Hormones

There are over 150 hormones in your body, with many performing critical roles in your health and wellbeing. The top five hormones are cortisol, insulin, estrogen, testosterone, and growth hormone and these are the main hormones that we can check. A range of symptoms can indicate that these hormones are likely out of balance.

The role of hormones in a healthy, balanced body is to communicate between the tissues and organs – consider them chemical messengers that help coordinate processes like fertility, growth, and metabolism. When they are out of whack, many things can occur, including mood swings, sleep issues, increased stress levels, and digestive problems. Furthermore, It’s important to quickly respond to hormone imbalances because long term issues, can cause chronic illness.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is used to help women transition through the menopause and aging. With symptoms such as hot flushes, mood swings, sleep issues, and decreased libido, HRT helps alleviate symptoms and make the affects of menopause more manageable.

HRT is the acronym for hormone replacement therapy.

At Lyfe Medical Wellness, we treat hormone imbalances with Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), a custom-compound mix that has the same chemical and molecular structure as your hormones. By creating chemically identical hormones based from your saliva and derived from plant estrogens, the body is able to quickly rebalance so you can move on with your life.

If you’re undergoing menopause, you may be experiencing uncomfortable symptoms, such as hot flushes, vaginal dryness, mood swings, and more. It can be a challenging time and often symptoms are alleviated by a customized therapy protocol.

Before offering treatment for menopause, you will visit with our experienced doctor for a full medical assessment and diagnosis. Once a personalized evaluation has been made, we will recommend one of our a range of therapies, including injections, skin cream, and dissolvable tablets. Typically these include estrogen, or a combination of estrogen with progesterone

If you have had a hysterectomy, your body is placed into what’s known as ‘surgical menopause’. This causes a rapid decline in your production of progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone and it can be quite a burden to live with. If you’ve had a hysterectomy and are suffering with this shift in your hormone production, it’s worth considering HRT. For those under 50, it may be recommended to go on hormone replacement therapy until you reach a natural menopause age.

Unfortunately, if you have heart or liver conditions, have had a stroke or blood clots, have breast, uterine, or endometrial cancer, then HRT is unlikely to be a good fit. You will provide your full medical history when speaking to our doctor to ensure HRT is a good treatment plan for you. This is also the time to mention if you suspect or know you are pregnant.

As with many medical treatments, side effects can occur in a small number of patients. The more common side effects for traditional include bloating, nausea, headaches, mood changes, breast tenderness, or vaginal bleeding. With Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy there may also be weight gain and acne.

Whether you’re taking traditional or bio-identical hormone therapy treatments, it’s generally considered that the risks are the same.

For women undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) there is an increased risk of breast cancer, particularly when using combination HRT (estrogen-progestin). Estrogen-only HRT treatment has a much lower risk for breast cancer, and only with continued use of 10 years or more, though the risk for endometrial cancer does increase if you still have your uterus. It is considered that synthetic and bio-identical hormone replacement therapy carry the same level of risk. It’s important you are clear on these risks and can balance them against any symptoms you are experiencing.

On the flip side, HRT is used to treat cancer as it can ease symptoms and lessen the chance of the cancer returning.

Talk to your doctor to discuss what’s appropriate for you.

Everyone’s health journey is individual and hormone imbalances, particularly around menopause, typically last for 2-3 years. While it is preferable to get off the therapy as soon as possible, It is considered that low-dose treatments can be safely taken for up to five years.