Articles on Menopause | Topics: menopause, menopausal
by Bindiya Nichols
The most highly prescribed method today to treat the nasty symptoms of menopause is through HRT or Hormone Replacement Therapy. There are more women now than ever taking natural hormone replacement to help curb the side effects of entering the menopause phase of life. It is no wonder why it is one of the fastest growing areas in medicine today. There are so many happy women out there today that no longer need to suffer and can once again enjoy life. What the replacement therapy is all about is giving a woman back the appropriate levels of hormones that her ovaries are no longer producing on their own. As the female sex hormones decrease, a woman will begin to feel the side effects of the onset of menopause. She will no longer be ovulating regularly or at all. Because a woman no longer ovulates or does so infrequently she will also no longer produce enough progesterone as well. This will also intensify the symptoms as she begins menopause. HRT will give the body the right amount of both progesterone and estrogen that reduces any if not all the side effects of menopause.
Hormone replacement therapy is widely used in many possible ways to best fit a woman's individual body, symptoms, and health issues. The most common type of HRT involves using both estrogen and progesterone replacement at the same time to create the feel of an actual normal menstrual cycle. This gives a woman's body the appropriate amount of hormones to mimic each phase of her cycle. This would be a therapy specifically designed for women who have a uterus to actually stimulate via the hormones. A woman would take a regular does of estrogen daily and the progesterone would slowly increase through out the cycle and then would be stopped to create a menses to shed the uterine lining. This gives the body the feel that ovulation has occurred and makes a woman feel more normal. The estrogens that they use in HRT come from natural sources and are the same configuration that occurs naturally in the body. The progesterone supplements are synthetic versions of the actual hormone and are specifically meant to bring on a menses and should not be taken by women who are pregnant or having regular periods. A woman who still has her uterus will want to be on both hormones to make sure that she does not get a over growth of the uterine lining. The only time estrogen therapy alone is given to a woman is if she no longer has a uterus due to a hysterectomy that caused surgical menopause. With no uterus there is no need to recreate menstruation. Progestin-only therapy is not prescribed very often. Progestin does seem to provide awesome relief for hot flashes, though.
When a woman uses hormone replacement she is benefiting herself in so many possible ways. HRT is an excellent way to help reduce the nasty symptoms of menopause, such as insomnia, fatigue, depression, incontinence, and vaginal dryness. It can also significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of hot flashes and night sweats as well. Using natural estrogen can help make a woman's skin feel smoother, help regulate and improve sleep, and make her less prone to depression. This hormone is also responsible for keeping the vagina well lubricated and the muscles in the pelvic floor area tighter to help prevent any incontinence. Using HRT can also help women prevent bone density loss and the onset of osteoporosis that can cause them great pain and suffering later in life. Hormone therapy has been known to not only reduce or get rid of short-term side effects of menopause, but the long term ones as well. Advantages include:
Reduced number and severity of hot flashes
| Bit of History |
The menopause is probably the least glamorous topic imaginable; and this is interesting, because it is one of the very few topics to which cling some shreds and remnants of taboo. A serious mention of menopause is usually met with uneasy silence; a sneering reference to it is usually met with relieved sniggers. Both the silence and the sniggering are pretty sure indications of taboo.
| —Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929) |
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Decreased dryness and thinning of mucous membranes
Decreased risk of osteoporosis (bone disease)
Protection against cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) disease
The short-term symptoms of menopause can seriously affect a woman's health and well being. The symptoms of menopause can be truly uncomfortable and even embarrassing to a woman. Suffering from an array of emotional fluxes and hot flashes in public can be quite upsetting. The hot flashes a woman gets at night can cause her to get the sweats and chills. This will disrupt her sleep and ultimately producing fatigue in the morning. Using the HRT technology can help women to greatly reduce or even eliminate the nasty side effects and symptoms that menopause brings on. Menopause does not have to be a negative experience anymore.
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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Hormone Therapy for Menopausal Women – The Advantages" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by HealthExerciseSports.com. |
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