HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy - Hormone Treatment

Groshan Fabiola asked:


As symptoms of the early menopause we can find physical signs and emotional signs. In the category of the physical signs, we can mention irregular periods, infertility, vaginal dryness, bladder control problems, hot flashes and night sweats, weight gain, palpitations, headaches, breast tenderness, bloating, gastrointestinal distress and nausea. There can also appear increase in facial hair, changes in body odor, dry mouth and other oral symptoms, dizziness and sore joints.In what concerns the emotional signs, there can appear irritability, mood swings, anxiety, confusion, lack of concentration, memory lapses, lowered libido, and extreme fatigue.

When the irregular periods appear, that means that the periods will come later then usual, or will come more frequently – every 24 days instead of every 28. There can also happen for you to skip a month and then go back to normal for several months, then skip two periods in a row and so on. You may also experience a light period that lasts only few days, and then, the next month, a very heavy bleeding.Shorter cycles come because the follicles are developing faster. This happens because you produce lower levels of estrogen during your preovulatory stage, and the FSH levels are higher than normal.Because you don’t produce enough estrogen to build up your uterine lining, extremely light periods can come, but this can be also because of an anovulatory period.Extremely heavy bleeding is a sign of an anovulatory period, but estrogen builds up the uterine lining in the absence of enough progesterone. The uterine lining keeps building up until the production of estrogen drops off and the lining is shed.

You must know that as you get closer to menopause, your menstrual cycle usually lengthens, you may begin skipping periods, and, the bigger change that may happen – you will stop having periods altogether.It is important to know that cancer, polyps, non-malignant tumors, or fibroids can provoke some irregularities in your menstrual cycle.

In premature menopause, there can appear infertility problems. This may happen even if you still have your period, and believe everything is perfect normal.

Hot flashes, also known as the trademark symptom of menopause are estimated to affect 75 to 85% of American women when they are in menopause. It is known that hot flashes can start with a hot, prickly feeling in the middle of your back, the skin temperature can rise up to 8 degrees, your pulse shoots up, and you start sweating as your body tries to cool itself down. Sometimes, your face, neck and chest turn pink or deep red, and you may also get the night sweats, which is the nighttime version of hot flashes.Hot flashes can be controlled by HRT, by herbs, vitamins, natural supplements, and other methods, but you should also try to reduce stress, limit the intake of caffeine, alcohol and spicy foods, exercise, wear natural fibers, layered and loose-fitting clothing, and in order to stay cool at night, drink cold water at the first time of a sweat, and use cotton sheets and cotton nightclothes.Vaginal tissues start drying and become less elastic when your estrogen levels drop. Sex becomes uncomfortable and you may become more prone to infections. The vagina will take longer to become lubricated and it may atrophy. You may also find that it takes longer to get sexually aroused, and that sexual stimulation may become unpleasant. Sex can become uncomfortable, and even painful. It is important to know that this symptom of the menopause is treatable, and it’s often completely reversible.To deal with this problem, you can start the standard estrogen replacement therapy, you can use an estrogen ring designed to help with vaginal dryness and atrophy, a vaginally-inserted estrogen cream, but you can also have more sex, use a lubricant to help with the loss of lubrication (vitamin E –a capsule inserted in the vagina helps with lubrication), and avoid antihistamines and certain decongestants and anything that can irritate or dry your vagina.

Like your vagina loses muscular tone and elasticity when estrogen production lags, the same thing happens to the lower urinary tract. You may have to urinate more frequently or you may have urinary stress incontinence. Because the lining of the urethra becomes thinner and the surrounding muscles weaker, when you press stress on your bladder- for example when you cough, sneeze, laugh- you may release a tiny bit of urine. It is important to visit your doctor if you experience severe incontinence. Sometimes, a great degree of bladder control difficulty can be related to another problem that has nothing to do with the early stages of menopause, and we can also mention that frequent urination can appear because of a bladder infection or diabetes. That is why, it is important to be consulted by a doctor to see exactly what you are dealing with.

If you are having this bladder control problem, you can take estrogen, try Kegel exercises, which will strengthen the muscles around the vagina and bladder opening, and also reduce the intake of caffeine and alcohol.It is known that insomnia may be connected to the menopause. Scientists say that the frequency of insomnia doubles from the amount you may have had before you entered premature menopause, and also women begin to experience restless sleep 5 to 7 years before entering menopause. HRT and alternative therapies work well in dealing with this symptom, and you can also drink herbal tea before going to bed, avoid alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes before bedtime, and keep your bedroom cool.Even if some doctors say that menopause has nothing to do with weight gain, there are studies that indicate hormone levels are tied to weight gain and redistribution of fat.In order to cope with this symptom, you can opt for HRT or other natural alternatives, and also changes in diet and exercise can do well.

Because your estrogen levels drop, the collagen production slows down too, and as a result, you will see that your skin gets thinner, drier, flakier, and less youthful-looking.Unfortunately, this sign often shows up early in menopause, so you may look a little older than you used to. In order to see a definite improvement, you must increase your estrogen levels through HRT or phytoestrogens like soy or flaxseed. You must also remember (in what concerns the so-called collagen enriched crèmes) that collagen must come from within in order to work on your skin, and not to be applied from without.

Because of the dropping estrogen levels, there can appear headaches, and many women with regular menstrual cycles get headaches just before their periods or at ovulation. So, because the production of estrogen slows down due to premature menopause, you may experience these hormonally- induced headaches, but you can also experience that if the progesterone levels are too high in relation to your estrogen levels.

If low estrogen causes the headaches, you should take estrogen, and you can also try anti-inflammatories, certain herbs, and if the headaches are crippling the doctor may prescribe anti-migraine medication.There can appear breast tenderness, which can last for days and weeks and you will feel your breasts tender to the touch and swollen.

You may also experience gastrointestinal distress and nausea- which can manifest with gas, indigestion, heartburn-, and you can also experience tingling or itchy skin- you will have a feeling like some bugs are walking all over you, or you will have a burning sensation like an insect sting.Connected to the estrogen deficiency is the hair loss or thinning- you will notice hair in your brush, your hair will get drier, or you will notice a thinning or loss of pubic hair.Because of low estrogen levels, the mucous membranes will dry, and there can appear a bitter taste in your mouth and bad breath.

For more resources about menopause or about male menopause please review http://www.menopause-info-guide.com/male-menopause.htm



Antonio

CROSS asked:


i mean HRT sounds exactly like tom Clancy’s rainbow six, they get the best equipment, best training, could this be the real deal? I already read a lot about them and they pretty much sound like Clancy’s fictional team rainbow. any one else agree?

Nathaniel

sarah asked:


ive been on hormone pills for 4 weeks now im 24
what can i do to make go away

Karen

theresaanne asked:


I used this site to order my grandmother’s estrogen it saved her money. She lives on a fixed income, that little bit she saved at HRT meant alot to her.

Keith

Adrien Brody asked:


Janet M., a fifties-something woman, entered my office and said as she sat down, “I’ve read that if I take hormones I’ll increase my breast cancer risk. I’m going crazy without sleep and with these mood swings, but I don’t want to increase my breast cancer risk by taking hormones.”

Like many women, Janet had heard that a recent study, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), definitively showed that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increases breast cancer risk. Janet, like most people, didn’t realize that this study found no statistically significant increase in breast cancer risk to women who took HRT.

When differences are not significant, an increase in risk may well be due to other factors, not the one being studied, such as HRT use. As often happens when a medical story is reported, the emphasis was on the increase in risk, not whether the increase was likely to be due to the agent being studied or to the size of the risk.

The actual size of a risk is important in any woman’s decision making process. In this case the risk was exceedingly small — only 8 in 10,000 women a year — which is 0.08% or eight hundredths of one percent! Janet was amazed to learn the actual size of the increase, and said, “You mean I was getting all concerned for a risk that small!”

“And,” I pointed out, “even this very small difference in risk may not be due to hormone use.” I explained that breast cancers take an average of eight years to reach about half an inch in size. This means that breast cancers started in the first year of the study would not be detected for eight or more years. The study followed women for only about five years, so all or most of the breast cancers found were probably present in an undetected state before the study began.

Janet asked if HRT use might have caused some breast cancers to grow more rapidly and therefore be detected sooner than eight years. This is unlikely. A number of studies find that breast cancers in women who were using HRT were not larger and were not dividing more rapidly than breast cancers in non hormone users. Since breast cancers grow more slowly in older women and the average age in this study was 63, breast cancers in this group would tend to grow more slowly and so take even longer than the eight year average to be detected.

Women in the WHI study used a particular type of hormone Prempro. The results of this study therefore do not apply to other, newer approaches in which more natural hormones are used and a woman’s menstrual cycle is more closely approximated.

Janet was surprised to learn that many studies find that women who use HRT do not have an increase in breast cancer risk compared to women who don’t use hormones, even when hormones are used for twenty years. Also, in another large study in which some women were assigned to take Prempro and others not, women who used Prempro had no significant increase in breast cancer risk.

As Janet left, she said, “I can see now that when I hear about a study I need to know how big a risk is and not just that it is increased. I’ll also ask how long a study it was. This discussion has given me a whole different perspective.”



Ethan

Catherine Harvey asked:


If you listen to all the health reports and warnings in the paper everyday you’d be a confused wreck. It seems we can’t do right for doing wrong. We try to eat healthily but are bombarded with information that tells us what is good for us and what isn’t, followed the following week by conflicting news about how certain health foods cause horrible diseases of one type or another.

Lifestyles, diet and health are some of the biggest issues that affect our life insurance premiums. Doctors are not huge fans of alternative therapies and prefer to go down the drug route. And this is how so many menopausal women have come to take hormone replacement therapy.

However, it would seem that HRT therapies are being held responsible for cancer cases long after the treatment is finished. The risk of breast cancer is still 27 per cent higher three years after treatment when compared with women who have never received this therapy and these are worrying statistics.

At the height of the debate of HRT and the knock on effects, over a million women in Britain ceased treatment, leaving them with the unpleasant menopausal toll on their bodies. Unpleasant, but better than cancer.

Heart disease is another impact of HRT and women are being advised to only use it if absolutely necessary and then for as short a time as possible.

Life insurance companies will be taking this into consideration which will leave you with higher premiums for longer than necessary, given that these women are trying to help themselves and relieve symptoms. It seems doctors can help one thing but this often leaves us vulnerable to other problems.

Medicine is big business and if you are concerned about your cancer risk after taking HRT you could always treat yourself to the new test that is available through private medical services. It is now possible to indulge yourself in a complete MOT for the measly price of 2,200. pounds.

The UK government are hoping to implement measures for monitoring the nation’s health more accurately but the Biophysical 250 is the mother of all tests and promises to be a huge money saver for life insurance companies.

For the price of two tablespoons of blood you can have your prediction read as to whether you are likely to develop heart, blood or cancer diseases. How uplifting!

In your detailed report will be an idiots guide to your health. Of the 250 listed possible problems, there will be a colour coded guide. Red means immediate action required, amber denotes preventative action needed and green symbolises a low risk. It will cover illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, pneumonia, hormonal imbalances, vitamin and protein deficiencies as well as numerous types of cancer. Just what you want dropping through your letterbox on a Monday morning!

This comprehensive health check is being billed as an effective one stop health check but surely this is only wise if you have the private medical insurance or life insurance to cover such problems that may be thrown up. This also brings further into the light the class system so prevalent in this country.

For those who can afford private medical care, they can have the test and deal with any problems. The rest of us pay our taxes for the NHS, knowing it is completely overwhelmed already and the chances of us getting the test, or the medical aid we need, are very remote.

Wealthy people will not be affected by the hike in life insurance premiums that this brings about but the average person certainly would be. Will it one day be a case of life insurance companies insisting on us taking this test before it decided if or how it will cover us? And would this not be discrimination against those of us who can just about scrape together the money for life insurance premiums as it is?



Jose