Women's Health

Escape From Hormone Horrors — What You Can Do

Hormone horrors: The perimenopause years continued...

The good news: There are things you can do. For many the answer lies in natural herbs and supplements, like black cohosh and red clover. Though medical studies remain conflicted over the effectiveness of these remedies, some women report relief. And while HRT was found to have a laundry list of nasty side effects, Goldstein says that for some women, short term use can still be the appropriate answer, particularly for hot flashes.

For some women, a good lubricant is all that is needed to ease vaginal dryness and make sex pleasurable again. And for a select group of women, Amaru says off-label use of small doses of male androgen hormones - such as testosterone - can put the flame back in the fire.

Ultimately, according to Northrup, "The most important thing to keep in mind is that no woman has to suffer with hormone horrors at any stage in her life. There are answers for every woman at every stage."