LoveYour Face
Session 1: Saturday, November 20 3-5 PM, Lakewood, CO Session 2: Monday, November 29, 7-9 PM, Denver, CO Session 3: Tuesday, January 4, 2011, 7-9 PM, Denver, CO The previous Love Your Face Classes were so popular that we are doing it again! Two hours of fun learning to nurture and pamper yourself, creating face oils made with natural, sensuous essential oils (no perfumes!) that are exactly right for your skin type, and learning to care for and feed your beautiful skin. Facelifts are not the answer to aging skin. In this totally hands-on workshop, you learn how to massage and nurture your skin, developing strong face muscles and a beautiful glowing skin … for the rest of your life. A perfect holiday gift – gift certificates are available!
Cost: $20
Menopause Workshop
Session 1: Wednesday, December 15, 7-9 PM, Denver, CO Session 2: Monday, January 11, 2011, 7-9 PM, Denver, CO Menopause offers a wonderful opportunity for women. For the first time in many of our lives, we can focus energy and healing on ourselves. This workshop provides the beginning for unlocking the doors to our heart and soul. Take the time to share, discover, and heal with other women on a similar path as yours. Discover that you are not alone. Topics including alternatives to traditional HRT, what to expect next, learning how other women experience menopause. Bring your questions.
A copy of Carolyn’s book, The Baby Boomers Menopause Handbook: Through the Other End of Puberty will be available at the very special workshop rate of only $5.
Cost: $20
For more information on either course and to register, contact Carolyn at 720.536.8246 or info@menopausebook.org
What about Bio-identical Hormone Replacement?
This is a brief discussion about bio-identical hormones. This is simply intended as a tool to raise your awareness about post-menopausal issues and give you a topic for discussion with your healthcare provider.
Several years ago, I had stopped using the MoonMaid Botanicals ProMeno Cream and all related supplements. I was simply eating a healthy, diet rich in good animal proteins (a variety of meats and plenty of fish) and lots of varieties of green leafy vegetables with some complex carbohydrates. Still taking some supplements and exercising regularly and often, I thought that was all I needed. I was mistaken. You get to learn from my stumblings! About 2 years ago I discovered that 10 years post-menopause my hormones were so depleted, it was affecting everything. My energy was low, recovery after a workout was very slow, my mind wasn’t working very well, my digestive system was working far less efficiently and it seemed to me that more hair then normal was falling out. So going to my holistic doctor, I learned that a number of possible issues could be at the root of the problems. The first thing to check is hormones. My progesterone was non-existent and my estrogen had dropped to levels that were well-below normal for post-menopause. This was dramatically affecting my health and wellbeing. While it’s true that post menopause our hormones do drop, there is a maintenance level of all of your hormones that is required for basic health. (Talk with your healthcare provider about this.) When the body is below that level, the symptoms I mentioned above show up. There are 3 possible issues that can impact those symptoms: hormone levels, thyroid levels and digestive problems. If you are having 2 or more of those symptoms, I suggest that you discuss this with your healthcare provider. Because my hormones were so low, I had to take serious action to reverse that quickly – so my usual ProMeno and supplements would not be enough. That’s when I learned about bio-identical hormone replacement. Your doctor works with a compounding pharmacy and designs a hormone replacement JUST FOR YOU. The hormones are naturally derived rather than from Horse Urine. The progesterone is naturally occurring as well. The estrogen that is used is about 80% E-3 and 20% E-2 (I refer to my book – Chapter 3 – for the explanation of those … or you can Google them and learn more. Estrogen-3 is the one that is not related to cancer. ) And, a little addition, you may need a tiny bit of testosterone to balance it all out. To help your body absorb the estrogen you will want to supplement with DIM (diindolylmethane) from 100 to 400 mg per day. If you have to use more than that per day, then it’s possible that either you are not using a good quality DIM or you are on too high a dose of bio-identical hormones. Symptoms of your body not process the estrogen are painful and/or swollen breasts. Remember from my book that the estrogen attaches to the estrogen receptors in the breasts if the body is not processing fully. There are a variety of ways to take bio-identical hormones: troches are soft and melt under the tongue reducing the risk of damaging your liver. The patch or cream also dramatically reduces the risk of liver damage. The last way I know of is in pill form which can stress your liver – you swallow it and your liver has to process it. You and your doctor need to create the balance of hormones that are right for you. And this may not happen the first time. When I received my first prescription, I certainly felt better and not great. So they increased the dosage. I had to monitor how I felt and report back to my doctor. Having a doctor who is willing to work WITH you is extremely important. S/he needs to trust your perceptions and support you through the process. And if you don’t trust your doctor, you need a new one! As we go through menopause and after, one thing that is important is a little fat. I talk about this in the book and I want to emphasize it here. Thin may look good on a magazine cover and the fact is that it is not healthy. Especially as women, we need a little fat to help the body age gracefully and make its own hormones. One thing about bio-identical hormones is if you don’t have enough fat, your body makes a little more. And if you have more fat then you need, you lose fat. It’s amazing how wise the body is when we bring it into balance. So now I am using a bio-identical hormone replacement 80% E-3, 20% E-2, Progesterone, and a tiny bit (the smallest dosage you can take) of testosterone. Plus I have begun to use MoonMaid Botanicals ProMeno again to help my body rebuild hormones along with the hormone replacement. Am I going to be on this for the rest of my life? No. And for now, it feels great and right for me. If this article is helpful to you, please make a donation through PayPal.October, 2010
If you don’t like the choices you’ve made in your life … make another choice!
October, 2010
I invite you to share your success stories with me. In the future, I'll include portions of them on this page. How have you gracefully slid through menopause without hormone replacement? If you have any secrets to share, I look forward to passing them on.