When hormone levels drop at menopause, women face a range of challenging symptoms. Beyond the expected hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings, they often deal with vaginal dryness, painful sex, loss of their sex drive, memory loss, and urinary incontinence.
At Women’s Wellness MD, Chetanna Okasi, MD, offers bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) to restore natural hormone levels and prevent menopause challenges. Here’s what you need to know about BHRT and lab testing before and during treatment.
Bioidentical hormones are produced from plants, making them a natural alternative to synthetic hormones.
And unlike synthetic medications, bioidentical hormones have the same molecular structure as your body’s hormones. As a result, bioidenticals trigger the same activities as the hormone your body produces, and you’re less likely to have side effects.
We can also give you a customized dose of BHRT in the form of a pellet. Pellets get placed under your skin, where they gradually release the hormones, ensuring optimal levels for several months.
There are four crucial reasons we run lab tests before you start taking BHRT:
Before we can prescribe BHRT, we must know your current hormone levels. After identifying your current levels, we can determine the extent of the deficiency and the amount of hormone you need to reach and maintain healthy levels.
BHRT enables us to create a personalized dose that meets each woman’s unique needs. You don’t need to worry about getting too little or too much. We can also easily adjust your dose as needed to support hormonal balance.
In addition to testing your hormone levels, we may run lab tests to determine if you have any other conditions contributing to your hormonal imbalance, such as thyroid dysfunction or adrenal gland problems. Liver and kidney disease may also affect estrogen levels.
To ensure you can safely take BHRT, we may run lab tests to identify contraindications, such as a blood clotting disorder.
Each woman responds to BHRT at their own pace, depending on variables like their metabolism, baseline hormone levels, and overall health.
However, most women’s symptoms start to improve within several weeks. Then, they achieve optimal well-being within a few months.
During the first few months of your treatment, we typically run lab tests at six weeks and possibly at three months. As long as you take BHRT, we perform yearly lab work. These tests are needed to verify that your hormone levels are balanced and stabilized.
In addition to lab testing, we monitor your symptoms to ensure they’re improving and watch for side effects.
Call Women’s Wellness MD today or use online booking to schedule an appointment and learn how BHRT improves your menopause symptoms.
