers who study human memory,  often supplement with synthetic estrogens (Premarin, Prempro etc.), which is molecularly different than what is produced in our bodies. Indeed, the synthetic estrogen is actually about 20 different estrogenic compounds synthesized from pregnant horse urine. With synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT), recently renamed menopausal hormone therapy (MHT), the difference in molecular structure, as well as the long chain of metabolites that MHT produces, lead to an increase in the number of illnesses and may or may not be protective against the diminished estradiol induced hippocampal damage or the associated cognitive decline.

 

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The Rise in Pitocin Induced Childbirth

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Labor is an exceptional, natural occurrence that a women’s body is perfectly designed for. And so is her brain. All day, every day the brain and body communicate with each other through hormones, pregnant or not. When pregnant, there is one hormone that talks a lot louder than the others called oxytocin. Oxytocin is typically referred to as the bonding, trusting or loving hormone. It’s synthesized in the brain and creates the life-long bond between mom and baby. Outside of pregnancy, it helps create bonds between lovers and helps us trust and connect with others in general. Simply put, it is THE LOVE HORMONE.

Oxytocin and Labor

A combination of complex mechanisms occurs prior to labor, which science isn’t close to completely understanding. But it is very clear a women’s body somehow knows exactly what to do on its own.  It’s all about the timing. Together, a woman’s brain, body, and unborn baby decide when the time is right, and then bursts of oxytocin are released from mom’s brain. The oxytocin travels down to the uterus and induces contractions. Over time, baby can slide through the vaginal canal and into the world. When this special timing is disrupted, either artificially or by medical emergency, that’s when problems arise.

Pitocin and Induction

Pitocin, an artificial oxytocin, is a drug used to induce labor. In fact, it is used in over 50% of deliveries in the U.S. In some cases, it is used due to significant risks such as placental abruption, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, eclampsia or chorioamnionitis. However, too frequently, a woman is pressured to induce her labor for reasons that are not health-related. A recent study found that for many inductions, physicians are medically unjustified in giving women oxytocin to induce their labors.

Inducing a woman’s labor that has not naturally began is not a matter that should be taken lightly. It is a medical intervention that poses a risk to women and their babies. When induced, a woman is given ptiocin, at a time when her body is not ready to deliver. Pitocin increases her chances of having excessive and painful contractions. The painful contractions may necessitate an epidural because her cervix doesn’t open properly. This can lead to a cesarean. Sometimes the mom and/or baby react harshly react to pitocin. The side effects for pitocin include: irregular fetal heartbeat, excessive contractions and postpartum hemorrhaging. These too can lead to a cesarean. One study found that induction of labor is associated with an increased risk of a cesarean section and hospitals with higher induction rates also have higher cesarean section rates. Another study shows that labor induction may increase chances of cesarean section by twofold.

The Brain to Body Connection

Rushing a woman’s labor along may not be the best option for her body either. A common scenario includes a woman first going into early labor at home. Once admitted to the hospital, her labor ceases. Why? Her instinctual brain is simply trying to process whether it is safe to give birth in this new environment or should she run for hills to save her newborn. In time, a woman’s brain can determine that it’s safe to have the baby and her labor will continue. But, hospital care givers may not be so patient. Instead, they hurry the process along with pitocin. In the end, mom and baby suffer.

Pitocin and the FDA

Like many medications given to pregnant women, appropriate studies have not been conducted to determine the proper dosing, safety or even efficacy. Among many criteria, different stages of labor must be tested and women with different pregnancy and health histories must be taken into consideration. This has not been done. In fact, oxytocin (pitocin) currently holds a black box warning from the FDA:

…not indicated for elective labor induction since inadequate data to evaluate benefit vs risk; elective induction defined as labor initiation without medical indications

This means that physicians are currently using women and their unborn babies as clinical study participants without their consent. Worse yet, most are not collecting any data to evaluate the safety or efficacy of this drug.

In a Nut Shell

Many women are given pitocin are unaware that they have the option to wait for their bodies to take their natural courses. Labor is a delicate process that consists of a balance between a woman’s hormone levels and her babies’. This process takes time. Unfortunately, once admitted to the hospital, too often women are not given this time and the intelligence of our bodies is dismissed.

Learn about labor and delivery. Once informed, you decide.

Hormones MatterTM Medical Disclaimer: All material on this web site is provided for your information only and may not be construed as, nor should it be a substitute for, professional medical advice. To read more about our health policy see Terms of Use.

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Hysterectomy and Brain Health

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Hysterectomy and brain health

Studies abound showing how the endogenous estrogens, estradiol mainly, improve memory and other cognitive functions. New research demonstrates there is an even more basic connection between the female reproductive organs – the uterus and ovaries – and the brain. The monthly menstrual cycle may control iron levels in body and also in the brain. Women who have a hysterectomy before reaching natural menopause may be at higher risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Azheimer’s and Parkinson’s due to the increased peripheral and brain iron levels post hysterectomy.

Iron and Brain Health

Iron is an essential element for health. Both iron deficiency and excess are associated with brain pathology. In the developing brain, too little iron causes neurological impairment with significant cognitive and neuromuscular deficits. As we age, iron accumulation in the brain is also problematic and linked to neurodegenertive disorders. In part because women menstruate, they have naturally lower levels of peripheral (body) iron than men. Researchers believe that the menstrual flushing of excess iron may be in part responsible for delaying the brain iron accumulation that has been linked to early Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in men.

In a study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, researchers investigated what effect premenopausal hysterectomy had on brain iron levels. From a sample (n = 93) of healthy older, male and female volunteers, ages 47-80 years, researchers used a specialized MRI to image brain iron levels.

What they found was quite interesting. Women who had hysterectomy before reaching natural menopause had significantly higher iron levels in the white matter of the frontal cortex compared to women who reached menopause naturally. The hysterectomy group, also had higher iron levels in the other brain regions tested but those differences were not large enough to reach statistical significance. Brain iron levels in the hysterectomy group were similar to those of men, who have naturally higher iron levels in the brain and who often succumb to the neurodegenerative diseases at a much earlier age. The researchers speculated that the observed white matter iron accumulation could be a precusor to the grey matter iron accumulation observed in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Brain Basics

White matter in the brain consists of the oligodendrocytes – a type of cell that forms what is called the myelin sheath. Myelin is the insulation that protects the axons of the neuron (in the brain) or nerve (in the body) to allow rapid conduction or messaging across the brain or to the body.  Myelin is like the plastic coating around the electrical wiring in your house. If the coating is too thick, conduction is blocked. If the coating is frayed or too thin, electrical sparks fly everywhere. Iron is a critical component of healthy myelin, too much or too little impairs signal conduction – brain messaging.

neuron

Grey matter, on the other hand, is where the unmyelinated portion of neurons – the dendrites and cell bodies – are located. These are brain regions responsible for learning, memory, emotion, sensory perception and motor control. Cells in this part of the brain rely on chemical signaling to translate information. After the dendrite receives and the cell body translates a message, it sends the signal down the myelinated axon to its target.  Iron accumulation, either in the white or grey matter would impact brain function. Iron accumulation specifically in the frontal white matter region would impact all higher order cognitive function.

What This Means

The research is still in its early stages. An observed connection between menstrual blood loss and peripheral or brain iron stores though apparent, may not represent the total picture. It is quite likely that hormones associated with reproductive health, altered by the hysterectomy, also play a role in iron regulation.  Initial research connecting the hyperandrogenic and metabolically dysregulated state of women with PCOS is  associated with increased iron stores, as is general and cancer related inflammation, and genetics. Nevertheless, this study speaks to the critical need for more research about the long-term consequences of hysterectomy. Reproductive hormones regulate more than just reproduction. Removing the organs that synthesize these hormones has health consequences far beyond reproduction. It’s high time we begin addressing this.

If you have had a hysterectomy, be sure to take The Hysterectomy Survey.

Author’s note:  I would like to thank David Wiseman Ph.D., M.R.Pharm.S.
Founder, International Adhesions Society (IAS) for introducing me to this exciting new research.

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Wish Me Well – Hysterectomy Looming

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As I embark on my surgery in a couple of days, I have come to terms with the fact that I could possibly wake up with the hysterectomy I have wanted for 5 years. I will not know for sure if the doctor will do the hysterectomy, as she is not willing to do the procedure unless there are complications. Is it bad to wish for complications? I want it all out. I have weighed the pros and cons. I know the hysterectomy provides only a 50/50 chance of getting better, but I am done with this disease.  Fifteen years of suffering with endometriosis is enough.

I am afraid of what will happen to my hormones after the hysterectomy.  I am not quite prepared for the wrath of raging hormones.  Maybe I will just wake up with the tubes and left ovary gone.  Maybe I am not yet facing the reality of what may come. I have begged and pleaded for a hysterectomy for so many years, but for some reason they would not do it.  My doctor wants to try removing my tubes first and my left ovary to see what happens. I guess she is right. I should try this surgery one more time because my first surgery was so successful, in 2007.  If it wasn’t for the post-surgery pelvic inflammatory disease that wreaked havoc on my insides, maybe I would be feeling better now.

I just don’t want to have another surgery after this. After this I am done and that is why deep inside I hope she removes everything.

This is a difficult decision to make, probably just as difficult as having to pull the plug on someone you know is not going to make it. You sit there with that thought in your mind “What if?” It is one of the most serious decisions of my life. I can’t take it back if it all goes wrong. I have to live with it.

The truth is, all the side effects don’t matter to me right now at all. I don’t want my woman parts anymore. I don’t want to have to go back and forth for all the tests only to end in tears and to be rejected my doctors who show no empathy when it comes to the survival of this disease. This choice is my decision to make mine and mine alone. I have listened to so many people and read so many stories but, in the end, I am sick of the cycle, sick of this disease, sick of the drugs, and just sick and tired of being sick and tired.

If she does not remove everything and I have no relief after this surgery, I will be looking for a surgeon that will remove it. I am 100% sure about this. I wasn’t sure before.

Thank you everyone who posted their thoughts, encouragement and concerns.  I took them all in and made my decision. I just needed to be at peace with it. I am now.  Wish me well. I will post again after the surgery.

My surgery is scheduled for February 28th.

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