Hrt linked to dementia

[Ninaguineapig]

I thought it was supposed to prevent it.

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/06/28/health/hrt-dementia-risk-wellness/index.html

@WakeMeUpWhenGoodOmensIsBack
All you mentioned are natural hormones. But contraception affects your periods unnaturally and god knows what hrt does.

I'm sorry that you lost your mum so early and so young 🙏💛
It seems likely that superior cognitive capacity can be protective but it also looks as if that can be outweighed by other factors which work in the opposite direction?

Is not the age that you have the children also a factor? The younger the better.

@Ninaguineapig Because you are against HRT and the Pill, you've probably not done much investigating into them.
HRT is mainly natural hormones now - they are called body -identical, so exactly like your own, and they are made from yams.

@JinglingSpringbells
But the regime you take the hormones isn't natural. 14 days of oestrogen and 14 days with progesterone or something. Not really period more like withdrawal bleed.

I am on oestrogen only the whole month long, (no ovaries, removed at 39) I am staying on it until it is prised out of my cold dead fingers😂

@Ninaguineapig Most of your understanding about HRT isn't right (sorry!) which is fine, as you don't want to use it, which is fine too.

Interestingly at the last count there was 46,000 views of Dr Louise Newson's video statement on this, on Twitter. If you want to watch that it's very informative.

That's not a gut feeling. Literally no one has gut feelings about things like whether to take a particular medicine or not. Your reaction has easily traced sources in medical research and the media - mostly the 2001 WHI study. If you don't know the source of your feelings then you have no way of deciding whether they're reliable or not.

Could be that. There's also an interesting theory that it start with breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, and that the increased blood flow (or something else...) caused by exercise can prevent that.

Agreed. That's far and away the most likely cause.

I'm glad I never went on it. I went through the menopause 14 years ago and I am fit and healthy.

It's wrong to assume you must go on it. It's a big pharma money making exercise to scare women into thinking they must take it.

It's depressing to read Menopause section because only thing discussed is hrt. The labels of bottles etc. if you want to go through menopause without hrt MN menopause is not for you.

@EllaRaines It's a very common assumption that big pharma is peddling HRT to make money.

HRT is dirt cheap to make and dirt cheap to buy. (I obtain mine at the RRP and it's far less than a cup of coffee a day.)

The way pharma make money is by making drugs for cancer, drugs for weight loss, obesity, and supplements .

The vitamin and supplement part of pharma is £billion industry. More money is made from that than HRT.

@Ninaguineapig What did you want to gain from the link you left? Do you need help with your own menopause?

You've never posted before and if you read the forum there are always posts about alternatives to HRT.

The discussion here is about HRT and the dementia link. It looks as if you started the thread only to say how much you disapprove of HRT.

Menopause isn't something you go through. It's something you're still in. Many women have symptoms which they never attribute to menopause and will call themselves fit and healthy because they don't think those symptoms count. Others don't develop symptoms until much later in menopause. Others, all actually, are having negative effects from menopause but are unaware of what's going on inside their bodies because there are no symptoms until it happens. They'll eventually be diagnosed with various conditions but no one will ever link it to menopause for them. Osteopenia is a classic, heart disease and insulin resistance another, UTIs etc.

Hi. Do you know which type? Patches or the gel? Thank you.

@JinglingSpringbells sorry, the above was for you re your comment on page 2.

I don't get this argument at all - plenty of things we consume and use in and on our bodies aren't natural, that doesn't necessarily mean they are all bad for us.

Chemotherapy isn't natural, but I would be bloody glad of it if I needed it. Painkillers aren't natural but people take them because they don't want to be in pain. Vaccines aren't natural but people we're clamouring for them last year.
Surely it's up to the individual to determine if the medicine they take is worth the risk.

I can see from your posts you are against HRT, but it's not like it's being forced on you - in fact many women who want it report having to fight with their GP to get it.
Surely you can understand that for some women the symptoms associated with menopause are debilitating and they would like relief from that.

Why is 'natural' always touted as best when what's natural may in fact be causing suffering?

The only thing we do know is it protects against osteoporosis, but only for as long as it is taken.

@Janiie

Actually, that's not really an accurate representation. It is protective while you are taking it, meaning that if you started HRT at 50 and went off at 65, it has delayed the start of bone loss by 15 years. So ultimately the protection against osteoporosis is a lasting benefit.

I did ask my dad if my mum had HRT when she was diagnosed with dementia
My Nan had dementia and didn't take HRT
Mum early onset and didn't take HRT (well she took it for 2 weeks and came off it)

Sorry about your mum ☹️
There is just so much we don’t know about it. Don’t even know too much really why someone develops it (I don’t mean the actual mechanics- more why these changes take place)
I just know that in my family it’s horribly familiar down the generations. Same personality type each time. I really hope I’m wrong because the next generation is my and my siblings.

Exactly this with regard to claims made!
The whole situation is aggravated by certain experts, who should know better, making unsubstantiated unscientific claims but rubbishing any negative points with the argument that HRT is different now. Well yes it is, but you can't have it all ways round
I hope we do find positive effects from HRT but, as yet, we simply do not have the evidence of years of use of modern products and we have to remain open to all possibilities

What do you mean? Post menopausal women still have estrogen, just at lower levels than before menopause.

It’s a provocative headline… they’re not discussing the fact that there are lots of causes of dementia, and oestrogen can help prevent the most common form - vascular dementia - by promoting cardiovascular health systemically. Sugar is also known to promote a form of Alzheimer’s known as Diabetes T3. That’s not mentioned….Supplemental Oestrogen helps prevent bone loss. It promotes cardiovascular health. It improves psychological well-being in those whose ovaries are in decline. It is also known to help protect the skin, the eyes, organs, other soft tissues, etc from types of cancers and degradation.Looking at one tenuous link on it’s own is not helpful, nor can you say you’re fully informed.

I thought it was clear. The amount of estrogen women have post menopause is a fraction of what they had before. Men's testosterone declines gradually, all their lives.
Women can lose up to 25% of their bone density in first 5 years immediately after the menopause directly related to estrogen loss.

There are many experts (consultants in neurology for example) who are certain that the menopause can contribute to dementia, because far more women suffer from dementia than men. One such expert was interviewed in a TV programme a couple of years ago (might have been the one with Mariella Frostrup. )

There are never going to be random controlled, double blind trials on HRT.
Partly as there is no incentive financially for pharma (HRT is dirt cheap and the money is in cancer drugs, obesity drugs, etc.)

But also because how many women would be happy to take an unknown 'drug' (HRT or a placebo) for 20 years to see how it affects them?

All research is going to be retrospective and observational.
But the fault with this current research is the HRT used was 20 years ago, compared to newer types. And there were many lifestyle factors- like exercise- which were excluded.