HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy - Hormone Treatment

Darrell Miller asked:


Bioidentical hormones assist women in overcoming acute menopausal symptoms, while improving skin. They help by strengthening bones, keeping the mind sharp, promoting energy and well-being, and helping to preserve vaginal tone and resist vaginal dryness. In men, these hormones add energy and vitality, while improving muscle tones and mental sharpness. Bioidentical hormones (BHRT) are exact duplicates of the hormones that are produced by the body. However, they are much more easily metabolized by the body into safe forms of estrogen than their counterparts, which stimulate toxic metabolites. When they are used in physiologic amounts, bioidenticals carry much fewer risks than synthetic hormones. However, despite the fact that research supports their use and proves them safe alternatives to prescription drugs, few physicians are actually using these hormones in their practices.

Those patients, who wish to address menopausal and andropause symptoms, or to achieve lifelong hormonal balance in order to prevent illness, often do not know where to go to find a comprehensive bioidentical hormone replacement program. Instead, they read whatever they can to formulate a plan and purchase various products that are available over the counter, often spending precious time and money on programs and products that don’t do what they’re expected to do. One of the most common errors among people is putting together a program based solely on symptoms instead of first checking hormone levels. Symptoms may overlap from one hormone pattern to another. If you try to replace or augment specific hormones without having an accurate test of the levels first, your results will seldom be good.

If your doctor is prescribing transdermal hormones, make sure to do a saliva self-test to measure your hormones levels as it is much more accurate and revealing than other types of tests. You can submit your samples to Mead Labs, where you will actually receive a telephone consultation from a health professional to interpret your results followed by a program of products prescribed especially for you from one of their medical professionals. With your own results, you can learn a lot about the exact state of your hormones instead of blindly guessing from symptoms which may be similar. For example, men may not need testosterone shots or transdermal patches, as the results may show estrogen dominance. The answer for this is not adding more testosterone, because the man could be converting testosterone into estrogen, but instead a program including special herbs and nutrients may be much more beneficial.

No matter your gender, your health professional at Mead Labs will design a safe and effective program based solely on bioidentical hormones, herbs, and nutrients first. In the past years, when prescription, non-bioidentical HRT was used by any women with menopausal symptoms, there was no testing to find out what kind of imbalance was actually occurring. Proponents of BHRT are trying to ensure that this method of prescribing the same combination and amounts of medications to everyone is not used with natural hormones. Because hormone profiles and levels can vary significantly from person to person, even those people in the same gender, testing hormones levels and obtaining recommendations from a medical professional who is experienced in BHRT are the key points to ensure you benefit from this therapy.



Ryan

John Russell asked:


It is generally agreed by many physicians that the primary reason for Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is symptom relief from menopause, with less emphasis on using hormone therapy for disease prevention. It is important that the woman know all risks and benefits associated with HRT and reminded that the risk for breast cancer does increase naturally for all women as they age, as does the risk of heart disease and osteoporosis. “Women with a uterus who are currently taking estrogen plus progestin should have a serious talk with their doctors to see if they should continue it. If they are taking this hormone combination for short-term relief of symptoms, it may be reasonable to continue, since the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks. Longer term use or use for disease prevention must be re-evaluated, given the multiple adverse effects noted in Women’s Health Initiative (WHI).”

One physician associated with the WHI says, “always cautions patients about the potential for increased breast cancer risks.” First, she rules out women who are not candidates for HRT - those with bleeding problems of an unknown cause, suspected breast cancer or history of breast cancer, history of endometrial cancer or certain cancers of the uterus, chronic liver disease such as cirrhosis or a history of blood clots.

She further tells her patients who want to stop HRT that they can certainly quit anytime. First of all, with menopause, we’re not treating a disease, and stopping HRT has no major consequences, except perhaps a return of the original menopausal symptoms.

For both women who want to stop taking HRT and for women who choose not to start HRT, there are alternative therapies. For almost everyone, there are other treatment options. For instance, women they can reduce their risk of heart disease by stopping smoking and by keeping their weight, cholesterol levels and blood pressure under control. Prozac and some other antidepressants can relieve hot flashes. Prescription drugs such as Fosamax help protect against osteoporosis. Also, the drug Evista (raloxiphene HCI), prevents osteoporosis and further claims to lower total cholesterol and prevent breast cancer. However, because women on Evista may experience more hot flashes, it raises questions about how that might affect the brain. Research now suggests a link between hot flashes and Alzheimer’s. Evista belongs to a class of drugs called SERMs, or Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators. A SERM being used in Europe Tibolone, may be more effective without the side effects found in Evista.



Noah