Can antidepressants work for hot flashes?

At least 80 percent of women will have some kind of menopausal symptom, whether physical or emotional.

Suffering from menopause symptoms? The LadyCare device may provide relief.

Menopause is such a variable process. What can you do to prepare yourself for this inevitable transition?

Vaginal dryness can cause painful intercourse, which can then result in a fear of having sex... and, the vicious cycle commences.

How do natural products differ from hormone replacement therapy?

During menopause, your partner might feel like he or she is losing the emotional part of you.

Despite advances in medical science, women still aren’t getting the right information in terms of their own health.

How effective and safe are hormone therapies, and when should a woman think about using them?

Is there anything you can do to prevent or lessen menopause symptoms before they begin?

What are the top three herbs for women's health?

Listen in as Pam and Michelle answer your personal health questions.

Menopause is never a fun trip. Navigate your way to easing the symptoms and enjoying life again.

Women delay hormone treatment as long as possible; but why?

A recent study identified 15 specific chemicals that could be the direct reason for your early menopause.

Recent research shows you may be able to reduce your risk of heart disease by taking estrogen.

The dangerous risks of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) might leave you looking for more natural treatments.

Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.

When you're going through menopause, if one hormone becomes out of sync, your whole body becomes unbalanced.

Did you know smoking affects women's health a little differently than men's?

Like many of you out there, I'm a fan of natural remedies and alternative treatments. When it comes to menopause especially, many women will want to avoid Hormone Replacement Therapies (or HRT.)

That's not to say that HRT doesn't have a time and place, as well as benefits. It can ease the symptoms of vaginal dryness and discomfort, help with hot flashes and other symptoms and decrease the risk of osteoporosis. Currently there are studies going on to see if it can also help reduce the risk of heart disease. Please note that HRT isn't for everyone. It is a matter of personal preference.

The risks are what cause a lot of women to avoid HRT. Risks include: blood clots, stroke, heart disease, breast cancer and others. Some risks may depend on whether you're given estrogen alone as monotherapy or combination therapy with estrogen and progesterone.

SO WHAT'S A WOMAN TO DO?

You may change your diet to help yourself feel better, physically. But can you also use food to address emotional issues?

Here's a "hot flash" for ya: early menopause is actually quite normal.

The Journal of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), recently indicated that acupuncture can help with hot flashes for menopausal women.

Physiological changes as you age are hard to accept, especially for women, since many women identify themselves by how attractive they are.

Diet drinks are linked to a 30 percent increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

As a Naturopathic Doctor I have been taught to think about health and healing in a very comprehensive, holistic manner.

The science that drives my thought process is called Vitalism. Vitalism states that our bodies have an inherent self-healing mechanism and are brilliant and built to stay in balance through the harmonious efforts of many interrelated systems that are constantly working on our behalf to take care of us.

As a practitioner of this style of medicine, I am challenged to listen and ask deeper questions when I am involved with a patient who has become entirely out of balance and therefore symptomatic. Symptoms are the body’s way of talking to us, telling us that something needs attention. I have to understand where there might be obstacles to cure, where there might be some excess or deficiencies, and then work with the body to achieve a state of health.

Hormonally, life during and after menopause can be tricky. But is hormone replacement therapy really the solution?

You’re not a little kid anymore... your body changes with age and it’s essential to know what to look out for during that process.

Thinning up top? Stress, heredity, thyroid disorder, autoimmune diseases, and menopause are just some of the reasons you might be losing your hair.

It's easier to get your hormones balanced than it is to live with the misery of your hormones being out of balance.

43% of women report suffering from some sort of sexual dysfunction; but the numbers could be much higher.

What are the most frequently asked gynecology questions and the ones that people are hesitant to address?

An almost "too good to be true" formulation of natural extracts is stopping hot flashes cold!

A hormone imbalance can leave you feeling depressed, sick or tired... or just plain crappy all over. What's the solution?

Is menopause something you simply have to "put up with"? Or can you actually treat it?

Did you know that as many as 13.9 million women 18 and older have experienced vaginal dryness? Are you one of them?

Your body makes them; so doesn't it make sense to replace them?

Do you experience pain during sex? The good news is that the causes are often reversible, even when long-standing.

Researchers estimate 50,000 deaths could have been prevented if women who had hysterectomies had estrogen hormonal therapy.

We had a saying in Naturopathic Medical School that stated, "if you want to heal a person, heal the gut." It's fitting that I have written about digestive issues like intestinal permeability or "leaky gut syndrome" and all of its complications various times in the past decade and the time has come again.

Intestinal permeability describes a cascade of symptoms and disorders that stem from small intestine's semi-permeable membrane becoming excessively permeable for a variety of reasons, allowing infiltration of microbial and metabolic toxins (as well as undigested food) into the bloodstream. These symptoms include fatigue, immune deficiency, food allergies, asthma and eczema.

Intestinal permeability may also be a contributor to other modern illnesses such as insulin resistance, obesity, neurotransmitter disorders, autoimmune disorders and cancer. In fact, it may account for 50 percent of chronic illness.

One symptom that I have not linked to intestinal permeability in the past, which has been getting my attention lately, is the vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, an overlooked aspect of inflammation.

A common saying in Naturopathic Medicine is, "if you want to heal the person, heal the gut."

While the fluctuation and decline of reproductive hormones is a normal and expected event in mid-life women, the associated symptoms are nonetheless disruptive. Until very recently, millions of women alleviated their hot flashes and night sweats with conjugated equine estrogens and medroxyprogesterone acetate (synthetic hormone replacement therapy or HRT).

However, mounting evidence from several clinical trials has shown that women using synthetic HRT are at significant increased risk of developing breast cancer, coronary heart disease, pulmonary embolism, and stroke.

With little room for HRT in current practice and little else in the traditional medicine chest to consider, physicians are increasingly turning to natural non-hormonal therapies for women who need relief from menopausal symptoms.

As a naturopathic physician, I have used botanical medicines and other natural alternatives for many years with great success to help women create and maintain hormonal health. I've found the most effective approach combines stress management, diet, exercise and nutritional supplements to support and work with a woman's body, not against it. While each patient's treatment plan is unique, it has been my experience that most symptoms caused by menopause and/or hormone fluctuations and imbalances will respond to natural therapies.

While the fluctuation and decline of reproductive hormones is an expected event in mid-life women, the associated symptoms are nonetheless disruptive.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer offers straight-to-the-point tips for staying sexually active after menopause.

Your doctor may be recommending a hysterectomy; but is it really necessary?

When there is an excess of any hormone in relation to the whole intricate system we call the"endocrine system", an overall imbalance develops, and health problems can arise. When there is too much estrogen and not enough progesterone to counteract its effects, the situation is called estrogen dominance.

Estrogen dominance is a multi-factorial situation and is caused by such things as exposure to excess environmental xenoestrogens, use of synthetic estrogens such as the birth control pill and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), anovulation (lack of ovulation during menstrual cycle, which is not uncommon among women older than 35), digestion issues (which tax the estrogen-detoxification process in the liver), unrelenting stress (which strains the adrenals and the thyroid), unresolved emotional issues, poor diet and negative lifestyle factors such as smoking and alcohol use.

How does estrogen dominance specifically alter women's health?

Is hormone therapy still the most reasonable, safe and effective treatment for menopause?