As previously stated, Hormone Replacement Therapy is used to restore your hormone levels to their optimum youthful levels. You need a blood test to determine your existing hormone levels, to see whether or not you qualify for HRT and what your replacement dosages should be. Since most of the hormones used in HRT are dispensed by prescription only, you cannot obtain them without a physician's prescription.

Hormone replacement therapy, commonly known as HRT, is the standard pharmaceutical treatment for menopausal symptoms. It is usually made up of two kinds of hormones — oestrogens and progestin (a synthetic form of progesterone). Levels of these hormones fall after menopause, and hormone replacement therapy helps relieve symptoms and has some long-term health benefits, such as osteoporosis prevention.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is replacing hormones–usually estrogen and progesterone–which a woman’s body once made in sufficient amounts, but because of age or medical reasons, is no longer able to produce. Replacing these hormones back to physiological levels can restore normal hormonal cycles. By doing this, women will not only begin to feel younger and more vivacious, but will also reduce their risks of cardiovascular problems and osteroporosis.

Many women now taking estrogen or estrogen combined with progestins are able to discontinue their HRT. Please consult with a medical professional before doing so. It is possible that if adequate natural progesterone levels were present, any needed estrogen could be made from it. Because progesterone sensitizes estrogen receptors, it makes sense to supplement with progesterone rather than estrogen.

Estrogen and progesterone (two of the hormones used in some forms of HRT) may increase a woman's risk for developing breast cancer. Patients should be aware that these hormones affect many tissues in the body and therefore before a patient considers HRT, it is prudent to discuss all the risks, benefits, and limitations of pursuing HRT with a medical doctor.

No. Hormonal treatment for breast cancer is used to block the effect of estrogen or reduce estrogen levels. The goal is to keep estrogen from reaching cancer cells. Hormone replacement therapy (also called HRT), however, supplies estrogen to women to help with the symptoms of menopause. You should not take HRT if you have breast cancer.

Hormone Replacement Therapy can be a lifetime commitment. Most studies have been done involving a minimum of six months therapy. Many have been and are conducted over longer periods of time. Benefits gained from HRT will gradually diminish if the therapy program is not continued. Many individuals on HRT obtain excellent results with a rotating or cyclical protocol of six months on HRT and four to eight weeks off. - (1*, 2*)

Hormones are chemical messengers that control bodily functions. Aging depletes the body's hormonal levels. We measure a patient's level of hormones and prescribe balanced hormone replacement to restore hormone levels to where they were in the patient's early 30s. In many cases, this can be done naturally with secretogogues, which release the hormones already made by the body.

Hormone replacement therapy carries an increase risk of breast cancer with risk increasing with the duration of treatment. Short periods of HRT for relief of menopausal symptoms increase risk only slightly and the increase reverses after HRT is stopped.

The risks are increased incidence of breast cancer and uterine cancer while using estrogen. However, when estrogen and progesterone are administered together and in the correct doses, the risk of cancer of the uterus or endometrium is reduced.

If you are taking Premarin, Provera, or Prempro, the drugs used in the Women's Health Initiative Study that has been so widely publicized in the last year, the answer is YES! Does that mean you should stop other hormone replacement regimes? NO! It means you should switch to non-oral human estradiol and human progesterone in a cream, gel, patch, or pellet form and monitor "free" estradiol and progesterone levels in the blood to assure correct dosage.

Dr. Donnica Moore discusses constipation, its symptoms, and its association with some medications and diseases.

A decision that is right for one woman may not be right for another, so the answer is different for each person. The decision would depend on what a woman hopes to get from HRT, such as relief of menopause symptoms. All of the pros and cons have to be balanced against each other.

According to a long-term study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, hormone replacement therapy did not result in weight gain. However, regardless of whether they are taking HRT, women are more likely to gain some weight with aging. A good diet and regular exercise can help avoid this.

Most women who have been treated for breast cancer will not be given hormone replacement therapy, particularly if their breast cancer was "receptor positive". Some of the drugs, such as tamoxifen, which are used to treat breast cancer, have similar effects to those of hormone replacement therapy.

Tell your doctor if you suffer from any of the following: hot flashes; sleep disturbances; menopause-related mood changes; vaginal dryness; night sweats; fatigue; joint pain.

Don't wait if you are experiencing symptoms of hormone imbalance. In general, hormones begin to decline after the mid-20s and hormonal imbalance symptoms are frequently present by the mid-30s. A good time to start replacing hormones is between 35 and 40.

The Women's Health Initiative study show that traditional HRT with Premarin (made form pregnant mares urine) and Provera a chemically synthesized artificial progesterone) is not safe. Bio-Identical hormone therapy with natural Estrogens and Progesterone is safe and does not have to adverse side effects of Premarin and Provera. Provera can increase the rate of breast cancer but natural Progesterone can decrease the rate 10% Fournier A et al.

A simple answer: When you need it! This can only be determined by a competent medical professional that will follow up with appropriate testing in order to protect your well-being. It would be a smart thing to have your baseline hormone levels tested when you are in your mid 20s. Keep these result and you will know what your youthful hormone levels were and this will be of great assistance to your Doctor in maintaining these youthful levels later in life.

with any other hormone therapy, blood levels should be monitored. However it is very important to have a correct test: A free-estradiol test is the one I recommend. Monitoring your estrogen levels with a total estradiol (kit test) or by measuring follicle-stimulating hormones in the blood. Both tests are totally inaccurate and misleading. This issue is another example of media distortion. A recent article reported that these conditions doubled with hormone use.

Anyone who is over age 35 without a medical history precluding them from human growth hormone or testosterone replacement. Anyone for whom it is not illegal to use or contraindicated in their profession or due to their medical condition.

Health-and-Fitness:Women's-Issues] The terms herbal hormone replacement therapy and natural hormone replacement therapy are sometimes used by advertisers to describe their products. Here we look at how the terms can be used and how they can be misleading. Health-and-Fitness:Women's-Issues] Studies concerning red clover, hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms return mixed results.

Several studies show there is no harm in taking contraceptive pills continuously. The pills thin the endometrium (the inside layer of the uterus), so there is no area from which to bleed. Taking the pill continuously is perfectly safe and does not affect a woman’s ability to have children when she stops the pill.

Yes. If you hormone treatment uses the right type and dose and is closely monitored by a qualified physician, then the benefits of hormone replacement by far outweight the risks.