Some women who decide to address their perimenopausal health with a herbal or homeopathic approach have the option of working with a naturopathic or homeopathic health care provider or an herbalist. Others have less flexibility, there may not be an expert in these areas near where they live, or the panel of providers from which their insurance coverage permits them to choose may not include an individual who has this expertise. I do encounter lots of women who have a good relationship with their current health care provider, although they are uncertain if he or she will be receptive to trying complementary approaches.

To women who are interested in beginning a dialogue with their health care provider about complementary approaches, I usually recommend these talking points:

- Begin by talking about your overall treatment goals:
Tm most interested in managing hot flashes and headaches.” “Fatigue is a primary concern for me; I’d like to see what I can do to have the energy I need to move through my days.” “Anxiety has started to interfere with my work or family life, and I would like to talk about ways to feel calmer and more in control.” “I’ve had several bladder infections within the last few months. I would like to get them under control.”

- If your health care provider is not familiar with complementary approaches, it’s best to give him or her a clear idea about what you are thinking of trying and why. You’ll need to have done your homework. In other words, be specific: say “I would like to try St. John’s wort to help with my depression for a month” rather than “I was thinking of trying herbs.”

- Give a clear reason for wanting to try the complementary approach. You don’t have to defend or justify your position, but try to articulate the reasoning behind your interest in a particular remedy: “I am more comfortable trying a no drug remedy to begin with, to see if it helps, before trying a prescription.” “I’m not yet ready to begin hormone replacement therapy. I need additional time to evaluate my options, and in the meantime I’m interested in trying black cohosh to see if it will relieve my insomnia.”

- Be prepared to offer backup information or documentation. Journal articles are best, the majority of health care providers would not have time to look through an entire book, and many are unaccustomed to relying on articles in the lay press for information they can use in their practices. You can ask your health care provider if he or she is interested in seeing an article about the particular approach you want to try.

Suppose you’ve done all these things, but your provider is still resistant, and switching to another provider isn’t an option for you now. One of my patients used her strong negotiating skills with her provider. “You would think I’d mentioned snake oil the first time I told him I wanted to see if ginkgo would be useful in counteracting the bouts of forgetfulness I’d been having,” said Lila, a 47-year-old who negotiates labor contracts for a major utility company. “He rolled his eyes heavenward and basically said something like, ‘It’s okay, but you’re on your own.’ I just came out and asked him what we needed to do to reach an agreement, because I respected him and wanted to continue with him but I also wanted to feel that I had the latitude to make some decisions too. He seemed very surprised when I said that. I guess he just expected that I would either go away and take ginkgo without mentioning it again, or else I’d do what he was recommending, which was to start HRT sooner rather than later.”

Lila’s provider did agree to make a note in her chart that she was going to try ginkgo: “I had to take the lead and say I’d call him in two months and let him know how it was working, and that I’d come back in in three and look at the whole picture, HRT included, again.”

The next time Lila saw her provider, she brought up the subject of black cohosh. “He listened to me quite carefully,” she recounted to me, “when I talked about the fact that it has been researched in Europe and that millions of prescriptions for it are written there every year. I said I wanted to give it a try, I wasn’t sure if ginkgo was doing the trick for me because I still had times when my mind seemed to be working slowly and I had also noticed more moodiness. He ended up reading the article I gave him, and he did prescribe it for me. I didn’t feel like I had browbeaten him or whined, either. I made a solid case,” Lila concluded with satisfaction.

Related posts:

1. The Basics of the Partnerships in Health During Perimenopause

2. The Basics of Hormone Replacement Therapy For Perimenopause – Not Cast in Stone

3. The Basics of Perimenopause – Risks and Benefits Hormone Replacement Therapy

4. The Basics of HRT alternative perimenopause treatment – black cohosh

5. The Basics of Supplementing Your Self-Care During Perimenopause

6. The Basics of Perimenopause – HRT and Your Heart

7. The Basics of Signs of Perimenopause – Forgetfulness and Trouble Concentrating

8. The Basics of Signs of Perimenopause – Depression and Loss of Libido

9. The Basics of Signs of Perimenopause – Guilty of Depression

10. The Basics of Perimenopause – How to Exercise and Move Toward Good Health