In this segment, I start out by providing a history of hormone discovery and using hormones as treatment. Dr. Grider gives us a basic explanation of what menopause is, including typical patient presentations, symptoms, and the relationship to fluctuating reproductive hormone levels. And Dr. Wood tells us what to expect with peri-menopausal psychosis patients and reviews some of the consistencies in their presentations. It's interesting to note that Dr. Grider has very little experience with menopausal psychosis, while typically Dr. Wood has less experience with milder presentations of menopausal depression. Based on the severity of the patient's symptoms (and possibly a lack of making a connection between hormones and psychosis), there's almost a type of natural selection AWAY FROM the psychiatric and OB/GYN provider crossing paths or both being involved with the same cases.

Thanks for listening.  For more social media content, check us out on all social media platforms @Renegadepsych. If you have any comments, questions or challenges to the information we've presented here, if you'd like to be a guest to the show, or if you have general comments, questions, or suggestions, email us at Renegadepsych@gmail.com and follow the link https://renegade-psych.podcastpage.io/ to our website for source material, transcripts, and additional links for my guests. If you feel passionate about our message and what we're trying to do, and you'd like to donate, you can also follow the link in the show notes to our website.

Disclaimer, this podcast is for informational purposes only. The information provided in this podcast and related materials are meant only to educate. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. While I am a medical doctor and many of my guests have extensive medical training and experience, nothing stated in this podcast nor materials related to this podcast, including recommended websites, texts, graphics, images, or any other materials should be treated as a substitute for professional medical or psychological advice, diagnosis or treatment. All listeners should consult with a medical professional, licensed mental health provider or other healthcare provider if seeking medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

In this segment, Drs. Wood, Grider, and I discuss the flaws of the large NIH-sponsored Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Study that was intended to provide more clarity on the role of hormones during female transitional periods and its impact on the use of female reproductive hormones after 2002. The WHI was a 10+ year endeavor studying thousands upon thousands of female patients and evaluating the safety of utilizing different combinations of hormones (at a time when hormone replacement therapy was popular, with 15% of the female population taking it). The results came out in 2002 and were widely reported by the media as negative and associated hormones with significant risks of different forms of cancers and cardiovascular disease primarily. The only problem was... the average age in the study was >63, and the majority of women had already completed menopause and were therefore hormone naive. WE KNOW re-introducing medium or high levels of our natural hormones at a time in life when it has become unnatural IS DANGEROUS. Later re-analyses of this study, when we parse out the women who are IN THE MENOPAUSAL TRANSITION PHASE, or UNDER THE AGE OF 50, there is actually a decreased cardiovascular risk, and any increase in the risk of breast cancer is likely offset by the decreased risk of colon cancer. Unfortunately, the mass media widely reported on the negative findings, but interestingly, did not report on the positive re-analyses of the data. This led to a massive discontinuation of hormone therapy, with 50% of women in the US on hormone therapy stopping it abruptly in a 6-month period. As a skeptic, I wonder if it was another way the steamrolling train of industry was able to demonize an older, more natural form of treatment, to make way for newer synthetic and thereby patentable (and profitable) medications/treatments. Anyways, hope you enjoy our discussion and it gives good food for thought!

Thanks for listening.  For more social media content, check us out on all social media platforms @Renegadepsych. If you have any comments, questions or challenges to the information we've presented here, if you'd like to be a guest to the show, or if you have general comments, questions, or suggestions, email us at Renegadepsych@gmail.com and follow the link https://renegade-psych.podcastpage.io/ to our website for source material, transcripts, and additional links for my guests. If you feel passionate about our message and what we're trying to do, and you'd like to donate, you can also follow the link in the show notes to our website.

Disclaimer, this podcast is for informational purposes only. The information provided in this podcast and related materials are meant only to educate. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. While I am a medical doctor and many of my guests have extensive medical training and experience, nothing stated in this podcast nor materials related to this podcast, including recommended websites, texts, graphics, images, or any other materials should be treated as a substitute for professional medical or psychological advice, diagnosis or treatment. All listeners should consult with a medical professional, licensed mental health provider or other healthcare provider if seeking medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

In this segment, Dr. Wood and I reveal what we know about the exacerbation of psychotic symptoms in female patients with known schizophrenia or bipolar disorder during hormonal transitional periods, including menopause, postpartum, and monthly menstrual cycles. It adds to the common sense evidence of the importance of considering the role of estrogen and progesterone (among others) in pre-existing psychiatric illness, and as a primary cause of things like first-episode of psychosis during menopause. We review several studies and discuss the protective role estrogen may play in helping to explain why men have the onset of bipolar and schizophrenia on average 5 years earlier than women. Jenny and I strongly question what we were taught as a somewhat 'magical' second peak of mental illness that also exists in females approaching the menopausal transition, and agree there is likely a better organic cause of exacerbating an underlying predisposition to mental illness, as opposed to suddenly developing it out of the blue. We also talk about how the use of hormones may potentially allow women approaching the age of menopause decrease the amount of antipsychotic and other medication use, and more directly address the cause of the exacerbated mental state. ENJOY!

Thanks for listening.  For more social media content, check us out on all social media platforms @Renegadepsych. If you have any comments, questions or challenges to the information we've presented here, if you'd like to be a guest to the show, or if you have general comments, questions, or suggestions, email us at Renegadepsych@gmail.com and follow the link https://renegade-psych.podcastpage.io/ to our website for source material, transcripts, and additional links for my guests. If you feel passionate about our message and what we're trying to do, and you'd like to donate, you can also follow the link in the show notes to our website.

Disclaimer, this podcast is for informational purposes only. The information provided in this podcast and related materials are meant only to educate. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. While I am a medical doctor and many of my guests have extensive medical training and experience, nothing stated in this podcast nor materials related to this podcast, including recommended websites, texts, graphics, images, or any other materials should be treated as a substitute for professional medical or psychological advice, diagnosis or treatment. All listeners should consult with a medical professional, licensed mental health provider or other healthcare provider if seeking medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.