John Russell asked:


Natural hormones are substances that are like those produced naturally. Synthetic hormones are close enough to the natural kind to get into the cell and perform many of the same functions, but they don’t provide all of the benefits and they do have some definite problems.

As an example, both natural progesterone and the synthetic counterparts, which are called progestins, help prevent cancer like uterine cancer. However, only natural progesterone protects against breast cancer, normalizes the fatty acid profile, restores normal sex drive, and regulates sleep patterns.

Progestins, on the other hand, contribute to mood swings, fatigue, depression, insomnia, bloating, breast tenderness, weight gain, and anxiety ‘ of which none are side effects of natural progesterone.

Synthetic estrogens are altered so that drug companies make them individual and patent them. They tend to be stronger and more toxic than estrogens manufactured naturally in the human body; and so they increase the odds of having symptoms of estrogen dominance, which are weight gain, bloating, anxiety, depression, and low blood sugar, and from estrogen-related diseases like breast and uterine cancer. The natural forms of estrogen, i.e. estradiol, estrone, and estriol, tend to be safer.

It’s important to note that most studies of hormone replacement therapy involve the use of synthetic hormones. Don’t assume that all hormone replacement therapy brings about the same results we’ve seen in the recent studies, all of which used synthetic hormones. We’re in need of some valid long-term studies on the effects of the natural and synthetic versions of both progesterone and estrogen.

Estrogen and progesterone work as opposites to maintain hormonal balance. But they also help sensitize receptors for each other throughout the body. That is, progesterone helps the body take up and use estrogen, and estrogen helps the body take up and use progesterone. Estrogen is responsible for the creation of the soft female form.

It promotes cell growth, which is why it can be dangerous in the presence of certain estrogen-dependent cancers, like those of the breast, ovaries or uterine lining. It’s also responsible for increased body fat, retention of sale and fluid, and a decrease in the sex drive. All of this makes sense when the body is being prepared for motherhood.

Progesterone, on the other hand, helps keep estrogen in line. While estrogen promotes the buildup of the uterine lining, progesterone triggers the breakdown and shedding of that lining. Estrogen is almost never prescribed without progesterone for a woman who has an intact uterus, because estrogen will cause overgrowth of the uterine lining, which can lead to cancer. While estrogen may increase body fat, progesterone helps the body use that fat for energy. Estrogen impairs the sex drive; progesterone restores it. Estrogen increases blood clotting; progesterone normalizes it and, together, these two hormones keep the female reproductive system, and may other bodily functions, working together.

During perimenopause, when ovulation becomes sporadic, there will be some months when there’s no substance produced to manufacture progesterone. During these months, your progesterone levels are close to zero ‘ as low as those found in postmenopausal women. Yet estrogen production will continue as if nothing has happened. This creates a phenomenon called estrogen dominance, in which estrogen is allowed to run unchecked without the normal balancing effect of progesterone.

The result is an unhappy long list of symptoms familiar to many women experiencing perimenopause, which include weight gain, bloating, breast tenderness, low blood sugar, fatigue, lack of sex drive, migraine headaches, irritability, and emotional hypersensitivity. These are all common indications of too much estrogen and not enough progesterone. If this sounds like PMS, that’s because PMS is often due to estrogen dominance as well.



Greg

Jean Morgan asked:


During the years that a woman is able to bear children, the hormone progesterone is produced from within her ovaries. In her post-menopausal years, her body continues the production of progesterone in the adrenal glands and fat cells.

“Natural progesterone” is a hormone produced from plants that is biologically identical to the progesterone created in a woman’s ovaries. It is made from soybeans and yams, and is readily accepted by the body.

Natural progesterone works within the body exactly as progesterone manufactured in the body would, causing few if any side effects. For many years, natural progesterone has been used by women consistently and successfully in hormone replacement.

Synthetic progesterone, or progestin, is a man-made hormone that is made using chemical compounds. Also used in hormone replacement therapy (HRT), it can produce various and undesirable side effects including headache, breast tenderness and PMS.

The use of natural progesterone provides women with a means of boosting unacceptably low levels of progesterone in their bodies. Low progesterone levels may allow the hormone estrogen to reach a “dominate” level causing problems such as breast tenderness, water retention, irregular menstrual periods, as well as other, more serious, health issues.

When natural progesterone has been used in treatment, it doesn’t interfere with the performance of estrogen hormones, but works in a balance as it would under natural conditions. One of the concerns of synthetic progesterone use is that it may diminish estrogen benefits.

Some of the benefits of natural progesterone include:

helps prevent fibroids in the uterus

improves sleeping

restores sexual desire

works as an antidepressant

relieves water retention

helps stabilize blood sugar

helps eliminate postpartum depression

helps fight obesity

facilitates thyroid activity

stimulates bone building

helps to restore clear thinking

The use of natural progesterone can help to re-establish hormonal balances in a woman’s body and relieve worsening premenstrual symptoms as a woman approaches menopause. It can be used safely in hormone replacement to restore a woman’s hormonal health to natural, optimal levels both comfortably and successfully.



Darren

Barney Garcia asked:


Sally, one of my senior colleagues was in her mid forties when she experienced night sweat for the first time in her life. It was cold inside, yet she was all covered up with sweat. The story does not end there; she shares with us more of her experiences like depression, anxiety, hot flash, vaginal dryness, low sex drive and few more. Well, sally was going through the symptoms of menopause. It literally meant a sudden ‘change of life’ for her. She suddenly started look different and started talking about strange things like ‘getting everything in order’. Any way, the cheery, confident Sally was gone and as if a different person came to work with us. It was evident that Sally failed to accept this natural transition of life with grace. It was then somebody broached the topic of hormone therapy to Sally. After a brief phase of indecision, sally decided in favor of hormone replacement therapy and today she is her active, enterprising self again and most importantly finally she came to realize that menopause meant only the end of reproductive life of a woman; it is not the end of life.

So what does a hormone therapy mean that brought about such a positive change in the life of Sally and why only Sally? Millions of women all across the USA, every year take recourse to the hormone replacement therapy to live a life happier and healthier in their post menopausal days.

No matter by what name you call it—Hormone therapy or hormone replacement therapy or ovarian hormone therapy, it is a treatment involving the use of estrogen and progesterone to supplement the declining levels of these hormones in female body during the days of menopause. The modern medical sciences are of the opinion that the term , “hormone replacement therapy” is contradictory to the very spirit of the treatment as the name suggests that menopause is a disease caused by hormone deficiency. But menopause is just a natural phase of a woman’s reproductive life and the entire life cycle as puberty is. So the term “hormone therapy” has become more popular over time.

Although menopause is just one of the phases of life, its symptoms often prove to be detrimental to a normal and active lifestyle of a career woman of today. So most of the women today undergo hormone therapy to get rid of these symptoms like hot flash, moderate to severe vaginal dryness and related discomforts. There are cases where even the younger women take the help of hormone therapy to treat the conditions in which ovaries do not produce sufficient estrogens naturally.

In its more advanced stage, hormone therapy is also being recommended for reducing the risk of heart disease and the debilitating disease of osteoporosis.

Part II

In order to alley the risks as far as possible, doctors suggest a continued treatment for 10 to 20 years or even throughout one’s lifetime.

Hormone therapy is a procedure for receiving additional estrogen and progesterone in the body and there are several ways to take these hormones into your body. You can pop hormone pills. You can use them as topical medicines for your vaginal treatments. They can also get inside your body as implants or you can take the hormones through injections.

The normal women who have their uterus have to take a combination of estrogen and progesterone. This is because estrogen alone greatly increases a woman’s risk of uterine cancer. The progesterone neutralizes this risk factor. The women who have had their uterus removed however are prescribed estrogen alone. This is known as “estrogen replacement therapy” (ERT).

There are many women who experience menopause before they are forty. Sometimes this happens naturally. Sometimes it is the result of surgery to remove the ovaries. Radiation or chemotherapy are also sometimes responsible for advancing menopause in the lives of certain women. Whatever may be the cause, in these cases of early menopause hormone or estrogen therapy becomes particularly essential to counter the effects of a premature drop in estrogen levels.

Menopause is natural, but it is not that easy to deal with its symptoms. So it is no wonder that more and more American women are considering a hormone treatment as they reach the menopausal period in their 40’s and 50’s. But giving a consideration and taking the actual decision are not same and so there are considerable dilemma between the thinking and ultimately taking the decision. Most of the women swing between the question: to do or not to do? They can not be blamed for this indecision for making an informed decision about hormone therapy is difficult. One comes to read about so many benefits of this therapy only to be contradicted by a sea of risk factors written in another book or magazine or website. So before taking the decision you have to weigh carefully the pros and cons of this treatment.

However, there are some women who are not considered ideal candidate for hormone therapy. They include the Women with certain conditions should not take hormone therapy. These include the women diagnosed with breast cancer, active liver disease, a history of blood clots or vaginal bleeding without any apparent reason.

Any decision regarding hormone therapy must be taken after through discussion with your physician who will decide after taking into consideration such factors as your age, medical history, overall health and Current symptoms.



Irene