Hormonal therapy for menopause has also been shown to prevent bone loss and reduce bone fractures after menopause. However, menopausal hormone therapy does have risks. Talk to your healthcare professional about these risks when deciding if menopausal hormone therapy might be an option for you. If you still have a uterus and are taking estrogen, you'll also need to take a progestogen.
Your healthcare professional can help you choose the best way to take these hormones based on what works for you and has the least number of side effects. For vaginal problems, such as dryness or pain when having sex, a vaginal moisturizer or lubricant may help. You can also ask your healthcare professional about ospemifene (Osphena) or prasterone (Intrarosa), prescription drugs. These medications can help alleviate pain during sexual intercourse and other vaginal and bladder symptoms typical of menopause.
Symptoms such as mental confusion, mood changes, hot flashes, and insomnia can make you desperate for relief. Nowadays, the choice to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is highly personalized and is based on women's needs and potential risk factors, says Dr. Reproductive Endocrinologist and Endocrinologist at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Reproductive Medicine and Fertility. By replenishing the supply of hormones, HRT reduces menopausal symptoms. It can also protect you from diseases such as osteoporosis.
Hormone replacement therapy involves taking estrogen and, if you still have a uterus, another hormone called progestin (progesterone). Estrogen can be taken in the form of pills, skin patches, or gels. If you're prescribed progesterone, it can be combined with estrogen as a pill or patch, but it's more likely to be given separately to prevent intercurrent bleeding. Hormone replacement therapy may help the brain by protecting nerve cells.
The decline in estrogen during menopause reduces the brain's ability to obtain energy from glucose, our body's main fuel source. To adapt, the brain starts using fats or lipids as fuel. Unfortunately, it extracts this fat from the brain's white matter and uses it to produce ketones, chemicals that are created in the liver to provide energy. When started before a woman reaches menopause (during the transition to perimenopause), hormonal hormone therapy reduces the risk of this fuel change and can halve a woman's risk of contracting Alzheimer's disease.
Once a woman reaches menopause, HRT no longer seems to have this protective effect on the brain. Risks associated with hormone replacement therapy include stroke, blood clots, and cancer. Transdermal estrogen patches, for example, carry a lower risk of stroke and blood clots than oral estrogens. Women who still have a uterus need combination therapy (estrogen and progesterone) to prevent uterine cancer.
However, according to the American Cancer Society, that same combination of hormones can increase the risk of breast cancer. Your doctor can help you determine these risks and benefits to determine if hormonal hormone therapy is the right option for you. If you and your doctor decide that HRT isn't the best option, there are alternatives available. These include antidepressants and gabapentin, an anti-seizure medication that can reduce hot flashes and help alleviate sleep problems.
How long you stay on hormone replacement therapy depends on your risk factors and personal symptoms. Together, you can decide if HRT or alternative therapy can help you. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) helps treat menopausal symptoms, such as vaginal dryness and hot flashes. Age, family medical history, personal medical history, and the severity of symptoms can affect your decision to take hormone therapy.
Talk to your healthcare provider about the benefits and risks of HRT, the different forms of HRT, and alternative options. Whether you should consider taking HRT is something you should discuss with your healthcare provider. While hormone therapy reduces menopausal symptoms, it comes with risks. You should discuss the risks and benefits of hormone therapy with your provider to determine if it's appropriate for you.
As you approach menopause, your ovaries shrink and stop producing estrogen and progesterone. The lack of a sufficient amount of these hormones in the body is what causes menopausal symptoms. Hormone replacement therapy works by giving you back lost hormones. However, hormone replacement therapy has both benefits and health risks, which may be higher in some people.
Your healthcare provider can help determine if the benefits of hormone replacement therapy outweigh the risks. There is no single approach to HRT. Rather, your healthcare provider will develop a treatment plan specific to you, your symptoms, and your health history. Side effects usually resolve on their own within a few months. In most cases, these side effects are mild and there is no need to stop HRT.
If your symptoms bother you, ask your healthcare provider if you can adjust the dose or form of HRT to reduce side effects. Never change your medication or stop taking it without talking to your healthcare provider. It's always best to talk to your healthcare provider, as they may recommend treatment based on your health history. Contact your healthcare provider if you have symptoms of menopause that alter your daily life. Your healthcare provider can explain treatment options, including hormone replacement therapy.
It's important that your provider helps you understand the advantages and disadvantages of hormonal hormone therapy and how they apply to your particular situation. It's important to make the decision to take hormone therapy after talking to your healthcare provider. Discuss the risks and benefits in an office visit dedicated to this conversation. You'll need time to answer all your questions and make the decision that's best for you.
Be sure to talk about the pros and cons of different types and forms of hormone replacement therapy. Even if HRT isn't right for you, there are other treatment options your healthcare provider may recommend to help treat menopausal symptoms. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a medical treatment given to women to replace the decline in estrogen and progesterone levels that is common with the onset of menopause. The therapy is used to help alleviate bothersome menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness.
Hormone therapy is a medical treatment that can help alleviate the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause. Hormone therapy is also called “hormone replacement therapy” or “therapy. hormonal for menopause”. Fortunately, hormone replacement treatment has been clinically proven to help decrease these symptoms, allowing you to cope with menopause with ease.
This form of hormone therapy combines doses of estrogen and progesterone (also called progestin, which is the name for all the hormones that act like progesterone, including synthetic ones). You can lower your risk of breast cancer if you don't take hormone therapy for longer than necessary to control symptoms. Some research suggests that combination hormone therapy may protect against heart attacks in women who start combination therapy within 10 years of menopause and who are younger than 60. The menopausal transition is characterized by intense hormonal variability and is often accompanied by vasomotor symptoms (e.g., as researchers learn more about menopausal hormone therapy and other menopausal treatments, recommendations may change).
Therefore, healthcare professionals should encourage a more individualized approach to making this clinical decision and continue to research the advantages and disadvantages of short-term hormone replacement therapy for symptomatic women. It is now imperative to better outline your clinical indications and learn more about the risks and benefits associated with the different hormonal preparations. Hormone therapy is a viable option for relatively young and healthy women up to 59 years of age or within ten years after menopause. The decision to undergo hormone therapy and what type, traditional or natural, is a personal one and must be made after talking with the health care provider.
More research is being done to find out how hormone replacement therapy affects other conditions, such as dementia and diabetes. Second, the Women's Health Initiative Study (WHI), a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled primary prevention trial designed to follow more than 16,000 healthy postmenopausal women for 8 years, had to be discontinued due to significant evidence of an increased risk of invasive breast cancer and cardiovascular events associated with long-term use of HRT.
