Perimenopause and Menopause

Changes in a woman’s reproductive hormones, beginning as early as her twenties, can cause disruptive symptoms. Common complaints include irritability, hot flashes, insomnia, loss of sexual desire, decrease concentration, difficulty with relationships, anxiety, unhappiness – and a myriad of other problems.

We often see these problems being misdiagnosed as psychiatric disorders by other doctors with the initiation of powerful medications that can bring about other dangerous problems. As a general rule it’s better to avoid medication, particularly medication that changes the neurochemistry of your brain.

At Cherokee Women’s Health Specialists, we try to find the cause of the problem rather than just treat the symptom.

Many times an imbalance of hormones is the culprit, and thus we offer our patients natural hormone replacement. The word hormone sometimes generates fear because of all the negative press regarding hormones causing cancer. However, the hormones implicated in causing cancer tend to be synthetic hormones rather than natural hormones – without hormones, life would not be possible.

In addition to Hormone balancing, we often find our patients suffering because of problems with life balancing. There are many demands associated with being a woman; sometimes it’s the choices we are making in life that are causing our symptoms, not a biological deficiency.

As primary health care providers, we listen to you, our patient, to endeavor to understand what is going on in your life, in addition to performing a careful physical exam and laboratory testing.