Hormone Replacement Therapy

menopausal hormone therapy likely that most women going through the menopause have heard about hormone replacement therapy, but in general we are not sure what it is and if it can be really beneficial. Hormone replacement therapy mainly consists of the use of drugs to replace estrogen and progesterone (hormones) that the ovaries stop producing when we reached the menopause.
Benefits of HRT
the goal of hormone replacement therapy is to relieve hot flashes and prevent osteoporosis that usually appears during this stage of our lives.
The benefits of hormone replacement therapy are to lessen the symptoms associated with menopause, such as night sweats, insomnia, genitourinary, or skin dryness. It is also effective in improving physical symptoms such as irritability and depression.
Hormone replacement therapy is indicated for women who suffer from disturbances in the menstrual cycle of premenopausal women because, to prevent osteoporosis, genital atrophy, skin atrophy and climacteric syndrome.
Risks of hormone replacement therapy
Use of this long-term therapy involves certain risks and treatment is individualized for each patient, medical monitoring is essential during the procedure.
Hormone replacement therapy can have side effects that vary according to dosage, dosing schedule or formula. The most common side effects include edema, abdominal bloating, breast tenderness and vaginal bleeding. These cannot be considered dangerous, but can interfere with continued treatment. Side effects can be controlled by adjusting the dose and gynecological and breast controls.
Before receiving hormone replacement therapy must submit to a physical examination. Recommended assessments including weight, blood pressure, weight, cervical and vaginal cytology, biochemical tests, vaginal ultrasound and bone densitometry.
Hormone replacement therapy is contraindicated for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, endometrial cancer, history of thromboembolism, active liver disease, lupus erythematosus, and malignant melanoma, and severe diabetes, vascular and hepatic dysfunction during pregnancy.
The onset of hormone replacement therapy should be initiated as soon as possible, if indicated, should begin in the pre-menopausal. The dose should be the minimum required and must be maintained for the shortest time possible, not more than three to five years.
It is advisable to stop hormone replacement therapy if the patient has severe headache, sudden sensory disturbances, jaundice, pruritus, epilepsy and high blood pressure suddenly.

When Will You Reach Menopause?

 

 

 

It’s a question many women wonder about, especially if you’re thinking about planning a family and your 20s are but a distant memory.

How many more years of fertility might you have, and how much longer will it be before you start experiencing “the change?”

Recommended Related to Menopause

10 Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Menopause

Do I need treatment for my menopause? Is hormone replacement therapy right for me? What side effects can I expect from hormone replacement therapy, and how can I deal with them? Am I at high risk for heart disease? Should I undergo bone density screening? How often should I be screened? Should I be taking medication to protect my bones or my heart? Could any drugs other than estrogen help relieve my hot flashes or other symptoms? Do you recommend soy supplements or other...

Read the 10 Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Menopause article > >

Here's what does -- and does not influence the age at when a woman reaches menopause.

The Top Factor

There are a number of factors that affect a woman’s age at menopause, but one is more important than any other: the age her mother experienced menopause.

“Menopause is strongly genetically linked, so you’re very likely to fall within a few years either way of the age your mother was at menopause,” says Nanette Santoro, MD, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Colorado-Denver School of Medicine and a member of the board of directors of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

This isn’t always true, of course. Some women reach menopause at an unusually early age -- before 45 or so -- with no known cause, which could be the result of an inherited issue or a one-time genetic mutation. “These can be random events, but can also be passed on," says Howard Zacur, MD, PhD, who directs the reproductive endocrinology and infertility division at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

So if your mother reached menopause at 40, but her sisters and your grandmother were all around the average age of 50, it’s unclear whether you’ll follow her path or theirs.

But if most of the women in your family, your mother included, reach menopause early, late, or somewhere in the middle, you can eye your calendar with some degree of confidence.

Menopause Age: 4 More Influences

Your mother's age at menopause is a key factor, but not the only one. Here are four others to consider:

1. Smoking . No other lifestyle factor does more damage to your ovaries than smoking. So if you smoke and your mother didn’t, you’ll probably reachmenopause earlier than she did. If she smoked and you don’t, you probably reach menopause later than she did.
2. Chemotherapy . Most forms of chemotherapy used in younger women are at least mildly toxic to the ovaries. Many women go through temporary menopause while undergoing chemotherapy; if cycles do return (they don’t always), you can still expect to reach regular menopause a couple of years earlier than you otherwise would have.
3. Ovarian surgery. “The more you operate on the ovaries, the more healthy tissue gets damaged,” says Marcelle Cedars, MD, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. So if you’ve had diagnostic surgery for endometriosis, for example, Cedars recommends using medical options (such as hormonal suppression) to treat the condition in order to avoid repetitive surgeries.
4. Ethnicity. “Certain ethnic groups may have menopause at slightly different ages,” says Santoro. “Hispanic and African-American women reach menopause a little earlier, and Chinese and Japanese women a little later, than the average Caucasian woman, who reaches menopause at about age 51.5.” Those are averages; every woman is different.
   Here are three things you might think would influence menopause age, but don’t:
   1. Age at first period. Although the average age of menarche (onset of first menstrual period) has been getting younger in U.S. women, there hasn’t been a corresponding shift in the average age at menopause. The average age at menarche is now about 12.4 years old, down from 13.3 in women born prior to the 1920s, but the average age at menopause has been around 51.5 for decades. “You would assume that a woman only has so many cycles in her life and if she menstruates later, she’ll reach menopause later, but that doesn’t seem to be true,” Cedars says.
   2. Pregnancy and breastfeeding. These have no impact on menopause age.
   3. Use of hormonal birth control methods. “Even if you’re using a birth control method that stops ovulation, it doesn’t stop the loss of follicles, the constant process of the ovary taking them from the resting pool of eggs,” Cedars says. “All the follicles available in the cohort that month die away, even if you’re not ovulating, so birth control doesn’t appear to delay menopause."
   There is no way to delay menopause; it can only be sped up, not slowed down, by external factors.
   And there are some factors that are still unknowns. For instance, researchers are studying bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used to make certain plastics, in relation to various cancers as well as the reproductive system and metabolic processes.
   Could BPA exposure influence age at menopause? “My guess would be no, since the age of menopause hasn’t changed much over the years as we’ve been exposed to more of these environmental toxins, but research will be exploring the role of substances like BPA in ovarian function,” Santoro says.

   Predicting Menopause Age

   Other than avoiding smoking, there’s probably not much you can do to influence the age at which you’ll reach menopause. But as you get closer to that time, it will be easier to predict more accurately when it will happen.
   "If you’re over the age of 45 and skip at least three periods in a row, that tells us that you’re going to move on to menopause relatively soon," Santoro says. “But we’re still working on blood tests to see if we can predict this more accurately.”

Why three affairs are unforgivable: Six in ten women would forgive their partner if they strayed twice

Most women will forgive their partners for cheating once or even twice, but would dump them if they tried it three times, according to a study.

Men, however, are not so forgiving and only just over one in ten would stay with a woman who had strayed.

The research found that more than six in ten women would forgive two relationship ‘errors’ – which include infidelity, excessive flirtatious behaviour or romantic neglect. They would, however, dump their man after three.

Stay or go: Six out of ten women would forgive their partner's infidelity a second time but only 13 per cent of men would stay in a relationship after a single occurrence

A full 53 per cent say they would be likely to give their partner another chance even if they found out they had cheated on them, as long as that cheating was a one-off and didn't involve a pro-longed affair, according to a poll of 2,000 British men and women for laundry specialists Dr. Beckmann.

By contrast, only 13 per cent of men would stay with their partner if they discovered they had cheated on them.

 

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Some 89 per cent of the 2,000 men and women surveyed said unfaithfulness was the most difficult problem to recover from in a relationship.

Lack of intimacy and romance and partners spending too much time with their friends or at work are also among the top bugbears from men and women in relationships. 

On-screen cheat: 1967 infidelity movie sees Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) have a sexual affair with his father's business partner's wife, Mrs Robinson

An incredible 38 per cent of all current British relationships have endured infidelity of some kind, according to the study.

Of those, the major reason cited for the relationship's subsequent survival is that, following the infidelity, both partners have agreed to be 'honest, frank and open about their feelings'.

In all but 5 per cent of relationships that have survived infidelity, it was the first and only time either partner had been unfaithful.

Susan Fermor spokesman for Dr. Beckmann said: ‘British women are clearly prepared to forgive their partner's indiscretions as long as they are not repeated ad infinitum.

‘Men in the UK get three chances and if they step over the line beyond that then they can kiss goodbye to their relationship.

‘Men are not nearly as forgiving as women in the UK. Only little over one in 10 British males admit they would attempt to carry on if their partner had been unfaithful.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2196146/Why-affairs-unforgivable-Six-women-forgive-partner-strayed-twice.html#ixzz258sMWMXW

Drug which can stop post-traumatic stress disorder could be on the way after successful test in mice

Hope on the horizon: Scientists believe they may be able to combat post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that often afflicts war veterans

A drug could be developed to treat war veterans and others suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, it was revealed today.

Using an experimental substance on mice, researchers have been able to prevent learning and memory problems which are symptoms of stress-related illnesses.

PTSD is a disabling anxiety disorder triggered by a traumatic experience, ranging from a one-time event, such as being assaulted, to chronic stresses, such as those experienced during warfare.

Patients are commonly treated with supportive therapies, including antipsychotics, antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, and psychotherapy. 

However, there is currently no specific treatment for PTSD and related disorders.

Study leader Doctor Andrew Marks, chair and professor of physiology and cellular biophysics at Columbia University Medical Centre (CUMC) in the United States, said: 'With the dramatic rise in cases of PTSD among our combat veterans, and following common afflictions such as heart attacks, there is a pressing need for new and better therapies for this debilitating disorder.

'Our study provides new insight regarding the mechanism of stress-related cognitive disorders, as well as a potential treatment based on the understanding of this mechanism.'

Several studies have shown that chronic stress could affect the structure and function of neurons in the hippocampus, part of the brain which plays a central role in learning and memory.

 

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Now Dr Marks believes stress may cause PTSD by destabilising type 2 ryanodine receptors (RyR2) channels in the hippocampus, which regulate calcium levels in neurons vital to cell survival and function.

In earlier mouse studies, Dr Marks and his team showed that stress can cause heart muscles to leak calcium resulting in heart failure and arrhythmias.

To find out if calcium levels are a factor in stress-related cognitive disorders, the researchers subjected mice to stressful conditions for three weeks. 

Breakthrough: Researchers managed to prevent memory and learning problems in mice using an experimental drug after subjecting them to stressful conditions (file picture)

This raises their corticosteroid levels, a classic marker of stress, and activates genes known to be expressed in response to stress.

Dr Marks said: 'When we examined the hippocampal neurons of the stressed mice, we found that their RyR2 channels had become destabilized and leaky compared with channels from normal non-stressed mice which were not leaky.

'There was a remodelling of the channels that we had previously seen in heart and skeletal muscles from animal models of chronic diseases including heart failure and muscular dystrophy. 

'We found these same leaky channels in samples from patients with these disorders but not in those from healthy humans.'

He added: 'The next question was ‘do the leaky channels affect memory and learning, two functions that are impaired in individuals with PTSD?’

'Using classic behavioural and cognitive function tests, including a water-maze and object-recognition tests, we found that the stressed mice developed profound cognitive abnormalities affecting both learning and memory.'

The researchers confirmed that hippocampal RyR2 channels were involved in the cognitive decline of the mice in two ways. 

First, when the mice were given Rycal S107, a novel drug designed in Dr Marks’ lab that prevents the calcium leak by stabilizing RyR2 channels, cognitive function was not affected by exposure to chronic stress.

Secondly, the researchers created a strain of mice in which stress signals cannot destabilize hippocampal RyR2 channels. When these mice were subjected to chronic stress, they showed no signs of cognitive impairment.

Dr Marks expects that clinical trials with S107, or a similar Rycal, for the treatment of PTSD could begin within several years. Another Rycal is currently being tested in patients with heart failure and arrhythmias.

The researchers are also examining the role of these RyR2 channels in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s.

The findings were published in the online edition of the journal Cell.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2195982/Drug-stop-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-way-successful-test-mice.html#ixzz258qKKD8d

Man sues sex pill firm after BREAKING his penis in motel assignation

A 29-year-old Texas man is suing the makers of VirilisPro for causing his penis to become so erect it fractured during intercourse and now he is unable to have sex or children because of it.

Adrian Carter was a happy and healthy twenty-something before the incident last year at a Houston motel, in which his appendage became engorged and bloody.

He was rushed to the emergency room, where they discovered he required immediate surgery and had to render him infertile and now he wants the company that manufactures VirilisPro to pay.

Broke: A 29-year-old Texas man is suing the makers of VirilisPro for causing his penis to become so erect it fractured during intercourse and now he is unable to have sex or children because of it

'It was pretty horrific to view the pictures,' Mr Carter's lawyer, Melissa Moore, told ABC.

'I know it sounds unusual. He was young and healthy and on no other meds at the time he took the supplement.'

VirilusPro is a a natural supplement that promises to give men a harder erection for natural male enlargement and a more intense orgasm. It also promises to increase stamina and lower recovery time.

 

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Mr Carter's lawsuit, filed on August 27 in Harris County Court, alleges that the pill is 'defective and unreasonably dangerous for use by consumers.'

According to the suit, obtained by ABC, Mr carter purchased the product in the 'early morning hours' at a Chevron gas station on his way to the Scottish Inn, where he was scheduled to meet a 'paramour'.

When the two had sex, he had 'significant pain and observed a large quantity of blood squirting out of his penis onto the sheets, walls and mirror.'

Disaster: Adrian Carter was a happy and healthy twenty-something before the incident last year at the Scottish Inn in Houston, pictured, in which his appendage became engorged and bloody

He was rushed to the hospitals where doctors had to 'deglove' his penis in order to repair it, a procedure that removes the skin of the penis, in order to repair his urethra which had 'separated completely', according to the suit.

'Doctors again warned him that he may never have an erection or be able to father children and his ureters may close, resulting in permanent inability to urinate naturally,' the suit claims.

Mr Carter wants the drug manufacturer, Haute Health Limited Liability Company, Carney & Carney Financial Services, individuals Michael Heilig and Michael and Tyra Carney, and Solid Rock Worship Company, to pay up.

Pain: He was rushed to the emergency room, where they discovered he required immediate surgery and had to render him infertile and now he wants the company that manufactures VirilisPro to pay

In addition to his medical expenses, he wants funds for punitive damages, breach of warranty, deceptive trade, mental anguish, pain and suffering and the 'past and future loss of consortium'.

None of the defendants could be reached for comment.

But leading urologists say it is very unlikely that the pill could have caused such an incident.

'I never heard of anyone being put at a higher risk for fracture because of a prescription or an herbal drug,' said Dr Chad Ritenour, associate professor of urology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta to ABC. 

'When a man breaks his penis it can be very scary. I believe he took this story and spiced it up.'

Dr Jeff Carney

'With a fracture, you typically get swelling and the penis looks like an eggplant -- purple and swollen. But blood coming out on the walls, that sounds really dramatic.'

He said that the typical story behind a penis fracture is someone having intercourse and hitting a pelvic bone in their partner.

'In the classic case, you hear a 'pop' and feel something immediately,' Dr Retenour said.

Dr Jeff Carney, chief of urology at Grady Memorial Hospital, said Mr Carter's story is 'the most absurd thing I have heard of in my life'.

He said that degloving would never be done in an emergency room, but by a skilled surgeon, and the part where the blood squirted on the walls? That was probably made up as well.

'When a man breaks his penis it can be very scary,' said Dr Carney. 'I believe he took this story and spiced it up.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2196173/Man-breaks-penis-motel-male-enhancement-pills--experts-say-probably-just-rough-sex.html#ixzz258nsdQNX

Is this goodbye to silicone breast implants? Lipo-filling developments mean a permanent 'boob jab' is on the way

The PIP breast implant scare earlier this year caused many woman to question the practise of putting bags in to their bodies.

Medical professionals, researchers and plastic surgeons have been working on alternative ideas for breast reconstruction or cosmetic augmentation purposes for years, and using our own excess fat  - or regenerative plastic surgery to give it the scientific name - could be the answer.

Surgeons are working on alternatives to silicone implants for breast reconstruction or cosmetic augmentation

Twenty of the world’s leading plastic surgeons and cell biology and tissue engineering experts will come together to debate the prospect at a G20 forum, to be held over the coming days in Montreux, Switzerland.

The technique, called lipo-filling, is widely used across the world by an increasing number of plastic surgeons for cosmetic applications. Small fat clusters are removed from one part of the body, by lipo-suction, purified and then injected into the point that needs to be filled.   

 

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Techniques involved in lipo-filling have been improved and the use of the person’s own fat avoids the need for immunosuppressive drugs, which are needed during transplants from other people. 

The disappointing downside of lipo-filling surgery is that at least half of the fat that is transferred to the new region is reabsorbed by the body within six months to a year.

Scientists explain that the fat needs support from a blood supply and that the blood supply in the implant is too small to support the whole graft. At the G20 sumit, they will discuss ways to grow new blood vessels within the fat implant – a process called neoangiogenesis.

Regenerative plastic surgery developments could mean the end to silicone implants like these

One topic that they hope might unveil ways to make the fat implants last longer is the use of stem cells in fat.

Our own fat contains one of the largest sources of stem cells. When these stem cells are isolated, purified and concentrated using modern technology, they can be added back to the fat graft, and this has been shown to boost the growth of blood vessels needed to keep the graft alive.

'It is hard to say how far away this new dramatic revolution in tissue replacement will be,' says Phillip Blondeel, professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and chairman of the G20 Forum on regenerative plastic surgery.

'But we are getting ever closer and, once we are able to unlock the secret of neo-angiogenesis, the gates to the creation of patient-own fat grafts will be widely opened, ushering in a whole new era of tissue transplantation.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2196030/Lipo-filling-developments-mean-permanent-boob-jab-way.html#ixzz258mzX8am

Giuliana And Bill Rancic Welcome Baby Boy

 

Chelsea Lauren/WireImage/Getty Images

E! News anchor and TV personality Giuliana Rancic and her reality TV star and entrepreneur husband Bill Rancic have welcomed their first son into the world.

Edward Duke Rancic, who weighed 7 pounds and 4 ounces, was born in Denver Wednesday via a gestational surrogate.

“The ‘Duke’ has landed! Edward Duke Rancic was welcomed into the world last night at 7lbs 4oz. G & I feel blessed beyond words … We did it!”  he posted to his Twitter early Thursday.

Both Giuliana and Bill were in the delivery room for the four-hour labor and birth, The AP reported.

The couple, who wed in Italy in 2007, now stars in the Style Network reality show “Giuliana & Bill.” While Giuliana, 37, had been a red carpet fixture for years while at E!, Bill, 41,gained fame as the winner of the first season “The Apprentice” in 2004.

In 2008, the couple launched a television production company called You and I Productions, which produces reality and scripted programming. In 2010 they also wrote a book together entitled “I Do, Now What?: Secrets, Stories, and Advice from a Madly-in-Love Couple.”

The birth of their son was happy news for the couple after she suffered a miscarriage in 2010.

SHOWS: Good Morning America