Does anyone know of an effective, safe, alternative to using something like Premarin or Estra-test?  I don't want to take anything that is so harmful to horses, and harmful to my body.

I tried the herbal and dietary things during peri-menopause and they worked.   At that time, I was taking black cohosh, and eating lots of soy, nuts, legumes, oats, apples, and carrots.  All of this made peri-menopause much easier.

Then, as a result of surgery, menopause began suddenly and was very bad.  The list of my symptoms is long.  The menopausal symptoms themselves are severe enough to cause other pre-existing serious conditions to flare up.  Since then, the herbal  and nutritional things don't make any difference whatsoever.

My doctor put me on Premarin ( before I knew how harmful it was to the mares) and although some symptoms are gone, there are others that are dangerous.  Then the doctor switched me to Estra-test, to help combat the quality of life problems, and there were even worse side effects. 

I'm unhealthy both on and off of the pharmaceutical products.  I want to be as healthy as possible without harming the pregnant mares.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Many thanks!

Have you had ALL of your hormones checked? It could be that the surgery was enough of a stress on your body that something is now out of balance? I recently found myself  struggling with some mind/body issues. When I decided that it wasn't just the natural aging process  and  that something wasn't right I started researching possible causes. I thought perhaps thyroid. When I finally got to the point of having all my horomones checked and it turned out that my DHEA was quit low. When, with my doctors advice,  I started supplementing it, I noticed a big improvement in how I felt. I had been experiencing fatigue, lethargy, mental fogginess, depression, dizziness, muscle aches and stiffness. Doctors don't seem to be terribly aware of what seems to be an extremely important piece of the puzzle that is our health. I'm finding the lack of awareness and information on this subject very frustrating. Our hormones are very important  to so much of our bodies functions. It's a shame that so little attention is being paid or research being done in this area. Also it seems that hormone levels are a very individual thing.  We are in a position of having to be our own advocates on a large scale in this area especially.  While a healthy, stress free lifestyle is so important, I'm wondering if our evolution as human beings isn't keeping up with the changes that are occuring in our world. I'm in my fifties and when I think about the changes that have taken place in my lifetime, it kind of boggles my mind. Fifty years isn't really that long in the overall process of evolution.  There is information out there. Dr. Christiane Northrup's work I've found very helpful. Also with any luck finding  a doctor who is really up on this kind of thing is important. And maybe a women? I'm still a work in progress and welcome any info.

Good luck!