What goes on inside the Happy Hormone Cottage

CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. Angie Montgomery's anxiety and depression were getting the best of her.

Her doctor had prescribed such a high dose of Prozac that she wanted to see Montgomery every three months to make sure she wasn't suicidal. Nothing seemed to help, and Montgomery was scared.

"I have these twin boys, and I didn't want them growing up knowing this horrible, hateful mother, and I couldn't fix it," Montgomery said. "I couldn't help it at all."

That's when she heard about Happy Hormone Cottage and decided to give it a try. Laboratory tests revealed Montgomery had very low progesterone. She convinced her doctor to let her try the bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, or BHRT, cream the cottage recommended. She noticed a difference right away, she said.

"I had energy, I was sleeping through the night, I had 30 pounds that just melted right off," said Montgomery, who is now 42. "My mood swings they just evened out. I felt like I was back to my old self."

Happy Hormone Cottage is among a growing number of centers across the country that recommend hormone therapy as a way to address the unpleasant byproducts that most women face as they age. It's an approach criticized by some doctors.

But Happy Hormone Cottage Executive Director Lyn Hogrefe insists that often women's inability to sleep, weight gain, lack of libido and other ailments are the result of hormone imbalances that her customized treatments correct.

The approach has been controversial among doctors who criticize such centers as trying to market a silver bullet approach to the complex problems of aging.

"I personally have great concerns about what's going on in these hormone centers," said Dr. Lisa Larkin, director of the UC Health Women's Center. "Women are told these hormones are safe and that somehow what I'm prescribing is different and not safe. If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true."

Hogrefe countered that the Happy Hormone Cottage approach is different from what doctors typically offer their patients and that it has worked for thousands of women locally.

Read the original here:
What goes on inside the Happy Hormone Cottage