You just barked at your employees and snapped at the grocery clerk. You’re always in a bad mood and you don’t feel like your usual, optimistic self. But before you wonder if you’re losing your mind, relax: It could just be menopause.
Menopause is a unique experience for every woman. Some women breeze through without so much as a single hot flash, while others find themselves suffering symptoms that are difficult to manage. While individual experiences vary, most women have to contend with a variety of uncomfortable symptoms as their body experiences plummeting levels of estrogen and progesterone.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can be life-changing for women who face challenging symptoms of menopause, but due to a fair amount of misinformation about HRT, many women who could benefit aren’t using the treatment.
At New Beginnings OB-GYN, we’ve helped menopausal and postmenopausal women throughout the greater Las Vegas area improve their quality of life, their sexual function, and their overall health and well-being with hormone replacement therapy, and we want to help you separate the fact from the fiction when it comes to this effective and innovative treatment.
Many women who come into New Beginnings OB-GYN are wary of HRT because they want to go through menopause “naturally,” or they’re afraid that HRT may be dangerous.
The bad press hormone replacement therapy has received is largely derived from just two studies that took place in the 1990s, which showed there may be an increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease amongst women receiving HRT. More recent studies, however, have shown that there appears to be a far smaller risk than the initial findings may have suggested.
Published in 2017, the results of an 18-year study among postmenopausal women in the Women’s Health Initiative showed that there was no increase in risk of death from cardiovascular disease or cancer among women who had received HRT when compared to correctly balanced groups of women who had not received HRT.
The most obvious benefit of HRT is the proven protection against osteoporosis for all women. The main reason women choose hormone replacement therapy, though, is to combat the effects of menopause. If you are a woman suffering greatly from symptoms of hormone depletion, HRT can offer absolute relief from a feeling that the “life is being sucked out of you.”
Symptoms of menopause that can be greatly improved with HRT include:
For a woman suffering the full gamut of menopausal symptoms, the benefits of HRT could be immense.
Despite its numerous benefits, we still exercise caution when prescribing hormone replacement therapy, as it may not be right for every woman and every case of menopause. Specifically, HRT may not be right for you if you have:
Like all medications, HRT does have potential side effects, which can include breast tenderness, headaches, nausea, and vaginal bleeding.
Weighing your personal risks against the benefits of any treatment can help you decide what’s best for you. If you’re at the more severe end of the menopausal spectrum, HRT could transform your quality of life. The best course of action is always to consult with an expert in women’s health, experienced in treating the symptoms of menopause.
If you’re experiencing symptoms associated with menopause, the women’s health experts at New Beginnings OB-GYN can help you explore your treatment options and determine whether hormone replacement therapy is right for you. Call our Las Vegas office or request an appointment online today.
You Might Also Enjoy...
You just barked at your employees and snapped at the grocery clerk. You’re always in a bad mood and you don’t feel like your usual, optimistic self. But before you wonder if you’re losing your mind, relax: It could just be menopause.
When is the right time for an adolescent to make her first visit to a gynecologist? As soon as your periods start? When you become sexually active? We’ve got the answer, along with what to expect from your introduction to gynecological care.
Virtually every woman will run into a vaginal health issue at some point in her life. While it may seem trivial, or even embarrassing, your vaginal health affects far more than just sex. It can affect every aspect of your health and lifestyle.
You’re confident you don’t have a sexually transmitted disease. After all, you don’t have any symptoms, and you consistently use protection. Maybe you’re older and STDs haven’t been an issue before. So why should you make sure to get tested for STDs?
As you age, the symptoms you experience on a day-to-day basis seem to increase, but how many of them could be caused by a treatable hormone imbalance? We look at the effects unbalanced hormones could be having on you and what you can do about it.
If your doctor has recommended a hysterectomy, you may have lots of questions about the surgery and aftermath. But there’s more to this surgery than meets the eye. Get the scoop and discover some things you may not have known about hysterectomies.