Learn How Customized Hormone Compounding Can Benefit You
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 men and women everywhere feel like themselves again.
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 men and women of all ages may experience, including:
Pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS)
Throid issues
Low Testosterone
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 dryness
Featured Hormone Replacement Compounds
Testosterone Troche
This medication contains testosterone that has been compounded in a troche or lozenge dosage form to be taken orally
These conditions affect millions of men and women. As the number of people seeking hormone-related treatment has grown, so has the mass production of pills, patches and creams by the drug industry. However, each person’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.
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.
The goals of customized hormone replacement therapy are:
Alleviate symptoms caused by the natural decrease in production of hormones by the body
Give the protective benefits which were originally provided by naturally occurring hormones
The adrenal fatigue glands secrete hormones such as cortisol, and testosterone 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.
Proper adrenal support is essential to complete the hormonal pathway to optimal health, and includes proper nutrition getting plenty of sleep, regular moderate exercise, stress management, slowing down to regain a proper perspective on life, and replacement of deficient hormones.
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.
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, estrogen 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 urinary tract.
In decreasing the risk of osteoporosis and colorectal cancer.
Despite studies reporting the risks associated with synthetic hormones, conjugated equine estrogen 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 estrogen, and further increases when the synthetic progestin medroxyprogesterone acetate is added to the regimen.
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 contrast 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.
Customized Hormone Replacement Therapy and Low Testosterone Treatments for Men
Men frequently experience declines in testosterone levels that are similar to the hormonal changes that women experience at menopause; however, men typically have a slower and more subtle hormonal decline, and develop symptoms over a period of time. When hormones are replaced or restored back to physiologic levels considered normal for younger men, through the art and science of compounding, many of these changes can be dramatically reversed.
At Davis Islands Pharmacy, we provide a number of solutions available for men as it relates to staying youthful with age. In addition to , a low cost alternative to Viagra and other brand name ED medications, Hormone Replacement Therapy, including Testosterone Therapy, can improve the overall well-being of men and restore confidence in the bedroom and other aspects of life.
Customized Hormone Replacement Therapy for Men (HRT)
Customized HRT uses hormones that have the same molecular structure as those that are made by the human body. The molecular or chemical structure is the key to the actions or side effects that a hormone will have in the body. In order for a replacement hormone to fully replicate the function of human hormones which are produced by the human body, the chemical structure must exactly match the original. Research has long held that there are significant differences between human hormones and synthetic or animal-derived preparations.
A chemical structure (a hormone, for example) may be modified to create a synthetic product that can be patented by pharmaceutical manufacturers. A patented drug can be very profitable for pharma companies, and that’s what funds further research into the medications use and effectiveness. However, human hormones cannot be patented, so there are fewer scientific studies on “natural” hormones, which are usually provided by compounding pharmacies.
Men’s Testosterone Therapy & Low-T Solutions
In clinical trials, Testosterone Replacement Therapy has produced:
Improvement in psychological well-being and mood
Improvement in erectile dysfunction and libido
Increased muscle mass, strength, and stature
Preservation of bone mass
Testosterone therapy may not only treat hypogonadism, but may also have tremendous potential to slow or halt the progression from metabolic syndrome to overt diabetes or cardiovascular disease via beneficial effects on insulin regulation, lipid profile, and blood pressure.
Natural testosterone must not be confused with synthetic derivatives or anabolic steroids, which when used by athletes and body builders have caused disastrous effects. Hormone balancing for men may also include dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), chrysin, zinc, selenium, and other supplements.
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.
Our Philosophy & Approach
At Davis Islands Pharmacy, we believe that the goal of hormone replacement therapy should be to provide an adequate supply of the deficient hormone in a form that is as close to possible to that which a person’s body originally produced.
Everybody is unique. Therefore, it is a sensible approach for health care professionals and patients to work together to provide, by prescription, customized hormone replacement therapy in the most appropriate strength and dosage form for administration via the preferred route to meet each person’s individual needs.
The precise components of an individual’s therapy need to be determined after physical examination, medical history, symptoms, and lab testing are performed and evaluated. Furthermore, close monitoring is crucial when it comes to making sure the appropriate dosage adjustments are made.
Our compounding specialists can choose the best base to use for administration of the active ingredients, and can work with the prescriber to determine the most appropriate route of administration and drug concentrations to solve specific and unique hormone deficiencies in the individual.
The benefits of compounded medications, particularly in the realm of compounded hormone replacement therapies, are many. Along with our physician partners in care, we at Davis Islands Pharmacy know there isn’t always a one-sized fits all approach to treatment. That’s why we consider each patient’s lifestyle, along with their unique needs in formulating the most effective treatment option.
Our compounding lab currently offers FREE shipping to anywhere in Florida, Wisconsin, Washington, and Arizona!
Call us today at (813) 254-1888 and about customized hormone replacement therapy.