The effectiveness and safety of bioidentical hormones
Bioidentical hormones – Hormones perform a series of important bodily functions such as growth and development. Hormones affect puberty, ovulation, menstruation, sexual desire, pregnancy, menopause, emotions, reactions, hair growth, and bone and muscle strength.
When the Hormonal levels fluctuate, it causes a person to feel a series of negative and positive effects.
When your hormones are in equilibrium, you will experience a restful sleep, improved sex drive, better mood, and a productive day at the peak of your health.
Whereas, when they fluctuate in the negative direction, you would experience mood swings, fatigue, anxiety, depression, unexplained weight gain and weight loss, insomnia, metabolism problems, digestive problems, hair loss, low sex drive, thinning skin, headaches, bone loss, decreased stamina, heart palpitations, prostate problems, and decreased erections.
It would feel like a terrible day. You are probably wondering why hormones fluctuate; hormonal levels change in response to the external environment, your thoughts, stress, diet, age, medications, period, and menopause.
Like a see-saw, the hormonal levels change, and those that suffer from it the most are people in their menopause age. At Menopause, people experience painful sex, lower sex drive, anxiety, depression, hot flashes, insomnia, virginal dryness, night sweats, numbness and tingling in the hands, mood swings, high blood pressure, unexplained weight gain, and weight loss.
The cause of this change is during menopause; the body reduces the production of some hormones; estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. If you want to know how to replace or replenish these lost hormones, you would have to learn about a bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
What is bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT)?
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy uses bioidentical hormones to treat people whose hormones are low or unbalanced.
First, let’s learn what bioidentical hormones are. Bioidentical hormones are artificial hormones chemically identical to the natural hormones made by the human body.
These Bioidentical hormones are gotten from natural sources like plant estrogens, yams, and soy. These help promote better hormone absorption by the body when used in hormone replacement therapy.
If you are suffering from Hormonal imbalance or if your body isn’t making enough hormones, Bioidentical hormones are used to replace those hormones by a simple prescription getting you back to health in no time.
Bioidentical hormones solve weight gain problems, mood swings, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, night sweats, fatigue, memory loss, insomnia, low sex drive, insulin resistance, adrenal and thyroid disorders, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, high-risk diabetes, and other premenopausal symptoms.
How do I go about having a bioidentical hormone replacement therapy?
Book an appointment with the right healthcare provider, Dr. Henry Sobo MD, Stamford, CT, for the best bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
Bioidentical hormones help replenish hormones, but because it is a hormonal imbalance, you would need to know what hormones you are lacking before being prescribed hormonal treatment.
To measure the level of hormones in the body, you could have a blood test or a saliva test to test for the bioactive levels of Oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol (stress level), and Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA).
A saliva test is more accurate because the hormones detected ate not bounded by protein compared to blood tests.
When taking the test, your healthcare professional will consider the balance between estrogen and progesterone; this is because millions of women suffer from a condition called Estrogen dominance.
Estrogen dominance occurs when estrogen levels are too high compared to the progesterone levels in the body. Like a see-saw goes down for the other to come up, but in this case, it isn’t so easy.
Estrogen dominance can cause insulin resistance, unexplained weight gain, weight loss, and issues with energy level and neurotransmitter production, leading to anxiety and depression. Also, you are at a high risk of thyroid dysfunction, breast cancer, uterine fibroids, and autoimmune disease.
You could treat estrogen imbalance through your diet, but a more effective method is bioidentical hormone replacement therapy; here, the balance will be evened.
Estrogen dominance could cause effects like water retention, breast tenderness or swelling, fibrocystic breasts, mood swings, low sex drive, uterine fibroid, weight gain, and sweets cravings.
For this reason, Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) helps replenish the natural progesterone easily.
Bioidentical hormones can come in just estrogen or progesterone only or a combined form in pills, creams, injections, gels, or patches.
What about Testosterone?
Testosterone levels shouldn’t be ignored; you might have wondered what’s causing your low sex drive, depression, lack of energy, insomnia, weight loss, or hair loss. Yes, it is the dropping testosterone.
Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone, but it is present in both males and females. It may be higher in men than women, but it does have major duties to perform in the body. It promotes sex drive, body fat distribution, muscle mass development, and bone density.
When the body’s testosterone level drops, it causes a series of adverse effects on the body, such as those listed above; this is why testosterone therapy is needed. Fun fact, testosterone helps reduce the risk of heart diseases, so more to the benefits of Bioidentical hormones.
How safe are Bioidentical hormones?
After discussing the effectiveness of Bioidentical hormones, we should also consult the side effects.
Compared to traditional Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy has fewer side effects. Since they come from natural sources like yam and soybeans, they have been approved by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).
The main advantage of Bioidentical hormones is that the prescriptions can be tweaked to a dosage that suits you, compared to Traditional Hormone replacement therapy, which has a standard dosage.
Nevertheless, when you get introduced to a new thing, you will have an initial resistance to it. When you start Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, you might experience weight gain, fatigue bloating, headaches, cramps, an increase in facial hair, breast tenderness, and acne. Still, all of that will subside after a while.
Conclusion
Bioidentical hormones mimic the human body’s naturally produced own. They are FDA-approved and, more importantly, have a series of health benefits. If you want Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, book an appointment with Dr. Henry Sobo MD, Stamford, CT. Aging and menopause may cause hormonal imbalance, but you can take control of your health by taking action.