The symptoms of menopause or andropause can already begin at the age of 30. Declining hormone levels begin with testosterone and progesterone at varying rates between 1 and 2% per year. Factors such as poor diet, stress, a sedentary lifestyle and poor sleep hygiene accelerate these losses.
The sooner one can replace these declining levels to healthy youthful optimised levels, the better.
In women, the ovaries stop producing primarily estradiol (E2), while testosterone and progesterone production declines further. With suboptimal levels of hormones, the body’s systems become depleted while inflammation and toxic hormone levels rise. Your body begins to age and the possibility of age-related chronic and degenerative disease looms.
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
Remaining healthy as we age depends on many things including lifestyle and genetics. It also makes perfect sense to replenish what the body needs. That’s why we supplement with high-quality antioxidants, vitamins & minerals and use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to restore optimal internal balance.
Many physicians focus on simply relieving symptoms with pharmaceutical pills, patches, injections or creams. However, to return the body to balance, it needs biologically recognisable hormone substances and a precision delivery method to transport them through the bloodstream in harmony with natural biorhythms.
Synthetic HRT versus bioidentical HRT (BIHRT)
The type of hormones you and your doctor choose is as important as the method you use. Both are critical to your continued health and wellbeing.
Pharmaceutical companies specialise in marketing synthetic HRT drugs. The biggest sellers feature imitations of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Unlike bioidenticals, they are crafted to differ structurally from human hormones. This basic difference is intentional, allowing synthetic hormones to be patented. Needless to say, patented drugs generate big profits.
Unfortunately, these hormone impersonators or bio-similar hormones, are more prone to side effects. Built-in dissimilarities prohibit these synthetics from communicating with many receptors that control crucial body functions and there may be differences in their metabolism.
Conversely, bio-identical hormones provide your body with the natural hormones it recognises. Bioidentical hormones are made from plant hormones but are precise molecular matches to human hormones. While their history of safety and effectiveness dates back to the 1930s, they’ve been perfected over the past 20 years.
To date, bioidenticals provide women with a healthier alternative to patented drugs. Many studies have shown that properly administered bioidentical HRT is the healthier, safer choice and may even protect against breast, endometrial and prostate cancer if administered properly.