Gynecologists don’t know much about menopause and hormone balance, and that is unfortunate because women go to them for decades and very often they are the only doctors they see.

Many women are attached to these doctors and want to believe they will make it right, just like when they had babies 15 years before.

Nothing could be further from the right path for a perimenopausal or menopausal woman.

Unless you need a hysterectomy, you won’t get what you really need from a gynecologist.

Unfortunately, there are about 600,000 hysterectomies a year being performed in our country alone.

Do you think these doctors have time to know anything about your hormones, sex drive, or anything that doesn’t come in the form of a pharmaceutical company representative dispensing drugs or surgical supplies?

I had a patient whose gynecologist prescribed birth control pills to suppress all her hormones. I don’t know how that approach would have helped her.

If you understand anything about your hormones, you would never take birth control pills to treat menopausal symptoms because they suppress hormone production and put you into menopause even if you are 20.

He also said she could take an antidepressant for her mood problems and since she couldn’t sleep he gave her a sleeping pill.

She followed all of his advice and became a zombie. She lost her job and almost her husband, who could not understand what had happened to his wife.

After a couple of years of this treatment, she decided that following this doctor’s advice wasn’t the answer. After a long and arduous search, which included seeing a neurologist who told her she had multiple sclerosis and scared her half to death, and another gynecologist who told her all hormones are the same and she shouldn’t take any because they cause cancer, she finally found her way to me.

Ten years later, she is taking bioidentical hormones and is a leading women’s health advocate.

This patient’s story involves a good outcome, even if it took a long time and she went through a lot of hardship to get there. But too many outcomes aren’t so good.

Women gain weight and develop that middle-age pot belly and spare tire around their waist.

They lose their husbands to younger, non-menopausal versions of themselves, their jobs, and worst of all, themselves, because menopause can be rough with overwhelming symptoms.

So don’t look at your gynecologist for the answer. And don’t be disappointed in the fact that he or she has no idea what to do with you because he or she wasn’t trained.

Medical education overlooks the importance of hormones, diet, exercise, and lifestyle adjustments so crucial to keeping us healthy and vibrant at menopause.

Because of this tragic oversight, millions of women suffer needlessly and wind up getting chronic illnesses and cancer when all can easily be prevented.

Staying well physically and emotionally through menopause is within your reach; you just have to be knowledgeable and make the right decisions for yourself. It’s your life after all.