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Hormone Therapy: What It Is And How It Can Help You


Sally, one of my senior colleagues was in her mid forties when she experienced night sweat for the first time in her life. It was cold inside, yet she was all covered up with sweat. The story does not end there; she shares with us more of her experiences like depression, anxiety, hot flash, vaginal dryness, low sex drive and few more. Well, sally was going through the symptoms of menopause. It literally meant a sudden change of life for her. She suddenly started look different and started talking about strange things like getting everything in order. Any way, the cheery, confident Sally was gone and as if a different person came to work with us. It was evident that Sally failed to accept this natural transition of life with grace. It was then somebody broached the topic of hormone therapy to Sally. After a brief phase of indecision, sally decided in favor of hormone replacement therapy and today she is her active, enterprising self again and most importantly finally she came to realize that menopause meant only the end of reproductive life of a woman; it is not the end of life.

So what does a hormone therapy mean that brought about such a positive change in the life of Sally and why only Sally? Millions of women all across the USA, every year take recourse to the hormone replacement therapy to live a life happier and healthier in their post menopausal days.

No matter by what name you call it-- Hormone therapy or hormone replacement therapy or ovarian hormone therapy, it is a treatment involving the use of estrogen and progesterone to supplement the declining levels of these hormones in female body during the days of menopause. The modern medical sciences are of the opinion that the term , "hormone replacement therapy" is contradictory to the very spirit of the treatment as the name suggests that menopause is a disease caused by hormone deficiency. But menopause is just a natural phase of a womans reproductive life and the entire life cycle as puberty is. So the term "hormone therapy" has become more popular over time.

Although menopause is just one of the phases of life, its symptoms often prove to be detrimental to a normal and active lifestyle of a career woman of today. So most of the women today undergo hormone therapy to get rid of these symptoms like hot flash, moderate to severe vaginal dryness and related discomforts. There are cases where even the younger women take the help of hormone therapy to treat the conditions in which ovaries do not produce sufficient estrogens naturally.
In its more advanced stage, hormone therapy is also being recommended for reducing the risk of heart disease and the debilitating disease of osteoporosis.

Part II

In order to alley the risks as far as possible, doctors suggest a continued treatment for 10 to 20 years or even throughout ones lifetime.

Hormone therapy is a procedure for receiving additional estrogen and progesterone in the body and there are several ways to take these hormones into your body. You can pop hormone pills. You can use them as topical medicines for your vaginal treatments. They can also get inside your body as implants or you can take the hormones through injections.

The normal women who have their uterus have to take a combination of estrogen and progesterone. This is because estrogen alone greatly increases a woman's risk of uterine cancer. The progesterone neutralizes this risk factor. The women who have had their uterus removed however are prescribed estrogen alone. This is known as "estrogen replacement therapy" (ERT).

There are many women who experience menopause before they are forty. Sometimes this happens naturally. Sometimes it is the result of surgery to remove the ovaries. Radiation or chemotherapy are also sometimes responsible for advancing menopause in the lives of certain women. Whatever may be the cause, in these cases of early menopause hormone or estrogen therapy becomes particularly essential to counter the effects of a premature drop in estrogen levels.

Menopause is natural, but it is not that easy to deal with its symptoms. So it is no wonder that more and more American women are considering a hormone treatment as they reach the menopausal period in their 40s and 50s. But giving a consideration and taking the actual decision are not same and so there are considerable dilemma between the thinking and ultimately taking the decision. Most of the women swing between the question: to do or not to do? They can not be blamed for this indecision for making an informed decision about hormone therapy is difficult. One comes to read about so many benefits of this therapy only to be contradicted by a sea of risk factors written in another book or magazine or website. So before taking the decision you have to weigh carefully the pros and cons of this treatment.

However, there are some women who are not considered ideal candidate for hormone therapy. They include the Women with certain conditions should not take hormone therapy. These include the women diagnosed with breast cancer, active liver disease, a history of blood clots or vaginal bleeding without any apparent reason.

Any decision regarding hormone therapy must be taken after through discussion with your physician who will decide after taking into consideration such factors as your age, medical history, overall health and Current symptoms.

By: Barney Garcia
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Barney Garcia writes about hormone therapy. Visit: hormone therapy and hormone replacement risks.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Alternatives For Hormone Replacement Therapy


Do alternatives for hormone replacement therapy exist? Yes! Available alternatives for hormone replacement therapy are of two primary forms - synthetic therapy and natural hormone replacement therapy.

The synthetic hormone replacement therapy drugs are not the same as natural hormones that occur in the body. Since substances occurring naturally cannot be patented, drug companies alter the molecular structure and create new substances that are patentable and therefore protected for business purposes. Examples are Premarin, Prempro and Provera - these synthetic drugs are different in their molecular structure from the estrogens and progesterone found in the human body.

But alternatives for hormone replacement therapy using synthetic drugs may not treat your symptoms of menopause safely! And the problem with synthetic drugs is - since they are different from what occurs naturally in the human body, the body treats them differently, and the result is often harmful side effects. Synthetic hormone replacement therapy risks may exceed the benefits based on numerous clinical trials such as the Women's Health Initiative studies!

On the other hand, natural alternatives for hormone replacement therapy use natural estrogen and/or natural progesterone hormones. Natural hormones are also referred to as bioidentical hormones. Using safer natural alternatives for hormone replacement therapy is recommended by numerous physicians since the body is able to receive, use and eliminate the natural hormones as needed. Most women may not need synthetic drugs with related side effects to regain health and eliminate symptoms of hormone imbalance.

The two primary hormones for a woman are estrogen and progesterone. Both are needed to function normally and for good health. In a healthy woman and normal menstrual cycle, estrogen is the main hormone produced for the first 10-12 days following the previous menstrual flow. With ovulation, the body begins producing progesterone that continues for the next 12 days or so. If pregnancy does not occur, estrogen and progesterone levels will drop at around day 28 and menstruation begins. However, if there is no ovulation, progesterone will not be produced by the body that cycle. This event is called an annovulatory cycle, and it is happens frequently today for women in their thirties and forties - no ovulation and no progesterone.

What this means is the woman will be deficient in progesterone with an excess of estrogen, which will likely result in symptoms of hormone imbalance. Progesterone balances or opposes many actions of estrogen. Without suitable progesterone in the body, symptoms of hormone imbalance will likely be experienced. The symptoms of hormone imbalance can be signs that your body isnt getting the support it needs.

If the woman has had a hysterectomy, surgical menopause means the body produces little or no progesterone, creating hormone imbalance. And in postmenopausal women, the production of progesterone ceases as ovulation no longer happens. However, estrogen production will still be 40 to 60 percent of what it once was even after menopause.

How does a woman know more about appropriate natural alternatives for hormone replacement therapy? One way is to work with a naturopathic doctor who is schooled and trained in both conventional medicine and natural alternative medicine. If you are currently on synthetic HRT and want to change to natural HRT, you should consult with doctors experienced in the use of natural hormone replacement therapy. Naturopathic physicians are medical doctors that work to restore and support the body's systems by using medicines and techniques that are in harmony with natural body processes. A naturopathic physician will prefer treatments which keep harmful side effects risks at a minimum.

Another way is to take the online hormone health test provided by a leading women's health clinic. The online test takes just a few minutes and is free. Find out more about your health, symptoms, what the symptoms may be telling you and what to do about it based on your answers to important questions. And read more about hormone imbalance and physician-recommended natural alternatives for hormone replacement therapy.

By: Olinda Rola
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Olinda Rola is President of InfoSearch Publishing and webmaster of www.safemenopausesolutions.com which is a website of natural health articles and resources.
Read more about natural progesterone at www.safemenopausesolutions.com/naturalprogesterone.html as well as estrogen alternatives for hormone replacement therapy.

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