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Frequently Asked Questions regarding Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
What is Perimenopause?
What is Menopause?
What is Andropause (male menopause)?
What is Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women?
What does a woman's monthly hormonal cycle look like?
What is the difference between Natural HRT and Synthetic HRT?
What are the benefits of Natural or specifically Bio-identical HRT?
Why is cyclical or rhythmic dosing of HRT a good idea?
What are the risks of Conventional or Synthetic HRT?
What is Perimenopause?
Perimenopause is the phase where a woman sometimes ovulates in one cycle and then may not ovulate in the next. This phase is probably the most difficult to deal with because there is no predictability. From month to month, a woman is left wondering whether or not she’ll ovulate. This translates into erratic or fluctuating levels of hormones that can dramatically affect her well being.
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What is Menopause?
Menopause means the pausing of menstruation; and more precisely the last menstruation. It is, in fact, diagnostic term that describes a period of time that has elapsed where there have been no menstrual periods for 1 year. Today, the term is sometimes loosely used to cover all the years of hormonal change. Even though there is more predictability that a woman is anovulatory she is also consistently being challenged emotionally, day after day. If no hormonal intervention is made symptoms may persist or abate, but the aging process will continue to accelerate, affecting many aspects of the cardiovascular system, bone metabolism, etc.
If you think you may be menopausal, please take our free Questionnaire.
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What is Andropause (male menopause)?
Andropause is the male version of menopause which usually starts between the ages of 45 and 50 years. It is an age-related hormonal change, a decrease in testosterone, which can profoundly affect a man's health and happiness. Unlike women's cessation of menstruation in menopause, men encounter no clear signs of andropause, only a slow, almost imperceptible decline in various bodily functions. Similar to menopausal women, men often suffer subtle physical, mental and emotional symptoms. These symptoms include insomnia and depression, as well as a decline in sexuality and mental acuity. Like menopausal women, andropausal men face a growing risk of serious age-related diseases, including heart attack, stroke and, even, osteoporosis. Although breast cancer is very rare in men, prostate cancer is extremely common, and benign prostate enlargement is almost universal. Natural or bio-identical hormone replacement therapy provides significant benefits for men's health, just as it does women's.
If you believe you may be andropausal, please take our free Questionnaire.
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What is Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women?
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is replacing hormones–usually estrogen and progesterone–which a woman’s body once made in sufficient amounts, but because of age or medical reasons, is no longer able to produce. Replacing these hormones back to physiological levels can restore normal hormonal cycles. By doing this, women will not only begin to feel younger and more vivacious, but will also reduce their risks of cardiovascular problems and osteroporosis.
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What does a woman's monthly hormonal cycle look like?
For a visual representation of a woman's monthly hormonal cycle, click here.
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What is the difference between Natural HRT and Synthetic HRT?
Natural hormones are, in fact, bioidentical hormones. The fact that the bioidentical hormones come from natural plants (soy or yam plants) does not make them bioidentical. From there they are taken to a chemical plant where they are further processed into the bioidentical forms. They are further tested for bioidentical purity, so that when a compounding pharmacy receives these products they are ready to be compounded into different dosage forms. On the other hand, synthetic hormones are hormones that may look similar to the hormones a woman used to produce, but are not bioidentical. The fact that they are not bioidentical means that they will not be metabolized into other useful metabolites that the body uses. Instead, they are metabolized into toxic metabolites that have numerous side effects. Prempro or if bought separately is a combination of Premarin and Provera, are examples of synthetic hormones.
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What are the benefits of Natural or specifically Bio-identical HRT?
Aside from the fact that from puberty to menopause a womans body was rarely complicated with serious health issues such as cardiovascular problems one could assume, with high certainty, that estrogen and progesterone were not at the source of such health problems. However, from menopause and on through the rest of a womans life, she gradually becomes complicated with a series of health issues. Such concerns as cardiovascular problems ( stroke, atherosclerosis, etc.) and bone loss, and many other health issues can be improved to a great extent by the intervention of bioidentical HRT. Yes, there needs to be a large clinical study to demonstrate these benefits, but there is enough isolated clinical evidence that proves that these benefits do exist.
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Why is cyclical rhythmic dosing of HRT a good idea?
Any physiology book will tell you that estrogen and progesterone are cycled in a rhythm. In the first half of a woman’s typical 28-day cycle there is a peak of estrogen (estradiol) and in the second half of the cycle there is a peak of progesterone. In most conventional HRT, this sort of rhythm has not even been considered. Today, we are learning that the hormonal rhythms may be just as important as the bio-identical nature of the hormones. Many other hormones, such as cortisol, melatonin, human growth hormone, etc., cycle through the body in rhythms, impacting other hormonal rhythms. In the book “Sex, Lies, and Menopause” the authors make a point of this. To create these rhythms with Bio-identical HRT, we apply the hormones in a cream application varying the amounts to levels which mimic a woman’s natural peaks and valleys of estrogen and progesterone.
For a visual representation of these hormonal peaks and valleys, click here.
For more information about this protocol, please sign up for a consultation with one of our knowledgeable pharmacists by clicking here.
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What are the risks of Conventional or Synthetic HRT?
Since the Women’s Health Initiative Study came out there has been a great deal of confusion about HRT. Most of the press got the information wrong as they mixed bioidentical with synthetic hormones as being all the same. The press never understood the difference between bioidentical and synthetic. The study was done with synthetic hormones and a major arm of the study (Prempro) had to be discontinued because of the risks involved while women were on it. What they noticed was an increase in cardiovascular problems and alzheimer’s disease. There is no evidence that bioidentical hormones do this.
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