Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy with
Bio-identical Hormones
Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy can replace the hormones your body loses - the estrogens, progesterone, and other hormones - with hormones bio-identical in nature to those you lose.
Most individuals experience an almost immediate benefit with bio-identical hormones. Within several days you will begin to sleep better, and the hot flashes will go away. Weight regulation and lost sex drive will also begin returning to normal.
Bio-identical hormones exactly mimic the structure and function of the hormones inside your body. Bio-identical hormones come from plant sources, and help women rebalance hormone levels in their bodies in a natural way.
Synthetic hormone drugs, on the other hand, do not mimic your body's natural hormones. They mainly turn off menopause's symptoms rather than rebalancing hormone levels.
Recent studies have shown synthetic hormones - specifically estrogen in combination with progesterone - significantly increase the risk of breast cancer, heart attacks, and strokes. Additionally, synthetics, a one-size-fits-all pill, are often prescribed in combination with sleeping pills and antidepressants, which can slow your metabolism and can cause weight gain.
Step One: Get a Hormone Analysis.
Dr. Taylor will conduct a full review of your medical history and order a hormone analysis (from a blood, saliva, or urine sample) to check your hormone levels.
We will carefully listen to what you are experiencing, talking with you about your specific situation and answering all of your questions. (We may also be able to prescribe something natural to help relieve your symptoms while you are waiting for your tests to come back from the lab.) The hormone analysis lab results will give you precise measurements of the following types of hormones:
• Estrogens: There are three types of estrogen hormones — estradiol, estrone, and estriol. Estradiol is about 80 times more potent than estriol in its effect on the body.
• Progesterone: This female sex hormone helps balance estrogen levels and works as a natural diuretic to counter water retention.
• Testosterone: This hormone has an influence on energy, well-being, and sex drive.
• Adrenal hormones (cortisol and DHEA/dehydroepiandroesterone): These hormones, called "androgen hormones," help your body deal with stress, but continued high levels of stress can deplete these hormones. When depleted, your adrenal glands will "steal" from your reproductive hormones, making menopause symptoms worse.
• Thyroid hormones: These hormones affect your energy level and metabolism.
Step 2: Receive Your Prescription.
When your tests are returned from the lab, Dr. Taylor will go over the results with you and write out your hormone prescription. Together you will work out a program. Ideal hormone levels depend on your height, weight, genetic inheritance, diet, metabolic rate, daily stress, body composition, exposure to environmental toxins, protein synthesis, and other factors - all of which vary from individual to individual. The unique nature of your body means your prescription and program will be tailored specifically to fit you.
You can fill your prescription right here in our office. Dr. Taylor works with a compounding pharmacy that can measure out the precise dosage levels and can have your prescription tailored to your exact needs.
Step 3. Track the Effect and Continue To Communicate with Your Health Practitioner.
By tracking the effect of the hormones and regularly communicating with Dr. Taylor, your health practitioner, he may have you adjust the dosage according to the effects you describe.
After three months, you will return to the clinic for a follow-up hormone analysis to once again measure your hormone levels, moving closer toward your ideal levels.
Note that any situations of unusual stress can throw off your hormone balance. In this instance you would contact Dr. Taylor right away to see if you need to have your hormone levels tested again and a new prescription made.
Not all natural solutions for menopause symptoms involve bio-identical hormones. If you desire, you can use natural herbs as well. These might include black cohosh, wild yams, lignans, chasteberry, Don Quai, red clover tops, fenugreek seeds, saw palmetto seeds, and others.
These herbs contain phyto-chemicals that can help support your hormone levels and hormone-producing glands. In fact, because these herbs contain do not contain true estrogens, they are actually thought to be protective against breast cancer.
What Causes Menopause Symptoms?
Losing chemical substances that were once natural and common throughout your body, which regulated and assisted with daily body functioning, throws your body out of alignment. The hormonal shifts, imbalances, and fluctuations in menopause may cause all the following:
Weight gain
Night Sweats
Thinning hair
Brittle nails
Hot flashes
Mood Swings
Lack of energy
Forgetfulness
Dryness
Insomnia
Loss of sex drive
Why the weight gain? Fat cells contain an enzyme that creates estrogen - so the body tries to hold onto fat. Weight gain also results from high levels of cortisol. This is because cortisol interferes with insulin, a hormone that converts sugar in your blood to useable energy. Additionally, when your cortisol levels overshadow your DHEA hormones, you lose energy and feel fatigued.
Why might you have insomnia? Sex hormones regulate melatonin, a hormone that controls your circadian rhythms and sleep-wake cycle. But when your sex hormone levels drop, the melatonin production increases, throwing off your sleep rhythms as well as encouraging depression.
Estrogen also has an impact on your body's temperature regulation. A sudden fluctuation can trigger a hot flash.
With mood swings, the culprit here is, once again, imbalanced estrogen levels. Estrogen receptors inside the brain increase neurotransmitter and synapse connectivity. Fluctuations of estrogen can cause neurotransmitters to fire unpredictably, creating seemingly unexplainable mood swings.
Imbalanced hormone levels can become increasingly complex, because sometimes the level of a hormone is not as important as its ratio to the other hormones. This is why we talk of "balancing" hormones rather than merely increasing them.
Men lose their hormones too, only not in the dramatic fashion as women do. It may be over a decade that men's bodies produce fewer hormones.
Although men don't have ovaries with declining estrogen production, two main causes can deplete men and women's hormones: stress and toxins.
Long and stressful work hours combined with environmental pollutants from poor diet and exposure can cause low hormones levels. As a result, you can lose your energy for life. You may become apathetic towards ideas and goals you once earnestly strived to reach, losing your zeal. Low levels of testosterone are also correlated with depression and diminished sex drive.
Make an Appointment Today.
To make an appointment for a hormone analysis, call Dr. Taylor at Embrace MedSpa at (702) 967-2376.