Geoffrey Redmond - It’s Your Hormones: The Women’s Complete Guide to Soothing PMS, Clearing Acne, Regrowing Hair, Healing PCOS, Feeling Good on the Pill, Enjoying a Safe and Comfortable Menopause, Recharging Your

Hormones and Womens Lives

Are Your Hormones Ruining Your Life? Recognizing Hormonal Vulnerability

What Your Hormones Do and Why

Monthly Challenges

Is My Period Normal? When Your Cycle Needs Helpand When It Doesnt

Birth Control for the Hormonally Vulnerable: Finding a Method That Respects Your Bodys Sensitivities

The Week from Hell: PMS and Other Hormonal Miseries

The Comprehensive Program for Overcoming Your PMS

When Hormones Hurt

Female Pain: Cramps, Endometriosis, Fibromyalgia, and More

When Hormones Go to Your Head: Migraine and Other Headaches

Hormones Make Sex Possibleor Nearly Impossible

Why Have So Many Women Stopped Enjoying Sex?

Sex and Womens Lives

Sex Is Much More Than Hormones

What the New Research Has Discovered About Testosterone and Womens Sexuality

Testosterone: The Decision

How to Use Testosterone Now to Get the Zest Back in Your Sex Life

Getting the Most from Your New Sexuality

The Most Visible Part of Your Body May Be the Most Vulnerable: What Hormones Can Do to Skin, Hair, Weight, and Metabolism

The Most Heartbreaking Hormone Problem: If Youre Starting to Lose Your Hair

Peach Fuzz and Worse: Hormones and Facial Hair

Acne: Not Just for Teenagers

Making Sense of Your Testosterone Results

Effective Treatments for Hormonal Skin and Hair Problems

The Hormone Problem That Affects Nearly Everything: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Menopause: Straight Talk on the Tough Questions

The Great HT Scare: What They Didnt Tell You About All Those Studies

What Menopause and Perimenopause Feel Like

Menopause: The Decision

How to Feel Good Without Estrogen: Alternative Treatments

If Youve Decided to Try Estrogen: Choosing the Best Preparation for You

Planning for Your Bones Future: Preventing Osteoporosis

Hormones and the Soul

Hormones and Spiritual Healing

You probably picked up this book because you have noticed that your body is changing, and you suspect hormones are to blame. Your skin may have started to break out again, or your menstrual cycle may have lost whatever predictability it once had. Perhaps you put on twenty pounds in less than a yearor had to resort to extreme dieting just to maintain weight. Or you may be one of the 30 percent of women whose sex drive goes into hibernation. Showering may have become a terrifying ordeal because clumps of hair clog the drain. Or your mood may have a life of its own, which clashes with your own life.

Perhaps you recognize yourself in what some of my patients have said about how they feel when their hormones start to assert themselves:

Something has happened; Im not the same me.

I dont feel like Im living in my body anymore.

I cry every time I wash my hair because so much falls out.

Im never sure when to schedule an important event because I never know if Ill be in control of my emotions when that day comes.

Sex used to be very important to me but now I couldnt care less. Except for my husband, I wouldnt mind if I never had it again.

Lately my joints ache, and it even hurts to comb my hair. My doctor told me Im just getting older. But I dont think forty-eight is old, and I felt perfectly fine until a few months ago.

I spend twenty minutes every morning plucking hairs from my face.

Im tired of all the jokes about hormones. They are not so funny when you are struggling with them every day.

Please help me. I dont want to live the rest of my life feeling like this. You are my last hope.

Each of these women had a different problem, but there was a common factor: hormonal vulnerability .

Each was in good health and, according to conventional medicine, had no disease. Yet they did not feel well and were not able to enjoy their lives. Most dispiriting of all, each had sought desperately, but unsuccessfully, to find an explanation for what was happening and a way back to being normal. Some were told dismissively by their doctors, Theres nothing wrong with you. Or they went through an elaborate workup, only to be told, All your tests are normal; theres nothing that can be done. Some were put on medications that did not help. The treatments did not work because the cause hormonal vulnerability was not understood. Several sought relief from herbs and supplements without success, not because herbal medicine does not workit often doesbut because they did not have reliable information about what herbs to use and how to use them.

The result of this massive disregard of hormone problems by the medical establishment is the nearly terminal discouragement of many affected women. Yet there is no reason for the widespread pessimism about womens hormones. Medicine has learned a lot about how these body chemicals affect health and well-being. A few doctors now recognize that some women are particularly sensitive to their own hormones, even when levels are supposedly normal. This condition I term hormonal vulnerability . Sadly, most in the medical establishment are still unaware of this condition, even though there are new and excellent treatments for its various forms. Information is scattered in bits throughout thousands of medical journal articles and too often presented in technical language of extreme obscurity.

Showing how biochemical research about hormones can be used to bring joy back into the lives of hormonally vulnerable women is the task Ive set for myself in writing this book . Here you will find complete, up-to-the-minute findings on all the major hormonal conditions. However, this book goes beyond the abstractions of scientific research. Because hormones are not only chemicals but also feelings and experiences, I will emphasize how they affect womens lives. Ive learned a lot about this, not only from my formal medical education but also from listening carefully to the stories of the nearly ten thousand women who have consulted me about these conditions. I will also speak frankly about the problems women have getting help. Part of the burden of hormone problems is massive denial by a medical establishment that is quite often unsympathetic. If you have been thwarted in your efforts to get help, you will learn that you are not alone. To empower you to get the help you need, I will give you practical tips on how to navigate the labyrinthine health care system.

My experience in caring for hormonal problems for more than twenty-five years has shown me that there is almost always a solution. The most important thing is not to give up hope. No matter how discouraged you may be, no matter how many health care professionals you have seen, how many medications or herbs you have taken, or how many times you almost gave up, you can feel yourself again . This book will show you how.

WHAT ARE HORMONES?

All women know something about hormones because they experience their fluctuations every month. Sometimes hormones speak in a whisper and mostly leave you alone. Other times they shout and tiresomely demand your complete attention. In an ideal world, hormones would do their important work of regulating bodily functions unobtrusively and leave you free to live your life as you want. Alas, this is not always the case. If hormones are making their presence known in your life, it is best to give them the attention they want. Step one is to know what they are.