Hormones and Your Health: The Smart Woman's Guide to Hormonal and Alternative Therapies for Menopause

337 Pages·2009·1.44 MB·English

by  Winnifred Cutler

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Hormones and
Your Health
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Also by Winnifred B. Cutler
Love Cycles: The Science of Intimacy
Hysterectomy: Before and After
The Medical Management of Menopause and Premenopause: Their
Endocrinologic Basis (with Celso Ramon Garcia, MD)
Menopause: A Guide for Women and the Men Who Love Them
(with Celso Ramon Garcia, MD and David A. Edwards, PhD)
Menopause: A Guide for Women and Those Who Love Them, Second
Edition (with Celso Ramon Garcia, MD)
Searching for Courtship: The Smart Woman’s Guide to Finding a
Good Husband
Wellness in Women after 40 Years of Age: The Role of Sex Hormones
and Pheromones (with Elizabeth Genovese, MD)
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Hormones and
Your Health
The Smart Woman’s Guide
to Hormonal and Alternative Therapies
for Menopause
Winnifred B. Cutler, PhD
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Copyright © 2009 by Winnifred B. Cutler, PhD. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
Illustrations copyright © 1986 by Athena Institute for Women’s Wellness, Inc. Tom Quay
General Counsel
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
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fessional medical advice. Any use of the information in this book is at the reader’s discre-
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Cutler, Winnifred Berg.
Hormones and your health : the smart woman’s guide to hormonal and alternative
therapies for menopause / Winnifred Cutler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-28902-0 (cloth)
1. Menopause—Hormone therapy—Popular works. 2. Menopause—Alternative
treatment—Popular works. 3. Women—Health risk assessment—Popular works.
I. Title.
RG186.C9268 2009
618.1'75061—dc22
2008055869
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To the research scientists who left a trail the author followed,
and to the smart women and physicians who join
this expedition.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Take Ownership of Your Health 3
2 Taking Hormones for Good Health: Why You Will Benefi t
from Hormonal-Replacement Therapy (HRT) 8
3 Prescription Hormones: How to Choose Them, How
to Take Them 30
4 Complementary and Alternative Practices: Some
Good, Some Bad 52
5 Pelvic Problems: Bleeding and Pain—Hyperplasia,
Cervical Cancer, and Endometriosis 77
6 Declining Pelvic Muscle Tone: Pelvic Prolapse and
Urinary Incontinence 93
7 Diagnosis Fibroids: The Top Four Treatments and Why
They May or May Not Work for You 110
8 Protect Your Bones—with Exercise, Posture, Vitamin D,
Calcium, and Hormones 133
9 Keep Your Heart Strong and Your Blood Flowing
through Unclogged Vessels 161
10 Protecting the Breasts: The Hidden Truth about
Mammography, Radiation, Hormones, and Cancer 184
vii
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viii CONTENTS
11 Hormones and the Brain: Preserving Memory,
Alertness, and Optimism 211
12 Your Changing Sexual Life and What You Can Do
about It 233
A Note to the Reader 257
References 259
Index 313
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