What Is The Best Hormone Therapy For Menopause?

Hormone replacement medicine is a drug containing female hormones. To replace the estrogen that your body stops producing during menopause, you take medicine. For the treatment of common menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes and vaginal pain, hormone therapy is most commonly used. In postmenopausal women, hormone therapy has also been shown to prevent bone loss and reduce fractures.

Risks associated with the use of hormone therapy, however, remain. These risks depend on the type of hormone therapy that you are getting, the dosage, how long you are taking the drug, and your specific health risks. Hormone therapy should be personalized to each person for the optimal outcomes and reevaluated every so often to ensure that the benefits still outweigh the risks.

What are the basic types of hormone therapy?

The main focus of hormone replacement therapy is on replacing the estrogen that your body no longer produces after menopause. Two major forms of estrogen therapy exist:

• Vaginal goods that are low-dose. The amount of estrogen consumed by the body is reduced by low-dose vaginal estrogen preparations, which come in cream, pill or ring shape. Because of this, only the vaginal and urinary signs of menopause are typically treated with low-dose vaginal preparations.
• Systemic hormonal treatment. Systemic estrogen usually includes a higher dose of estrogen that is absorbed in the body, and comes in the form of a tablet, skin patch, ring, gel, cream or spray. It may be used for the treatment of some of the symptoms of menopause that are normal.

If your uterus has not been removed, your doctor will usually prescribe estrogen along with progesterone or progestin (progesterone-like medication). This is because oestrogen alone, when not balanced with progesterone, can stimulate uterine lining growth and increase the risk of endometrial cancer. If your uterus (hysterectomy) has been removed, you may not need to take progestin.

Who can benefit from hormone therapy?

The benefits of hormone therapy may outweigh the risks if you're healthy and you:

• The need to avoid fractures or bone loss. Systemic estrogen helps protect against the osteoporosis-called bone-thinning condition. However, to treat osteoporosis, physicians typically prescribe drugs called bisphosphonates. But estrogen therapy can help if you can not tolerate other treatments or do not benefit from them.
• Experience early menopause, or lack in estrogen. Your body has been subjected to less estrogen than the bodies of women who undergo traditional menopause if you have your ovaries surgically removed before age 45, started getting cycles before age 45 (premature or early menopause) or lost normal ovary function before age 40 (primary ovarian insufficiency). Estrogen therapy, including osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and mood changes, may help reduce the risk of many health conditions.
• Getting hot flashes that are mild to extreme. The most effective medication for the relief of problematic menopausal hot flashes and evening sweats remains systemic estrogen therapy.
• You may have other menopausal signs. Estrogen can ease menopausal vaginal symptoms, such as dryness, itching, burning, and intercourse discomfort.