Bioidentical hormone therapy: Is this the best treatment option?
Of all the stages that a woman will go through in her life, menopause will probably be the most hated. If it wasn't such an inevitable event, most women would choose to do without it. As it is, every woman has to go through it at one point or another, whether she wants to or not. But it's the symptoms that are bothersome not the process itself.
Surprisingly, some women just breeze through menopause without having much of a problem with its related symptoms. The more common occurrence, however, is for a woman to develop and suffer one or more of its symptoms due to hormonal imbalance. The symptoms include hot flashes, mood swings, sleeping troubles, anxiety, breast tenderness, headaches, depression, weight gain, and even osteoporosis.
Menopause occurs when a woman's ovaries stop producing eggs. The eggs she produces stimulate her ovaries to produce progesterone, so when she stops producing eggs there is a drop in the levels of progesterone in her blood. This fall in progesterone levels disrupts her menstrual cycle and produces the other symptoms that are associated with menopause.
There are many ways to address the symptoms of menopause. Among these are hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and alternative therapies. The safest and most effective way to relieve menopausal symptoms is through the use of natural or bioidentical hormone therapy.
Unlike traditional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) which incorporates the use of synthetic hormones, bioidentical hormone therapy makes use of hormones that are natural and exact duplicates those found in the human body. Synthetic hormones are known to cause heart disease and breast and uterine cancer. Bioidentical hormone therapy is safer because the ingredients used have exactly the same structure and function of the hormones inside our bodies. Bioidentical hormone therapy uses plant sources to help women rebalance hormone levels naturally. They allow the body to metabolize these hormones quickly, with no side effects from the treatment itself.
Synthetic hormones do not mimic your body's natural hormones and are not identical to the hormones naturally produced by your body. They mainly turn off the symptoms of menopause rather than rebalance the hormone levels. Besides not addressing the root of the problem, they may also have unpredictable and undesirable side effects.
Synthetic hormones have been shown in recent studies to significantly increase the risk of heart attack and breast cancer in women. Synthetics provide a one-size-fits-all cure that is often prescribed in combination with sleeping pills and antidepressants, which can slow your metabolism and can cause weight gain.
Patients who wish to have bioidentical hormone therapy are encouraged to consult first with a medical practitioner regarding its benefits over traditional hormone replacement therapy techniques. Many clinics offer consultations in which they freely discuss and customize a treatment plan for each patient. Be honest about what you're feeling with your doctor. If you find you can't talk to your healthcare provider, find another. Only through honest feedback can your hormonal imbalance be properly treated and the symptoms of menopause finally relieved.
The symptoms caused by hormone imbalance can be awful and sometimes the cure recommended by an unaware and/or uninformed doctor can be deadly.
If you are suffering and wish to experience the benefits brought about by bioidentical hormone therapy, you might first want to check the link below that describes in detail the symptoms of low progesterone and hormonal imbalance.
Click here to read about the symptoms of PMS