Hormone Replacement Therapy is Not for Every Woman

Guest Article by Dasha Trebichavska

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is effective but not for everybody.
Be aware that not every woman needs hormone replacement therapy and therefore become dependent on the outside source of hormones for a prolonged period of time. The healthy body makes all the necessary hormones in the right amounts needed for the whole duration of woman's life. Therefore, most women need to practice prevention and overall health maintenance to avoid hormone imbalance. If a sign of hormone imbalance is strong, women may first consider treating her health issue with herbs, nutritional support, balanced diet, and exercise. Hormone replacement should come in a second place and last maximum 5 years.

What are hormones?
Hormones are chemical substances that possess regulatory effects on tissues in the body and are important for our feeling of well being. They are produced by tissues and endocrine glands like thyroid, ovaries, pancreas, adrenals, pituitary and are carried by blood to the target organs where they help regulate cellular functions. The two hormones primarily involved in women's health are estrogen and progesterone. Other hormones that play important role in woman's health are testosterone, thyroid, and insulin.

If you decide to pursue natural hormone supplementation Modern women are exposed to many environmental and lifestyle challenges that alter the function of their endocrine glands and therefore change the production of hormones. The overload of stress and chemicals in our environment and foods are the main contributors to today's epidemic of menopausal symptoms, PMS, cysts, fibroids, cancers, and other conditions. Both estrogen and progesterone are out of balance in today's women and may need to be restored in proper ratio and in their natural forms. John Lee, MD, a pioneer in natural hormone replacement therapy has conducted many studies on natural HRT and showed the benefits of natural hormones on his patients. Dr. Lee claims that the level of estrogen is not as important as is the ratio of estrogen to progesterone. Women in western societies have a tendency to excess estrogen and lack of progesterone, and also have thyroid and insulin imbalance, all of which manifests as PMS, obesity, cysts and fibroids, heavy menstrual cycles, migraines, hot flashes, mood swings, breast and other cancers.

The first step towards balancing your hormones is to change your diet and use herbal medicine to help you balance your endocrine system. If this approach fails, or your symptoms of hormone imbalance are severe, try to incorporate hormone therapy. Usually, topical creams can help restore mild hormonal imbalance and occasionally oral high doses of both hormones are needed to correct gynecological imbalance (in case of severe hot flashes, insomnia, sweating, irritability, miscarriages, etc.). One has to be aware that long term studies of hormone replacement therapy have not been conducted and thus it is advisable to be on a conservative side when using hormones (including "natural" = bio-identical). The current suggested time limit on hormone use is 5 years.