Is Hormone Therapy Right for You?
Aug 10, 2022Your body’s hormones control most of your basic bodily functions. They serve as an internal communication system between cells throughout the body. They coordinate everything from digestion and growth to your appetite, immune function, mood, and libido. So, when your hormones are out of balance, even slightly, it can have a big impact on your health and well-being.
Often, when people’s hormones drop or become unbalanced, they turn to hormone replacement therapies to ease the symptoms. One such therapy, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. BHRT is a “natural” solution to hormone issues. But what exactly is BHRT, and how’s it different from other hormone replacement therapies?
Bioidentical hormones are different from those used in traditional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in that they’re identical chemically to those our bodies produce naturally and are made from plant estrogens. The hormones used in traditional HRT are made from the urine of pregnant horses and other synthetic hormones.
There are risks associated with using traditional hormone therapy. These risks depend on the type of hormone therapy, the dose, how long the medication is taken and your individual health risks. For best results, hormone therapy should be tailored to each person and reevaluated every so often to be sure the benefits still outweigh the risks.
What are the risks of hormone therapy?
In the largest clinical trial to date, hormone replacement therapy that consisted of an estrogen-progestin pill (Prempro) increased the risk of certain serious conditions, including:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Blood clots
- Breast cancer
Subsequent studies have suggested that these risks vary depending on:
- Age. Women who begin hormone therapy at age 60 or older or more than 10 years from the onset of menopause are at greater risk of the above conditions. But if hormone therapy is started before the age of 60 or within 10 years of menopause, the benefits appear to outweigh the risks.
- Type of hormone therapy. The risks of hormone therapy vary depending on whether estrogen is given alone or with progestin, and on the dose and type of estrogen.
- Health history. Your family history and your personal medical history and risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, blood clots, liver disease and osteoporosis are important factors in determining whether hormone replacement therapy is appropriate for you.
What does Dr. Tai suggest? First things first is that you need to understand the difference between Natural and Synthetic Hormones. True or False?
True: Natural hormone supplements should replace depleted hormones.
False: Natural hormone supplements will cause your body to have negative side effects or to act unusually.
A popular hormone fallacy that has been spread by physicians and laymen alike is that using natural hormone replacement can cause your own endocrine glands to become sluggish and eventually prompt them to break down. Nothing could be further from the truth! When your body’s glands stop making a hormone, or decrease the production of a particular hormone because they are “too tired” to produce any more of the hormones they’re accustomed to producing, natural supplement hormones assist them in making the hormones your body needs.
STORY TIME with Dr.Tai:“Whoa...hormones.”
Imagine you had a small pony you grew up with. Over the years, as you’ve grown, the pony carried you wherever you needed to go. Think of your hormone producing glands in the same context. Like the pony, your glands have supported you through some of the toughest situations. With you, your pony grows into adulthood. Following you day and night, it turns into a faithful steed, and then something happens. Your faithful steed evolves into a feeble old horse that’s too frail to carry even a bucket of water.
Once obedient, as your pony ages, it becomes more stubborn due to its inability to carry you. What do you do? You resort to discipline—you whip the poor animal!
This whip can be referred to as a (natural or chemical) secretagogue that’s supposed to be getting your old horse to move again.
Endocrine gland exhaustion is a vicious cycle. The lower the level of hormones, the worse exhaustion can be for glands. The more your body demands hormones and doesn’t get them, the more pressure is placed on those very same glands to produce when they’re already exhausted and incapable of production. This increases stress, fatiguing glands and making them more likely to never produce hormones again.
You can’t make a gland work any faster or any better than what your body’s own mechanism of stimulation already has in effect. Every gland and every hormone has a chemical compound produced by the brain (called a natural stimulating hormone) which prompts a particular gland to produce the hormone your body requires. It’s nature’s already perfect balance.
If that stimulating hormone is not capable of making the target gland produce more of the hormone, it’s because that gland is too tired and overworked to do so. When this occurs, no matter how many artificial stimulants you feed your gland, it’s unable to produce any more hormones. In fact, forced continued stimulation has the tendency to only worsen matters.
The perfect solution to a terrible problem
Take away gland exhaustion!
A more reasonable solution to preventing gland exhaustion is to alleviate pressure before it has time to worsen. As with a diabetic that is unable to produce enough insulin, overstimulating insulin production would be both wrong and unfair. Instead, you give the body a little bit of insulin to relieve the fatigue of the pancreas. When you take the load off the gland, the gland has time to regenerate and repair itself.
Studies show that people who have stopped taking bio identical hormones after many years have stronger working glands than people who’ve never taken them. Some endocrinologists believe that taking natural bio identical hormones even before problems occur can prevent gland exhaustion. For example, if you started to take replacement bio identical hormones at the age of 40, and you’ve used them for 10 years, by the age of 50 you spared your glands 10 years of stress. This results in producing identical hormones to your own at a much better rate than if you hadn’t used bio identical hormone replacement at all. However, give your own gland a few weeks to rev up its own production. After a short transition, it should be just fine.
Dr. Tai's Recommended Products
Progesterone Specialist - The wonderful effects of natural Bio Identical progesterone are near “miraculous”. Women, who rely on natural Bio progesterone in cases of pre‐menstrual symptoms as well as menopausal symptoms, have had relief of their anxieties, depression and it calms and relaxes their body. Progesterone may also provide a good night sleep. It is a wonderful natural diuretic for your water retention problems and bloating. It is an effective natural protector from uterine cancer, fibroids and endometriosis as well as protection for breast and fibrocystic changes.
Max Feminine - Bio-Estrogen level is very individualized and no two women are alike. It is highly dependent on the quantities of receptor sites each person’s body has and the demand of the precise hormone level required to control menopausal symptoms. This Wonderful formulation of 2 balanced Plant Bioestrogen for perfect replacent of the Estrogen lost during menopause.
“Max Feminine” is very well balanced with the right ratio of 8:1 in gentle bio-hormones sourced from
All plant based pure Genistein (E3) for more potent and stronger Pueraria extracts (E2) to fight these protracted and resistant symptoms of menopause, providing all the necessary protection of a balanced Bioestrogen can give to the female body.
Women Anti-Aging - Menopause is a transition in a woman’s life, during which hormonal changes occur, including decreased estrogen and progesterone production. Menstruation becomes less frequent (peri-menopause) and eventually stops completely (menopause). Symptoms of menopause include heart racing, night sweats, skin flushing, insomnia, forgetfulness, emotional instability, osteoporosis, heart disease, wrinkles, headaches, vaginal dryness, atrophy, infections, and of course, the dreaded hot flash. Pueraria Mirifica phytoestrogens relieve symptoms in peri-menopausal women using the Greene Climacteric Scale covering twenty-one symptoms of menopause.2 PM has an estrogenic effect similar your own body’s Estrogen without the serious health risks of breast cancer, endometrial cancer, uterine cancer and ovarian cancer related to synthetic estrogen.3
If you are recommended by your doctor to start Hormone Therapy, schedule a FREE 15-minute introductory Telehealth consultation first with Dr. Tai. Click here to schedule conveniently online or call the office at 313-561-6800 for assistance (Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST).
Research Resources:
- AskMayoExpert. Menopausal hormone therapy (adult). Mayo Clinic; 2019.
- Martin KA, et al. Treatment of menopausal symptoms with hormone therapy. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed March 25, 2020.
- Martin KA, et al. Menopausal hormone therapy: Benefits and risks. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed March 25, 2020.
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Practice Bulletin No. 141: Management of menopausal symptoms. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2014; doi:10.1097/01.AOG.0000441353.20693.78. Reaffirmed 2018.
- North American Menopause Society. The 2017 hormone therapy position statement of The North American Menopause Society. Menopause. 2017; doi:10.1097/GME.0000000000000921.
- North American Menopause Society. Nonhormonal management of menopause-associated vasomotor symptoms: 2015 position statement of The North American Menopause Society. Menopause. 2015; doi:10.1097/GME.0000000000000546.
- Healthine article: https://www.healthline.com/health/bioidentical-hormone-replacement-therapy#hrt-vs-bhrt
