Most women reach menopause — or the end of menstruation and female fertility — in their early 50s, after a yearslong transition called perimenopause. Unfortunately, the hormonal changes that drive this natural “change of life” can also give rise to many irritating symptoms.
As a board-certified primary care provider who specializes in women’s health at Refine Medical in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Heather Kennedy, PA-C, offers bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) to help you counteract disruptive menopausal symptoms so you can get back to your busy life. Here’s how it works.
A significant and sustained decline in female reproductive hormones is the mechanism behind the side effects that emerge during perimenopause and menopause. As your ovaries make and release estrogen and progesterone at ever-dwindling rates, you might experience:
The physical effects associated with declining estrogen levels are among the most notorious menopause symptoms. Common complaints include hot/cold flashes, night sweats, persistent fatigue, low energy, a sluggish metabolism, and easy weight gain. Thinning hair and drier skin are also common.
Menopause-driven hormonal imbalances can destabilize your mental well-being, making you feel moodier and more irritable. They can also set the stage for anxiety disorders, depression, and chronic sleep problems like insomnia.
Diminished estrogen levels can also affect female sexual wellness, causing chronic vaginal dryness, low libido, and painful sexual intercourse.
Estrogen has a protective effect on bone and heart health. When it starts to decline, your risk of developing osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease increases.
While menopausal symptoms vary in nature, severity, and duration from one woman to the next, most women agree that its effects can be quite irritating and disruptive. Mild to moderate symptoms may improve with targeted lifestyle changes, such as:
But sometimes, lifestyle changes don’t deliver effective relief. In such cases, Biote® hormone replacement therapy can be an ideal solution.
Using a prescription blend of plant-based, bioidentical hormones that have the same molecular structure as your body’s own hormones, BHRT alleviates mild to severe menopausal symptoms by restoring optimal hormonal balance.
The goal of BHRT is to deliver effective symptom relief with the lowest possible dose of bioidentical hormones; based on our physical exam and menopausal symptom assessment, we customize your hormone prescription to meet your needs.
That prescription is delivered to your system through a steady-release, rice-sized hormone pellet that’s implanted just beneath the surface of your skin in the upper buttock area. BHRT pellet implantation is fast and painless, and the pellet starts emitting hormones in a controlled manner right away.
While you can expect to notice diminished menopausal symptoms a few hours or a few days after BHRT pellet implantation, it typically takes up to a month to attain substantial symptom relief. Complete hormonal optimization can take up to six months.
By restoring optimal hormonal balance, BHRT can put an end to menopausal symptoms and protect against heart disease and accelerated bone loss. Each BHRT pellet lasts for months at a time; the total treatment duration is shaped by your individual needs as time goes on.
Depending on your initial assessed hormone deficiency, body weight, and absorption rate, you can expect each BHRT pellet to last for three to six months before it needs to be replaced. To keep your hormone levels optimized and your menopausal symptoms at bay, we reinsert new BHRT pellets two to four times per year.
To find out how you can benefit from BHRT, call or click online to schedule a consultation with our experts at Refine Medical in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, today.