Ray Peat on Menopause

The role of progesterone in various medical conditions

"Even though progesterone seems to cure almost everything, we should be cautious and only use it when the biochemical mechanism is fairly clear. A progesterone deficiency can be misdiagnosed, for example, as epilepsy, Bright's disease, multiple sclerosis, or even as estrogen deficiency (as in menopause). It can affect susceptibility to many conditions, including herpes infections, vertigo, sensory disturbances, varicose veins, mastitis, fibroids, and endometriosis. In my experience, cyclical edema, depression, and migraines are always stopped by progesterone."

Nutrition For Women

Dalton's findings on menopause and hormonal imbalance

"Katharina Dalton has found that premenstrual symptoms resulting from a relative excess of estrogen and a deficiency of progesterone often persist during menopause."

Nutrition For Women

Menopausal symptoms and progesterone deficiency

"Strickler found that only 10% of his patients with menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes felt and benefited from estrogen when it was administered alternately with a placebo. These studies, and a few dozen others, have convinced me that menopausal symptoms primarily result from a progesterone deficiency—relative to estrogen. The 10% who actually feel better with estrogen may have an estrogen deficiency, but this isn't clear, and several other things could explain the boost they experience: For example, a healthy thyroid may respond to increased estrogen with increased thyroxine production, which at least makes the person feel different and may raise blood sugar, increase alertness, and so on."

Nutrition For Women

Osteoporosis, diabetes and mineral loss associated with cortisone

"Osteoporosis and diabetes are often part of Cushing's syndrome and are also more common after menopause. Cortisone therapy (even when applied to the skin) can cause mineral loss."

Nutrition For Women

Insights from overlapping states on stress and aging

"Aging, stress, menopause, Cushing's syndrome and premenstrual syndrome overlap so much that each condition can probably give us some insights into the others."

Nutrition For Women

Cortisol levels and inflammation after menopause

"Starting suddenly around the time of menopause, cortisol levels are higher, probably to compensate for the lost stabilizing effects of progesterone and for the increasing inflammatory processes resulting from the lower body temperature."

November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Aromatase activity and hormonal effects in menopause

"Aromatase, the enzyme that produces estrogen, is present in muscles, fat, blood vessels, and many other tissues, and its activity is increased by cortisol and decreased by progesterone. The altered activity of these two steroids during menopause may explain the sudden increase in degenerative diseases, inflammation, depression, etc."

November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Effects of menopause on respiratory and circulatory health

"Respiratory and circulatory problems increase with menopause, corresponding to a rise in inflammatory cytokines and cortisol, as well as a decrease in progesterone and thyroid hormone. Both the thyroid and progesterone are thermogenic and lower estrogen levels."

November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Estrogen levels and anti-estrogenic factors in reproduction

"Actual estrogen levels rise throughout the reproductive years, and during menopause, the decrease in anti-estrogenic factors such as progesterone, thyroid, and DHEA leads to increased effects of estrogen."

February 2001

Uniform opinion and its influence on publication trends

"Uniformity of opinion creates an environment in which publishers who want to sell many books feel they have to publish things that won't upset the reading public. Books about menopause become books about an attitude towards menopause."

August–September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Debunking Menopause Myths: Ovarian Function and Hormone Production

Even people who like to say that the ovaries don't fail during menopause describe a theory according to which menopause and its consequences result from the disappearance of eggs from the ovaries. This theory is so simple that it can be described in three short sentences—and none of them are true: (1) The ovaries run out of eggs; (2) ovulation produces hormones, so you can tell when ovulation stops because the ovaries then stop producing hormones; (3) menstruation stops because ovulation has stopped. Various conclusions are drawn from these principles. Estrogen is the female hormone. Estrogen deficiency accelerates aging. Estrogen treatment makes you more feminine. Progesterone deficiency is the result of anovulatory cycles.

August–September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Stress, estrogen and the role of the brain in menopause and aging

“Stress, especially when amplified by estrogen, leads to damage, exhaustion, and aging. The uterus and ovaries are involved in the stress response, but (as Zeilmaker and Wise have shown) the brain appears to be more directly involved in menopause than the ovaries or uterus. Coordination proves crucial for complex processes such as ovulation, fertilization, and implantation. The destruction of the nerve cells that regulate the pituitary gland makes coordination impossible.”

August–September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Estrogen excess, androgens and defeminization in menopause

"During menopause, an excess of estrogen – with a lack of progesterone – can promote the production of androgens, which tends to defeminize the woman. This is often a result of stress and sometimes a consequence of hypothyroidism. In such situations, it becomes clear that estrogen is not a feminizing hormone; it is unable to neutralize the male hormones that the body produces in response to the excess estrogen."

August–September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Menopause and parallels to Cushing's syndrome

"In the mid-1970s, when I pointed out that menopause resembles Cushing's syndrome, I had not yet sufficiently studied this cortisol excess disorder to know the full extent of the parallels: for example, hot flashes, night sweats, and insomnia—such common menopausal symptoms—are also common symptoms in Cushing's syndrome. Estrogen's tendency to increase cortisol production should be considered in the context of the brain-aging effects of both estrogen and cortisol."

April 1991 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
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