When to Begin Hormone Therapy
One frequent issue shows up in phone calls to OVitaminPro.com concerns hormone therapy at menopause or perimenopause. This is very important question and deserves a serious answer. Men might want to jump the end of this blog to learn about options for you.
Is Hormone Therapy Dangerous
Some years ago, some studies indicated that hormone therapy is dangerous because of the possible increased risk of breast and or uterine cancers. Over the last couple of decades much attention has been paid to this question and it appears that HRT (hormone replacement therapy) causes a possible slight increase in this cancer risk. The general rule is that if you are over 60, the benefits of HRT most likely outweigh any risk, especially if you keep up your vitamin D3 levels with daily supplementation.
We will come back to this question, but we need to address the reasons a person should be thinking about some hormone boosts in women at that perimenopause time.
Don't Wait For the Problem To Get Bad
The first principle of hormone therapy is not to wait until you are deep into menopause to begin. This is the basic rule of life is that it is easier to prevent than cure. Once the effects of low hormone levels have had a chance to become entrenched, it will be difficult to reverse that trend.
To make the point in another way, at the first sign of perimenopause, you should be beginning to support the declining estrogen. Some prefer to go the medical route and use a medication but natural products can also do nicely as well. Products we use will be listed a little further down.
The primary systems that need estrogen to function properly are brain, bones, muscles, heart, mood, sex.
Brain Health
If you read up on brain protective measures you will see that estrogen is one of those key factors. Estradiol (E2) is a type of estrogen. Levels of E2 decline rapidly over the menopause transition and with that comes problems with sleep, mood, dementias and other neuropsychiatric problems. I wonder about the number of divorces that we have noticed that seem tocoincide with these changes in hormone levels.
Supplementing with E2 can make a difference but studies are still coming in and it appears that this therapy is most effective before you are in full menopause for several years. This is why we recommend for most that you begin with some hormone therapy when the signs of perimenopause are obvious.
Before we leave brain health, we like the Bredesen protocol of brain health. One of the 35 or so factors influencing brain health is the hormone level. Bredesen has published the only study that I know of that showed a reversal of Alzheimer's Disease by addressing the needs of each person including hormone levels. Bredesen_Protocol
Bone Health
Most adult women are aware of osteoporosis or loss of bone mass. We have known for many decades that estrogen is part of the formula for healthy bones and prevention of hip and vertebral fractures. Again, getting some estrogen in the mix before this happens can help.
Muscle Strength
Estrogen has been shown to be helpful for muscle health as you might expect. This will contribute to decreased muscle mass that you often see in post-menopausal women. Decreased muscle leads to less stress on bones, more problems with insulin resistance or problems with controlling blood sugar. Estrogen is also acts as an anti-oxidant that will help reduce muscle inflammation.
Heart
In pre menopause years, the rate of heart disease is lower than that for men. As estrogen levels drop, women begin to catch up and by age 75 may surpass the heart problems in men.
Estrogen acts on the liver to help reduce the LDL or low density lipoprotein. These are the lipoproteins associated with clogging of the arteries among other things.
Mood
This topic requires a blog of its own. The sections will be divided into: PMS, PMDD, postpartum depression, perimenopause depression and post menopause changes.
Libido and Sex
Both progesterone and estrogen play a roll in sex drive. Sex drive is complex and governed by many factors both biochemical, social and psychological. This is just a brief reminder that if all is good in life and you are in perimenopause or later and have a waning sex drive, it is time to check hormone levels.
And of course, a good libido with thinning vagina walls and decreased lubrication will put a damper on the occasion.
Your medical doc will have someideas about their choice of treatment but we have had excellent success with some natural products. A good place to start is with DHEA that your body can use to make the different forms of estrogen. This would be helpful for most women in their late 40s or maybe early 50s.
Pure Encapsulations 7-Keto DHEA 50mg
Our go-to brand for more direct hormone help is Bezwecken. Bezwecken has 20+ products with your hormone health in mind. If you aren't sure where to start, you can give us a call at 877-465-0844 to have us match your situation with the best products. Bezwecken products are consistently high sellers in our store for good reason.
I promised some help for guys and testosterone. Like estrogen, testosterone levels tend to reduce dramatically with age. At one point our favorite solution was subdermal pellets. The pellets are inserted under the fat layer around the pelvic crest. This isn't super cheap (about $750 per treatment) but the pellets last 5-6 months in our experience and you just notice that libido change in about 10 days.
We now prefer injections or testosterone topical gel. The last round of pellets for me resulted in a serious infection and so far three months of antibiotics. At the time of this writing, the infection looks to be at bay but if it comes back, the next step is a surgical procedure to clean it all out.
This experience has made creams, gels and injections look more attractive.
We also suggest you consider meds like Cialis and Viagra sooner rather than later. I know, nobody like to think about getting to that stage of life but it is that way things work. Many do fine with very low doses of these performance enhancement drugs as long as you are working to keep your arteries clear with diet, exercise and things like nitric oxide support.