{"id":3751,"date":"2025-10-16T09:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/3751\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:40:06","slug":"menopause-experts-warn-online-hormone-products-pose-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/3751\/","title":{"rendered":"Menopause experts warn online hormone products pose risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re a woman over 40, chances are, you\u2019re getting bombarded online with ads for a wide variety of hormone products, available after a quick online check-in with a health care provider. The promise is fast relief for lots of symptoms related to menopause or perimenopause, everything from weight gain and brain fog to insomnia and hot flashes.\n<\/p>\n<p>While perhaps a welcome new trend for women dealing with a barrage of disruptive symptoms, local menopause experts are raising the alarm bells, saying that these treatments are not always indicated or even safe.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the wild, wild West,\u201d said Dr. Robyn Faye, an OB-GYN and certified menopause practitioner with Jefferson Health in Philadelphia.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWomen are going online because they\u2019re so desperate for information,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018I don\u2019t feel like myself, my family hates me, I hate myself and fix me.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>But during quick online appointments, Faye worries patients are getting prescriptions, but not always sound or correct advice.\n<\/p>\n<p>Faye recently saw a patient who had tried to get immediate answers for her menopause-related symptoms while waiting for her appointment.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe went online, she wasn\u2019t asked the proper questions, and she had medical history, family history that would have precluded from taking estrogen and progesterone, she was given it, and she really should not have been on it,\u201d Faye said. She explained that the patient has a high risk for cardiovascular disease and taking hormones could increase that risk further.\n<\/p>\n<p>Hormones help many patients feel and function better<\/p>\n<p>Generally, hormone therapy is considered safe and effective for many women going through perimenopause or menopause.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe love it,\u201d Faye said, \u201cbut you have to be the right patient to take it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>People with an elevated risk of breast cancer, heart disease, a history of blood clots or stroke should not take hormones. Hormones are also not advised for women over the age of 60, or who are more than 10 years past their last menstrual period.\n<\/p>\n<p>For patients who are cleared for using hormones, the relief and benefit is often great. Estrogen can help prevent osteoporosis, and hormone therapy is highly effective in managing hot flashes, night sweats and sleep disruptions.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce terrible hot flashes and night sweats are managed, people usually sleep better,\u201d said Dr. Arina Chesnokova, an OB-GYN at Penn Medicine who\u2019s also a certified menopause practitioner. \u201cAs a result of that their cognition gets better, as a result of that their mood gets better, they\u2019re more interested in their partners potentially, so their sex lives get better.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Chesnokova added that sleep improvements can also lead to better cognition and focus.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3424,69,71,70,3425,3426],"class_list":["post-3751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-hormones","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-whyy","tag-womens-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}