Benefits Of HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy)
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) can help mitigate many of the uncomfortable symptoms of menopause. These symptoms include:
- Hot flashes
- Night Sweats
- Mild incontinence
- Mood swings
HRT can also boost your libido and improve sleep, aside from reducing your risk of fractures from osteoporosis and offering cardiovascular support. These are just a few reasons why many women consider HRT.
Table of Contents
What is hormone replacement therapy?
HRT is a means of re-experiencing youth, an option against various unfortunate circumstances that life can set against people whether it’s infertility or raging unstable swings. All those answers are as unique as the people behind them. Essentially, Hormone replacement therapy is any form of hormone treatment where the patient, during the medical rehabilitation, either receives hormones that are lacking for supplements of the naturally occurring hormones or to completely substitute hormones for the naturally occurring hormones.
Each type of the hormonal replacement procedures, as can only be expected, comes with its peculiar effect. For example menopausal hormone therapy (often referred to as treatment instead of therapy) involves the use of different medical operations programmed to reduce the risk of adults getting dementia by supplementing the amounts of progesterone, estrogen and sometimes even testosterone.
Transgender hormone therapy, however, exchanges the hormones identified with a sex with that of the opposite sex (especially estrogen for transgender women and testosterone for transgender men). Meanwhile, Androgen replacement therapy provides a new life for men who have suffered a loss of testicular function or grieve from hypogonadism.
Putting aside the rationale behind the therapies, we can conclude a few advantages from starting hormone replacement therapy, these benefits include:
Decreases and prevents vasomotor symptoms
Most women experiencing menopause are all too familiar with the hot flashes and night sweats that mark this transition. The medical term for hot flashes is vasomotor symptoms. Hot flashes usually start suddenly, with a feeling of heat that begins around the upper chest and face, and then spreads.
Hormone replacement therapy is the most effective treatment for dealing with the discomfiture with results showing already after four weeks with most benefit gained after three months.
Improvement in quality of life
Hormonal replacement treatment works to restore rest, muscle aches, pains and other general and unique discomfitures in symptomatic women.
Improvement in mood changes
Another unpleasant side effect of menopause is mood swings, something HRT can help prevent as well. Studies have shown the potential for HRT to help psychological mood states in perimenopausal women. There are several theories about how this helps. Estrogen has been linked to the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in the modulation of mood. By balancing estrogen levels, HRT is thought to help tackle menopause-linked mood swings.
With hormonal replacement therapy (sometimes in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy) could serve to alleviate the possibilities of depression while improving the recent mood level average.
Lowers anxiety and mild depression
Some women may also experience depression due to the physical changes and the emotional impact of realizing the body is aging. While there isn’t a complete consensus among medical professionals on how and to what extent HRT can ease psychiatric symptoms, there is some research to prove it can help.
One study found that HRT reduced symptoms of both depression and anxiety experienced by menopausal women.
If you are currently going through menopause and have symptoms of mild depression, you may benefit from HRT. However, if you have already gone through menopause, you may benefit more from taking antidepressants. Regardless, it’s essential to discuss your options with your doctor. Do not treat HRT as a substitute for an antidepressant, though.
Improves your sexual pleasure
Discomfort caused by reduced lubrication can simply kill the mood. While the quality of your sex life depends on a multitude of factors, HRT can help ease the vaginal dryness linked to menopause.
Some women also experience a loss of libido due to the lowered levels of testosterone and estrogen in the body that occurs when going through menopause, and after.
Research has shown that hormonal replacement therapy can improve vaginal dryness and sexual function. It is equally effective in improving the signs associated with vaginal weakening. This, in turn, helps to improve urinary frequency, even more as it influences the urethral epithelium, or using topical estrogen. All of which produces a better result compared to non-hormonal gels.
Lower your risk of osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a very common condition in which the bones become very weak and brittle, while there is really no cure presently, using estrogens might just be the most effective method for increasing bone mineral density and preventing osteoporotic fissures in women. So much so that even low doses of estrogen are usually sufficient to provide protection for the bones. Thus, hormonal replacement therapy is considered the first-line treatment for the prevention and management of osteoporosis in women with menopausal symptoms.
If you are under 60 years old, this is something you could potentially benefit from in a significant way. After 60, much of the bone loss may have already happened.
Large doses of the hormones also offer many benefits including tighter, skin, nails, and as said above, bones. It also improves immune systems function and increased cellular regeneration, eyesight strengthening, organ growth among other ways that prove how hormone replacement therapy can improve peoples’ lives.
The Conclusion
Though there are risks involved with HRT, it’s still a great way to treat severe menopause symptoms and improve quality of life. You and your doctor can discuss the risks and benefits for you specifically and evaluate other treatment options. It’s critical to work closely with your doctor so you can decide what’s right for you.
For more information on hormone replacement therapy, visit https://www.hght.com.