menopause articles - Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary

4 Things to Know About Menopausal Hormone Therapy

September 4, 2019July 30, 2019 by Dr Lara Briden

This post is for all you forty and fifty-somethings who are looking for some kind of clarity around hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or menopausal hormone therapy.

You want to know if HRT is safe and which type to choose. And you want to know if hormone treatment is actually going to help with the sleep disturbance and mood changes and crazy periods that you’re experiencing now (but really didn’t expect to see for a few more years).

Rescue Prescription for Menopause and Perimenopause

August 31, 2019January 2, 2018 by Dr Lara Briden

Here are the symptoms you don’t want to talk about: heavy, flooding periods; mood swings; insomnia; hot flushes.

It’s not fun to bleed through your clothes or wake at night with your heart pounding and your sheets all wet. And part of you is thinking that maybe you’ve done something wrong to get into this situation. Or, at the very least, that you’ve made the shameful mistake of getting older and entering perimenopause or “the M-word.”

How to Survive the Great Progesterone Crash of Perimenopause

September 4, 2019March 6, 2017 by Dr Lara Briden

In your forties, you may find you don’t cope as well with stress. It happens because losing progesterone during perimenopause can destabilize the HPA axis or stress response system.

This recalibration of the nervous system is why women are three times more likely to suffer anxiety, depression, and insomnia during perimenopause.

What Estrogen Does in Your 40s (and How Progesterone Can Help)

August 31, 2019July 28, 2016 by Dr Lara Briden

Hot flashes, sleep problems, mood swings, and crazy heavy periods. Is this menopause already? And you’re only 42? No, menopause may still be a decade away. This is perimenopause, which is the two to ten years of hormonal change before periods stop.

Perimenopause can be a tricky time and causes more symptoms than menopause itself. Conventional medicine has surprisingly little to offer. Your doctor will say you’re too young for hormone replacement, so she will likely prescribe the pill or an antidepressant, or tell you just to ride it out.