If you are female between the ages of 40 and 60, you need to read this article n the NY Times today, called, “The Estrogen Dilemma”,
If you are my age, 65, you can read it—go ahead–but the decision you’ve already made– at least since 2002– to steer clear of estrogen replacement regimens, is not being revisited for those of us well beyond menopause. Just about everyone seems to agree that starting hormones long after menopause is a no-no. Something about irritating those dead cells and increasing your risk for every goddamn thing.
But, women in mid-life need to educate themselves again on what the science is today, as unlike the 2002 sudden reversal of hormone replacement treatments, many scientists studying this question now say that there is a window following menopause where taking estrogen may be a healthy decision and lower risks for heart disease, osteoporosis, depression, as well as Alzhemer’s.
Which, by the way, is what doctors USED to say to all women (except those with a history of breast cancer) when they approached menopause.
So apparently just like fashion, e.g. those platform shoes of the 60’s that one can now buy in 2010, your meds can go in and out of truthiness.
I feel like I’m in a Samuel Beckett play. One day it takes me all day to stack the dishes in the left kitchen cabinet and then the next day I spend all day taking them out and re-stacking them in the right cabinet.
At least, they are colorful.
©Pat Coakley 2010
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**Select photographs from this blog and my wider archive can be purchased at www.patcoakley.com
If the plates are as beautiful as these tulips, go ahead and stack and restack. Our bodies are pretty complex, and most medical (chemical) treatments have unintended consequences that are often unknown. But one wonders why the fashions shift?
Yesterday was abstract art at my house, Don. Well, I guess not THAT abstract if you knew they were tulips! Again, that cross pollination thing goin’ on!
yes this is a wonderful composition. it has such a presence, it made me stop look and listen, something really great art does. as for the medical standards shifting, yes, its true, i cant help but think the populi are often guinea pigs in med experimentation. just look at all the times meds have had to be recalled after they’ve been ‘approved’ by the FDA. for instance why would some drug be approved before all the ins and outs of research are completed, i mean completely completed? either because they really cant make an accurate determination, or research funds ran out, or a new product introduction is due and the effects are deemed ‘permissible’
but its not so permissible when a real human being suffers serious consequences as the result of it having been prescribed. then there are the benefits, on the other hand. one has to weigh these choices very very carefully.