PRE MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS

Pre Menopause Symptoms and Soy

Web sites promoting relief from pre menopause symptoms sometimes promote products made from soy. Soy is very
estrogenic. According to these web sites:

1. The ovaries stop producing as much estrogen during perimenopause;

2. Less estrogen leads to a hormone imbalance and pre menopause symptoms;
3. Consuming products containing soy, either as a food or in pill form, replaces the estrogen; and
4. The pre menopause symptoms go away.

It all sounds good, but is it true? Some would suggest that not only is increasing your estrogen levels the exact opposite
of what you should be doing, but that doing it with soy is extremely unhealthy.

Several different web sites make reference to Dr. John R. Lee and his book
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: the Breakthrough
Book on Natural Progesterone (Warner Books, 1996). Dr Lee suggests that it is
not a decrease in estrogen that causes hormonal imbalance during
perimenopause, but estrogen dominance over progesterone. Research by Dr.
Celso Ramon Garcia (Garcia CR, Cutler WB. Preservation of the ovary: a
reevaluation. Fertil Steril. 1984;42:510) and Dr. Jerilynn Prior (Prior JC.
Perimenopause–the ovary’s frustrating grand finale. A Friend Indeed.
1998;15(7):1-4; Prior JC. Ovulatory changes with perimenopause. Endocrine
Ageing in Women. In: Endocrine Facets of Ageing in the Human and
Experimental Animal. Veldhuis JD, Laron Z, eds. London: Wiley Publishers,
2001) indicates the ovaries continue to produce estrogen and other hormones
well after menopause, and that estrogen levels may be higher in pre menopausal
women than in younger women.

If this is true, then increasing one’s estrogen levels through any means would
increase, not decrease, the pre menopause symptoms associated with hormonal
imbalance. In addition, consumption of soy appears to have other health consequences according to Dr. Sherrill
Sellman, who holds a doctorate degree in Naturopathy and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology and Psychology.
She is the author of Hormone Heresy and my source for the information contained in the above paragraph.

Dr. Sellman was interviewed on Healthier Talk regarding the dangers of soy. According to Dr. Sellman, soy is one of
the most allergenic foods and is cross reactive with wheat, it interferes with thyroid function; increases the need for
vitamin D, is a “trypsin inhibitor” and stops the absorption of key minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron.
“Trypsin inhibitors,” according to an article in the Journal of Nutrition, interferes with the digestion of protein in the
intestine. Manufacturing companies use soy to produce the inhibitors for insect control, among other agricultural uses.

If soy is going to be eaten, Dr. Sellman suggests it only be consumed in very small quantities and only in formatted
form, such as tempe, miso or natto. She cautions against eating products made from soy flour, or eating soy nuts, or
drinking soy milk or using soy oil. She also cautions against feeding babies formula made from soy, which she claims is
equivalent to giving the baby 5 birth control pills per day, leading to significant early puberty problems in both sexes.

Once again we see there are many opposing views on how to find relief from pre menopause symptoms. In addition to
Dr. Sellman’s book, you may also want to consider the information at Menopause Natural Remedies.