When to start estrogen replacement therapy
When to START Taking Estrogen Replacement Therapy for Menopause - 87
on your mark get set go remember when
you used to do that as a kid I think we
did it for everything we did
that's kiss so what does that mean well
it marks the starting point it's the
green light and it defines the beginning
of the race today we're talking about
the starting point for estrogen
replacement therapy and so I'm teaching
you everything about menopause and one
of the things about which you need to
know whether or not you choose to use it
is estrogen replacement therapy
we've been dissecting all the
nitty-gritty details about estrogen
replacement therapy and in the last few
tutorials you've learned about something
called your estrogen window of
opportunity and now you know that it
addresses taking estrogen to prevent
heart attack osteoporosis and
Alzheimer's disease and then you learn
that you have to take an estrogen that
travels throughout your entire body at a
certain dosage in order to accomplish
these goals plus you've learned that
menopause is an estrogen deficiency
state just like any other deficiency
State so today we're gonna talk about
when you should start taking estrogen if
you want to use it to prevent these
diseases now if you're watching these
videos and orders you you now know that
it's like building blocks and that what
I do is I give you the foundation so
that as you add each block each block
makes sense and everything is logical
because we're building this one video at
a time so if you find that when you try
to add a new block of information it
doesn't seem to work it doesn't fit it
falls out of place it might be because
you don't have the foundation so
snow that they they go in order and they
give you the foundation one video at a
time okay now this video tutorial will
only address the starting point for
estrogen replacement therapy it's the on
your mark get set go video we are not
going to address the finish line until
next week it'll be the next building
block so now maybe you're wondering well
what difference does it make
perhaps you're thinking that you don't
need to watch a video on wind to start
estrogen maybe you think you can just
start anytime well guess what you can't
start just anytime you need to learn the
facts about when to start taking
estrogen and this video will tell you
exactly what you need to know okay what
we're going to do is connect the dots
between the starting point for estrogen
replacement therapy and that thing
called the estrogen window of
opportunity that I've been teaching you
about in many of the previous videos now
you know that the estrogen window of
opportunity stipulates that the first
five to 10 years of your post menopause
is the critical time for taking estrogen
replacement if you want to use it to
prevent heart attack osteoporosis or
Alzheimer's disease so let's talk about
this 5 to 10-year time frame let's talk
about what it means and what it doesn't
mean you know time frames confuse people
and that's because different people
interpret them differently just for
kicks let's see how you interpret this
time frame of 5 to 10 years here's a
quiz question for ya the estrogen window
of opportunity refers to the first 5 to
10 years of post menopause when taking
estrogen replacement can prevent or
reverse some of the life-threatening
diseases that are associated with
menopause
what does five to ten years mean a you
should only take estrogen for a total of
five to ten years B you should
discontinue estrogen when you are five
to ten years into your post menopause C
you should start taking estrogen within
the first five to ten years of your post
menopause deep estrogen will only
prevent these diseases in the first five
to ten years of your post menopause see
what I mean you see what I mean by
different interpretations what did you
pick here's the answer it's C you should
start taking estrogen within the first
five to ten years of your post menopause
but it is not as simple as it sounds so
let's discuss this I'll begin by saying
that you know I don't really like ranges
that are that are that broad when it
comes to time frames I mean think about
it ten years is twice as long as five
years I mean at the time where I'm frame
were nine to ten years it kind of would
make much more sense but this is the
time frame that's given so when you see
ranges of time like this realize that
the range applies to the population at
large your personal time frame will be
something that you and your doctor
decide everything will be individualized
for you but I want you to understand
what things mean but we are all
different and always remember that you
have to tailor things to your own needs
that is why I'm menopause tailor okay so
here's what the five to ten-year time
frame really means it's all about the on
your mark get set go
it's the green light five to ten years
designates the critical time
in your early post-menopause to start
taking estrogen replacement to lower
your risks for heart attack osteoporosis
and Alzheimer's disease
five to ten years is the time during
which you can still start taking
estrogen do you know why it's because
this five to ten years of the beginning
of your post menopause it's the time
when the benefits of taking estrogen
outweigh the risks of taking estrogen
you see everything in medicine is all
about benefit versus risk and you only
want to do the things that have more
benefits than risks
so this first five to ten years of post
menopause is when you can start taking
estrogen and it'll be safe to do so if
we were talking about running a race it
would be the time when you can still run
in the race safely without hurting
yourself if it's been more than five to
ten years since you became post
menopausal you aren't allowed to run in
the race you're disqualified
now why is that because after five to
ten years without estrogen the risks
outweigh the benefits so now you're
probably wondering why the risks of
estrogen change over time and if you're
thinking that way I am so proud of you
because it means you're really thinking
well it's because the five to ten years
is the time during what your body still
remembers what it was like to have
estrogen on board in that five to ten
years it's your body is still healthy
enough to participate in the race it's
when not enough time
past to incur so much aging that your
body has forgotten what it was like to
have estrogen on board now I just used
the word aging but I want to distinguish
between the word age and the word aging
you see the estrogen window of
opportunity is not about your age it's
about the aging process that your body
undergoes in the absence of estrogen the
reason women associate menopause with
aging is because the absence of estrogen
makes your body age both inside and out
it's the Aging on the inside that
matters with regard to this estrogen
window of opportunity and without
estrogen your heart your bones and your
brain begin to age you know they aren't
the only parts of your body that start
to age I mean think about your skin it
starts looking old after you transition
into menopause not before so some people
have referred to estrogen as the
Fountain of Youth
and this aging that happens in the
absence of estrogen is why they refer to
estrogen as the Fountain of Youth
so that's why taking estrogen in the
first 5 to 10 years of your post
menopause can prevent heart attack
osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease it
makes sense doesn't it if your body
undergoes more than 5 to 10 years of
Aging due to the absence of estrogen it
just gets too old to handle estrogen and
as long as it hasn't been without
estrogen that aging does not occur in
other words after five to ten years
without estrogen you're just too old to
run in the race because you'll hurt
yourself so now that may lead you to ask
you said okay to start taking estrogen
replacement before you're postmenopausal
for instance is it okay to start during
perimenopause and the answer is yes you
certainly can and many women do and the
good thing about doing that is that you
make sure that your body never has to
experience experience the aging that it
undergoes in the absence of estrogen now
notice that I'm leaving progesterone out
of this conversation entirely that's
intentional if you have your uterus you
do have to take progesterone with
estrogen but this tutorial is about when
to start taking estrogen with regard to
the estrogen window of opportunity so
I'm leaving progesterone out of the
conversation for simplicity so the five
to ten years of the estrogen window of
opportunity refers to the time during
which you can still jump on the estrogen
replacement that grant Batman wagon it's
a time when you can still join the
estrogen replacement team and run the
race and the really great thing is that
you can start taking estrogen anytime
during that five to ten year time frame
so here are some examples example number
one let's say your perimenopausal and
haven't even reached post menopause yet
you can go ahead and start estrogen
replacement therapy why because you
haven't gone anytime without estrogen
your body is still young and healthy and
the benefits of estrogen still outweigh
the risks of estrogen example number two
let's say you had your last period five
years ago can you start estrogen
replacement sure you're still within
your estrogen window of opportunity
example number three let's say you had
your last period nine and a half years
ago can you still start estrogen
replacement you bet you haven't reached
that tune earmark yet
okay but what about more complicated
situations here's example number four
let's say you had your last period 12
years ago but you took estrogen
replacement for the first five years and
then you stopped can you restart
estrogen replacement what do you think
remember it's all about how long your
body has been without estrogen and how
much damage from aging has occurred
during that time so in this example if
you take the number of years since she
became post menopause puzzle which is 12
and you subtract the number of years you
took estrogen which is 5 the answer is
12 minus 5 which is 7 so 7 years falls
within that 5 to 10 year requirement of
the estrogen window of opportunity so
you can still restart estrogen
replacement ok example number 5 now what
if you had your last period 20 years ago
and you took estrogen replacement for
the first 5 years but then you stopped
can you still restart estrogen
replacement now well let's do the math
20 years since your last period - five
years on estrogen replacement equals 15
years without estrogen 15 falls outside
of the 5 to 10-year time frame for the
estrogen window of opportunity so you
cannot restart estrogen okay one last
example this one's even more complicated
let's say you had your last period 20
years ago and you took estrogen
replacement for the first five years of
your post menopause then you stopped for
five years and then you restarted taking
estrogen again and you took it
for the next ten years if you do the
math on that one you get twenty years
since your last period - the first five
years on estrogen - the other ten years
on estrogen and it's only been five
years without estrogen right so in that
instance it may still be possible for
you to restart estrogen therapy you know
all of this is going to depend on your
individual situation how long it's been
how much aging what your other health
problems are but think of this in terms
of how much time you've gone with no
estrogen that is what this is all about
you know when you start a race with on
your mark get set go you only have that
one second to start when the referee
utters utters the word go right but with
the estrogen window you have five to ten
years to get started now in a race the
earlier you start the better your chance
of winning right well the same is true
for preventing diseases associated with
menopause by taking estrogen but at
least you won't lose completely if you
start a little bit late the key is that
to understand that the five to ten years
refers to the time you've gone without
estrogen and ideally you'll address this
in the first five to ten years of your
post menopause but even if it's been
more than five to 10 years since your
post menopause the real issue is how
long you've gone without estrogen and
the longer you've gone without estrogen
the greater your risks of starting
estrogen so think of it as the starting
point and nothing more it's those early
years of post menopause that are most
critical so if you've already been
deficient in estrogen for 10 years it
may be too late for you to restart it or
to you for you to start it at all the
estrogen window is the window during
which you can begin taking estrogen to
gain the benefits okay that's what it's
all about
so the big message in this tutorial is
this the five to ten years of your
estrogen window of opportunity is the
time during which you can still take
advantage of the opportunity so if you
want to think of it as a time limit you
have a limited time since you've been
without estrogen to get started and you
can only start taking estrogen in the
first five to ten years of your post
menopause or within ten years since you
last took estrogen after that your
window of opportunity closes and as you
can see it's not really about your age
obviously menopause occurs at a wide
range of ages it's about when you're
still eligible to use estrogen
replacement to prevent heart attack
osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease and
if your estrogen window of opportunity
has closed and you can't take estrogen
it means that you'll have to find
another way to prevent heart attack
osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease it
doesn't mean that you should give up it
doesn't mean that you have no options
you still have many options
estrogen just isn't one of them and for
everything we discuss in my videos
I'll give you options in every category
I'll give you diet and lifestyle options
vitamin and mineral options herbal and
botanical option options hormonal
medication options and non hormonal
medication options you'll have a lot of
categories from which to choose one of
the great things about this menopause
education I'm giving you is that I'll
teach you many different ways to
accomplish your goals so never give up
and never assume you have no options
knowing about this starting time for
estrogen is critical because timing is
really everything okay so that brings us
to the next question which is when to
stop taking estrogen replacement therapy
and that's another area where women make
all sorts of assumptions that are
completely incorrect and that's what
we'll discuss in the next video I'm
separating the videos
when to start taking estrogen and when
to stop taking it for a reason so don't
assume you already know everything you
need to know about when to stop it I'm
gonna bet you anything you don't so
until next week think about what we've
covered today and I'll see you in the
next video don't forget to follow me I'm
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and I'll see you the next time
you
