The second step after having a diagnosis (in my case being officially and only grace to the DUTCH test, perimenopausal) is to look for treatment options because I do not want to live like this and because, just like all of you, I deserve a good quality of life for my remaining years. Two interesting facts here should give us an idea on the magnitude of what women are going through: by the year 2025, approximately 1.1 billion women will be menopausal, and the average woman can expect to live 40% of her life in postmenopause (the source here was google, that I usually don’t trust or look up to, but studies and doctors agree upon it).

In terms of what is available out there, it’s pretty simple:

• Estrogen only therapy, for women who had their uterus removed (hysterectomy)
• Estrogen and progesterone for women who still have their uterus

Based on the symptoms targeted, there is local therapy – cream, ring, tablet with Estrogen for vaginal symptoms, and systemic therapy (Estrogen only or Estrogen and Progesterone) – oral tablet, patch, injection, spray for the other symptoms. I do not know what is available in each country.

I might have mentioned this before, but I am very fortunate to have an extremely open-minded and informed doctor, who is very supportive of my decision to get treatment for my symptoms.  What are the other women out there supposed to do, though?

Wanting to dig deeper such as I make an informed decision, I started looking into data on risks and benefits of using MHT. I have been searching and reading frantically for more than 2 weeks, looking for recent studies.  And there is not much out there. Of course, I do not have access to all the platforms professionals do. But from what I saw, doctors don’t have too much data to work with either.

Most of what I found so far is not favorable for MHT (details in the next posts). But what I am having a very big problem with is that most information is based on this very large study in the US – WHI study that was conducted more than 20 years ago!! Things seem to start changing, but very slowly. If I am to wait for science and the medical world, I will be far off into postmenopause and with me more than 1 billion women. The time for accurate, up-to-date information, modern standards, and practices is NOW!

Am I still willing to go on MRT after everything I know at this point? Definite yes.