Hormone Replacement Therapy
Perimenopause & Menopause Facts:
Perimenopause/menopause is a psychoneuroendocrine transition.
There is emerging research that shows menopause actually starts in your brain, not your genitals.
Perimenopause can begin 10 years prior to menopause, so women usually begin perimenopause in their late 30s/ early 40s.
Menopause is defined as having gone 12 months without a period.
The average age of menopause in the US is 52 years old.
We tend to think of estrogen and progesterone as female hormones and testosterone as a male hormone, but women have 4 times the amount of testosterone than estrogen before going into perimenopause. All 3 of these hormones and many other chemicals in our bodies change as we start to transition into menopause.
Neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and GABA decrease often causing anxiety, depression and lack of motivation.
Cortisol and DHEA tend to increase, often contributing to anxiety and causing us to store more fat in our abdomen. Higher cortisol levels can also accelerate bone loss.
IL6 which is an inflammatory immune modulator tends to increase and potentially causes more inflammation in the body. This is also linked to more rapid bone loss.
Symptoms of Perimenopause and Menopause:
Depression
Anxiety
Brain Fog
Lack of Motivation
Low Libido
Irritability
Itchy Ears
Phantom Smells
Night sweats
Hot Flashes
Insomnia- not being able to get to sleep or stay asleep
Dizziness
Palpitations
and many more...........
Musculoskeletal Syndrome of Menopause
TMJ
Frozen Shoulder
Joint pain
Muscle Pain
Sarcopenia- muscle loss- Muscle is our organ of longevity. It becomes crucial to well being and vitality to build and maintain your muscle as you age.
Osteopenia and Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone that makes a person’s bones weak and more likely to break. Approximately 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and another 44 million have low bone density or osteopenia, placing them at increased risk.
• Osteoporosis is often called a “silent disease” because you cannot feel your bones getting weaker. • You may not even know you have osteoporosis until after you break a bone.
54 million Americans, half of all adults age 50 and older, are at risk of breaking a bone and should be concerned about bone health.
One in two women and up to one in four men will break a bone in their lifetime due to osteoporosis.
For women, the incidence of osteoporosis is greater than that of heart attack, stroke and breast cancer combined!!!!!!!
Osteoporosis is serious, even deadly.
A man is more likely to break a bone due to osteoporosis than he is to get prostate cancer.
24 percent of hip fracture patients age 50 and over die in the year following the fracture.
Six months after a hip fracture, only 15 percent of patients can walk across a room unaided.
Every year, of nearly 300,000 hip fracture patients, one-quarter end up in nursing homes and half never regain previous function.
Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM)
Frequent urinary tract infections
Painful Sex
Pain when you wipe after using the bathroom
Nighttime urination
Interstitial Cystitis
There are many more symptoms associated with declining estrogen, progesterone & testosterone.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy
BHRT can also be used preventatively. There is evidence that BHRT prevents osteoporosis and can reverse osteopenia. BHRT has also been shown to significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and even colon cancer.
BHRT is used for distressing symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. You can have symptoms almost anywhere in your body because we as women have estrogen, progesterone and testosterone receptors all over our bodies, not just in our bikini areas.
Estrogen- is anti inflammatory
Progesterone- must be taken with estrogen if you still have a uterus to protect the uterine lining. Progesterone has a calming effect on our brains and can help with insomnia and anxiety.
Testosterone- can be helpful for low libido, difficulty maintaining muscle mass, brain fog, bone health
HRT is very safe for the vast majority of women and men. We have been led to believe that hormones that our bodies naturally make are substances we should fear even though we replace other hormones like insulin and thyroid hormones all the time.
Hormone Replacement Therapy Consultations with Natalie Walters, APRN
Initial visit: 60 minutes $375
Follow up visits: up to 30 minutes $250
Links for more information:
