"Estrogen...tends to irritate the nervous system. Progesterone, on the other hand, is associated with tranquility"

I don't know if I would agree with everything Dr. Northrup has to say, but I definitely have found this statement to be true in my own experience.

Thanks for the great information and personal anecdotes everybody. I'm still doing a lot of searching for info online as well as here. At this point I'm not any closer to knowing what I'm going to do than I was before, but I do feel a much greater sense of ease about not rushing ahead with any decisions, and that is in no small part because of the input I've gotten from the posts in this thread as well as from what people have said to me in PMs.

flamenco ted, I recommend that you and/or your beloved do a lot of online research on this subject as well as reading what's been recommended in this thread.