Your hormones play an important role in how you feel each day. These so-called “messengers” of the body can regulate many different functions and processes, including those related to sleep, metabolism and reproduction.
As you age, or as a result of certain health conditions, hormone levels tend to decrease, often dramatically. Especially important are your levels of testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. Yes, these three hormones are present in both men and women, to varying degrees. They all have an outsized impact on how you feel, and maintaining the right balance of these hormones can keep us all feeling energetic and alive.
Hormonal decline often leads to a wide array of undesirable outcomes: sleeplessness, fatigue, foggy thinking, low energy, weight gain and loss of lean muscle, among others. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can restore abnormally low hormone levels in order to improve the way you feel and reduce the negative effects of hormonal decline.
What are Bioidentical Hormones?
Regenerative medicine practitioners most often utilize bioidentical hormones in their treatment protocols, as differentiated from synthetic hormones. The differences come down to how they are made, what they are made of, and most importantly their molecular structure. Bioidentical hormones are produced in a lab to be identical to naturally occurring hormones, which is why they are favored by regenerative medicine practitioners. They are most often sourced from plants.
What do Bioidentical Hormones do?
Your doctor may recommend hormone replacement therapy as a way to alleviate:
- Lack of energy
- Poor sleep
- Decreased libido
- Lack of interest in sex
- Lack of interest in your favorite activities
- Weight gain or weight fluctuations
- Loss of muscle mass
- Difficulty concentrating
- Vaginal dryness
- Hot flashes and PMS
- High cholesterol
- High risk of heart disease
- Loss of bone density
- Thinning or loss of hair
Hormones may be administered in pill form, as a gel or cream, via at home injection, or as an implanted pellet. The dose is based on the symptoms you are seeking to alleviate, as well as your age and health history. Follow-up discussions are very important to monitor how the dose is working or not working for you.
Will I Have to Stop Hormone Replacement Therapy at a Certain Age?
Not at all! There is no predetermined age at which HRT is no longer safe. As a person ages, they may become more likely to experience certain side effects that are possible with HRT. In those cases, usually all that is required is to lower the HRT dose. Instead, your health care professional will continuously monitor you to ensure that you remain a great candidate for HRT.
Are Bioidentical Hormones Only for Women?
Absolutely not, in the same way that testosterone is not just for men! Oftentimes, bioidentical hormones are offered as a remedy for many of the numerous changes that can be caused by menopause/"manopause".