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Women demand better hormone options

Your alternatives

By Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published October 29, 2007

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OLYMPIA - All of a sudden, hormones are hot.

I don't know whether it was my recent column on bio-identical hormones or that there's been some national magazine publicity of late.

Maybe it was that my colleague at the newspaper, Tammy Stevens, who writes the blog "Hot Flashes, Cool Dates," has been addressing midlife mood and body changes for men and women. (Check out her blog at www.theolympian.com/living).

For whatever reason, South Sound women, in particular, are demanding more information and better options for easing premenstrual, peri-menopausal and post-menopausal symptoms and for feeling more vibrant and less moody.

Shucks, that could include women starting as young as 30 on up through age 65 or older, said Dr. Natalie Kather of Advanced Family Wellness in Olympia.

"I've even worked with moody teenagers," Kather said.

Kather said some women might be dissatisfied with the standard prescription hormones that are given out with only brief office visits - or sometimes even by long-distance.

Lab tests and symptom checklists don't always provide enough information for the best hormone diagnoses or prescriptions.

"I really encourage people to create a one-on-one, face-to-face relationship with a physician who can do an objective, interactive assessment of your clinical signs," Kather said. "At least 80 percent of that is, 'What's your experience, a nd how's your life going?' and only 20 percent i s labs."

Kather is one of three Olympia physicians offering a seminar Nov. 17 on women's hormones.

Joining Kather are Dr. Evan Hirsch of Hirsch Holistic Family Medicine in Olympia and Tom Griffith, a naturopathic doctor with Vital Health Care in Olympia.

The three physicians said they want to go outside the box to open up the spectrum of possibilities for regulating hormones.

Hirsch said he likes to keep all options open and is not fixed on one type of prescription or supplement.

Besides synthetic, natural or bio-identical hormones (the latter made from soy or wild yam), there are other ways of boosting hormone levels, he said.