Dr. Jen Gunter

So if you're saying, why is my depression still bad?

I'm 52 and I'm on menopause hormone therapy.

Well, escalating the doses isn't going to give you the answer because we actually have some randomized control data to show that it's not effective.

So it has to be put in context, right?

Right.

And this is true in all of medicine.

If you prescribe a medication and the outcome is not what you expect, one possibility could be that you need more.

The other possibility could be that you were incorrect and that's not the right medication.

And you should always think like, okay, when we're especially talking about symptom-based care,

else could be causing these symptoms?

You know, do you have sleep apnea?

Is that actually why you're not sleeping?

Maybe we should be screening you for that.

Do you have iron deficiency?

Is that why you have brain fog?

We, you know, so you need to go through these lists.

Maybe you actually have insomnia and you need to see a sleep specialist and, and work on, you know, work with someone for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.

So it's important to,

to not have tunnel vision and to always be open to why isn't this expected therapy working, you know, working as expected.

Well, I would say that I don't think that's limited to menopause.