The Positive Impacts Hormone Therapy Can Have on Your Body

When women are of childbearing age, their ovaries produce large quantities of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which both regulate the reproductive cycle and help the body metabolize calcium.

However, usually in their mid- to late-40s, most women start to experience perimenopause, the period leading up to menopause, which is the cessation of reproductive ability. The ovaries decrease their production of the hormones, affecting many different parts of the body.

This drop in hormone levels can lead to problems like:

• Osteoporosis (bone density loss)
• Decreased libido
• Decreased energy
• Mood swings
• Hot flashes

Hormone therapy (formerly known as hormone replacement therapy, or HRT) replenishes the body’s stores of estrogen and progesterone, helping to reduce these effects. In addition, it may reduce your risk for diabetes, tooth loss, and cataracts.

Men also experience a drop in testosterone (low T) as they age, though the impact is not as great as it is for women going through menopause.

At Mod Doc, Donald Hastie, FNP-NP, Mandi Cox FNP,  Brynn Jorgensen DNP-NP ,and the staff offer hormone therapy to their patients, both female and male, at their integrated practice offices in Farr West and Draper, Utah. If you’re experiencing the uncomfortable symptoms of menopause or the loss of muscle mass and energy of low T, here’s how hormone therapy can make a positive difference.

What are the forms of hormone therapy?

Hormone therapy comes in different forms.

Synthetic

In the early days of hormone therapy, doctors usually prescribed estrogen and progesterone in the form of synthetic prescription medications. Instead of using human hormones, the drugs were made from a blend of hormones isolated from the urine of pregnant horses.

Premarin is the synthetic version of estrogen, and Provera is the synthetic version of progesterone. Though once the preferred therapy, they’ve become less popular in recent years, as some risks were identified in clinical trials of the drugs.

Bioidentical

Bioidentical hormones are manufactured from chemicals extracted from plants, usually from yams or soy. Two drugs that fall in this category are Estrace and Vagifem.

There’s a lack of adequate information about the risks bioidentical hormones may pose; some view no warning about risks as meaning there aren’t any risks, but that’s not the case. While many people do well on bioidentical hormones, they may not be right for everyone, and more research needs to be done.

The testosterone used for low T therapy in men can also come from a bioidentical source.

The positive impacts hormone therapy can have on your body

Not all women need hormone therapy to treat menopausal symptoms, but many, especially those with severe symptoms, do benefit. Hormone therapy can help:

• Manage moderate-to-severe hot flashes
• Provide lubrication for vaginal dryness, itching, or burning, especially during sex
• Decrease body aches and joint and muscle pain
• Decrease insomnia
• Increase energy
• Decrease mood swings, anxiety, and depression
• Improve problems with memory loss and cognitive challenges

Hormone therapy can also help if you’re at a high risk of bone fractures from osteoporosis and can't take bisphosphonates, the medications usually used to manage the disease. It may also lower your risk for heart disease, stroke, and dementia.

If you’re a man with low T, and the doctor prescribes testosterone therapy, you have several options:

• Intramuscular testosterone injections: injected into the buttocks muscles every two to three weeks
• Testosterone patches: applied every day to your back, arms, buttocks, or abdomen
• Topical testosterone gel: applied every day to your shoulders, arms, or abdomen

Certain men with low levels of testosterone can benefit from hormone therapy. Hypogonadism, for example, can cause unnaturally low levels of testosterone because the testicular dysfunction prevents the body from producing the right amount.

What’s less certain is whether low T therapy can benefit healthy men whose testosterone decline is caused by aging. Testosterone levels don’t plummet the way estrogen levels do in women during menopause. Rather, it’s a slow decline over a very long time and may not affect a man’s ability to father a child.

If your hormones are out of balance, and you’d like to learn more about what hormone therapy can do for you, Mod Doc can help. Contact us by calling either office or booking online today.