Altering the appearance of one’s gender through hormone treatment or surgery is a permanent decision with lifelong health consequences that go beyond cosmetics. Brittle bones, affected brain development, and the loss of a functioning reproductive system are among the possible side effects of gender transition. It is crucial for those seeking treatment for gender dysphoria…

WASHINGTON—Women often use hormone therapy to relieve hot flashes and other menopause symptoms—and new research suggests patches or creams may be safer for their blood pressure than pills. As women’s bodies produce lower levels of reproductive hormones during menopause their risk for heart disease rises. High blood pressure further increases that risk—but it’s not clear…

How we perceive the world, form memories, and experience satisfaction fundamentally define the way we live and who we are. Recent science and widespread firsthand accounts now show that hormonal contraception, including the birth control pill, profoundly affects these domains by altering the structure of the brain and our neurochemistry. Hormonal contraception (HC) has long…

Formally, menopause is a period that begins once a woman’s body is done having menstrual cycles. A woman is said to have entered menopause once her body has not menstruated for 12 months, as long as no medical conditions or surgeries can be identified as the cause for the absence of menstrual cycles. Most women enter…

In findings that scientists fear may have implications for humans, researchers say exposing frog larvae to a common weed killer leads to reproductive abnormalities. These abnormalities may impair sexual behavior, and be a factor in the current decline in the worldwide frog population. The study, the first to look at levels of the herbicide atrazine—which…

Most women have heard of endometriosis and many have at least a general concept of what it is. In my practice, I remember it being called “the working women’s disease.” That’s because there was a theory a couple of decades ago that endometriosis was related to a high stress lifestyle. What is Endometriosis? Stress definitely…

Aging and high levels of physical, chemical, and emotional stress are associated with the loss of progesterone in women and testosterone in men.  When these key hormones are depleted, it causes a state of estrogen dominance.  This state of estrogen dominance is one of the major factors associated with degenerative disease processes. “As a species,…