Felice Gersh, MD: Gynecologist and integrative medicine physician shares the truth about women's hormones, and how to manage PCOS and menopause.

Many women who can benefit from hormones are still sitting on the sidelines because of long-held misconceptions about health risks of hormone therapy. "We need to move on from that crazy debate that hormones are bad," says gynecologist and integrative medicine physician Felice Gersh MD, author of PCOS SOS and Menopause: 50 Things You Need to Know. "Estradiol is the elixir of life!" In this episode, Dr. Comite interviews Dr. Gersh about how insufficient hormones dramatically impact a woman's current and future health. You'll learn… ·         Not only can hormone therapy ease hot flashes, sleep disturbance, and other symptoms of menopause, it reduces insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease risk in menopausal women, optimizes production of growth factors in the brain and supports bone health. ·         Breast cancer is more common after menopause when estrogen levels drop. ·         The close connection between PCOS and Menopause. ·         Chronic inflammation upregulates aromatase and changes estrogen into an unhealthy form called "estrone." ·         50% of women with PCOS have a first-degree relative who has PCOS. ·         While excess testosterone is blamed for PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome is primarily a condition caused by not enough estradiol. ·         "You can't heal without hormones, but until you're healed, you won't make the hormones," says Dr. Gersh. ·         Why you should take estradiol in cream or patch form, not orally.