Is Hormone Replacement Therapy right for me?

What to know about hormonal balance: it’s personal.

Foundational hormonal balance begins by focusing on balance in general. Your body’s organ systems and communication lines need to be open and functioning optimally in order to achieve hormonal wellness. Our lives move from one extreme to the next, overstimulation to understimulation until the proverbial gas tank is empty. Your organ systems, the Gastrointestinal tract, liver and kidneys, Adrenals, Thyroid and Hypothalamus Pituitary axis all need to be cell signaling and detoxing effectively, in order to function normally and together. This means finding a place in the middle of the extremes, or better ways of adapting to extreme spikes in our lives.

A lot of this type of imbalance begins at early stages of our development, the behavior pattens get reinforced as we age, and those triggers continue and stimulate our system in adulthood, even when our rational brain has grown out of our childhood understanding of what’s happening around us.

Fast forward to peri menopause (the early stages of menopause), many women start to get curious and consider hormonal changes and therapeutics, when they have not really engaged or had an awareness of what hormones have been doing to their bodies for their entire lives up to that point. Hormone replacement therapy is an option for symptomatic relief as hormones and hormone balance begins to shift at this stage of life. BUT, and this will come as no surprise, if your gut health isn’t right, your hormones will never be optimized either — it’s all connected. Women have receptors for hormones all over our bodies.

Achieving hormonal balance takes time. Many patients try hormone replacement therapy and give up only after a month or two. You should be aware that it can take up to 90 days to feel balanced sometimes, patience and perseverance are critical — fortunately, you don’t have to do this alone.

I often hear of patients that are taking Estrogen only. They’ve been told they don’t need progesterone, because they no longer have a uterus. Those hormone receptors i mentioned, that are all over a woman’s body, include both estrogen AND progesterone receptors — the progesterone maintains a healthy balance and is critical for hair growth and sleep, among other things.

 Eating a healthy balanced diet helps to detox estrogens in the gut and level out some of those triggered responses — you are building balance from the bottom up. When you suffer from digestive issues, and possibly other parasites or pathogens, you recirculate your hormones in the large intestine. As you begin to heal, things that become critical to rid the body of circulating estrogens are eliminating daily (bowel movements), eating fiber and drinking half your body weight in oz’s of water. You’ve heard it - eat the rainbow. Also, foods and nutrients like rosemary, omega 3 fatty acids, cruciferous vegetables, and good quality proteinase are essential for maintaining your hormonal balance.

I appreciate that a common concern around estrogen replacement therapy is that you might increase the risk of breast cancer. If we can look at a body’s full estrogen metabolization capability, it gives us more information regarding individual estrogen pathways and detoxification and helps to understand what a specific body needs for support, so we can avoid further dysregulation and risk. Some of these pathways will be more favorable than others. Fortunately, with the advancement of dried urine testing, we can look at these pathways by collecting dried urine samples and sending them into a lab for analysis. If our estrogen detoxification isn’t optimal, we can use certain herbs and nutraceuticals to change it. Everything is possible.

So what’s the deal with Bio identical vs Synthetic Hormones?

The truth is that synthetic hormones can be difficult. They waste energy and give incomplete messages to the cells. We all know trans fatty acids are bad for us, but why? When we change the biochemical or natural compounds of a fat, cholesterol, or hormone, we alter its cell signaling ability.This means that the body doesn’t recognize it right away and as a result, treats it like something foreign and damaging, which can lead to inflammation and immune responses we don’t want. The same is true for hormones.

 Bio-Identical hormones are different, though, the body can recognize them and put them to immediate use. They can help prevent memory loss, improvement of heart health, maintain bone mineral density, and reduce vasovagal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats. They also help reduce insomnia and depression, increase vaginal tone and decrease atrophy, lessen urinary tract infections and urinary leakage, and increase sexual interest, which is still an important factor no matter what your age is!

Your estrogen hormone has direct and indirect benefits on the cardio vascular system too. It reduces homocysteine, cholesterol build-up, increases good cholesterol and has overall has positive effects on the cardio vascular system. Maintaining good heart health involves maintaining good estrogen levels. Estrogen dilates small arteries, decreases the accumulation of plaques, enhances magnesium uptake and utilization, maintains collagen, decreases LPa, and acts as a natural calcium channel blocker. Overall, Estrogen supplementation reduces heart disease.

All of that is to say, it is a deeply individual decision how you manage your hormone balance as your body changes. Let’s find some time to talk about your health and needs and decide together if hormone replacement therapy is the right choice for you at this time in your life.