Research presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behaviour – which I suspect is something to do with food or at least what we put into our bodies – has recently reported that a diet rich in soy prevents weight gain in post-menopausal female rats.

Now I have nothing against soy, indeed it’s extremely helpful for many women during menopause and some find it particularly good for hot flashes, but it is the reasoning behind the claim that has puzzled me. They are saying that previous research suggests that reduced levels of the hormone oestrogen during menopause are responsible for the increased body weight and abdominal fat often experienced by postmenopausal women.

As oestrogen is the hormone responsible for adding to our womanly curves I am not quite following the logic here. They do admit that while oestrogen replacement therapies can reduce weight gain, they also have unwelcome side effects, prompting a search for alternative methods of treatment.

Now, as I understand it, women continue to make oestrogen during menopause to compensate for the lack of it from the ovaries. It is made from our adrenal glands and from fat cells, so that a small amount of weight gain at menopause is nature’s way of making up for any deficiency.

We’re back to balance, as menopause is the time when some weight gain will be helpful so dieting frantically is not the answer as being ultra-slim will not have health benefits in the long run. Of course being a seriously overweight isn’t healthy either and what these researchers have found (in postmenopausal rats) is decreased body weight and increased energy expenditure after adding soy phytoestrogens to their regular diet.

One of the researchers, Michelle Murphy from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, commented “These results have implications for the development of alternative natural treatments for obesity in post-menopausal women. The results of this study highlight the need for further research into the actions of phytoestrogens on food intake in humans to determine the more long-term effects of consuming a soy-rich diet. In this world of an ever-increasing obesity epidemic, finding natural dietary solutions and treatments to combat obesity are of the utmost importance both to worldwide health and the economy.”

Well, obesity is certainly not confined to postmenopausal women and concentrating solely on phytoestrogens is, I think, not really the answer. By all means add soy to your diet but remember that soy products themselves are not necessarily slimming and it might be better instead to focus on improving your overall diet and that old tried and true method of regular, enjoyable, exercise.

Unless of course you think that you and a menopausal rat have something in common.

Dr John Lee said that normally they would disappear altogether at menopause and that to reduce them a progesterone regime should do the trick. My experience is that many women do suffer from fibroids around their thirties and forties and that they can be a real nuisance.

Fibroids are round, firm benign lumps of the muscular wall of the uterus, composed of smooth muscle and connective tissue, and seldom do you just get one. In size they start small and grow to something the size of an orange, but can get much bigger. The most usual consequences are painful or irregular periods and heavy bleeding, often accompanied by pain.

The usual option offered is a hysterectomy and many women, depending on their age, opt for this. If you have a highly skilled surgeon they can just remove the uterus intact, but this is not usually the case.

Prevention is the best option, so tackling oestrogen dominance is the first step because fibroids are produced by excess oestrogen and their growth is stimulated by it. Ensuring that you have adequate supplies of progesterone is a priority, so establish this with a blood or saliva test, and by using natural progesterone regularly you should be able to shrink the fibroids in size without resorting to surgery.

Once menopause is under way the fibroids will begin to shrink naturally, but if you are around ten years or so off your menopause you need to be aware that you are probably having anovulatory (non-ovulating) cycles and so you are producing much less progesterone than before but still the same amount of oestrogen. To check for this, have a blood or saliva test to check progesterone levels the week following your usual ovulation date. A low reading indicates lack of ovulation and the need to supplement with natural progesterone. 
 
If you experience any of the common signs of oestrogen dominance you will want to keep an eye out for fibroids and take action earlier rather than later to avoid surgery.

With osteoporosis your bones become fragile and brittle and so are easily broken. As more severe bone loss occurs, then even minor accidents can result in fractures, most frequently in the spine, wrist, hip and pelvis. If the condition becomes advanced, and is untreated, then the vertebrae of the spine are prone to compression fractures, which affect surrounding nerves and organs. This also results in a loss of height for which the old nickname was ‘the dowager’s hump’ as it was frequently seen in the bent over posture of old ladies. It is also accompanied by chronic pain.

Risk Factors
Women are four times more likely than men to develop osteoporosis, and women over 55 are the most susceptible, although younger women can also be at risk depending on certain factors. It has also more recently been seen that more men are being diagnosed with osteoporosis. It is hard to know whether this is because they are now more susceptible because of the increased hormone levels in the water and food chain, or because they have not been diagnosed. As the greatest number of cases are seen in women, many doctors have not thought to link broken bones in men to osteoporosis. A simple scan by ultrasound can diagnose this and if a man is subject to bones breaking more easily then this would be a good check to make.

Knowing your medical history is important as osteoporosis often runs in families, but if this is not the case for you then it is the declining hormone levels as we age that are an important factor in whether or not you develop osteoporosis,. Both oestrogen and progesterone are essential for bone building and production of both these slow down as we get older. Normal bone tissue is broken down by cells called osteoclasts (a process which needs oestrogen) and rebuilt by osteoblasts. (which needs progesterone). As we age, the rate at which the bone is broken down exceeds that at which it is built up and this leads to bone loss.

It can also affect younger women who have had a surgical menopause through having a hysterectomy and also anyone who has undertaken severe dieting or has a history of anorexia or bulimia. There is a severe mineral loss involved in these conditions and during the teens and twenties and this can do permanent damage to the bones.

There are a number of ways to deal with osteoporosis and three of the important ones in the prevention and management of this condition are stress management, diet and exercise. Low levels of exercise can make the condition worse, and there are many good books on nutrition on this subject, but it will certainly be worsened by a diet high in animal protein, too much salt, heavy metal toxicity, cigarettes, numerous pregnancies and prolonged breast feeding.

Being aware of your own risk factors will enable you to take charge of your health and minimise the effect osteoporosis may have on you.