"Let's save the ovaries!"

Is it possible to delay old age with the help of hormones

Anna Mayskaya, "Doctor Jupiter"

There is an extremely wide variety of information around the topic of ovarian aging. We constantly hear that the fading function of the ovaries makes a woman old, wrinkled, unsexy and looking "like a grandmother", and menopause, if nothing is done, will be very difficult.

To solve the problem, they often offer to drink hormones and all kinds of supplements, advertise expensive procedures, injections. Do the methods of the rejuvenation industry really work so effectively?

Elena Berezovskaya, researcher, obstetrician-gynecologist, founder and head of the International Academy of Healthy Life (International Academy of Healthy Life, Canada), answers.

– The aging process begins from the moment a person is born. Imagine that a one-year-old child suddenly compares his birthday photos. And it will begin: "God! How old I've grown! How I recovered! I got bigger. I'm not such a cute baby anymore! I urgently need to rejuvenate, otherwise I will age even more!", – says gynecologist Elena Berezovskaya. – In fact, two processes take place in our body in parallel: synthesis, when substances, cells are created, and decay, when cells are destroyed.

Usually, up to 25 years, the process of cell growth dominates, and then the aging processes prevail in the body, from which no one is immune and which no one will escape. Each cell in the body has its own age for life, although many of them may not live to their old age – for various reasons.

Long-lived eggs

The doctor draws attention to the fact that, in general, female germ cells (eggs), which the child receives a few days after its conception in the womb, are long–lived. At first there are millions of them, but a huge part of the eggs is lost even before the birth of a girl, then in adolescence, and finally in the pre–menopausal period. When there are about 1000 follicles in each ovary, menopause usually occurs. 

All that we call the ovarian reserve of eggs is lost in the course of life and is never renewed or restored. This process cannot be stopped or slowed down by any medications and procedures.

– What does medicine mean by ovarian aging? A decrease in the number of maturing follicles, which we call ovulation, as well as the deterioration of genetic material, explains Elena Berezovskaya. – So, this is the age from which it becomes more difficult to get pregnant, but also the level of spontaneous miscarriages due to defective conception increases.

According to the expert, the ovaries begin to age on average from 31-32 years. This does not mean that a woman will not be able to get pregnant and have children. While the germ cells are maturing, which happens before menopause, there are always chances to get pregnant and carry a child. 

– It is extremely important to understand that the reproductive function of the ovaries is aging (fading), that is, the maturation of eggs, and the ovaries still continue to produce hormones until the death of a woman, – says Elena Berezovskaya. – Therefore, even at the age of 70 or 80, a woman will not turn into a man in any way, because she allegedly will not have female sex hormones. Estrogens, testosterone and progesterone are produced by the ovaries in a constant mode not only by the ovaries, but also by the adrenal glands. 

What accelerates the reduction of ovarian reserve of eggs

• surgical operations on the pelvic organs, and especially on the ovaries themselves,
• laparoscopy (often this method of diagnosis and treatment is used without indications). The gynecologist believes that such an unjustified intervention can result in damage to the ovaries, as well as the vessels and nerves that ensure their work,
• the use of certain medications, in particular chemotherapy,
• irradiation of the pelvic organs – can damage the ovarian tissue and lead to a violation of their function,
• the genetic factor also plays a role in the early extinction of ovarian function, since all aging processes are controlled by genes.

– Hormonal drugs are often prescribed ostensibly to save the ovaries and rejuvenate them, because it is commercially profitable for doctors, pharmacists, hormone manufacturers, – says doctor Elena Berezovskaya. – If hormones rejuvenated or stopped the aging process, then those women who took hormonal contraceptives for 20 years would now look 20 years younger, and menopause would occur in their 70s. But this is not happening.

It is a gross mistake to take hormones with a low ovarian reserve in the hope that in 5-10 years you can think about creating offspring, and then be disappointed that the chance to have children is completely lost.

This is a deception when a woman is told that she does not have menopause on hormones, which means that this preserves the youth of the ovaries.

– On hormonal drugs, a woman may have regular artificially created withdrawal bleeding, which is not menstruation. The activity of the ovaries is manifested not in the presence of menstruation, but in the presence of ovulation. Hormones suppress ovulation," the doctor explains. 

What influences the acceleration of the aging process of a woman

• bad habits (alcohol, smoking, drugs),
• hard physical work,
• intense and extreme sports,
• fatness,
• chronic stress,
• polluted air,
• poor working and living conditions.

– To age more slowly, you do not need to take supplements and serious hormonal drugs, – the doctor recommends. – It is important to lead a healthy lifestyle, which includes a healthy diet, moderate physical activity, full rest and the ability to respond to stress more calmly. Hormonal drugs can be indicated for complications of menopause with hot flushes, vaginal dryness, acute bone loss, but they are also not 100% effective and do not help everyone. In addition, they have many serious side effects.

Old age begins with the head – our thinking. If too many fears and negative scenarios are stuck in thinking, then not only hormones, but even pills made of gold, elixirs of "eternal youth" and other means of fraudsters will not help. In the pursuit of rejuvenation, people may not notice how decades of life have passed, and they have not become younger. Therefore, live with gratitude to your body, genes, life.

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