Square One Aesthetics & Wellness is pleased to announce our partnership with Outset Health to offer our clients premier bioidentical hormone replacement therapy with personalized concierge service. Our goal is to help you along in your journey to looking and feeling your best. Did you know that when your hormones are not optimized, you can feel moody, depressed, experience achy joints, drying and thinning hair and skin? There's more to hormones than many people realize! To see if you may be a good candidate for bioidentical hormone therapy, take our short online quiz now here.
We'd love to talk to you about our different levels of treatment and programs! Follow this link read more about the Outset Health bioidenticals hormone therapy featured at Square One including if you'd like to set up a free consultation from the comfort of your home, here.
Bioidentical-Hormone-Replacement Therapy
Hormone-replacement therapy is a treatment for women going through menopause. Symptoms of menopause can vary from moderate to severe, and include a slowed metabolism, hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, depression, memory loss, mood swings, weight gain and low libido. One way to treat the symptoms of menopause is to replace the hormones that a woman's body is no longer producing. Traditional hormone-replacement therapy uses synthetic hormones to treat the symptoms of menopause. Bioidentical-hormone-replacement therapy (BHRT) is an alternative treatment that uses hormones derived from plants.
Bioidentical hormones have a molecular structure that is identical to the hormones made by a woman's body. They are created in a laboratory from a plant chemical that comes from yams and soy. Some bioidentical hormones are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); others are compounded (custom-made) and, as such, are not regulated by the FDA.
Benefits of Bioidentical-Hormone-Replacement Therapy
Bioidentical hormones can be custom-made for the individual patient. They are available in many different forms, including pills, injections, suppositories and creams. In addition to menopause, BHRT can be used to treat perimenopause and severe premenstrual syndrome.
Candidates for Bioidentical-Hormone-Replacement Therapy
Women who are suffering from the symptoms of menopause may be candidates for bioidentical-hormone-replacement therapy. Many menopausal women using synthetic-hormone replacement who have not experienced significant symptom relief might consider switching to bioidentical hormones. Certain factors, such as preexisting medical conditions, determine whether or not bioidentical hormones are a viable alternative.
Risks and Complications of Bioidentical-Hormone-Replacement Therapy
Because bioidentical hormones have not been extensively studied over time, their long-term effects are unknown. In addition, bioidentical-hormone replacement therapy as a whole has not been approved by the FDA, although some individual bioidentical hormones have been. Risks and possible side effects associated with traditional synthetic-hormone-replacement therapy, however, include an increased risk of certain cancers, as well as the following:
- Breast pain
- Nausea
- Bloating
- Bleeding
- Mood swings
A woman should discuss all aspects, including the risks, of bioidentical-hormone-replacement therapy with her doctor before deciding if it is an appropriate treatment. Additional research is needed to fully understand its risks and benefits.
Pellet Therapy
Pellet therapy is a method of delivery for bioidentical hormone therapy. Pellets provide patients with a constantly maintained method of hormone delivery 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The daily pills, creams, or injections are not able to provide the steady stream of hormones that you receive with pellet therapy. While patches do provide a steady stream of hormones, the patch needs to be replaced on a regular basis.
The pellet therapy method is delivered every three to six months through an injection of a pellet that responds to the needs of the body and dissolves as needed. The pellets contain customized levels of estradiol or testosterone as determined by the patient's body. Pellet therapy has been in use for over 70 years and is considered the ideal way to deliver hormone replacement therapy.
While undergoing pellet therapy, your hormone levels will be monitored regularly to make sure proper hormone levels are sustained. Most patients see effective relief from symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, irritability, loss of energy and libido, depression, weight gain and more. Results may be noticeable immediately, or take up to two weeks to take effect, and will last for up to six months, when another pellet can be inserted.
Hormone Replacement Therapy for Men
Men experience a gradual reduction in testosterone, starting at about age 30. While this is completely normal and expected as you grow older, there are several undesirable physical and mental changes that accompany hormonal decline. Regenerative medicine provides a means of replenishing some of that which is lost to age, which may boost your energy and undo some of the age-related effects of testosterone depletion.
Hormone Therapy and Andropause
The term “andropause” refers to this gradual testosterone decline. It happens to all men, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything you can do about it.
Hormone replacement therapy – often using bioidentical hormones that are identical to the structure of the hormones in your body – may be the right way to address:
- Decreased sex drive
- Fatigue
- Low energy
- Loss of lean muscle mass
- Difficulty losing weight/weight gain
- Poor sleep
- Erectile dysfunction
- Mood swings
- Difficulty concentrating
- Hair loss
- Foggy or unclear thinking
All of these things can leave you feeling less than spectacular. In a one-on-one consultation with you, it will be determined whether testosterone levels in your body could be causing these negative effects.
HRT and Hypogonadism
This regenerative medicine therapy may be right for you if you have been diagnosed with hypogonadism. This condition is indicated when the testes do not produce normal levels of testosterone.
Unlike age-related testosterone decline, hypogonadism can affect you as a younger man. Hormone therapy may be an effective way to replenish your testosterone.
What are Bioidentical Hormones?
Bioidentical hormones closely mimic the structure of the hormones in your body. Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) replenishes levels of testosterone or other hormones lacking in a person’s body. This type of hormone is derived from plant materials.
Get Started on the Process
First your current hormonal levels must be evaluated. After testing and assessment, we can determine if you are a good candidate for hormone replacement therapy. It can be administered via implantable pellets, pills taken by mouth or creams used on the skin. The results can last several months to a year.
Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women
Getting older is part of life. While there are many great things about aging – wisdom, experience, friends, family, reaching your goals – certain physiological changes may feel less than great. Sleep disturbances, hot flashes, fatigue and lack of energy are just a few of the things you may wish you could undo.
By replenishing certain hormones in your body, you may be able to reduce some of the negative side effects of aging. This area of regenerative medicine focuses on the natural depletion of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone that naturally occurs with age. It is also well-suited to women experiencing hormonal imbalance as a result of hysterectomy or specific health conditions.
Hormones are molecules that carry messages throughout your body to regulate functions like hair growth, metabolism, sex drive, sleep, etc. They affect your energy, how you look, how you feel and how your organs function. The levels of certain hormones in your body naturally decrease with age.
How Can Bioidentical Hormone Therapy Benefit Women?
Men and women alike experience hormonal changes; however, some of the changes are specific to your biological sex. As a person with ovaries, your body will produce less ovarian hormones in the leadup to menopause and after menopause. These hormones include:
- Estrogen
- Progesterone
- Androgens (testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone)
While this regenerative medicine technique doesn’t necessarily seek a 1-to-1 replacement of hormones, it does seek to increase the levels. Working closely with a practitioner who first tests the baseline hormones in your body, you will receive a dose customized to you.
In people with a female reproductive system, hormonal imbalance may lead to:.
- Hot flashes
- Vaginal dryness
- Fatigue
- Low energy
- Poor sleep
- Mood swings
- Low libido
- Difficulty losing weight
- Difficulty building lean muscle mass
- Poor concentration and memory
You want to feel your best, at any age and all stages of life. Whether you’ve noticed a change because of menopause, aging, a hysterectomy or for an unknown reason, restoring hormonal balance may improve your quality of life. You deserve to feel good.