As a woman in the midst of young adulthood, my mind eagerly awaits the next steps in aging. I know this may be a long way off, but working in a senior care center my mind skips past middle adulthood and looks to late adulthood instead. I see young seniors to the oldest in the care facility I am at. And this course has opened my eyes to some of the issues that they're facing, and one thing that I see a lot of residents dealing with is the pain of menopause as well as the pains of old age. But we all see menopause in our own way in our lives. My mother, for example, had a terrible time with her life transition. The pain and suffering of my aunt's and father's colleagues never fell on deaf or indifferent ears. For this reason, a statistic contained in our notes struck me, even though the very useful hormone therapy is not yet considered an effective treatment. In 2002, 40% of women in the United States were using hormone therapy; ten years later the rate was only 20%. I believe that modern ideas and uses of HT may be more of an advantage than a disadvantage for today's menopausal women. It is precisely modernization and innovations in the field that must have led to a safer method of administering hormone therapy. Not to mention eliminating some of the risks associated with the use of hormone therapy in menopausal women. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayWho should consider hormone therapy as an option? What makes a good candidate for hormone therapy besides being a menopausal woman? Well, women who have mild to moderate, well-controlled symptoms usually should not seek hormone therapy. It should usually be reserved for those experiencing severe menopausal symptoms who cannot tolerate or benefit from other treatments. But also women who are going through early menopause or who have lost the functionality of their ovaries. And in that next category who go untreated are at greater risk of premature death, Parkinson-like symptoms, anxiety and depression. There are some who should avoid people who have had a history of cancer, blood clots, liver disease, or unexplained vaginal bleeding. Because hormone therapy could make these symptoms worse and possibly cause the previous cancer to return. But the advantages in many cases are the alleviation of symptoms. And especially this is a thing that affects women in Western cultures, as in Japan, shoulder stiffness becomes a symptom of menopause not commonly mentioned in the West. But many other cultures experience much muted symptoms, and some point to the rise of youth culture in the United States. When we look at HT there are several different medications, but the treatments are mainly ET (estrogen-only therapy) usually prescribed to women who have had a hysterectomy and therefore do not have a uterus. And EPT (estrogen + progestin therapy), the addition of progestin, helps protect against endometrial cancer caused by estrogen alone. The idea now is to minimize any cancer risk by administering the lowest effective dose for the shortest period of time, thus eliminating cancer risks. Hormonal regimens now include low doses of estrogen for 15 days, followed by ten days of progestin and then nothing for the final five. This is very similar to the system used by the birth control pill to prevent pregnancy. Any real concern that comes with HT is the dosage and length of timeis used, a high dose over a long period obviously carries greater risks. But how does HT really help with menopause? It compensates for the normal loss of estrogen that comes with aging. But it also relieves menopausal symptoms such as osteoporosis, stroke, heart disease and colon cancer. Studies show that it effectively helps reduce cases of hot flashes, vaginal dryness, night sweats, and bone loss. However there are some negative side effects associated with HT, any hormone therapy including birth control. There are always risks such as blood clots and pulmonary embolism. But the risks there have increased as well as some that appear only with the EPT. With the addition of progesterone some patients react negatively to the addition of the synthetic hormone. The reactions they experience are bloating, depression and irritability. This is one of the many reasons why people abandon hormone therapy. But there are several options on the market that are effective in some cases but do not affect estrogen levels in the body. Clonidine may reduce instances of hot flashes and night sweats, but research shows that while it does not carry the cancer risks of hormone replacement therapy, it is not as effective as hormone replacement therapy and comes with some side effects such as dry mouth and constipation . Bionatural alternatives are also available, but many of these are unregulated and, like all natural treatments, there is no basis to say they are safe or more effective than hormone therapy. Looking back historically, hormone replacement therapy was first available in the 1940s as a cure for all problems. women's issues, but only gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time menopause was also called “estrogen deficiency disease”. It wasn't until 1976 that the treatment first found any problems and a study linked the treatment to endometrial cancer or at least increased risk of getting endometrial cancer. But this same study also found that it reduced the risks of heart disease. So even at this point, when the treatment was already 30 years old, we were still learning about the side effects. But this study lowered treatment rates, from 28 million prescriptions to 14 million prescriptions in 1980. But the popularity of this treatment revived in the 1980s. This was because another study found that the treatment helped with bone thinning. And in 1992, noncontraceptive estrogens were the most prescribed drug in America. Since then, new drugs and treatment combinations have also become available. Alternatives to hormone replacement therapy have also been shown to be effective. Things like getting regular exercise and eating a good diet, as well as quitting smoking and using personal lubricants for women who suffer from vaginal dryness. These are simply some alternatives, but if they are not effective some may need to seek hormone treatment, if not another source of symptom relief. In the last paragraph I discussed the studies that condemned or praised here we will go a little more in depth on these studies. Several studies have been conducted trying to examine any likely links between a disease and HT. An example, probably the most famous, is The Million Woman study in the United Kingdom which enrolled one million women aged fifty and over to study the effects linked to the use of hormone replacement therapy and the large number made it possible to address a broader range of health questions and concerns. The results of this study in terms of endometrial cancer.