Sex After Menopause: A Doctor’s “Recipe” for Continuing Enjoyment

Many women over 50 are uncomfortable asking their physicians about health conditions that are affecting their sex lives.  Are you one of them?   It’s not easy talking about a non-existant libido, wimpy orgasms, or vaginal dryness with anyone.  Yet these are common complaints of post-menopausal women. I wonder how many suffer and endure because they are too embarrassed to discuss it with their doctor.
If you fall into this category, I want to introduce you to Dr. Barb DePree. She’s an OB/GYN and menopause care specialist who has a private practice in West Michigan and serves as director of the Women’s Midlife Services at the local hospital there.  You may not live nearby,  but you can ask her anything through her website called MiddlesexMD. It’s a terrific resource. And she’s generous to reach out to the thousands of women who have no one else to turn to for answers.

Need Help Managing Your Menopause Symptoms? Here’s a Tip

It’s a sad truth that many women are frustrated by their doctor’s inability to help them manage their menopause symptoms. Either the office visits are just too short to deal with the complexity of the problems, or the physician just doesn’t have the expertise that’s needed.  Too often women leave a doctor’s office with a handful of prescriptions–  for sleep aids, blood pressure management and anti-depressants — when what they really need is hormone balancing.

These Foods & Beverages Will Pack On The Pounds Over Time

Managing your weight requires constant vigilance.   The average person gains one pound a year, which is hardly noticeable from one year to the next.  But if you let it go, those pounds add up slowly and before you know it, you’re 10-20 pounds over your ideal weight.  Current dietary guidlines urge people to “eat less and exercise more” to lose extra pounds, which sounds sensible. But recently, a team of researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, investigating ways to curb the obesity epidemic in this country, took a closer look at this diet mantra to see if this conventional wisdom is really good advice for preventing long-term weight gain.  What they concluded was that “eat less of this and more of that” would be more like it.

Belly Fat, The Cause & The Cure

Note from Wendy:  As I approach the fourth anniversary of this blog, I looked back to see what was the most popular post, as measured by the number of comments left.  It should come as no surprise that it was about belly fat – the scourge of mid-life women. And plenty of you weighed in (so to speak) on the topic. So, here it is again — three years later: one doctor’s explanation for what causes women to gain 10-30 pounds around your middle during the menopause years along with his advice on how to lose it for good.  If you have followed his plan, did it work for you? Let me know.

We’ve created clever euphemisms to describe it – like muffin top, mid-life bulge, and a thickening waist. But however you want to refer to belly fat, it’s an unfortunate fact of life for most women in mid-life and getting rid of it is, as a friend of mine put it, like chiseling cement.

Anti-Depressants Can Ease Hot Flashes In Some Women

Women who experience frequent and severe hot flashes and are not good candidates for hormonal therapy may find relief  from an anti-depressant like Lexapro, according to a clinical trial whose findings were published earlier this year in JAMA and summarized for physicians in a video presentation that was posted this week on the Medscape website

The study – a randomized, placebo-controlled trial involved 205 women over

New Research Shows That Soy Doesn’t Prevent Bone Loss Or Help With Menopause Symptoms

Women who consume soy supplements thinking…hoping… that they will help reduce or eliminate menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and insomnia will be very disappointed at the findings of a clinical trial published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.  The study targeted women ages 45-60 years who had been menopausal for one to five years. Researchers at the University of Miami wanted  to determine whether daily intake of soy isoflavones (plant compounds that mimic estrogen in the body) in tablet form prevents the rapid bone loss associated with the initial menopausal years.

RX For a Urinary Tract Infection: Cranberries or Antibiotics?

Most women have at one time or another experienced the discomfort of a urinary tract infection (UTI).  If you’re one of the lucky ones who have reached menopause unscathed, don’t think you’re home free yet.  The likelihood of a UTI increases with age, as Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a New York City-based urologist, explained in an earlier article here. Declining estrogen causes the bladder to become less elastic and this in turn causes “an inability to empty the bladder completely, creating a breeding ground for bacteria to multiply.”

Consuming Small Bites at a Slower Pace Can Promote Weight Loss

If you’re struggling to shed pounds and haven’t had success with any diet, maybe you should change the way you eat. Consider the findings of a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: It showed that big bites and fast chewing makes you consume significantly more calories than if you take small bites and chew more. Presumably, when you taste food for a longer period of time, it satisfies your hunger sooner and you eat less. So the lesson here is to cut your food into smaller pieces, chew more (one physician told me to chew food 20 times!) and take the time to enjoy your meal.

Free Webinar Next Week: How To Maintain Good Memory (As You Age)

If you’re experiencing brain fog, lack of focus or memory lapses (who isn’t?) then you’ll want to tune into a webinar next week featuring Dr. Bruce Price, associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He’ll talk about how “supplements and lifestyle changes can help keep your brain working smarter at any age.”  Dr. Price is on the Integrative Health Advisory Board of Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, the sponsor of this webinar.  It’s scheduled on Wednesday, July 27th* at 2pm EDT/11a PDT. When you register, you’ll have an opportunity to submit your brain health question.( Everyone who attends will receive $10 toward future shopping purchases in stores and online.)

An Independent Lab Says Not All Menopause Supplements Live Up To Their Label Claims

If you’re trying to get through the menopause transition au naturel, that is, without the help of hormone therapy, you’ve probably tried several over-the-counter  products containing Soy and Red Clover Isoflavones (an estrogen-like plant compound), Black Cohosh or Progesterone cream to help with common symptoms like hot flashes, or insomnia.  But finding a Menopause supplement that works for you can be a daunting and expensive process because there are hundreds of brands to choose from, all with different formulations and proprietary blends.  Since the FDA nor any other federal or state agency routinely tests supplements for quality prior to sale, how do you know if a product contains the ingredients promised on the label and in sufficient amounts to work?