Prevent Aging With Menopause

Menopause hormone therapy has been a long debated subject. Some believe that it is unnatural, others that it could be harmful to the body, and still others believe that it is absolutely necessary. Of course, for this article, it is approached only from a wrinkle and skin related area. The signs of menopause are numerous and include hot flashes, night sweats, irregular and erratic periods, loss of libido, sleep disorders, lack of concentration, memory loss, dizziness, weight gain, bloating, inconsistence, brittle nails, allergies, odor changes, erratic heartbeat, depression, anxiety, panic disorders, irritability, breast pain, headaches, joint pain, burning tongue, digestive issues, gum problems, dry and itchy skin, muscle tension, tingling hands and feet, and osteoporosis later on.

There are 3 types of basic hormone therapy. You can combine estrogen and progestin, get just estrogen, or get just progestin. The difference in therapy would depend on the individual. And in terms of safety, not everybody is actually a good candidate for hormone therapy. So that would be something to consult with your doctor about.

However, from a wrinkle related standpoint, they recently conducted a study comparing women who had undergone hormone therapy to those who did not several years after menopause had hit. According to a report published in the August 2005 Fertility and Sterility Journal, reports showed that long term hormone replacement therapy actually reduced wrinkles and skin rigidity in postmenopausal women. According to Hugh S Taylor MD, associate professor at the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, “These benefits were seen in women who had consistently used hormone therapy and had been in menopause for at least five years.”

There are things to be remembered. Hormone therapy does not reduce wrinkles or make them “melt away” as some might mistakenly think. It only prevents them. It makes those wrinkles and other signs of aging that often suddenly develop during menopause less likely and severe, and it keeps skin rather elastic. Taylor and his team compared 11 women who had not used hormone therapy to 9 women who had to find these results. These women generally fell into the same age range, skin type, race, sun exposure level, tobacco use, sunscreen use, and otherwise to level out the playing field to judge just based on this one element, measuring skin wrinkles at 11 facial locations. A surgeon with no knowledge as to which women were which was then asked to objectively rate their wrinkles in terms of severity while also actively measuring elasticity.

In general terms, the skin is the protector of your body, and over time it mirrors the problems that may be present in the rest of the body at large. So this could be one of the reasons why skin is better able to maintain itself with hormone therapy, because hormone therapy is also affecting and to some degree maintaining the rest of the body. Of course, this is all speculation and remains to be seen to some degree.