I work for a company that makes a natural herbal based menopause relief formula. It's got ashwagandha (sensoril), HMRlignan, vitamins, and minerals. I'm around a 30 year old male so I haven't tried it, but what I'm reading makes it seem pretty good because it's non-hormone based and ashwagandha seems like a pretty good adaptogen to use overall. My personal feeling, again as a man, is that menopause should not be painful and difficult and my mother said that she didn't have a bad time other than night sweats but she doesn't really associate that with menopause. She was a very healthy eater though and always had a rich garden of greens she'd eat from and was active and not overweight. As a nutritionist, I believe that most problems people are facing are from general lifestyle mis-steps such as not eating enough fruits and vegetables, not sleeping enough, not exercising enough, and being stressed. I would look at those areas before self-diagnosing myself as suffering from any malady because those are much more impactful than anything else. I hope that helps, David

Cattknap - I wouldn't. I took the mini-pill for 6-7 months, just to try to alleviate some of what was happening. Some it helped, some not - but I feel better since I quit taking it. I kind of resent that there is an entire supplement/medical industry built around a perfectly natural occurence, and I'm not going to buy into it unless therte is some actual health issue that I need to address. I've had a couple of hot flashes, but I eat (and always have, before it became trendy) a high fruit/veg/soy diet. Along with plenty of chocolate. :) Known to reduce hot flashes, sweats etc. stay active & healthy as you already are, do basic common sense health screenings (like Catherine suggests) and don't worry! BTW (DH is a radiologist) a certain amount of bone loss and degeneration is absolutely normal. Most people over age 30 have some, normal, normal, normal! And I hate that your hair is still thick! Jeez. Mine's thinned quite a bit in the last couple of years...I think it's migrating to my chin.

VALERIE -I AM ALSO GOING THRU A LONG PERIOD OF SICKNESS NAUSEA ,FLUSHING ,DIZZINESS.SWEATS ,ANDRENALINE RUSH .I HAVE BEEN SICK SINCE DECEMBER .BY MARCH IT WAS SO BAD I HAD TO GO OUT ON DISABILTY . BEEN TESTED FOR A THOUSAND THINGS NOTHING ONLY THING FOUND WAS LOW ESTROGEN .COULDN'T CONVINCE MY GYN THAT ALL THESE SYPTOMS ARE PART OF MENOPAUSE .I AM GLAD I WENT INTO THIS SITE TODAY IT MADE ME FEEL ALOT BETTER TO SEE OTHER PEOPLE ARE HAVING ALL DIFFERENT TYPES OF SYMPTOMS. YESTERDAY I WAS AT MY PRIMARY DOCTOR HE WAS LIKE WE CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU IT HAS TO BE IN YOUR HEAD SO HE WAS GOING TO GIVE ME AN ANTI DEPRESSANT.I SAID NO WAY . # I WOULD RATHER BE EVALUATED BY A SHRINK. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS EVERYTIME A DOCTOR CANNOT FIGURE OUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ESPECALLY IF YOU ARE A WOMAN . BE CAREFUL OF THE ANTI DEPRESSANT.FIND A DOCTOR THAT SPECIALIZES IN MENOPAUSE .BELEIVE ME YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE GOING THRU THIS . IT GREAT TO BE ABLE TO VENT .THAT IS WHAT THE WEB SITE IS FOR

I don't know if Rhaponic Rhubarb (4mg) extract is considered plant estrogen....but do know it helped me greatly for the night sweats (don't realy have the otjer issues). Heard about it via a newpaper article Q&A and a chiropractor recommended it. I get mine off Amazon.com and search for best price each time i reorder since companies tend to change price. I use Estrovera brand by Metagenics and have to say....didn't really realize how much it was working until I ran out. Seems it took about 2 weeks for it to gradually work. And takes about same time to stop working after I quit it, which i did...thinking maybe I didn't need it anymore (since I was hoping I was OVER menopause)....so started back up again, but had to wait couple weeks for it to kick back in again. Prior to taking it, I was awake every 2 hrs, sweating to death and in turn, having to 'tinkle'. After taking it, I still got hot but not nearly as often. Been using it fr over a year now.....and have stopped the night sweats. Am hoping I have got "thru" to the other side, but hate to risk stopping and have it start all over again...lol