HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy - Hormone Treatment

Linda Bruton asked:


The most common menopausal symptom for most women is also the most uncomfortable. Women who would otherwise hardly notice the transition into menopause definitely notice hot flashes! The medical treatment that was usually suggested for hot flashes in the past was hormone replacement therapy. While HRT can be very effective in alleviating the symptoms it can also increase your risk of breast cancer and stroke. It is no wonder that so many women are using herbal remedies for hot flashes.

The exact cause of hot flashes is unclear, but hormonal changes and imbalances are thought to be the main reason. Medical professionals consider hot flashes as an estrogen deficiency that can be triggered by stimulants, such as spicy foods (ginger, cayenne, pepper), acidic foods (tomatoes, citrus, pickles), hot drinks, alcoholic drinks, caffeine (chocolate, coffee, cola, black tea), white sugar, stress, hot weather, saturated or hydrogenated fats (margarine, meat), saunas and hot tubs, marijuana or tobacco, intense exercise, and anger. For many women, just eliminating that list of triggers plus using herbal remedies for hot flashes will bring immediate relief.

Hot flashes may last for a few minutes or even up to an hour. They may be mild or very severe. Every woman will experience them a little differently. Hot flashes which occur at night are called night sweats. They can be accompanied with anxiety and nightmares. Not all women experience hot flashes and fewer experience night sweats. However, many women experience both situations when they are going through menopause.

Exercise is a good way of decreasing hot flashes because it decreases the amount of FSH and LH hormone circulation by toning and nourishing the hypothalamus and raising endorphin levels.

Herbal remedies for hot flashes include plants that have the ability to cool the body, such as chickweed, violet, and elder; plants which increase and nourish oxygen utilization of the liver, such as dandelion, dong quai, polygonum multiflorum,, and yellow duck; and plants which contains high phytosterols, most notably black cohosh.

These are some of the most used herbal remedies for hot flashes:

1. Dong quai relaxes and contracts the uterine muscles. Its effect is not estrogenic, which is the main reason for dong quai’s effectiveness. It treats hot flashes by stabilizing the blood vessels.

2. Chaste berry or vitex affects the functions of the pituitary and regulates dizziness and hot flashes. Its beneficial effects are altering the secretion of FSH and LH hormones during menopause. It lowers the levels of estrogen while increasing progesterone levels, which keep vaginal walls and bones strong.

3. Black cohosh was used widely by Native Americans and later by the American colonists for relieving menopause and menstrual cramps. Clinical studies have revealed that black cohosh extract relieves hot flashes, vaginal atrophy, and depression.

4. Motherwort lessens the frequency, duration and severity of hot flashes. It relieves anxiety, insomnia, and stress. Frequent usage will produce the best results.

5. Licorice root is historically used for treating various female disorders. It also has been used effectively in treating asthma and infections of the respiratory tract. It also decreases estrogen and increases progesterone.

6. Essential oils of thyme or basil alleviate hot flashes when utilized in baths, foot rubs, when inhaled, or combined with massage oils.

These herbal remedies for hot flashes - when combined with eliminating common triggers - can greatly reduce menopausal symptoms in most women.



Dylan

fetishking7 asked:


When did you start hormone replacement therapy? Any negative side effects? Would you recommend it or should guys look for alternative ways of reaching normal testosterone levels? Tell me anything and everything you want about HRT. Thanks.

Gage

Elena L asked:


Sorry, I meant women, not woment. I suppose it is better phrased: How many women in the world, approximately, are receiving Hormone Replacement Therapy? Doing a research paper, I’ve been typing all day!

Frances

broncobillie asked:


i have been on hormone replacement therapy for over a year. i recently went off, it has been about 2 weeks now. when will it be all gone from my system?

Cesar

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

fetishking7 asked:


do you regret doing it? are there better ways to increase your testosterone levels? natural ways? Negative side effects? Are you concerned about the dangers? Does it really make a big difference in your mood, sex drive, penis function, etc? Thanks.

Nelson

Juliette Samuel asked:


Many women who are entering their middle years and going into menopause, or perimenopause as it’s called, are confused about the hype surrounding something called HRT. HRT is an acronym for Hormone Replacement Therapy, and it’s a therapy intended to treat or ease the annoying side effects of menopause by replacing the lost hormones, i.e. estrogen and progesterone, and occasionally even, testosterone. Confused yet? Good. But keep reading, anyway, it will get better… hopefully.

A lot of the confusion has to do with the usage of words such as “Natural,” “Synthetic” and “Bioidentical.” We all think we know the meaning of natural and synthetic - natural is good, synthetic is bad and bioidentical just sounds scary.

“Natural” hormones are created within a biological organism, be it human, animal or plant matter. To be considered “natural,” a hormone must share the same characteristics as its real-body counterpart, in terms of its make-up, shape and structure. But bear this in mind; a popularly prescribed hormone called “Premarin” is a natural estrogen hormone, because it’s made from a biological organism. Unfortunately, that organism happens to be a horse. Now, it’s been quite a while since Biology 101 class, but I don’t recall that humans and equines share any biological qualities that are interchangeable.

“Bioidentical” hormones are made entirely in the lab, but they are identical or a clone to the hormones you produce naturally in your body, and they do the same thing. Now, the compounds could come from any source, but the bottom line is, when they enter your body, they do exactly what your body would have done, no more and no less.

A “synthetic” hormone in produced or made in the laboratory by means of a process known as synthesis. But, just because a hormone is synthetic doesn’t mean that it’s bad, provided that it does exactly what it’s supposed to do, in the same way that the body does it. Because it does exactly what it’s supposed to, it’s actually quite “natural.”

The real concern is the clever advertising directing you to choose one hormone over another. “Natural” implies better for you than “synthetic” or “bioidentical,” but that may not be the case.

All of that didn’t help much, did it? Good, because you should be ever cautious about what you put into your mouth in the form of a pill, or slap onto your body via a patch. Hormone replacement therapy can and does work, but don’t let the media or the marketers influence your decision.



Alfonse

Dawn M. Olsen asked:


In a blow to certain drug makers, the FDA has sent letters warning seven pharmacy operations that the claims they make about the safety and effectiveness of their so-called “bio-identical hormone replacement therapy,” or “BHRT” products are unsupported by medical evidence, and are considered false and misleading by the agency. According to the FDA, they are concerned that unfounded claims like these mislead women and health care professionals.

Bioidentical hormones are custom-mixed formulas containing various hormones that are designed to be chemically identical to those naturally made by your body. These prescription and over-the-counter products are marketed as being superior to other FDA-approved HRT regimens, and are tailored to a woman’s individual hormone needs, typically determined through saliva hormone testing. Manufacturers claim that bioidentical hormones are even safer than standard, FDA-approved hormone therapy.

The FDA states that the pharmacy operations in question improperly claim that their drugs, which contain hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and estriol (which is not a component of an FDA-approved drug and has not been proven safe and effective for any use) are superior to FDA-approved menopausal hormone therapy drugs and prevent or treat serious diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and various forms of cancer.

The FDA is concerned that the claims for safety, effectiveness, and superiority that these pharmacy operations are making mislead patients, doctors and other health care professionals. Compounded drugs are not reviewed by the FDA for safety and effectiveness, and the FDA encourages patients to use FDA-approved drugs whenever possible. The warning letters issues by the FDA state that the pharmacy operations violate federal law by making false and misleading claims about their hormone therapy drugs.

“We want to assure that Americans receive accurate information about the risks and benefits of drug therapies,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, FDA’s chief medical officer and acting director of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “In addition to today’s regulatory action, FDA is publishing an informational article for women on its consumer health information web page that provides the facts to make informed decisions about these unapproved therapies. Women taking these drugs should discuss with their health care providers the drugs’ risks and whether they’re getting effective treatment.” (see http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/bioidenticals010908.html for more info on the FDA’s stance on BIO HRT.)

So, what does this mean to your menopause symptoms treatment options? The most important thing to consider is that no drug product containing estriol has been approved by FDA and the safety and effectiveness of estriol is unknown. There are, however, many natural and alternative treatments for menopausal symptoms that ARE proven safe and effective.

Herbal menopause treatment, for example is a natural and increasingly popular alternative, since it is gentle and works in harmony with the woman’s body. However, it is important that a woman taking herbs should tell her doctor because just as with prescription drugs, herbs can also present possible interactions with other drugs or herbs, thus causing side effects. Additionally, there are a number of foods and herbs that include natural plant estrogens, known as phytoestrogens, which are hormone regulators of natural progesterone and estrogen. These too can be very beneficial in the treatment of menopausal symptoms.

“Menopause Formula” is herbal-based and an all-natural nutritional supplement that contains phytoestrogens. Soy products also contain phytoestrogens and may be helpful in reducing hot flashes and osteoporosis, along with treatment of vaginal dryness. It is important to remember that the effects of soy protein, which is found in whole foods, soy protein isolates, and products containing isoflavone isolates, may not all be the same. Some other alternatives for herbal menopause treatment include black cohosh, which relieves menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, and chaste tree, which has a calming and soothing effect along with noted relief of headaches and tenderness of the breasts.

Wild yam is yet another option to herbal menopause treatment, containing compounds that are similar to progesterone and very helpful in relaxing muscle spasms while also reducing inflammation associated with menopause-related symptoms. Last but not least is rosemary. This particular herb is excellent for treating headaches and circulatory problems, while also fighting free radicals in the body and relaxing the stomach for better digestion. These and other natural alternatives have not been scientifically proven but have been used by many healthy women for years. Therefore, for the woman tired of taking prescription medication or just dealing with the symptoms of menopause, these and other natural remedies are highly recommended.



Jacob

Sharon Bell asked:


Don’t let menopause ruin your sex life

By Sharon Bell

There’s no reason why you can’t have a happy and satisfying sex life during and after the menopause. According to UK’s Jubilee Report, a study into the attitudes and lifestyles of women born when the Queen came to power, life begins at 50 for many British women.

They have more fun, more freedom, more energy and better sex than previous generations who were more likely to dread the onset of middle age, noted the Social Issues Research Centre.

The research found 65 percent of women felt they were happier now than before the menopause. Some 66 percent said they were more independent, while 64 percent said their sex lives had gotten better or had not changed since the menopause. Another 59 percent of women said their relationships with partners and families had improved.

Celebrity role models like actress Joan Collins have already shown women that reaching the menopause does not necessarily mean the end of an active sex life. Collins got married in 2001 for the fifth time at the age of 69 to a husband over three decades younger.

While it is also true that sex drive (libido) tends to naturally fall as we get older, physical contact need not diminish at all. With some treatments, a woman can even increase her sex drive.

Menopausal women can always try hormone replacement therapy (HRT). It consists of natural or synthetic female sex hormones that replace the hormones a woman loses during the menopause. It comes in the form of tablets, patches or gels and always contains estrogen, either in a natural or synthetic form.

Kate Fox, a social scientist and co-director of the Social Issues Research Centre, which undertook the study, said the use of HRT has changed the lives of modern women.

The survey further revealed that women on HRT get more benefits after the onset of the menopause. Half of those surveyed reported improvements in their sex lives since the onset of the menopause compared with 18 percent of those who were not taking the drugs.

HRT can improve many symptoms of the menopause that can hinder a satisfactory sex life. Vaginal dryness, loss of lubrication, soreness, irritation, and vulnerability to bacterial infections and thrush may all be vastly improved by HRT. Hot flushes and night sweats may also be banished.

Another alternative is Zalestra. It provides proven, natural relief for the symptoms of menopause. It is the most complete hormonal balancing pill available today. Check out www.zalestra.com for more information.



Ella

Rebecca Prescott asked:


Womens’ ovaries make two hormones - estrogen and progesterone. An easy way to remember what progesterone does is to break the word down. Pro (for), and gesterone (pregnancy/gestation) - it supports pregnancy.

Progesterone is a progestogen. Progestogens are a group of hormones which work in a similar way to progesterone - but only progesterone itself is natural. All the others in this group are synthetic. If progesterone is taken in the form of medication by mouth, the liver quickly breaks it down.

In 1934 a synthetic form was created to get round this problem. There are now over 10 synthetic progesterones available. The newest is a micronized version. Micronized means that the progesterone has been broken down into microscopic particles and avoids breakdown by the liver.

What Are Progestogens Used For?

If a woman has a condition which leads to her ovaries failing to work, natural progesterone won’t be made in sufficient quantities. Progestogens can be given to take their place. They can also help to treat abnormal bleeding from the uterus, PMS and in conjunction with HRT. They are probably best known for their use in birth control pills.

The Use Of Progestogens In HRT

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is recommended for women going through menopause or for those who have suffered damage to their ovaries. However, it is a controversial issue. The use of HRT implies that the fall in estrogen during menopause is a deficiency but menopause is a naturally occurring condition. It may actually be helping to protect the body.

For instance, it is known that estrogen can help the growth of certain breast cancers. Breast cancer is more prevalent in women around menopause age. So having a lower amount of estrogen in the bloodstream could be the body’s own protection against breast cancer.

At one time, the media portrayed HRT as a necessary wonder-drug but evidence regarding its true benefits and safety is conflicting. However, many women have flourished on it.

HRT contains estrogen and if you have not had a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) it will also contain progesterone. This is because estrogen supplements given on their own can trigger uterine cancer but if a progestogen is given with it, that risk is virtually eliminated.

Estrogen is able to lower the risk of heart disease by increasing HDL (a ‘good’ cholesterol) but synthetic progestogens seem to lower this benefit - with the exception of the new, micronized form.

Progesterone and PMS

Pre Menstrual Syndrome (PMS) can make life a misery. It is thought that PMS is caused either by a lack of progesterone, the actual drop of progesterone levels or by the fluctuating ratio of progesterone to estrogen.

Both natural and synthetic progesterones can be used in an effort to treat PMS. Natural progesterone is chemically processed from yams. It’s given by suppositories (vaginal or rectal) or in the form of an injection. This is because it won’t absorb if taken by mouth - so avoid any ‘non-prescription’ remedies containing extracts of wild or Mexican yam. It’s physically impossible for them to work if swallowed.

Progestogens have been regularly prescribed for the treatment of PMS for the last 35 years. However, the British Medical Association still does not officially recommend them as the majority of studies have not found progesterone to have any meaningful affect. Nevertheless, many women claim that it has helped them.

Side Effects Of Progestogens

Don’t use if you have ever had blood clots in your legs or liver disease. Don’t take in pregnancy unless continually monitored by a doctor. It may also cause bloating, tender breasts, weight gain, headache, moodiness and irregular vaginal bleeding.

Maya