What is BHRT?
BioIdentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) is restoring the body’s hormones that are lost due to the aging process, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or the effect of environmental toxins that reduce the normal production of hormones in an otherwise healthy adult.
The restoration is done with hormones that are EXACTLY IDENTICAL to the body’s own naturally produced hormones in contrast to synthetic hormones which have been chemically altered to permit a pharmaceutical company to patent it. The body recognizes the identical hormone, uses it and metabolizes it just like the hormone produced by the body itself. In contrast, a synthetic hormone has some of the actions of the naturally produced hormone, but often other additional actions or it is metabolized through a different process, thus potentially producing unwanted side effects or increased risks of complications or disease.
At Restore Hormonal Vitality & Wellness Center we prescribe only bio-identical hormones…estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Formulations vary with the specific hormone, but the available routes of bio-identical hormones are cream or gel, patches, pills, and subcutaneously placed pellets. Each formulation has its benefits and disadvantages but the regimen selected is individualized for each patient to produce maximum benefit.
Hormonal loss with suboptimal levels that produce symptoms can be experienced by women starting in the late 20’s and men in their mid 30’s, decades before the actual menopause for women and andropause for men.
Optimizing the hormone level, that is achieving a blood level that maximizes benefit, is the goal of therapy since with an optimized level there is greater likelihood of symptom relief, and studies have shown that it may have greater long term benefit of risk reduction for development of chronic diseases (i.e. cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, osteoporosis) that characteristically plague the aging process.