8 Benefits of Hormone Therapy
Hormone therapy isn’t without its risks. But scientific research continues to show that it remains the best way to relieve women of their menopausal symptoms. There’s no reason to suffer in silence since help is out there.
So that you can carefully consider whether or not this type of therapy might help you, read on to learn about the 8 key benefits of such treatments.
-
Hormone Therapy Lessens Menopausal Symptoms
Over the course of your life, your body’s natural production of estrogen will change. Your body will, at puberty, create a lot of estrogen. During your childbearing years, your body will continue to create a lot of estrogen.
But as you progress through life and close in on menopause, your body will produce less and less estrogen. In North America, women reach this stage between 40 and 58 years of age, with the average age being around 51.
Even so, there are some women who start to experience menopause when they’re in their 30s. Other women will reach this phase of their life in their 60s. So, you’ll see, there’s no set time when menopause will set in for you.
When your estrogen levels start to drop, you will begin to experience menopause symptoms like vaginal dryness, heavy sweating, insomnia, hot flashes, cases of the chills, and more.
Your doctor might prescribe estrogen therapy or estrogen pills. These options could be enough to properly address symptoms of menopause.
-
Safeguards Your Skeletal System
Another benefit of estrogen therapy is that it can help to reduce bone loss. There are other options your doctor might recommend. But some of these other options may come with unpleasant side effects that you wish to avoid.
-
Aids Vaginal Health
One of the benefits of estrogen is that it can aid in maintaining vaginal health. It’s not uncommon to see vaginal health issues materialize when estrogen levels drop. Possible issues involve pH balance and tissue.
Your doctor may prescribe estrogen in order to treat these vaginal issues.
-
Helps Fix Ovaries Issues
Your ovaries, which secrete estrogen and progesterone, are responsible for maintaining your reproductive system. In the event that they no longer create estrogen, you might need to resort to estrogen therapy.
Specific scenarios that might require a procedure to replace hormones include the removal of your ovaries, a drop in the function of your ovaries, or the failure of your ovaries. Hormone therapy can provide relief.
-
Improves Sex Drive
While it’s normal for the sex drive to decrease as people grow older, there are other factors that can contribute to this issue. For instance, if your estrogen is low, that can be a contributing factor to a lower sex drive.
A low sex drive can result from a decrease in sex hormone levels, health issues stemming from getting older, and side effects of prescription drugs. So it’s important to get medical help to find the root cause of the issue.
One option your doctor might recommend is Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT). This refers to normalizing your hormone levels by introducing hormones into your body via hormone pellets.
The benefits of BHRT include the delivery of adequate amounts of hormones over a period of between five months and six months into your body. This is widely viewed as a superior option compared to gels or creams.
If you do pursue a method that involves gels or creams, there’s always the risk of your transferring hormones to different people via physical contact. There’s no risk of this happening if you go with the BHRT method.
You can speak to your doctor about whether estrogen therapy can help or if another method would be preferable given your unique set of circumstances.
-
Lowers Death Rate
There is research suggesting that women in their 50s who resort to hormone therapy have a lower death rate.
There are also studies showing that women who use estrogen therapy to lessen their menopause symptoms don’t face a higher risk of premature death than women who don’t get the treatment.
-
Enhances Sleep
Another one of the benefits of estrogen is that it can positively impact your quality of sleep at night. As you already know, proper sleep is a must if you want to be healthy. And getting enough sleep will impact hormone levels.
-
Lowers Odds of Getting Heart Disease or Dementia
Another benefit of getting estrogen therapy is that it can lower your odds of getting serious conditions like heart disease and dementia. These types of health issues can have an adverse impact on your quality of life.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, almost two-thirds of Americans who have Alzheimer’s dementia are women.
And of the over 6 million people in the U.S. who are at least 65 years old and who have Alzheimer’s, 3.8 million are women.
Go Red for Women, meanwhile, reports that the number one killer of women is cardiovascular disease. In fact, one out of every three deaths among women each year is a result of cardiovascular disease, it states.
Considering the aforementioned, anything you can do to reduce your odds of getting dementia or heart disease is a good idea. You can ask your doctor whether or not you would be a good candidate for estrogen therapy.
Learn More About the Benefits of Hormone Therapy
Are you interested in learning more about hormone therapy? It’s definitely a topic worth thinking about because of its far-reaching impact.
If you enjoyed this article, then check out the rest of the content on our blog.