What Is Considered a High-Risk Pregnancy?
Being pregnant means a lot of changes in your body over a nine month period. It always comes with some level of risk but when does a pregnancy become high risk, and what can be done about it?
5 Benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy
Hormones coordinate and regulate many functions throughout our bodies including metabolism, growth, sexual maturity, and reproduction. Hormones like progesterone and estrogen are essential for a woman’s journey through puberty to adulthood and eventually menopause.
During menopause, you may experience uncomfortable symptoms due to dropping hormone levels. Luckily, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help. If you live in the Las Vegas, Nevada area and you’re struggling with hormonal issues, speak to Dr. Staci McHale and her skilled medical staff at New Beginnings OB-GYN.
What causes hormonal imbalances?
Hormone levels are in flux all through your life, but puberty, pregnancy, and menopause cause the most changes. Other conditions may contribute to hormone problems, such as stress, steroid use, certain medications, growths like tumors and adenomas, damage or injury to the glands that make hormones, or various autoimmune conditions.
Having too much or too little of specific hormones can affect your body in a variety of ways, leading to symptoms like irregular periods, infertility, acne, obesity, hair loss, hirsutism, hot flashes, lack of sexual interest, vaginal atrophy, vaginal dryness, and heavy periods.
What is hormone therapy?
There are a vast array of hormones that go through our bodies all the time. Hormone replacement therapy usually refers to replacing estrogen and progesterone in your reproductive systems. These hormones can be delivered in various forms, including:
- Synthetic hormones: these may include estrogen-only pills or a combination of estrogen and progesterone depending on your needs
- Bioidentical hormones: this form of hormone is derived from plants to be bioidentical to your body’s own hormones
- Topical estrogen: vaginal tablets, rings, or creams can be directly applied to the genitals to manage dryness and irritation
While hormone therapy may not alleviate all your hormonal concerns, it can help many of them. Here are five ways it can help:
1. Reducing symptoms
HRT is a common way of helping to treat the symptoms of menopause like mood swings, hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal itching or dryness, and dry skin. It can also help with hormonal symptoms related to issues during and after pregnancy.
2. Reducing the chances of certain conditions
Hormonal changes can also increase the risk of conditions like heart disease, stroke, dementia, diabetes, osteoporosis, and colon cancer. These therapies can help reduce the risk of these problems and their possible complications.
3. Improving joint pain
Falling estrogen levels during menopause can affect your bone density. HRT can help with preventing bone loss in conditions like osteoporosis and reduce pain problems related to arthritis.
4. Help with early menopause or estrogen deficiency
Going into menopause before age 45 is known as early or premature menopause. If you're coping with this or other loss of ovarian function like primary ovarian insufficiency, HRT can help.
5. Lowers mortality rate
HRT can also lower your risk of death from chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke. According to research, HRT can reduce problems with atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in your arteries commonly known as hardening of the arteries.
To lower the risk of any adverse effects from HRT it is always recommended to take it in the lowest dosage for the shortest period possible. HRT can make a difference if you’re dealing with hormonal imbalances or other related problems. To see if it can help you, make an appointment with Dr. McHale and New Beginnings OB-GYN today.
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