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Hormone Replacement Therapy – How Safe Can It Be?

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is best recommended for those who are suffering from menopausal symptoms like hot flushes and dryness of the vagina. Usually, HRT uses medications which have estrogen only or estrogen containing progestin which is another kind of hormone. However, HRT is known to add to the chances of having breast cancer, blood clots, heart attack, and stroke. Women using HRT should be advised to use the minimal dosage which creates result and at the shortest possible time.

Recently, there are some discussions made about how to treat menopausal symptoms through hormone therapy. Low hormonal levels throughout menopause have the ability to cause hot flashes, vaginal dryness and osteoporosis.  This is where hormone replacement therapy takes place. It replaces the real estrogen that is lost by the body when experiencing menopause.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Hormone Replacement Therapy

The Benefits and Side Effects of Hormone Replacement Therapy

Similar to other medicines, HRT has also some advantages and negative effects. Use HRT only when needed and should be stopped as long as it has provided relief to the menopausal symptoms. Using hormone replacement therapy or HRT for a long period of time enhances the possible side effects of some diseases.

The following are some benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy:

-          Reduces hot flashes

-          Treat vaginal dryness

-          Delays bone loss

-          Decreases depression and mood swings

Women using hormone replacement therapy are prone to the following risks:

-          Blood clot

-          Heart attacks

-          Strokes

-          Breast cancer

-          Gallbladder disease

Other Facts to take Note of when it comes to Hormone Replacement Therapy

Since there are risks involved in hormone replacement therapy, you should be aware of some other facts about this procedure. A couple of things to take note of include:

  1. HRT is not recommended for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease (memory loss), stroke, and heart attacks. To slow down bone loss you can turn to other medicines available for this matter.
  2. If a woman still has her uterus and has not had a hysterectomy, taking estrogen alone without progesterone poses a greater chance of getting endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus). If you add progesterone to the hormone therapy it lowers this risk. If a woman has had a hysterectomy, taking estrogen alone increases the risk of blood clots and stroke.
  3. Possible side effects of hormone replacement therapy are bloating, headaches, bleeding, breast tenderness or enlargement, headaches, nausea and mood changes.
  4. Hormone Replacement Therapy is not advisable to some menopausal women who are pregnant and have problems with vaginal bleeding. It is not also for those who have breast and uterine cancer and have had a stroke or heart attack. It is not also for those who have liver diseases and have blood clots.
  5. Hormone Replacement therapy if taken within a short period and in the smallest amount that produces results can alleviate symptoms of menopause. But these hormones do not help in any way to prevent heart or bone diseases, stroke, memory loss as well as Alzheimer’s disease.
  6. Have a check up with your doctor once a year to know if you still need HRT. Since there are both benefits and risks that are associated with this therapy, patients should discuss every issue with her doctor.  Medical science is still in the process of learning more about the long-term and short-term effects of hormone replacement therapy on women’s health.

As a replacement to the hormonal replacement therapy, many manufacturers produced natural menopause remedies instead. These ones can also help alleviate the usual symptoms of menopause less the risks involved in HRT. You can consider all possible options if you’re looking for natural menopause treatments.

This particular review page on various natural menopause remedies can help you decide on the right product to choose for your condition: best menopause treatments. This is a review page with some thoughts on four of the menopause treatments out in the market today.

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