Rather than try to sift through all the inferior studies, I was hoping someone could direct me to one or two of the most reputable studies published on hormone therapy (natural/soy? AND synthetic/phylo?) for older women. Thanks.
There was an excellent article about it in More magazine a month or two ago–all the latest studies, recommendations from doctors and women who’ve taken them. Why don’t you e the magazine and see if you can get that issue?
I forgot to point out that the reason I am asking about this is that my grandma is 86 and is starting to seem like she is losing her mind. She kind of zones out and is quiet for long periods of time and cannot formulate complex thoughts anymore. The specialists are taking a long time to try and diagnose.
I and my family would like to know what we can do for her medically, rather than write it off as old age and leave her be. But above all, we don’t want to put her on meds and make her problem worse.
At any rate, I am just clarifying that my question is not menopausal in nature, but old age. There is a difference I am sure, between treatments for menopause and old age.
It would be best to get her evaluated by a competent physician, to see if she really suffers from dementia. If she does, then she can be evaluated to see if her dementia is coming from reversible causes, such as endocrine disturbances like thyroid dysfunction or others. If her dementia is not coming from that, I know of no hormones that would be likely to improve mentation.
Other possible causes of change in alertness in the elderly include depression, or delerium from metabolic impairment. There is really no substitute for a competent medical evaluation to determine what’s what.
And frankly, phyto-estrogens haven’t been shown to be of particular benefit to anything besides plants (I exclude anecdotal information in that assertion). And premarin is a quite natural esterogen, not a synthetic one. It is derived from animal sources instead of plant sources, and is much more analogous to the estrogen that humans produce than any phyto-estrogen that a plant makes.
QtM, MD
Also, if your grandmother’s specialists are not finding quick answers, that may be because there really aren’t any; at least in terms of being able to improve her condition. Very frequently, dementia in 86 year olds turns out to be from non-reversible causes.
I hope this turns out to not be her case.