My mum (who I lived with at the time and barely had a hot flush), Nan and other older female menbers of my family barely noticed their meno so I'm hoping I'll be the same if genes are involved! I have hormonal migraines and no one else in our family have had this so could go either way for me...
I suspect the asylum thing was very true and even in this day and age my GPs looked a bit scared of me everytime I rocked up asking for help, clearly suspicious of my mental health! I would definitely have been committed.
Just to reply re the compounding industry, I personally wasn't seduced by it as it's very low key where I am in London and I just sought out a hormone expert and she recommended the compounded meds. She is a BMA endocrinologist who is an expert in women's health and used to be an NHS surgeon. In the U.K. you cannot get compounded hormones without a BMA prescription.
Also, from a close friends personal experience with Studd, I find my doc to be more ethical in that she doesn't sell the same system to every single patient and appears to be more knowledgable than him on perimenopause and PMT issues.
If I was cynical, I'd also say that MDs aren't always going to have non-biased opinions as they are of course a business and are competing for the same chunk of the market! However, I'm not so I won't
