Archive for July 27th, 2011
After she fought so hard against breast cancer, Rosemary wasn’t about to just sign up for HRT as she went into menopause. She simply tolerated the menopausal symptoms she had as best she could, until they subsided after a couple years and she figured her hormonal troubles were over.
But when I sent her for a bone scan when she was in her mid-SOs, it showed she had osteoporosis. Fortunately, her NTX was 37, within the normal range, so her fracture risk was still manageably low. I prescribed Miacalcin and she started taking nutritional supplements, including calcium. After a year, however, her NTX levels were up to 57, putting her at higher risk for fracture and indicating an increasing rate of progression of bone loss. For Rosemary, Miacalcin wasn’t doing enough.
I had her hormone levels analyzed, and found her estrogen levels were very low. Because of her fear of a breast cancer relapse, Rosemary decided to add the estriol and ipriflavone to the Miacalcin. She felt comfortable with the natural estrogen since it does not increase the risk of breast cancer while still providing some of the benefits of synthetic estrogen. Since estriol has been less studied than other forms of estrogen, and it remains unproven that the bone benefits equal those of synthetic estrogen, Rosemary uses the ipriflavone—with its proven bone benefits—to ensure her bones are covered.
Rosemary pays attention to her diet, and is generally active. She considers herself a spiritual person, and copes with the many stresses in her life with regular meditation. But with her hormones finally in balance, she feels better than she has in a long time, and she now encourages her friends facing menopause to look carefully into alternatives for HRT. If a breast cancer survivor could find a regimen that suited her, she figures, anybody can.
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