Are you a woman who eats soy, drinks soy milk, munches edamame or takes soy isoflavones as a supplement thinking it will help you with hot flashes, night sweats and other inconvenient and uncomfortable menopausal or perimenopausal symptoms?
As it turns out, the risks of soy to hormone health are significant. It is not the middle aged health panacea for women that is is promoted to be! If your doctor is harping on the benefits of soy to alleviate your discomfort, find a new doctor!
Studies show that even small amounts of unfermented soy has the potential to disrupt female hormonal balance. This amount is only 45 mg isoflavones – a bit more than a single cup of soymilk!
“Women taking soy isoflavone tablets to alleviate hot flashes and prevent bone loss at the time of menopause might want to reconsider,” says Silvina Levis, M.D., the director of the osteoporosis center at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.
A recent study published in the August 2011 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine examined 248 menopausal women over a 2 year period to see if 200 mg of isoflavones per day were a help in alleviating the symptoms of menopause including bone loss.
200 mg per day is equivalent to twice the highest intake through food sources in typical Asian diets.
At the end of the 2 year period, women taking a placebo versus women taking the isoflavone supplement showed no differences in bone loss or menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats.
In fact, nearly half (48%) of the women taking isoflavones experienced hot flashes compared with just 31% of women who took the placebo!
Yes, you read that right. Soy actually makes hormonal problems worse, ladies! Even worse, soy consumption causes precancerous breasts over time as identified via breast thermography imaging.
Stay. Far. Away.
Studies Showing That Soy Messes Up Your Hormones
Soy Wake Up Call #1
A 1991 study found that eating only 2 TBL/day of roasted and pickled soybeans for 3 months to healthy adults who were receiving adequate iodine in their diet caused thyroid suppression with symptoms of malaise, constipation, sleepiness, and goiters (Nippon Naibunpi Gakkai Zasshi 1991, 767: 622-629)!
Still think munching on edamame is a healthy habit?
Soy Wake Up Call #2
Six premenopausal women with normal menstrual cycles were given 45 mg of soy isoflavones per day. This is equivalent to only 1-2 cups of soy milk or 1/2 cup of soy flour! After only one month, all of the women experienced delayed menstruation with the effects similar to tamoxifen, the anti-estrogen drug given to women with breast cancer (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1994 Sep;60(3):333-340).
Soy Wake Up Call #3
Dietary estrogens in the form of soy foods were found to have the potential to disrupt the endocrine system with the effects in women similar to taking the breast cancer drug tamoxifen (Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 1995 Jan;208(1):51-9).
Soy Wake Up Call #4
Estrogens consumed in the diet even at low concentrations were found to stimulate breast cells. The effect is much like the pesticide DDT which increases enzymatic activity leading to breast cancer. (Environmental Health Perspectives 1997 Apr;105 (Suppl 3):633-636).
Soy Wake Up Call #5
The soy isoflavones genistein and daidzein appear to stimulate existing breast cancer growth indicating risk in consuming soy products if a woman has breast cancer. (Annals of Pharmacotherapy 2001 Sep;35(9):118-21).
Soy Wake Up Call #6
Direct evidence that soy isoflavones genistein and daidzein suppress the pituitary-thyroid axis in middle-aged rats fed 10 mg soy isoflavones per kilo after only 3 weeks as compared with rats eating regular rat chow. (Experimental Biology and Medicine 2010 May;235(5):590-8).
Soy Bottom Line
In conclusion, soy messes with your thyroid and disrupts the delicate balance of breast tissue and it doesn’t take very much soy at all to start the snowball down the hill to hormone imbalance with only a cup or so of unsweetened soy milk per day representing a significant risk.
Think you don’t eat much soy?
Next time you go shopping, just for grins check the label on everything you buy.
Surprise!
Soy is in EVERYTHING!
The scary truth is that if you eat processed foods (even organic), you are eating plenty of soy. Worse, you are probably consuming far more than you know even if you don’t drink soya milk or eat soy protein bars.
If you are still unconvinced and need more information, check out this article on the over 170 studies on the adverse effects of soy isoflavones from 1950-2010.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
References
Soy No Help for Hot Flashes, Bone Loss
I had been soy products for years ( I also was post menopause for years as well). These products were soy milk, soy creamer, edamame, tofu and I’m sure from so called healthy packaged items. I began to have severe tenderness in both breasts and cysts in one breast, so bad I couldn’t wear a bra. I saw my doctor who asked me immediately if I was consuming any soy products and if I was to stop immediately. I felt relief shortly after and the cysts disappeared. She explained the negative hormone effects they can have and to avoid them and she tells all her patients that. I would say to other women beware. I ate soy for years so obviously it can take a while before you have problems.
I’m 55 going through a tough peri menopause and waiting for an ablasion. Of all my symptoms bizarrely hot flushes and night sweats weren’t really an issue. I’ve had soya milk for 12 years and started to get my milk delivered, the milkman delivered almond milk instead, I liked it so had almond milk instead. After 3 weeks I started getting very powerful flushes, up to 8 a day every day, and night sweats every night at 3am. After 10 days of this I had soya milk and haven’t had a flush or night sweat since.
So what is the best diet to be on when going through menopause?
You should be concerned with the hormonal effects regarding breasts esp. And your thyroid and your endocring system. Just because you FEEL no effects, does not mean they aren’t happening.
Aged 49, and just now starting my menopausal cycle, from perimeno. I am also vegan. Soy was the culprit in a MAJOR hypertensive crisis, beginning at the end of 2017, and into the first half of 2018. (230/120, at its highest) The process of elimination and HOURS of Googling everything I was consuming, (foods and supplements/interactions) finally led me to discovering that soy was a leading cause of what why this was happening. I now check labels on EVERYTHING before I buy just about anything that goes into my kitchen, and I am extremely cautious when eating pre-made foods. (restaurants and such)
Granted, it doesn’t affect every woman; but it does tend to strike menopausal/post-meno women. Be careful. ladies…
I am 48 and in menopause. I drink a cup of soy daily. It reduces my hot flashes, and my sexual arousal is almost better than when I was younger. No cancer or other issues either. I love the taste, it’s non dairy, and I get more protein. It’s hard to base solid medical facts on a 248 woman study and a few other small studies and then conclude it’s bad for all women across the globe.
Using soy for menopause symptoms is going to have the same dangerous health effects over the long term as synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Whether the hormones are natural or synthetic, the effects on cancer risk for women are the same. Consider yourself warned.
I can’t eat soy in any form it flares my IC, it’s hard to find food that doesn’t have added soy!
You are so right … soy seems to be in everything!
Hello Sarah,
I’ve been prescribed Estrace due to painful intercourse and urethritis. I am taking a product I found that keeps the urinary pain at bay, FloraBloom, but doesn’t help with the painful sex. I’m afraid to start the Estrace because of side effects and I really don’t want to use prescription drugs. Can you offer any suggestions?
Thank you, Melissa
It helped me a lot; 80 mg a day for about a year. Now I just eat home made no -gmo soy yogurt.
Most folks do t take soy long enough, and don’t realize that only half is actually utilized for hormones:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4386944/
Soy milk does help me with menopausal symptoms. I’m in menopause and I couldn’t have sex before soy milk. Now I can. It thickens the vaginal walls back up and secretions are back because of soy milk. I feel like my young self again. It minimized my hot flashes. So it does work in some ways for some of us.