Hormones play an important role in maintaining healthy bones and regulating other bodily functions such as metabolism and moods. When hormones become unbalanced or absent due to aging or illness (such as cancer). They need to be replaced with hormone treatments like those found on this site if you want your health to improve.
Contents
- What Is HRT?
- Estrogen Therapy
- Estrogen Patches:
- Estrogen Pills:
- Estrogen Vaginal Cream:
- Estrogen Topical Creams:
- Estrogen Suppositories:
- Estrogen Subcutaneous Pellets:
- Progestin Therapy
- Progestin Patches:
- Progestin Pills:
- Progestin Subcutaneous Pellets:
- Progestin Vaginal Cream:
- Progestin Suppositories:
- Progestin Vaginal Inserts:
- Conclusion
What Is HRT?
Hormone replacement therapy is a treatment that restores the hormonal balance of the body where it becomes deficient. You can use HRT to treat menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and night sweats. It may also help regulate menstrual cycles for women who are still menstruating, reduce bone loss in postmenopausal women, lower cholesterol levels in both genders, and reduce high blood pressure in some individuals. There are two major types of HRT, estrogen therapy and progestin therapy. Both of which can be helpful with multiple products!
Estrogen Therapy
Multiple products offer estrogen therapy. Estrogen is a hormone produced by the ovaries and other glands in the body. In women, it ultimately regulates menstruation and fertility, but men need it as well. It also helps lower cholesterol levels, reduces high blood pressure, and increases bone mass to prevent fractures from osteoporosis. The side effects of estrogen treatment depend on a number of factors, including a person’s age, dosage, and medical history. Some people may experience mild side effects such as nausea or headaches, which resolve themselves with continued use of the product after a couple of weeks.
Estrogen Patches:
Nicotine patches help increase the blood levels of estrogen in women who produce too much testosterone. These can reduce or eliminate hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbances, memory loss, and other menopausal symptoms associated with decreased estrogen levels.
Estrogen Pills:
The FDA-approved estradiol pills are very popular because they’re known to be safe and effective. Many women prefer estradiol for its positive effects on the bones and heart. It also effectively treats hot flashes and vaginal dryness, atrophy, and itching associated with menopause.
Estrogen Vaginal Cream:
Estriol vaginal cream can reduce many side effects of menopause, such as atrophic vaginitis, urinary incontinence, bladder infections, joint aches and pains, insomnia, and frequent night sweats. Estriol applied locally does not have an estrogenic effect on other body parts, unlike other forms used for hormone replacement therapy. Some studies even demonstrated that it has anti-estrogenic action when given orally. Which can potentially help mitigate estrogen dominance while increasing beneficial endogenous estrogens.
Estrogen Topical Creams:
Premarin cream contains estrogens that have been isolated from a woman’s urine. Prempro is a combination of estrogen and progestin products that may be prescribed to women going through menopause to ease their symptoms. Including hot flashes and vaginal dryness.
Estrogen Suppositories:
Vaginal estrogen suppositories are a convenient way for post-menopausal women to get relief from vaginal dryness or atrophy without having to take pills every day. They release the hormone directly into the vagina, so less of it reaches other parts of the body. In addition, they’re very easy to use since you only need to insert one suppository every three days; so, no messy creams or estrogen patches!
Estrogen Subcutaneous Pellets:
Estrogen pellets provide a safe and effective way to deliver estrogen straight into the body where you need it most. They’re inserted just under the skin, either through an injection or with a specially designed applicator. The pellets are injected in sets of four at one-week intervals for five sets, allowing your body to absorb smaller amounts of estrogen over time, just like your natural hormone levels. You can get these pellets whether or not you have had a hysterectomy, but the procedure requires general anesthesia, so a qualified physician typically administers the hormones/pellets.
Progestin Therapy
Many women use progestin because it can help relieve some types of menopausal symptoms. It also helps prevent osteoporosis and regulate menstrual periods. Multiple products offer Progestin therapy. Progesterone is a hormone produced by the ovaries which regulate menstruation and fertility in women. It also helps lower cholesterol levels, reduces high blood pressure in some individuals, and increases bone mass to prevent fractures from osteoporosis. The side effects of Progestin treatment depend on a number of factors, including a person’s age, dosage, and medical history. Some people may experience mild side effects such as nausea or headaches, which resolve themselves with continued use of the product after a couple of weeks.
Progestin Patches:
Progestin patches can help reduce hot flashes for some women. It does not contain estrogen-like combined estrogen and progestin pills because it has a low dose of progestin which can be less likely to cause side effects such as nausea, breast tenderness, bloating, and headache.
Progestin Pills:
The FDA-approved Prometrium is a very popular product that helps alleviate menopausal symptoms such as vaginal dryness and hot flashes by exerting its effect on the uterus rather than at other parts of the body just like estriol does. The downside is that it can lead to elevated estrogen levels in the blood, which may increase the risk of cancer.
Progestin Subcutaneous Pellets:
You can receive progesterone hormones through a pellet inserted under the skin every three months. It’s an effective way to treat symptoms without circulating high levels of progestin throughout your body, reducing the side effects associated with oral administration.
Progestin Vaginal Cream:
Progesterone cream applied locally in small quantities does not have an estrogenic effect on other parts of the body. Postmenopausal women often use it to treat atrophic vaginitis, urinary incontinence, bladder infections, joint aches and pains, insomnia, and frequent night sweats.
Progestin Suppositories:
Progestin suppositories are convenient because they’re inserted with a small applicator once every three days. They help reduce menopausal symptoms with very few side effects since progesterone has minimal effect on other body parts, unlike estrogen replacement therapy products.
Progestin Vaginal Inserts:
Progestin inserts are similar to vaginal creams or suppositories, but they last longer. They are inserted deep into the vagina and slowly release progestin (the same hormone found in birth control pills) over time to help reduce hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness.
Conclusion
Hormone replacement therapy products are beneficial for women going through menopause. These products can help alleviate some symptoms associated with it, including hot flashes and vaginal dryness. However, as with any treatment option, different people will respond differently to the same medication or hormone supplement. A person’s physician needs to conduct comprehensive testing before prescribing a particular product. All hormone treatments have side effects that depend on an individual’s medical history and dosage. Always take proper precautions while using them to minimize the risk of negative outcomes. As always, be sure to check with your doctor before deciding to take any of these products!