Are You A Good Candidate For Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy?

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) is a treatment wherein patients are given supplemental doses of essential hormones like testosterone, estrogen and progesterone. BHRT is used to correct a deficiency in the body’s normal hormone levels, a condition that can cause a host of physical and mental side effects. The compounds used in the procedure are manufactured to be molecularly indistinguishable from what’s naturally produced by the female ovaries and the male testicles.

Hormone withdrawal happens when the body’s reproductive organs stop producing sex hormones due to advanced age or premature organ failure. This in turn leads to the degradation of athletic ability, sexual performance and mental acuity. People lose lean body mass, get tired more easily and need more time to recover from physical exertion. Males find it hard to maintain erections while females experience intermittent vaginal dryness. Finally, people tend to fall into periods of depression, anxiety and general anti-social behavior.

If you are interested in trying the procedure, it’s important that you first determine whether you would be a good candidate for BHRT or not. There are several factors that, if present, would go a long way towards getting your doctor to green light the treatment.

Age is a major consideration when it comes to getting approval for bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Hormone production in the human body naturally drops under optimal levels between the ages of forty and fifty. While the actual median varies based on other facets of an individual’s lifestyle, such as their health and genetics, older people in general tend to be the most common beneficiaries of BHRT.

Sexual dysfunction is also sometimes treated with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. This is because the lack of sex hormones circulating in the body has been known to cause a lack of libido, men’s failure to maintain an erection as well as secondary forms of anorgasmia (i.e. the inability to orgasm) for both males and females.

Menopausal women also use bioidentical hormone replacement therapy in order to mitigate the symptoms of their condition. However, such treatments are usually brief and only involve low doses of estrogen and progesterone. Studies show that treatment plans that last for more than a couple of years or ones that involve excessive amounts of the hormones can increase the risk for breast cancer and heart attack in women.