Hormone Facts May 2007
Fact: As women and men age, shifts in hormonal balance is inevitable. Hormonal imbalances can foster many unpleasant – and sometimes dangerous- side effects.
Fact: Much of the current thinking and medical practice relating to hormone balance is inaccurate, inappropriate or misguided, and often based on self-serving goals of the pharmaceutical industry.
Fact: The ovaries serve important functions in female reproduction, such as egg development. The ovaries also produce the sex hormones, e.g. estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. The interaction of these hormones plays a vital role in maintaining the body’s optimum health and functions. Hormonal production will decrease with age and the ratios of all three of these hormones will change over time. Hormone supplementation and balancing can be done to maintain the optimum levels and ratio of all sex hormones.
Fact: In the latter part of the female reproductive life phase, progesterone levels are the first to decline; in fact, progesterone levels drop 120 times more rapidly than estrogen. As progesterone levels drop and estrogen becomes proportionately higher, certain symptoms can emerge.
Fact: Unbalanced estrogen and progesterone can have negative effects the body. The symptoms of estrogen dominance can include PMS, weight gain, breast health issues, hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, breast health issues, osteoporosis, memory loss, premature aging, depression, mood swings, decreased sex drive and a greater predisposition for uterine or endometrial cancers.
Fact: When unpleasant symptoms associated with hormonal imbalance begin to occur, human-identical progesterone replacement is an initial treatment of choice for many patients. Progesterone has the special property of being much better absorbed in a cream through the skin rather than a pill or taken orally.
Fact: Many patients with menopausal symptoms can benefit by using supplemental hormones that are safe, effective and properly balanced.
Fact: Some synthetic hormones do not have the same molecular structure as the hormones produced by the ovaries. Consequently they do not exactly fit the body’s hormone receptor locks. This “bad fit” can trigger many harmful reactions within the body. Some clinical studies have suggested that certain synthetic hormone replacement products have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, breast, ovary and uterine cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Fact: Human-identical hormones do have exactly the same molecular structure as the hormones produced by the ovaries. As a result, they function within the body as a “key” that exactly fits for the body’s hormone receptor locks. Because the body recognizes the molecular structure of the human-identical hormones, adding them into the human system will not trigger side effects, only anticipated replaced hormone effects.
Fact: Every woman suffering from the symptoms of hormonal imbalance can potentially benefit from a regimen of human-identical hormones but ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. A complete and individualized hormone profile is needed to determine the levels of each of the three sex hormones, e.g. estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, before a physician can develop an individualized program for correcting their patient’s hormone imbalance through human-identical hormone replacement.
Fact: There is such a thing as “male menopause”, or andropause. As they age, men will also have a change in their hormone levels that can impact them physically, mentally and emotionally. Men suffering from hormone imbalances are also candidates for an individualized program of human-identical hormone therapy.
Fact: Today, no one has to suffer from the symptoms associated with hormone imbalance. Human-identical hormone therapy offers physicians and healthcare consumers a safe and effective option for successful treatment of the health issue as well as elimination of the unpleasant symptoms.
