This summer a common treatment for hot flashes was stopped cold. A Federal study designed to evaluate combination Hormone Replacement Therapy (Prempro), was terminated three years early because the results demonstrated a 26% increase in breast cancer among participants, as well as increases in blood clots (100%), strokes (41%), and heart attacks (29%).

For those of us tuned into women's health, this is not a surprise, information about these concerns has existed, and many chiropractors educate women using quality resources and evidence to support a healthy menopause.

Also, as part of a chiropractic panel presenting at the United Nations Conference on Women in 2001, we heard representatives from developing nations discuss how companies were approaching them with strong promotions for menopause products. Their response? "We have been going through menopause for hundreds of years, and you're going to tell us we don't know how!"

Like these leaders, many approach menopause as a life cycle, not a deficiency, turning away from hormone "replacement" therapy and the pill.

And, while waves of women on HRT reacted to the Federal study with anxiety and anger, women living the chiropractic lifestyle were not shocked, anxious or depressed. Instead, they were relieved, grateful and confident — and they're healthy.

When does the first interference in menopause begin? Does it start:

— With perception, with commercials promoting hormone products?

— With a doctor who has guidelines to treat an age group or statistic, not an individual woman?

— With unsuccessful lifestyle choices that promote stress and body/mind disorganization?

— In a young woman, when she alters her hormone function by using birth control pills?

— In childhood, when sensitive, developing bodies are exposed to sex hormones in their food?

— With what a woman is doing or not doing?

In order to discover more effective answers about function and quality of life during menopause, we must ask better questions, questions beyond, "What drug will change this symptom?"

There's no doubt that Baby Boomers are looking for choices that benefit them as they mature, or if they have a specific concern, they are looking for an answer that can change their lives.

Reports indicate that most women start hormone therapy to address the symptoms of hot flashes and/or night sweats, and some M.D.s to this day state that nothing else effects hot flashes. However, one perspective cannot accurately claim to have all the answers (see www.jvsr.com for a study on hot flashes), and we halt progress if there are limits on a doctor's awareness and a woman's choices.

Access to more complete information is shifting. During a recent panel appearing on the Charlie Rose show to discuss women's health, a journalist from The Wall Street Journal chided M.D.s for not wanting to hear about recognizing the benefits of other choices. She's right. Imagine if all the women who developed breast cancer due to HRT, women who are now splitting their time between hospitals and lawyers' offices, had access to better information years ago, how much suffering could have been avoided?

Chiropractic has an important and unique role in women's health, including during menopause. Its benefits warrant exploration and consideration, by all women and by those who do research, make health care news or report it.

The essence of chiropractic is organization, and care serves to promote function, repair, communication and coordination of the nervous system through subluxation detection and correction. These factors can influence the success of our complex hormonal system, our stress response system and our immune system, to name a few areas important to women's health.

It's easy to relate to organization or disorganization. Think cars keys found/car keys lost. Imagine the impact of "car keys lost" (subluxation) on the nervous system during menopause, a time when the body requires energy and coordination while our systems are "rewired" for a new life cycle.

Chiropractic has the clinical results. Millions seek care because chiropractic works. Yet, we want more research and look for the research funding culture to support other approaches besides pharmaceutical projects. We also look for collaboration with other professionals who share our awe at the innate wisdom and amazing feats of the body/mind and seek to explore it.

The topic of mass hormone therapy is now being considered for men. I'd like to recommend to everyone an excellent article by Jerome Groopman, which appeared in the July 29, 2002 issue of The New Yorker, titled "Hormones for Men."

In closing, for menopause without interference consider the chiropractic approach.

Unless involved in a trauma, no one develops interference overnight, lifestyle choices affect daily and long term health, and as health simply reflects you, learn to understand your body's feedback (including symptoms) and choose wisely.

Treating a symptom "naturally" is still treating a symptom. To truly promote health and evolve past repetitive episodes of symptoms, look for care that addresses the cause.