Oprah has shows about it, with celebrity guests like Suzanne Somers gushing over how great they feel now that they've found the treatment. But many women are still uncertain about bioidentical hormone replacement.
Menopausal women and even men of a certain age, explore hormone therapy as a way to treat symptoms of menopause like hot flashes and insomnia.
Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP, co-founder of the Women to Women Clinic and a contributor to Women to Women.com, explains bioidentical hormone replacement (bHRT) and how it differs from synthetic hormone replacement therapy:
Bioidentical hormones are manufactured in the lab to have the same molecular structure as the hormones made by your own body. By contrast, synthetic hormones are intentionally different. Drug companies can’t patent a bioidentical structure, so they invent synthetic hormones that are patentable (Premarin, Prempro, and Provera being the most widely used examples).
In an article on MayoClinic.com, Mayo Clinic gynecologist and obstetrician Mary Gallenberg, M.D. explains why marketers promote bioidentical hormones over their standard counterparts:
While bioidentical hormone replacement remains a successful treatment option for many women, before embarking on a course of action be sure to ask your doctor, "Are they for me?" After asking, you may find that bHRT is right for you, or you may find another option that better fits your needs.
Menopausal women and even men of a certain age, explore hormone therapy as a way to treat symptoms of menopause like hot flashes and insomnia.
Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP, co-founder of the Women to Women Clinic and a contributor to Women to Women.com, explains bioidentical hormone replacement (bHRT) and how it differs from synthetic hormone replacement therapy:
Bioidentical hormones are manufactured in the lab to have the same molecular structure as the hormones made by your own body. By contrast, synthetic hormones are intentionally different. Drug companies can’t patent a bioidentical structure, so they invent synthetic hormones that are patentable (Premarin, Prempro, and Provera being the most widely used examples).
In an article on MayoClinic.com, Mayo Clinic gynecologist and obstetrician Mary Gallenberg, M.D. explains why marketers promote bioidentical hormones over their standard counterparts:
- They're derived from plant chemicals, not synthesized in a laboratory. Some FDA-approved products (Estrace, Climara patch and Vivelle-Dot patch, and Prometrium natural progesterone) are also derived from plants.
- They're produced in doses and forms that differ from those in FDA-approved products. Some bioidentical hormone products are available without a prescription, but most require a prescription. Also, for many nonstandard combinations you need to go through a compounding pharmacy. Compounding pharmacies specialize in making medications customized for individual needs, such as inability to swallow solids or allergy to a binding agent in a tablet. However, products from compounding pharmacies have not been subject to the same rigorous quality assurance standards that standard commercially available hormonal preparations have to meet.
- They're custom made for you, based on a test of your saliva to assess your unique hormonal needs. Unfortunately, however, the hormone levels in your saliva don't reflect the levels in your blood or correspond to menopause symptoms.
While bioidentical hormone replacement remains a successful treatment option for many women, before embarking on a course of action be sure to ask your doctor, "Are they for me?" After asking, you may find that bHRT is right for you, or you may find another option that better fits your needs.
