What to do when you can't take HRT?

I am in perimenopause, and the BRCA is in my family so I can't take hormones of any kind. What else can I do to relieve hot flashes and other symptoms

THANK GOODNESS that you have been disqualified from considering synthetic hormone replacement!!!

You need to supplement with natural progesterone cream. It has been shown to PROTECT against breast and endometrial cancer. Estrogen makes cancer cells divide, progesterone makes them die off.

Please spend some time researching natural progesterone. A great place to start is www.johnleemd.com.

Here is an article from him:
Taken From a transcript of a Seminar by Dr John R. Lee, M.D.

Breast cancer. Does estrogen increase the risk of breast
cancer? These doctors will tell you "well we're not sure, we need
more studies and everything"....

Another test Dr de Ligni猫res and Dr Chang did was to
measure the rate at which breast cells were multiplying. The
breast cells they choose were the milk duct cells, these are the
cells where cancer originates in breasts. And remember, a
cancer cell differs from a normal cell only two ways. One is it is
multiplying faster and number two is it hasn't differentiated and
become developed into the full mature cell that it is suppose to.
So those two things are lack of differentiation and more rapid
turn over鈥搕he cells multiply. With a controlled test Estradiol
raised the cell proliferation rate over 200%, progesterone with
estradiol brought it back to normal. The ones with progesterone
only, lowered the proliferation rate by 400%. Isn't that amazing!
What the authors concluded was what they have shown is that
estrogen is truly a stimulant of breast cancer and progesterone
is a protector of breast cancer.

Johns Hopkins University, not a fly-by-night organization, did a
20 year study, was published in 1983 in the American Journal of
Epidemiology and they showed that those women who had
good progesterone levels had less than a 5th of the amount of
breast cancer and less than a 10th of all the cancers that
occurred in women who were low in progesterone. This would
suggest that having a normal level of progesterone protected
women from nine-tenths of all cancers that might otherwise
have occurred!

Another test was reported in the British Journal of Cancer and
financed by a royal grant for cancer. Back in 1975 Dr Mohr went
to the top 3 hospitals in London and said every time you do
breast surgery on a women with breast cancer we want you to
measure her progesterone level and estrogen level. They did
that for 20 years. Then they looked up the survival rate of those
who had had at least 18 years since their surgery. The survival
rate of those whose progesterone levels were just below
normal, not bad but just below normal, was 35-36 percent. The
survival rate of those who had normal levels was 68-70
percent.which is obviously 100% better, just by knowing the
progesterone level on the day of surgery 18 years before. The
survival rate 18 years later is 100% better! There is no doubt!
And estrogen had nothing to do with this. If they had continued
and followed along and when they found the progesterone begin
to drop and they could give progesterone you know what the line
would show? No deaths do to breast cancer. I started in 1978, it
has now been 18 years, there were hundreds of people in my
practice, they've all been on progesterone for 18 years and not
one of them to my knowledge has died from breast cancer. And
the first three years consisted only of patients who couldn't take
the estrogen because they had a previous history of breast
cancer or cancer of the uterus. And these are the ones that I've
followed the longest. The rest were people who I said why not
give it to everybody and so I did.

smoke pot.

You can go to a naturopath or a herbalist for things that can help relieve symptoms also buy a stress ball and throw it that the door a few times.. kidding

i suggest that you see your local homeopath and or aromatherapist and or dietician. All three will be able to help you control your natural symptoms and none will be as invasive as taking hormones.

Sorry to hear that breast cancer runs in your family. There are herbal or all natural remidies out there you can by. They differ from others, so you would have to go in a general nutrition center store of the sort and ask what they recomend. The chinese swear by green tea, that is cures everything, plus it makes you feel goo and gives you energy. well good luck.