Bioidentical Hormone Replacement - Help With Menopause Symptoms

In layman’s terms, bio-identical hormones is a medical term for hormones that are generally considered to be “natural”. This is natural when compared to synthetic or laboratory-created hormones. Although both can act the same, more success and desireable results have been found by using the bio-identical hormones, which means that instead of being artifically created in the laboratory, they are derived from plant sources such as soy beans and yams.

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy or BHRT is also known as natural hormone replacement therapy. Basically, as the name implies, it is the replacement of hormones which are normally produced by the body with hormones that are biologically identical in terms of chemical structure and function. It is important to note that only hormones with the characteristic of being biologically identical will have the same kind of effect on the body as those which are naturally produced within the body.

In contrast, some synthetic hormones which are commercially available such as pregnant mare urine so not have or produce the same desireable effects as the body’s own hormones, and may actually produce negative side effects and other detrimental situations.

Bioidentical hormone replacement is available in a wide variety of forms, including pills or capsules, topical creams and lotions, suppositories, vaginal creams, injections, and more.

The tremendous benefit of bioidentical hormone replacement is that it is a therapy that corrects hormonal imbalances in your body. While this hormone imbalance can occur at any time for a wide variety of reasons, it is generally found to be prevalent in menopausal or pre-menopausal women.

The hormone levels are typically measured via your saliva, where the levels of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid, and adrenal functions can be measure with a high degree of accuracy.

More Understanding of Bioidentical Hormone Replacement

Many women do not understand what menopause really is. Sure they know it will come to them at some point in time, but they are very unfamiliar with what can happen within their body as well as the games it can play with their typical emotional state.

Medically speaking, menopause is defined as the end of periods for one year in women who once had regular periods. However, you should not wait until that one year to start looking at treatment or evaluation of menopause. You should seek an evaluation after symptoms start (such as hot flashes) or your period is missed for more than 2 or 3 consecutive months, especially if you are between the ages of 40 to 60 and have not confirmed yet that menopause has taken place or is taking place.

Some women stop their periods and are not experiencing true menopause. Often periods stop but the ovaries do not stop functioning. Frequently the ovaries continue to produce estrogen but not enough to ovulate (produce an egg for fertilization) and hence not enough to produce a period. When this happens, there is no menstruation but true menopause has not occurred because the estrogen is still high.

So you don’t understand what bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is? Did you think it was a kind of spa treatment? That’s ok, it is fairly new and many people have never heard of it, although the people who have heard of it and have taken action to get onboard with it are reaping the benefits of it. Let’s look at little bit closer at it so you can understand what it is and decide if it might be appropriate for you.

Question 1. What does BHRT stand for?

Answer 1: Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. BHRT is the use of supplemental doses of hormones that have a chemical structure identical to the hormones that the human body naturally produces.

Question 2. What does BHRT do?

Answer 2: Treats the symptoms of menopause, perimenopause and postmenopause.

Question 3. How are BHRT treatments created?

Answer 3: If bioidentical hormones are purchased at a compounding pharmacy, a cocktail of hormones is created, uniquely tailored for each individual patient. If they’re purchased at a conventional pharmacy, these hormones are available in a range of set doses.

In both cases, the prescriptions are based on a series of tests administered by a doctor, so the end result really is specifically designed for you, your blood type, and your body chemistry. Many of the bioidentical hormones used are made from soybeans and wild yams, which contain unique compounds that are processed chemically and made into identical replicas of hormones that the body already produces. They are used for their cost-effectiveness as well as their ability to readily extract compounds and turn them into exact replicas of human hormones.

Question 4. What is BHRT like?

Answer 4: After a doctor determines a patient is in hormonal decline, he or she will administer static dosing, which is when hormone levels are approximated and a patient is prescribed the same amount of estradiol every day of the month. On days 18 to 28, a doctor would prescribe a static dose of progesterone to imitate what the body made previously.

Question 5. What are the different forms of BHRT?

Answer 5: Static dosing is one manner. There also is rhythmic cycling, which is based on the cycles of nature and is meant to mimic the time during which women are at their reproductive peak. Rhythmic cycling is a relatively new approach in BHRT.

Question 6. How is BHRT taken?

Answer 6: Bioidentical hormones are applied via a cream, a suppository, taken orally or are injected.