Menopause

Everyone knows someone who’s going through the menopause. Whether it’s happening to your mother, your sister, your friend, your wife or indeed yourself, we’re all familiar with the host of unpleasant symptoms that can signify the onset of “the change” – hot flushes, headaches, sleeplessness and mood swings, to name just a few of them.

The menopause refers to that time in every woman’s life when her periods stop and her ovaries lose their reproductive function. Usually, this occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, but may sometimes be younger.

Menopausal Symptoms

Lowered oestrogen levels during the menopause are known to be a major contributory factor in a multitude of unwanted symptoms:

• Night sweats
• Hot flushes
• Vaginal dryness
• Weight gain
• Mood swings
• Headaches
• Aching joints
• Lowered sex drive

Many women are looking to natural alternatives to help them through

With a huge proportion of the UK population currently going through the menopause, and the number set to rise over the next 20-30 years as our population ages, many women are looking to natural alternatives to help them get through the worst of their menopausal symptoms.

Whilst medical treatments have focused on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as the answer to everyone’s problems, concerns over the safety of such drug treatments has produced a wealth of research into natural compounds, such as soya, black cohosh, red clover and dong quai in recent years.

Exciting research points to an impressive new class of phytoestrogens

Whilst the weight of evidence behind such compounds is impressive, more recent research points to an exciting new class of phytoestrogens, known as prenylflavonoids, providing new hope for women undergoing the strain of the menopause. These studies have found that 8-prenylnaringenin, the oestrogenic compound contained in hops, possesses unusually strong bio-activity, and could likely be the most potent natural phytoestrogen available.

For more information, please call to discuss.