When you are going through menopause, you may find yourself suffering from a myriad of symptoms that can cause you a great deal of discomfort and displeasure. However, what you may not know is how to handle the situation and get yourself feeling better as soon as possible. One of the treatments that you may be considering for yourself is hormone replacement therapy. The issue is that there are two different forms of hormone replacement therapy, standard therapy and bio identical hormone replacement therapy. Get to know more about bio identical hormone replacement therapy and whether or not it is safe for you. Then, you can get the menopause treatments you want and need here in Boulder, Colorado and get to feeling more like yourself again.
What Is Bio Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy?
Bio identical hormone replacement therapy is a form of treatment for menopause that focuses on the reduction in progesterone and estrogen in the body that occurs during this transitional period in life. The idea is to replace some of these lost hormones to prevent associated issues such as brittle bones, moodiness, headaches, and vaginal dryness and other issues.
Standard hormone replacement therapy uses lab-created synthetic hormones to replace these missing hormones in the body. Bio identical hormone replacement therapy, on the other hand, uses hormones that are derived from natural sources including plants and animals. Of course, these hormones also need to be processed and synthesized in the lab to be usable in the human body. Bio identical hormones are meant to be indiscernible from the hormones your body makes itself once they are in your body.
Is Bio Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy Safe?
The worry about bio identical hormone replacement therapy as compared to standard forms of hormone replacement therapy is whether or not this form of treatment is safe for use. The experts do not necessary have a definitive answer one way or the other as to the safety of bio identical hormone replacement therapy.
The issue is that not all bio identical hormones are created using FDA-approved methods. What this means is that the processes they use to take the hormones from the plant or animal they originate from and then make them available for human use do not follow set guidelines. This does not necessarily mean that the hormones are unsafe but it is unknown how they are produced and whether they are safe or not.
Estradiol bio identical hormones produced from plants are generally FDA-approved and considered to be safe for use for your menopause hormone loss. However, other versions may or may not be safe as they have not passed the rigorous FDA requirements.
Now that you better understand bio identical hormone replacement therapy and the safety issues associated with it, you can best decide if this is the right treatment option for you. Contact your physician in Boulder, Colorado for more information or to begin your treatments.
