This is a post which may create some conversation, stir some emotions and perhaps even cause some surprise. I could probably have written a book, but I wanted to cover clinical observations and social media conversations rather than including the science or the homeopathic approach to any degree.
It’s based on nearly 30 years in practice treating women and girls of all ages through all stages of life. It can of course apply to any gender as we are all exposed to hormones in our environment and in our lives.
The reason this has come up as a topic is because there are things I’ve noticed over the past few years that seem to be the result of medical modelling and social media chatter, and it really is becoming quite concerning and needs to be spoken about openly.
No doubt my colleagues will have many more cases, particularly those who exclusively treat infertility or women’s health. My practice while focusing on women’s health does tend to encompass whole families over several generations, so my observation is at this level.
Back in the late 90s when I was first in practice I saw a few people with challenges with their periods – pain, heaviness, maybe irregularity and PMS. Sometimes I’d get women struggling through menopause, and occasionally I’d help women with fertility issues.
Back then I rarely saw women with extremely painful or incredibly heavy periods – not saying it didn’t happen because I know it did – but it was less common than today.
Contraception as a generational choice
The contraceptive pill was introduced to the world in the 1960s, giving women a feeling of freedom and the ability to take responsibility for their reproductive choices.
We now have three if not four generations of women who have used contraception through their reproductive years and been told it is safe and effective – trust the science!
The oral contraceptive pill was followed by IUDs, implants, patches and other devices which also artificially controlled the menstrual cycle.
In the 1990s we started to see IVF talked about but still only occasionally at that point and this of course also involves high levels of hormone treatment before conception and often during pregnancy.
As hormone issues have started to be tested by integrative medical professionals (and sometimes GPs), we are now seeing even more hormones given in the form of synthesised progesterone, oestrogen and testosterone – sometimes all at once – to try to balance up what to me is already the see-saw-ing of high and low hormone levels from what’s been taken over the years and the generations. It’s a fairly inexact science at this point.
And of course following on from all of these attempts at fixing and balancing through a reproductive life, there is HRT, which has gone in and out of fashion over the decades, and is currently in vogue again.
As time has gone on and life has got busier, coupled with the ability to chat with women around the world as to their preferences and choices for birth control, conception and support for menopause, we have seen what I would call the mass marketing of these drugs as a normal, safe and trouble-free part of every woman’s life. We are told that side effects are rare, that there is always something we can take to fix an issue, and why wouldn’t we do it?
Clearly there have been many cases that have been diagnosed with endometriosis and these deserve a special mention elsewhere, however, they too are potentially going to be part of this picture of hormone use generationally, among other things.
But what I wanted to share are some increasingly frequent observations from my clinical practice that I believe we should question and have some concerns about.
Before I go on, I don’t want to imply that I judge anyone for what they choose to do with their bodies. I will always have a conversation, give an explanation and then hope that people make a balanced decision about their choices moving forward.
Our bodies are not machines
We need to understand that our body is not a machine that can just be medicated, that it will all be fine for everyone, and for us to expect that there is always a fix for everything.
Our bodies are a fantastic and amazingly sensitive operating system that is wholistic. If you’ve followed me for a while you will understand what I mean when I say that we cannot look at it as separate parts, because the parts are the whole and what we do to the parts affects the whole.
What about fertility?
Fertility is dropping in Australia for a variety of reasons, while IVF accounts for about 1 in 16 babies born in the country, and for women over 35, that figure is closer to 1 in 10. These are the successful cases. There are many more women who undergo the process of IVF but do not achieve a live birth.
It can be common practice to decide that the woman is the problem where conception is not happening or not resulting in a live birth, but fertility levels in males are also dropping, adding to the problem.
Having succumbed to an adult life of hormones to not get pregnant and then hormones to get pregnant, it seems unsurprising that we are also going to reach for HRT when things get tough, likely contributed to by an over-use of these artificial hormones, around the end of our menstrual life.
The role of the hypothalumus and the pituitary gland
The hypothalamus and the pituitary gland form a link between the nervous and endocrine systems. The hypothalamus acts as the master control centre, sending signals that tell the pituitary gland (often called the master gland) when to release hormones that regulate growth, metabolism, stress, and reproduction.
Note here that the nervous system and metabolism are driven by these glands and direct hormone activity. This includes the thyroid, the adrenals, and growth hormones which drive maturation and maintain healthy muscles and bones in adults.
The pituitary gland also plays a role in reproductive function, including egg and sperm production and sex hormone levels. It also has a role in triggering breast milk production after childbirth.
The pituitary gland also helps with uterine contractions during childbirth and social bonding, while the hypothalamus controls vasopressin, an antidiuretic hormone which drives water balance in the kidneys and helps regulate blood pressure.
Are we joining any dots here?
Should we be surprised if along with issues with the menstrual or hormonal cycle, our systems may be less able to deal with stress, experience higher levels of anxiety, adrenal fatigue, insomnia and similar, as well as the above, when we start to artificially balance or suppress the hormones.
Do you skip your period?
An even more concerning habit I have become aware of in recent years is the women who regularly skip their periods while on the pill. So rather than have a period while taking the sugar pills from the contraceptive pack they go straight into the next cycle to avoid having a period.
I’m not talking about the people who skip a period here or there, or those who have excruciating and traumatic periods and need to skip them, but those who just skip their periods for convenience, not occasionally but every single month over many years.
And the medical professionals are telling us that this is fine!
There are those, particularly within the medical profession, who tell women it’s fine to never have a period, but then to need IVF to conceive our children, to go back on the pill after childbearing, to continue to skip our periods until menopause and then just hop onto HRT straight from contraception, to manage this time of life because our system is so out of whack.
We wonder why menopause is so challenging – certainly according to the socials it is a big problem and a major topic of conversation.
We may also wonder why we succumb to a range of chronic health issues, get some form of cancer or experience severe osteoporosis or dementia, just as very basic examples, and the dots are rarely joined if you are of the mechanistic mindset.
The problem is now that we are seeing more and more serious, auto-immune conditions in younger and younger women and while there may be any number of reasons for this, what I’ve observed in many of these cases is the high intake of hormones over not just many years, but several generations which can be traced through the case.
My question is why do we need to be using so many hormones?
These are not natural substances and for some women they come with side effects and later on they come with an increased risk of breast cancer and osteoporosis, just as examples, because these numbers are sky rocketing too.
At this point it’s worth asking the question as to what is then offered medically or otherwise to rebalance a system which has been primed with hormones and other medications several times over in a variety of ways over time? These levels remain high through life, then leading onto problems with menopause.
Potentially (see below where I talk about high and low copper) these levels are passed on to the children in the form of a hormonal load before they even get to puberty, so potentially the problem will increase generation by generation.
And hormones do not just come in the forms mentioned above. They are also highly present in our life cycles now. If we don’t filter our drinking water with a high quality filter then we are subject not only to microplastics but the traces of the hormones that are flushed down the toilet in the urine of users and cannot be completely removed. The plastics in our lunchboxes, water bottles, plastic wraps and in our cosmetics and of course the pervasive and ever-present PFAS chemicals which are now being found in cheap toys and clothing, among other things. All of these are artificial hormones or xenoestrogens which behave in the same way as the hormones we consciously ingest.
Over time we become highly toxic with these artificial hormones that we are not even consciously taking and this includes boys!
Menopause as a rite of passage
There seems to be a perception that having a period and going through menopause are an illness, and often these times are marketed as such.
Partly this may be that appearance and youthfulness are valued so highly that fear of aging, of being undesirable and not being needed anymore may contribute to the continuation of hormones into older age in an effort to keep age at bay.
It is easy to mask the exterior with lotions and potions, beautiful clothes, surgery and of course continue the use of these hormones to try to manage the process. But at the same time that we are looking youthful and desirable, our physical and mental health may be unravelling and we are likely to move into our later years with a range of chronic health conditions and an inability to do the things we wanted to be doing with our families and loved ones.
Menstruation and menopause in many cultures are seen as rites of passage, particularly menopause where the cessation of hormonal fluctuation can bring mental and emotional balance and a time of stepping into our wisdom and power as women.
It can of course be challenging to navigate menopause when children have been conceived later in life and menopause coincides with managing small children or even rebellious teens. It’s also understandable to want to take a pill to make it all go away so that we can manage busy lives and busy jobs.
Currently there is a real rise in the energy of the feminine collective and women are taking back their power to manage their health and their lives. There are whole groups of young women who are refusing to take the contraceptive pill and many women who have avoided drugs and worked more holistically to manage their hormones and overall health.
While women felt the power of having access to contraception back in the 1960s, this was all driven by a patriarchal society wanting to control reproduction and – sounding cynical I know – sell a highly profitable product!
What happens to the children who are conceived through IVF?
.I do remember when I saw my first IVF babies back in the late 90s and early 2000s, I did wonder whether this might have some impact on them later in life. It’s interesting that there have been no studies (that I am aware of) related to children on the spectrum and IVF conception or even connection with the use of the oral contraceptive. Maybe that’s a work in progress
Sometimes nothing happens to these children health-wise, but in all honesty with more and more children coming through clinic, I am seeing an increasing level of niggly problems, in additional to the more common issues such as allergies, gut issues, learning difficulties and the like.
I have also recently started to see a few young patients with menstrual issues in the very early months. It can take a few months for the menstrual cycle to settle down, but some of the anomalies are unusual and one or two have been conceived through IVF.
High and low copper, xenoestrogens, synthetic hormones
I’ve used hair tissue mineral analysis (hair testing) for nearly 30 years and this is such a useful tool when looking at what’s going on in the deeper levels of pathology over time, rather than just as a snapshop through a blood test.
I’ve written about high copper quite extensively over the years and because I’ve done a lot of hair testing through Interclinical Laboratories, there is a clear correlation in many cases with high copper, low iron levels and gut issues.
I do also see women with low copper and high iron, but in my practice this is a less common presentation over all of these years than the above and makes sense to me.
High copper shows up in a hair test or a mix of results which tells us we are looking at a stressed system, primarily from toxicity. While constitutional (individualised) treatment can work really well, in some cases IVF drug detoxing (or copper detoxing where applicable) over some period of time may be the key to seeing solid improvements in health.
Below are the posts I have written over the year on the topic of high and low copper and what it may look like in children. These date back some years now, but still stand the test of time.
Hair Analysis: Copper Deficiency, Anaemia & More
High Copper, Environmental Toxicity and Thyroid Dysfunction
Oestrogen dominance, autism, high copper & more
Hair Analysis: the Copper Child
Some Case Examples
Below are some examples of what I’m seeing more and more often in clinic. These are not real cases, just a collection of symptoms that seem to come up commonly in a variety of combinations. Perhaps a case presents simply as hormones a bit out of whack, periods too long, too short, too heavy or too light. Maybe things have been going on for a while (sometimes generations) and the problem is deeper and more chronic.
These cases/symptoms are not necessarily just showing up in women. Men are also affected by all aspects of our environment and increasing stress levels, leading to anxiety, infertility, low sperm count and out of balance hormones.
In many cases low ferritin (iron store) is present and/or thyroid issues, as well as high anxiety, adrenal fatigue, insomnia and gut dysfunction, so there’s a lot going on and taking a case and prescribing can feel complex.
Case 1 – In addition to irregular, heavy or painful periods and high anxiety, a client may present with a skin condition like lichen sclerosis, an increasingly common condition that affects the skin around the vulva and may be associated with thrush-like symptoms. It is apparently most common in women over 50 and post-menopause, however, I have seen several cases in quite young women who are at an age where they are considering children. It is very difficult to treat with conventional medicine and is painful, distressing and obviously may cause problems in a relationship.
Case 2 – Peri-menopausal symptoms of hot flushes, joint pain and swelling, sleep difficulty and weight gain often with an emotional component. This is a common picture and now menopause is such a big topic of conversation (well we are just over half of the global population) it can be easy to think this is what is going on.
Patients often present with a self-diagnosis of peri-menopause related to symptoms other people talk about and without any real testing. I’ve seen several cases where this was not the reason for the issues and blood tests showed something quite different. Thankfully homeopathy treats the person and not just a diagnosis or symptom picture so as long as we focus on the patient, we can pick an individualised remedy and help return balance to the system.
Case 3 – A cross between case 1 and 2 – women in early childbearing years with irregular and very infrequent periods, thyroid issues, chronic skin issues, joint pain and swelling, and lack of energy. There is likely an auto-immmune component.
Case 4 – This is an example of a child conceived after several rounds of IVF, and I have seen quite a few in my years in practice. In this particular case there was extreme behaviour where the indicated remedies did not act or did not hold and the case only resolved once the drugs had been detoxed and the constitutional remedy was able to work its magic. I have a couple of other current cases where IVF drugs are a suspect in slow improvement of symptoms.
What can we do with homeopathy?
In my world homeopathy is great for anything to do with reproductive health from infertility, to pregnancy support, menses through to menopause.
Our best tool is always constitutional support as the best way to approach any case, so treating the whole person first. Often this is all that is required, however, if we’re toxic with hormones, vaccines or even over-supplementation, which we are seeing more and more, then some detoxing may be required and liver/kidney function is a consideration.
And it’s worth remembering that if our system is really out of balance then nutrients and supplements are difficult to uptake and metabolise until things begin to shift.
Personally I treat each case individually in terms of what I detox and how I work. It’s easy to get in the habit of using a protocol that has been taught as a formula, but this doesn’t work in everyone because often there are layers that need sifting through to find the core of the problem.
Reproductive health is not always about us, it can be about our family inheritance as well. This might not even be about hormones, but something deeper which we need to look at and integrate to bring change in our health, be it physical or mental/emotional health concerns.
Our childhood experiences or perhaps relationships which have been challenging are often going to have an impact on our hormone health, but these experiences don’t always need detoxing or hormonal remedies and that’s where an experienced practitioner is required to walk with you through the minefield that can be hormones.
And sometimes what we think is menopause, for example may present with the commonly understood symptom picture (which is pretty big), but is something else entirely when we dig into it.
So don’t get caught up in social media chatter and make up your mind you fit this or that picture. Talk to a well experienced practitioner who understands the nuances of life and health.
About Melanie Creedy
Melanie Creedy is a Licentiate of the British School of Homeopathy in the UK and holds a Bachelor of Health Science in Homeopathy. She is a member of the Australian Homoeopathic Association. She was Vice President and Professional Development Coordinator of the Australian Homoeopathic Association from 2011 to 2015 and editor of the AHA National Newsletter from 2012 to 2020.
Melanie has used homeopathy since the mid-1980s and has been in practice since 1998. For many years she ran The Children’s Ear Clinic in Western Australia, but since her tree change to Tasmania, has a special interest in helping individuals manage their life and health through looking at a diagnosis or condition in relation to the symbolism of this unique picture. Armed with a range of remedies from the most common to the most unusual and esoteric, Melanie guides people to plumb the depths of their life and spiritual path with homeopathy to help them find insights, to understand and to heal.
Homeopathy is a traditional medicine. It may be used alongside conventional medicines, naturopathic prescriptions and other traditional treatments. Homoeopathic medicines have not been known to produce side effects and can be taken in conjunction with pharmaceutical medications as they are not contraindicated.
Our kits are suitable for the management of minor ailments and self-limiting illnesses and not for the home treatment of chronic, ongoing or serious conditions or named diseases. Use only as directed. Always read the label or information supplied. If symptoms persist see your health care practitioner.
For any ongoing chronic condition, it is important to be assessed or examined by your healthcare professional or specialist. Always seek medical advice in emergencies. The information provided in this blog does not constitute medical advice but is for information only. If in doubt as to the appropriateness of a suggestion or treatment seek advice from your homeopath.