Bioidentical hormones are used to help people manage menopausal symptoms or other hormonal imbalances. Some bioidentical hormones are not approved by the FDA. All hormone replacement therapy has risks. Bio-identical compound hormones may pose a greater risk because their effects are not right studied.
Talk to your healthcare provider about the pros and cons of hormone replacement. And most importantly, know that you don't need to live with the unpleasant symptoms of a low hormone level. Your healthcare provider can help you manage your symptoms safely. Major hormonal changes, such as fluctuations in testosterone, can affect women's metabolic function. BHRT aims to stabilize testosterone levels, helping women achieve and maintain a more regulated metabolism and a consistent weight.
Hormones that are marketed as bioidentical and natural are no safer than the hormones used in traditional hormone therapy. And there's no proof that they work best for relieving menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness. In addition, some medicines with bioidentical hormones are mixed in a personalized way and their quality can vary considerably. Bioidentical composite hormones are made with a prescription and are available in several routes of administration, including oral, sublingual and percutaneous, or as implants, injectables and suppositories. Unlike drugs approved by the FDA to be manufactured and sold in standardized doses, compound preparations are often tailor-made for the patient according to the doctor's specifications.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recognizes that the use of composite medications may be appropriate for some patients and under certain circumstances. Traditionally, compounds are used to provide treatment to patients when the exact products they need are not available on the market or when different ingredients, preservatives, or routes of administration are required due to patient intolerances (e.g., allergy) or needs (e.g., inability to swallow an oral pill). For example, there is an FDA-approved progesterone product that contains peanut oil. A prescription for mixing progesterone to eliminate peanut oil may allow a patient with a peanut allergy to use the medication safely.
In addition, problems related to cost and access may lead to considering the possibility of using vaginal formulations composed of estrogen or progesterone, for which you should consult the pharmacy that makes the compound for quality control in relation to potency and vehicle (cream or ointment). The practice of mixing commercially available drugs in proportions adapted to each patient is far removed from the traditional uses of formulating compounds. Many bioidentical menopausal hormone therapy composite preparations fall into this category. This document focuses specifically on the use of bioidentical composite hormone therapy for menopause, and not on the combination for other evidence-based reasons.
This topic has been updated to include more recent data and additional therapies, including the use of testosterone for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. Testosterone acts centrally in the brain to affect sexual arousal, improve vaginal lubrication, and increase blood flow to the clitoris, vulva, the labia and the vagina. Many women tell us that hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) brought them back to life. Clinical studies show that hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) is effective in treating hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, joint pain, muscle aches, vaginal dryness, and many other symptoms associated with menopause.
If you're taking BHRT for at least a month, expect to feel happier, have more energy, sleep better both in quality and quantity, reduce hot flashes, and improve libido. There are numerous observational and uncontrolled studies evaluating the effect of bioidentical compound hormone therapy for menopause; in general, the quality of the studies is poor and symptom relief is minimal. BHRT is a powerful treatment option for women to address hormonal imbalances and effectively restore their testosterone levels. Menopausal medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that use bioidentical or synthetic hormones, or both.
However, there isn't much evidence to support that bioidentical hormones are the same as conventional hormone therapy. High-quality data on the safety and efficacy of bioidentical hormone therapy with personalized compounds for the treatment of menopausal symptoms is lacking. Due to the lack of safety data and the inability to extract the granule, patients should be informed about the use of preparations other than granule therapy for the administration of testosterone. Other bioidentical menopausal hormone therapy preparations include estrone, estradiol cypionate, estriol, pregnenolone, testosterone, testosterone cypionate, and testosterone propionate.
Finally, multiple consensus statements from various societies have consistently stated that bioidentical hormones should not be used and that only preparations approved by the FDA should be used. But in fact, “when we're in our early 20s, testosterone is one of the most abundant hormones produced by the ovaries,” says menopausal specialist Gisele Thissen, MSN, FNPC, NCMP, Midi Health clinic. The FDA and drug companies may want to consider replacing testosterone to benefit women with testosterone deficiency. But in reality, testosterone is just as important for women's physical, mental and sexual health as it is for men.
Bioidentical hormones have been the subject of controversy and many aren't approved by the FDA, but that doesn't mean your healthcare provider rules them out as a treatment option. Now, let's discuss some of the other key benefits women can experience by opting for BHRT to restore testosterone levels. While both synthetic and bioidentical hormones are processed in a laboratory, their differences lie in their ingredients, and BHRT adopts a more natural approach. BHRT provides supplemental testosterone that reflects the hormone as it is naturally produced in the body.
