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shadowkatOn the way to work this morning - I read an article in the New Yorker about menopause, and learned a few things that I didn't know. Rare that - considering how much I've read about menopause over the years.
Menopause is having a moment
"The hormone estrogen, levels of which surge at puberty and decline in perimenopause, was first identified, in guinea pigs, in 1917; its crystalline form was isolated in 1929, by Edward A. Doisy, the chair of the Department of Biochemistry at St. Louis University’s School of Medicine. In an autobiographical essay written after he retired, Doisy, who in the forties won a Nobel Prize for his work on Vitamin K, an essential element in blood clotting, colorfully recounted his earlier scientific endeavor. The process of isolating estrogen required obtaining a supply of it in its unpurified state, which could be found in urine excreted by pregnant women. When supplies from Doisy’s family and friends proved insufficient (in his essay, he pays special tribute to the contributions of a niece), he enlisted the help of a local obstetrics department. On one occasion, a driver ferrying the precious amber liquid was almost arrested for bootlegging—this was at the height of Prohibition—and was saved only after he invited the officer to take a whiff from the suspicious vessels.
When it was discovered that estrogen could be supplied not just by expectant women but by expectant horses, commercial production of the hormone took off. Premarin, approved by the F.D.A. in 1942 to treat menopausal symptoms, soon dominated the market, its innocuous-seeming name barely disguising its primary ingredient, pregnant mares’ urine. By the end of the twentieth century, Premarin was consistently the first or second most prescribed drug in the United States, beating out medications for common ailments like high blood pressure and diabetes, with an estimated forty per cent of women of postmenopausal age taking it or an alternative estrogen formulation."
.... the sudden, much publicized cessation, in July, 2002, of a medical trial being conducted within the Women’s Health Initiative that sought to determine whether estrogen could reduce the risks of chronic conditions afflicting postmenopausal women. Contrary to expectations, preliminary data indicated that subjects receiving a combined estrogen-progestin medication were at an increased risk of heart attacks, blood clots, and strokes. (Progestin is the synthetic form of progesterone.) Most alarmingly, women who had taken hormones for an average of 5.6 years were at a twenty-six per cent higher risk of developing breast cancer than those in the placebo group.
The findings made global headlines, and millions of women who had been prescribed estrogen-based drugs quit them on the spot. (Another consequence was that tens of thousands of factory-farmed horses were no longer needed for their urine; many were sent to slaughter.)
I didn't know that about estrogen. And I'm somewhat relieved its no longer coming from the urine of pregnant horses that were apparently farmed just for estrogen. On the other hand? After they stopped the production (due to fears of breast cancer) - they no longer had a use for the farmed horses and slaughtered them. Dear God, humans can be horrible. Poor horses. Okay at least, I think it is no longer coming from pregnant horses, does make me happy I'm not on estrogen.
Also, apparently estrogen doesn't necessarily cause breast cancer like everyone thought...or at least not in everyone.
Contrary to expectations, preliminary data indicated that subjects receiving a combined estrogen-progestin medication were at an increased risk of heart attacks, blood clots, and strokes. (Progestin is the synthetic form of progesterone.) Most alarmingly, women who had taken hormones for an average of 5.6 years were at a twenty-six per cent higher risk of developing breast cancer than those in the placebo group.
The findings made global headlines, and millions of women who had been prescribed estrogen-based drugs quit them on the spot. (Another consequence was that tens of thousands of factory-farmed horses were no longer needed for their urine; many were sent to slaughter.) Hormone-therapy research went into a tailspin, although, even at the time, a more thorough reading of the numbers revealed a far less scary picture. The increased breast-cancer risk was, indeed, twenty-six per cent, but in absolute terms the results showed that a total of thirty-eight women for every ten thousand taking a combined estrogen-progestin pill might be expected to develop the disease, eight more than in the control group.
***
In 2024, a twenty-year follow-up study of the W.H.I. participants showed that mortality rates among trial subjects who had received estrogen and those who had been in the placebo group were statistically insignificant, and it concluded that hormone use was supported for women under the age of sixty with “bothersome menopausal symptoms.” Many women over sixty may consider the benefits of hormone therapy worth the associated risks; JoAnn Manson, the principal author of the W.H.I. follow-up and the chief of the preventive-medicine division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told the Washington Post that the increased risk of breast cancer from the long-term use of combined estrogen-progestin drugs was the equivalent of drinking one or two alcoholic beverages a day. “The absolute risk is low, and all choices involve trade-offs,” she said. Advances in hormone therapy include the delivery of estrogen through a transdermal patch or gel, which appears to impart a lower risk of developing blood clots than oral delivery does. Research suggests, too, that hormone therapy reduces susceptibility to osteoporosis, another calamitous disease of aging for women.
I tried it once - it gave me anxiety attacks. And was afraid to try it again. I did beg a gynecologist for the patch in 2019-2020, when I was suffering hot flashes, but she refused. And then the pandemic happened, so I wasn't overly concerned. I've never had hormone treatment, nor has anyone else in my family that I'm aware of. And now that I'm moving into post-menopause or rather in post-menopause, it's not as big an issue. My hot flashes seem to be associated with my blood sugar sky-rocketing.
I've begun subscribing to the New Yorker and New York Magazine, also AP News Wire. I'm keeping an eye on what's happening, and trying not to doom scroll Facebook, or the others. Good news? I have followed a lot of positive sites on FB, so it's not all doom and gloom.
Today was frustrating. And I'm afraid I've made my knees hurt by taking the Jaunvia diabetic med. Not certain. Trying to figure out if it is arthritis or Januvia that is causing the knee issue. So I finally scheduled the bilateral knee x-ray (for both knees) and the chest x-ray for 2:20pm on Friday. (Taking this Friday and next Friday off).
Work gave me a headache. One that is unresolved. I'll have to call the Lawyer tomorrow to work it out. I just keep going in circles with the Project Team.
The News is also giving me a headache - it's nightmare inducing. Honestly, it can't be that bad out there? Can it? At least it was sunny today and in the 60s.
And the commute gave me a headache - the F was delayed. And as a result, the train was packed, standing room only up until 7th Avenue, when folks cleared out. Everyone got off at 7th Ave and Church Avenue. The train went express - and no one got off it at Jay Street, even though it skipped four stops. We need more express trains.
Oh, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series is leaving Hulu in 11 days. I'm annoyed. Where is it going? (Apparently it hasn't been confirmed - it just says it on Hulu.)
ETA:Yes, you can stream Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Paramount+. You can also stream it on Disney+ and Hulu.
Where else can you watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Fandango at Home, Tubi, DIRECTV, Sling TV, Prime Video, and Apple TV.
Some you have to pay for - AppleTV - you have to pay for it. Same with Sling. But I think it is free on Paramount +, Prime, and Tubi, also Disney + in certain regions.
Menopause is having a moment
"The hormone estrogen, levels of which surge at puberty and decline in perimenopause, was first identified, in guinea pigs, in 1917; its crystalline form was isolated in 1929, by Edward A. Doisy, the chair of the Department of Biochemistry at St. Louis University’s School of Medicine. In an autobiographical essay written after he retired, Doisy, who in the forties won a Nobel Prize for his work on Vitamin K, an essential element in blood clotting, colorfully recounted his earlier scientific endeavor. The process of isolating estrogen required obtaining a supply of it in its unpurified state, which could be found in urine excreted by pregnant women. When supplies from Doisy’s family and friends proved insufficient (in his essay, he pays special tribute to the contributions of a niece), he enlisted the help of a local obstetrics department. On one occasion, a driver ferrying the precious amber liquid was almost arrested for bootlegging—this was at the height of Prohibition—and was saved only after he invited the officer to take a whiff from the suspicious vessels.
When it was discovered that estrogen could be supplied not just by expectant women but by expectant horses, commercial production of the hormone took off. Premarin, approved by the F.D.A. in 1942 to treat menopausal symptoms, soon dominated the market, its innocuous-seeming name barely disguising its primary ingredient, pregnant mares’ urine. By the end of the twentieth century, Premarin was consistently the first or second most prescribed drug in the United States, beating out medications for common ailments like high blood pressure and diabetes, with an estimated forty per cent of women of postmenopausal age taking it or an alternative estrogen formulation."
.... the sudden, much publicized cessation, in July, 2002, of a medical trial being conducted within the Women’s Health Initiative that sought to determine whether estrogen could reduce the risks of chronic conditions afflicting postmenopausal women. Contrary to expectations, preliminary data indicated that subjects receiving a combined estrogen-progestin medication were at an increased risk of heart attacks, blood clots, and strokes. (Progestin is the synthetic form of progesterone.) Most alarmingly, women who had taken hormones for an average of 5.6 years were at a twenty-six per cent higher risk of developing breast cancer than those in the placebo group.
The findings made global headlines, and millions of women who had been prescribed estrogen-based drugs quit them on the spot. (Another consequence was that tens of thousands of factory-farmed horses were no longer needed for their urine; many were sent to slaughter.)
I didn't know that about estrogen. And I'm somewhat relieved its no longer coming from the urine of pregnant horses that were apparently farmed just for estrogen. On the other hand? After they stopped the production (due to fears of breast cancer) - they no longer had a use for the farmed horses and slaughtered them. Dear God, humans can be horrible. Poor horses. Okay at least, I think it is no longer coming from pregnant horses, does make me happy I'm not on estrogen.
Also, apparently estrogen doesn't necessarily cause breast cancer like everyone thought...or at least not in everyone.
Contrary to expectations, preliminary data indicated that subjects receiving a combined estrogen-progestin medication were at an increased risk of heart attacks, blood clots, and strokes. (Progestin is the synthetic form of progesterone.) Most alarmingly, women who had taken hormones for an average of 5.6 years were at a twenty-six per cent higher risk of developing breast cancer than those in the placebo group.
The findings made global headlines, and millions of women who had been prescribed estrogen-based drugs quit them on the spot. (Another consequence was that tens of thousands of factory-farmed horses were no longer needed for their urine; many were sent to slaughter.) Hormone-therapy research went into a tailspin, although, even at the time, a more thorough reading of the numbers revealed a far less scary picture. The increased breast-cancer risk was, indeed, twenty-six per cent, but in absolute terms the results showed that a total of thirty-eight women for every ten thousand taking a combined estrogen-progestin pill might be expected to develop the disease, eight more than in the control group.
***
In 2024, a twenty-year follow-up study of the W.H.I. participants showed that mortality rates among trial subjects who had received estrogen and those who had been in the placebo group were statistically insignificant, and it concluded that hormone use was supported for women under the age of sixty with “bothersome menopausal symptoms.” Many women over sixty may consider the benefits of hormone therapy worth the associated risks; JoAnn Manson, the principal author of the W.H.I. follow-up and the chief of the preventive-medicine division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told the Washington Post that the increased risk of breast cancer from the long-term use of combined estrogen-progestin drugs was the equivalent of drinking one or two alcoholic beverages a day. “The absolute risk is low, and all choices involve trade-offs,” she said. Advances in hormone therapy include the delivery of estrogen through a transdermal patch or gel, which appears to impart a lower risk of developing blood clots than oral delivery does. Research suggests, too, that hormone therapy reduces susceptibility to osteoporosis, another calamitous disease of aging for women.
I tried it once - it gave me anxiety attacks. And was afraid to try it again. I did beg a gynecologist for the patch in 2019-2020, when I was suffering hot flashes, but she refused. And then the pandemic happened, so I wasn't overly concerned. I've never had hormone treatment, nor has anyone else in my family that I'm aware of. And now that I'm moving into post-menopause or rather in post-menopause, it's not as big an issue. My hot flashes seem to be associated with my blood sugar sky-rocketing.
I've begun subscribing to the New Yorker and New York Magazine, also AP News Wire. I'm keeping an eye on what's happening, and trying not to doom scroll Facebook, or the others. Good news? I have followed a lot of positive sites on FB, so it's not all doom and gloom.
Today was frustrating. And I'm afraid I've made my knees hurt by taking the Jaunvia diabetic med. Not certain. Trying to figure out if it is arthritis or Januvia that is causing the knee issue. So I finally scheduled the bilateral knee x-ray (for both knees) and the chest x-ray for 2:20pm on Friday. (Taking this Friday and next Friday off).
Work gave me a headache. One that is unresolved. I'll have to call the Lawyer tomorrow to work it out. I just keep going in circles with the Project Team.
The News is also giving me a headache - it's nightmare inducing. Honestly, it can't be that bad out there? Can it? At least it was sunny today and in the 60s.
And the commute gave me a headache - the F was delayed. And as a result, the train was packed, standing room only up until 7th Avenue, when folks cleared out. Everyone got off at 7th Ave and Church Avenue. The train went express - and no one got off it at Jay Street, even though it skipped four stops. We need more express trains.
Oh, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series is leaving Hulu in 11 days. I'm annoyed. Where is it going? (Apparently it hasn't been confirmed - it just says it on Hulu.)
ETA:Yes, you can stream Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Paramount+. You can also stream it on Disney+ and Hulu.
Where else can you watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Fandango at Home, Tubi, DIRECTV, Sling TV, Prime Video, and Apple TV.
Some you have to pay for - AppleTV - you have to pay for it. Same with Sling. But I think it is free on Paramount +, Prime, and Tubi, also Disney + in certain regions.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-12 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-12 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-12 03:41 pm (UTC)Now, not an issue. But it was painful for about twenty years. I had it from roughly 35 until 56. I'm 58 now.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-12 03:42 pm (UTC)