Homone Replacement Therapy For Women
Are your Hormones Our of Balance?
THE REALITY IS, UNBALANCED HORMONES CAN MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A STRANGER IN YOUR OWN SKIN.
Anyone who has been through puberty knows that hormones have a powerful effect on your body. Hormones affect many areas of your health, including your mood, your metabolism, and your sexual and reproductive function. If your hormones become unbalanced, whether due to menopause or other factors, you may end up feeling like a stranger in your own skin. However, compounded hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a way to restore balance and has helped women everywhere feel like themselves again.
PROGESTERONE CAPSULES
Progesterone is added to estrogen therapy to prevent the overgrowth of the cells that line the uterus.
BI-EST CREAM
This cream contains a Bi-Est or Bi-Estrogen component, which consists of two estrogens – Estradiol and Estriol.
ALL-PURPOSE NIPPLE CREAM
Our All Purpose nipple cream is designed to alleviate a wide array of nipple ailments.
Compounding Provides Hormone Therapy Uniquely Designed for Your Body
HRT is most often prescribed to ease the symptoms of menopause, but it also can be used to treat a variety of conditions that women of all ages may experience, including:
- Pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS)
- Irregular menstrual cycle
- Moodiness
- Infertility
- Post-partum depression
- Weight gain
- Endometriosis
- Fibrocystic breasts
- Sleep disturbances
- Hot flashes
- Night sweats
- Decreased libido
- Painful sexual intercourse
- Vaginal drynes
These conditions affect millions of women. As the number of women seeking hormone-related treatment has grown, so has the mass production of pills, patches and creams by the drug industry. However, each woman’s body is different and has its own unique needs, but commercially manufactured products tend to be “one-size-fits-all,” and do not always account for the differences between individuals.
Estrogens
- A group of related hormones, each with a unique profile of activity
- Often prescribed to re-establish a normal physiologic balance
The use of one or more of these hormones is referred to as Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT).
IN CLINICAL TRIALS, ESTROGENS HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE HELPFUL:
- for the treatment of menopausal symptoms
- for the treatment of postmenopausal problems including vaginal atrophy, dryness, or infections, painful intercourse, and various conditions of the uninary tract.
- In decreasing the risk of osteoporosis and colorectal cancer.
Despite studies reporting the risks associated with synthetic hormones, conjugated equine estrogens remain the most frequently prescribed form of ERT. Published clinical trials have reported that the risk of breast cancer is increased by use of conjugated equine estrogens, and further increases when the synthetic progestin medroxyprogesterone acetate is added to the regimen. If you’re taking estrogen or other hormone replacement medications, you should also consider the important nutrients those medications may deplete, and potential supplements that you can take alongside your hormone therapy to maintain a healthy balance of both hormones and nutrients in your body.
Progesterone
- Is commonly prescribed for perimenopausal women to counteract “estrogen dominance”.
- Minimizes the risk of endometrial cancer in women who are receiving estrogen.
- Is preferred by women who had previously taken synthetic progestins, according to a Mayo Clinic Study.
- May enhance the beneficial effect of estrogen on lipid and cholesterol profiles and exercise-induced myocardia ischemia (reduce oxygen supply to the heart muscles) in postmenopausal women (in conrast to medroxyprogesterone acetate or MPA).
- Has a different side effect profile than synthetic progestins, such as MPA.
Androgens
Testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) may be added to a woman’s Hormone Replacement Therapy to minimize recalcitrant menopausal symptoms and further protect against osteoporosis, loss of immune function, obesity, and diabetes. A decline in serum testosterone is associated with hysterectomy, and there are age-related gender independent declines in DHEA and DHEA sulfate. Additionally, ERT may cause relative ovarian and adrenal androgen deficiency, creating a rationale for concurrent physiologic androgen replacement.
Female Adrenal Fatigue
The adrenal fatigue glands secrete hormones such as cortisol, and estrogen that are essential to health and vitality and significantly affect total body function. After mid-life, the adrenal glands gradually become the major endogenous source of sex hormones in both men and women. Intense or prolonged physical or emotional stress commonly associated with modern lifestyles or chronic illness can lead to Adrenal Fatigue, which is an important contributing factor in health conditions ranging from allergies to obesity.
Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant adrenal hormones like cortisol help to minimize allergic and negative reactions, such as autoimmune disorders. These hormones closely affect the utilization of carbohydrates and fats, the conversion of fats and proteins into energy, and cardiovascular and gastrointestinal function.
Adequate adrenal support is crucial when it comes to a complete the hormonal pathway for optimal health. Ensuring proper support includes balanced nutrition, sufficient sleep, regular moderate exercise, stress management, slowing down to regain a proper perspective on life, and replacement of deficient hormones like estrogen.
Benefits Of Hormone Replacement Therapy
Watch this video with Dr. Kent Holtorf, a physician and thought leader in the field of Hormone Replacement Therapy, discuss the benefits of compounded hormone replacement solutions:
No two women are alike, of course, and compounding pharmacists understand this fact.
Pharmacy compounding is the art and science of preparing customized medications for patients. The advantage of compounded HRT is that it can be adapted specifically to fit each individual’s body and hormone levels. HRT can utilize hormones that have the exact chemical structure as the hormones in the human body. The body recognizes them and allows them to mimic the function of the hormones the body produces on its own.
Homone Replacement Therapy Compounding
Our compounding pharmacists can provide a hormone evaluation for the patient to fill out. A pharmacist experienced in HRT may assist the healthcare provider in helping interpret the results of serum or saliva tests which measure a patient’s hormone levels. The healthcare provider, compounding pharmacist, and the patient can use the results of these diagnostic tools to help determine a course of treatment which will give the patient the exact amount of hormones her body needs.
Working closely with a woman and her healthcare provider, our compounding pharmacists can help you start and maintain a hormone replacement regimen that brings your hormones back into balance and closely mimics what your body has been doing naturally for years.
With a Healthcare Provider's Prescription, Our Pharmacists Can Prepare Hormones In a Variety of Strengths And Dosage Forms, Including:
- Capsules
- Topical or vaginal creams, gels, and foams
- Suppositories
- Sublingual drops or troches
Once the therapy is begun, our pharmacists will continue to work with you and your prescriber to make sure the HRT is working correctly, adjusting the dosage if necessary, ensuring that the medication is just right for your body.
Compounding Enables Strength Variations
Because patients vary in size, symptoms, and pain tolerance, commercially available medications sometimes may not provide the appropriate dosage strength for an individual patient. Through compounding, a prescriber and pharmacist can customize the dosage to the exact amount the patient requires, and find a dosage form that best suits the patient’s needs.
Pain can be debilitating, whether it’s acute muscle or nerve pain resulting from an accident, or a chronic condition such as arthritis or fibromyalgia. Pharmacy compounding may help improve a patient’s quality of life by providing relief with potentially fewer side effects and less overall medication.
Thyroid Hormone Therapy For Women
Symptoms of hypothyroidism (low levels of thyroid hormone) include fatigue, cold and heat intolerance, hypotension, fluid retention, dry skin, and/or hair, constipation, headaches, low sexual desire, infertility, irregular menstrual periods, aching muscles and joints, depression, anxiety, slowed metabolism and decreased heart rate, memory impairment, enlarged tongue, deep voice, swollen neck, weight gain, hypoglycemia, and high cholesterol and triglycerides. Yet, more than half of all people with thyroid disease are unaware of their condition.
Although both T4 (thyroxine, an inactive form that is converted to T3 in other areas of the body) and T3 (triiodothronine, the active form) are secreted by the normal thyroid gland, many hypothyroid patients are treated only with levothyroxine (synthetic T4). Some hypothyroid patients remain symptomatic, and T3 may also be required for optimal thyroid replacement therapy. However, only commercially available form of T3 is synthetic liothyronine sodium in an immediate release formulation which is rapidly absorbed, and taking it may result in higher than normal T3 concentrations throughout the body causing serious side effects, including heart palpitations. Research indicates there is a need for sustained-release T3 preparations to avoid adverse effects.
A randomized, double-blind, crossover study found inclusion of T3 in thyroid hormone replacement improved cognitive performance, mood, physical status, and neuropsychological function in hypothyroid patients. Two-thirds of patients preferred T4 plus T3, and tended to be less depressed than after treatment with T4 alone. Patients and their physicians may wish to consider the use of sustained-release T3 in the treatment of hypothydroidism, particularly when the response to levothyroxine (T4) has not been complete.
It’s your body… why not give yourself the option of a customized, compounded hormone therapy?
ASK YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER ABOUT HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY AND CALL DAVIS ISLANDS PHARMACY TODAY!
