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Last Updated:
Jan 3rd, 2010 - 00:09:53
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Question
Hello, I am 59, post menstrual and taking synthroid. I also have mild asthma which I mention because at an earlier age when I started taking birth control pills I experienced an dramatic increase in asthma problems and do not want to go back to that again, however I am experiencing problems with dryness in every area: hair, skin, etc. Two years ago I had a blood clot in my lung so stopped taking the hormone treatment I was on at that time.
My question is if I decide to take progestrone only would that help in my dryness problem or is it possible that it would only start my asthma problems all over again? Is there anything else you might suggest to relieve dryness and hair loss and other post-menopausal problems. Thank you.
Sherry
Answer
Dear Sherry-
Current mainstream research would dictate that you should not use any full dose estrogen products because of the history of the blood clot. Progesterone generally is not regarded as a way to treat hair loss, skin dryness, or vaginal dryness.
It is a possiblility that you could be a candidate for estrogen vaginal cream but in a dose lower than traditionally used. You do get absorption of the estrogen into the blood stream but most of it will have a local effect on the vaginal walls. In this case it would be recommended that you would take progesterone if you still have your uterus intact. It probably would not have a significant effect on the skin and hair. I seriously doubt that you would have a problem with an asthma flare.
I would use an estrogen cream that is made by a compounding pharmacist. The estrogen would be the same as what our bodies make. The widely used Premarin in this country is conjugated estrogen which is derived from horses (pregnant mare’s urine). All of the recent studies telling us about the side effects of hormone replacement therapy were done on Premarin and not on the human estrogens.
We do have to be careful though, about cancer rates with estrogens. There has been an 18% drop in breast cancer in the United States since a large amount of women stopped taking hormone replacement in 2003. Even the cancer specialists didn’t want to believe the data but did take them as fact about one year ago at the big cancer meeting in Texas. What this tells us is that we don’t know enough about hormone therapy or birth control pills, however, we keep prescribing them as if they were harmless.
Be sure to check with your doctor about the hair thinning and skin dryness. There may be other reasons for it such as poor thyroid function.
I hope that this helps.
Gretchen V. Marsh, D.O.
Dr. Marsh is a family practioner in Yuba City, CA where she lives with her husband and 5 boys.
She is a Creighton model certified Medical Consultant and a certified Fertility Care Practioner.
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