Menopause and Bioidentical Hormones
“Menopause is not for sissies, so said bioidentical hormone pioneer Suzanne Somers in one of her many books on bioidentical hormones and menopause. For most women, menopause is a very difficult change of life both physically and mentally. Some women, the lucky few, experience very few, if any symptoms. But for most women, it is a change in life that needs some lifestyle adjustments and getting used to.
Not only is menopause a passage to a new stage in life, but it comes with a variety of health issues and bodily changes. Menopause hormones change, affecting everything from mood, diet, weight gain, libido, sleep, hot flashes, night sweats, energy levels and outlook on life. Some women can control the symptoms of menopause with just a few lifestyle changes such as diet, sleep habits, exercise and quitting smoking and lowering alcohol intake. Other women will do all of this and have to supplement with menopause supplements to ameliorate what is missing in the diet. Most women though will have to supplement their diminishing hormone levels with natural bioidentical hormones. To do this, a woman has to find one of the many bioidentical hormone doctors to measure the hormones levels in the body.
A bioidentical hormone doctor will do a hormone panel on a patient to discover what hormones, such as progesterone, estrogen, testosterone need to be replaced with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Only the hormones that are missing will be replaced in an individualized natural bioidentical therapy. Once your doctor has determined which hormones you may be missing, he will write a prescription for you and you will take this to a compounding pharmacy which will make up your prescription for your hormone replacement.
Bioidentical hormones are available in creams, pellets, and gels. These are used most often, in a biomimetic manner which means cyclically so that it mimics the natural rise and fall of hormone levels in the body. The creams are applied to the skin, rotating the areas of application and the hormones are absorbed through the skin. Usually, the estrogen is taken every day of the month and the progesterone is taken starting on day 12 and continued for two weeks. After a period, the patient usually takes a week off from the bioidentical hormones and then begins again. Your bioidentical doctor will tell you the exact schedule you should be taken your natural hormones.
After the Women’s Health Initiative study in 2002 which revealed that synthetic hormone replacement therapy was a bad deal for women, millions of women stopped taking these synthetic hormones such as Premarin. This women’s’ health study showed that synthetic hormones increased the risk of breast cancer, strokes, cardiovascular disease and pulmonary embolism. Women decided that they would rather suffer the symptoms of menopause than deal with these health risks. However, women began to search for more natural solutions to the symptoms of menopause. They began to change their diets, exercise more and look at natural health supplements for menopause. Also, they became aware slowly, thanks to Suzanne Somers and Dr. John R. Lee – another pioneer in North America for bioidentical hormones of natural hormone replacement therapy. Dr. John Lee wrote many books about the use of natural hormones and healthy lifestyle. Women became aware that women in Europe had been using bioidentical hormones for the treatment of menopause symptoms for over 55 years. Women in North America slowly began demanding more natural alternatives to combat the symptoms of menopause. Doctors began to answer this need for hormone replacement therapy. Slowly, they trained and more and more bioidentical doctors become available for women to obtain natural hormone replacement therapy.
In menopause, estrogen levels can either become high or low. Estrogen dominance is actually a dangerous condition for women and this can be countered by using natural bioidentical progesterone and eliminating xenoestrogens from their lives. Xenoestrogens are contained in foods, chemicals that you use in the house and environmental pollutants. Eliminating these and using bioidentical progesterone for treating the symptoms of menopause will lead you to a higher quality of life as well as aid in treating sleep problems, boost your libido, help solve the problems of night sweats, hot flashes, menopause weight gain and improve your mood or symptoms of depression that accompany menopause.
Natural bioidentical estrogen comes in several forms. The bioidentical doctor may give you’re a prescription for estriol or bi-est or tri-est. Estriol is the weakest type of estrogen. Bi-est is a combination of estradiol and estriol estrogen hormones. Tri-est is a mixture of the three estrogens – estradiol, estriol and estrone. Your bioidentical doctor will decide which is the right combination for you and your hormone levels and what needs to be replaced.
Any natural estrogen therapy must always be combined with natural bioidentical progesterone. Natural progesterone will counteract any problems with estrogen. Using natural estrogen by itself can also be dangerous. What we are looking for here is hormone balance and that is the goal with natural bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Being out of balance is not a good thing. Your hormones – all of them – need to be balanced.
As well as using natural bioidentical hormones, you must also make sure that you make changes to your lifestyle to maximize your health and well being. It is vital that you eat healthy foods for menopause, include exercise in your daily routine, quit smoking and reduce your alcohol intake. Red wine is okay but in moderation, which is good to know. There are many anti aging supplements that you can take along with bioidentical hormones and your diet. These will help supplement your diet because we all should know that before your food reaches your table and after cooking, many of the natural supplement and vitamins we need have been depleted.
Women who start with natural bioidentical hormone replacement therapy will find that their hot flashes will disappear, along with those nasty nightsweats, their weight will be easier to manage, their mood and depression will disappear, their quality of sleep will improve and their interest in their partners will return. In fact, most women will find that they are feeling terrific and that menopause, the change in life, is not such a bad thing after all. Menopause is not meant to be a curse; it is a new passageway to a new life and new beginnings. It’s not meant for sissies because it is a difficult time in life to enter into, but if you are suffering the severe symptoms of menopause, it can all be dealt with by using natural bioidentical hormones. Who needs hot flashes anyway? Life is out there for all of us.
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Filed Under Bioidentical Doctors, Bioidenticals, Biomimetics, Estrogen, Hormones, Menopause, Progesterone, Testosterone | 1 Comment
Tagged With bi-est, bioidentical hormone, bioidentical hormone doctor, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, bioidentical hormones, biomimetic, Dr. John R. Lee, estrogen, estrogen dominance, hormone replacement, hot flashes, Menopause, Menopause hormones, menopause supplements, Natural bioidentical estrogen, natural bioidentical hormones, natural bioidentical therapy, Progesterone, symptoms of menopause, testosterone, tri-est, xenoestrogens
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