Suzanne’s best selling book, Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness
Movie Review: Excerpted from May 28, 2010, Steve Dorfman, Palm Beach Post
Sex and the City fans have come to expect certain things from their favorite foursome - and, contrary to what legions of film critics thought, last week’s opening of the second cinematic installment based on the popular, chick-centric HBO series did not disappoint.
Fab fashion? Check.
Lux locales? Double-check.
Randy repartee? But of course.
Relatable, real-life health developments and useful medical info? Hold on there a sec, partner.
In the past decade, SATC devotees have had to suspend their disbelief on numerous fronts, from Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) being able to live in a spacious Manhattan apartment and purchase a closet full of Manolo Blahniks - all on a freelance writer’s income - to prettiest-of-them-all Charlotte (Kristin Davis) ending up with that chubby little bald troll, to Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) being a, you know, heterosexual.
But one thing that all women of a certain age can identify with is sex-crazed Samantha (Kim Cattrall) dealing with classic menopausal symptoms as she, too, enters “certain age-hood.”
Of course, feisty cougar that she is, Samantha will not be giving into Mother Nature without a fight. Early on in a restaurant scene, she explains to her pals that she’s on a regimen of hormones and supplements to “trick my body into thinking it’s younger.”
And that got us to wondering: Can menopausal women safely bypass the worst side effects of “the change” via hormone therapy?
Effects of aging
According to the Mayo Clinic, menopause doesn’t officially begin until one year after a woman’s final menstrual period. However, as countless women in their 40s and 50s can attest, the symptoms - such as hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbances/insomnia, mood swings, vaginal dryness and decreased libido - can occur long before then.
“As we age, our hormone levels decrease,” says Dr. Robert Willix, medical director of Cenegenics in Boca Raton and an expert in age-management medicine. “For women, this means that their body is producing less estrogen and progesterone - and the menopausal side effects are the body going through ‘hormone withdrawal.’ ”
Of course, the various side effects can be interrelated. For instance, explains Dr. Samuel Heering, an OB-GYN at West Boca Medical Center, “If a woman is experiencing vaginal dryness, sex can be painful, and that will cause a decrease in libido. Or if she’s sleeping poorly because of night sweats, she won’t be in the right mood, or have enough energy, to have sex.
“Often, if we can improve one or two symptoms, there can be a ripple effect.”
Bio-identical hormones
A segment of the medical community believes that women undergoing hormone therapy should do so with “bio-identical” ones - that is, those that contain all of a hormone’s compounds - rather than with the mass-produced pharmaceutical versions.
Actress Suzanne Somers is the poster girl for bio-identicals. In Sex and the City 2, Samantha Jones carries around Somers’ book, Breakthrough, as if it’s a bible.
“There are three compounds in estrogen. But the pharmaceutical versions contain only one of these compounds,” explains Cenegenics’ Willix. “With a bioidentical hormone, which is created by a compounding pharmacist and can be customized for each patient, the patient is getting all three compounds, which more closely resembles what she had been naturally producing.”
Willix notes that clinical studies of women using bio-identical hormones have shown fewer incidences of cancer and other side effects.
Concerns regarding the safety of all forms of hormone therapy aren’t going to disappear. But for many women - including the libidinous Samantha - the rewards clearly outweigh the risks.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. Check out this very informative book. Excellent price because so many have sold!
AGELESS is Suzanne’s first best seller on Bio-Identical Hormones.
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