I'm thinking of an article I recently read in Marie Claire magazine, May 2009 issue, starting on page 197. Here's a link to the same article online: http://www.marieclaire.com/health-fitness/...e?click=main_sr

According to the article, the hormones of younger women who are not near the peri years, are goofy all month long also. (If the link is removed, the article explains what goes on with hormones in the typical female weeks 1-4 each month). So, if that you woman was tested for hormones levels, wouldn't HRT and the like be indicated for her too?

wow very informative....thanks

Wow what a GREAT article... Pretty much explains alot. They hit the nail on the head when it came to the patterns in the mode. And did you notice, more and more articles are FINALLY stating ANXIETY in relation to HORMONES! IT's about time...

I'm glad I posted something that may help someone! I thought the article was quite interesting too!

Great article, thanks for posting.

K2sad wrote:

"According to the article, the hormones of younger women who are not near the peri years, are goofy all month long also. So, if that young woman was tested for hormones levels, wouldn't HRT and the like be indicated for her too?"

Probably not. When we are younger, our hormones are supposed to shift in this way, this is the normal reproductive cycle. So, even though a younger woman has fluctuations too, they would not usually require HRT because the hormones are still at their proper levels, even as they shift throughout the month. But when we age and our estrogen drops through the floor and our cycle goes haywire, that is when troublesome symptoms may begin to interfere with our lives.

Ah, aging, isn't it wonderful?

Well many young women do react to the fluctuations of their hormones during their monthly cycle of course. However, I think the peaks and troughs of hormones during the menstrual cycle pre-peri are as nothing compared to the fluctuating levels, imbalances and significant deficits of hormones experienced when the ovaries begin to stop production altogether. The menstrual cycle itself becomes disrupted when the ovaries start to fail. Progesterone is meant to be affected before estrogen, with women experiencing more and more anovulatory cycles throughout their late thirties and forties, possibly leading to estrogen dominance symptoms (if this is wrong I'm sure someone better informed will come along and correct me!). Furthermore, although I'm no expert, I suspect that with the normal menstrual cycle of a young woman, even though certain hormones dip at certain times, there's possibly still a low level of them circulating. When I abruptly stopped HRT, it was three weeks before I experienced any withdrawal symptoms. Being close to being post-menopausal, my body couldn't pick up the deficit and start producing more, as it had on the occasions when I'd stopped the birth control pill as a younger woman.

The hormone levels of younger women might well vary when tested at different points during their cycle, but they'd still register at levels for a pre-menopausal woman, whereas I think in peri there's a greater fluctuation in levels. For example at one point I was told by my GP that my FSH level indicated that I was "well into menopause". A couple of months later I had a period. I suspect that if my hormone levels had been tested nearer to that period, they'd have registered more in the pre-menopausal range.

Thanks for posting, absolutely true for me, to the T.
I been saying it all along, we never been in balance to begin with, it is part of being a women. We only have less fluctuations hourly and plenty of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, and younger body to begin with, LOL.
best,
I.

Well, consider the alternative...

"Getting old is what happens to people if they're lucky" - saying attributed to Groucho Marx.