Who should you turn to for menopause and hormone advice?

When it comes to learning about the benefits and risks of menopause treatment, who do you turn to?  Do you rely on anecdotal stories or secondhand information from friends? Do you believe everything you see on social media?  Do you consider advertisements for therapies that appear on TV or the internet?

I hope that you stop and reflect about the validity of each of these sources.  Information from non-professionals should always be taken with a grain of salt.  If a friend relates that she had a horrible reaction to a hormone, there are lots of reasons why this may not have been a cause and effect.

In other cases you may have a conversation with someone who reports something they read in an article, or even heard from their doctor.  Secondhand information can get distorted or exaggerated and recounting advice given to someone by their healthcare provider may be incorrect.  This is not uncommon, especially in this day and age where medical visits are hurried, and discussions are abbreviated.  In addition doctors frequently talk above one’s head, so a lot can get lost in the translation, especially if one does not walk out with any notes or written material.

I hope when you are researching information about menopause and hormone treatment, you rely on material published by experts in the medical field.  With respect to menopause, this would be from academic professors, gynecologists, family physicians, and internists who treat menopausal patients.  There are also menopause societies, hospitals, and trusted national organizations that publish educational materials.  In addition we are seeing the emergence of menopause coaches who, although not medical professionals, appropriately acknowledge their role in not giving medical advice but referring patients to the appropriate resources and consultants.

If you come across a menopause website that is an advertisement for a proprietary product, keep in mind that its main goal is to sell you something, not educate you.  Use common sense and research these products to learn more about them.

Having explained all of this, I have to admit that I was prompted to write this blog when I recently came across something disturbing, which raised another issue along these lines.  How do you even know if a medical professional is a trustworthy source?  This can be extremely difficult, because the presumption is that after many years of training and study, that person should be a reputable spokesperson for the truth.  However, even the most degreed individual can be biased.  The person could also be benefiting financially by endorsing a product not approved by the FDA or one that hasn’t been thoroughly studied.  In addition, like in any occupation, there are always people who seem to stray away from conventional standards and have their own unique unsubstantiated opinion or a belief in a treatment or product.

This puts the consumer in an awkward position.  How do you really know whose advice or opinion to trust?  I don’t have a tried and true response, but can offer some questions to consider.

1. What is the person’s background?  What degrees do they have?  An MD, a PhD, RN, Pharm.D?
2. Is the person on the staff of a hospital or a professor at a medical school?
3. Does the person’s educational and work background align with the practice of women’s health care?  (For instance someone with a PhD in civil engineering is likely not an authority on menopause!)
4. Is the person recommending a treatment that is not covered by the FDA?
5. Are there any reviews of the person’s publications, products, or skills?

Having gone through all of the above, every once in a while there may be something that stands out that may affect your opinion about the credibility of the author.  This occurred for me and I wanted to share it.  I regularly read the John Hopkins newsletter, which updates information on the Coronavirus pandemic.  As you may be aware, a large percentage of the population continues to refuse obtaining a Coronavirus vaccine.  Recently the surgeon general has voiced concern that large amounts of misinformation about vaccines are being disseminated on social media and this is influencing some citizens to decline the vaccine.

We all have a right to decide what medical treatments we want.  However I think we all have a duty to safeguard public heath and I personally believe that we need to have as much of the population as possible vaccinated to prevent further deaths and economic destruction.  I try not to judge individuals who feel strongly that they don’t want to be vaccinated. But I do get upset when they base their reasons on misinformation rather than weighing the scientific evidence.

The Johns Hopkins article notes that a non-profit organization, the Center for Controlling Digital Hate, has been analyzing the root of the Coronavirus pandemic anti-vaccine campaign and has identified a dozen individuals who are largely responsible for disseminating inaccurate vaccine information to over a million users.

I was shocked to see the name of a prominent gynecologist and author, Dr. Christiane Northrup on the list.  Her books, including her very recent version The Wisdom of Menopause, have been some of the most popular menopause books published.

This news was startling to me and I looked into the situation further, finding an article published by a newsletter from McGill University, one of Canada’s leading institutions of higher education.  The article corroborated the information I read.  To the extent that we can trust any information online these days, I was sad to see a member of our menopause medical community use her social media presence to promote an agenda that may hamper our nation’s recovery from this terrible pandemic.