Best Foods and Supplements for Hair Growth
You’re used to seeing some hair in your brush and drain. But these days, the shedding is excessive, and new hair growth isn’t keeping up. Discover which foods and supplements can jumpstart new growth.
From Misinformation to Modern Care: Hormone Replacement Therapy for Menopause
Each year in the United States, an average of 1.3 million women go through menopause, putting an end to their reproductive journey and causing symptoms ranging from disruptive hot flashes to bone loss.
One of the best solutions for managing menopause symptoms is hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but it has traveled a rocky road in terms of misinformation. Here at Lafferty Family Care, Dr. Scott Lafferty and our team want to set the record straight on HRT and why it’s an important tool for postmenopausal women.
What you need to know about hormone replacement therapy
When you go through menopause, your reproductive hormone levels drop off. This hormone deficit can lead to a wide range of symptoms, including hot flashes, vaginal dryness, bone loss, and anxiety.
Given the effects of menopause on your health and quality of life, it makes sense to offset them by replenishing the lost hormones. This is the concept behind HRT.
Unfortunately, this menopause treatment hit a major hurdle, thanks to a flawed study conducted by the Women’s Health Initiative in the late 1990s and early 2000s that declared HRT to be unsafe. This study derailed HRT until new studies debunked the earlier findings.
Thankfully, today, modern HRT proves to be safe and effective for women who want to make their menopause journey easier while protecting their health. Taking what we learned from those early findings, we now know which hormones to deliver and in what amounts. We’ve also improved how we deliver these hormones into your system.
Today, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists calls systemic estrogen therapy the best solution for vasomotor symptoms (think: hot flashes), and a great treatment for vaginal dryness and bone loss, among other benefits.
Reasons to choose HRT
Many women turn to HRT for reasons beyond symptom relief. Here are a few more of the benefits.
It addresses the widening hormone gap
Women are living far longer. The average life expectancy for women in the US is 81.1, compared to 48.3 in 1900. In just 125 years, Americans have nearly doubled their lifespans, which means women can spend a third of their lives, or more, in postmenopause.
So, while we wait for evolution to catch up with our longer life spans, we can make up the difference in hormones through replacement therapy. Thanks to HRT, you don’t have to live in a prolonged hormone deficit that your body wasn’t designed for.
Bioidentical hormones are a natural fit
Today, we can use plant-based bioidentical hormones, which are chemically identical to your natural ones. This means we don’t rely on suspect sources, such as equine urine, anymore.
Pellets provide consistent relief
Our patients love HRT because these bioidentical hormones come in pellet form. After we implant them just beneath the surface of your skin, the pellets slowly release the hormones over 4-6 months, and there’s nothing more you need to do.
Learn more about HRT
We’re moving past the misinformation of two decades ago and have a better understanding of the advantages of HRT for postmenopausal women.
If you’d like to learn more about how HRT can improve your health and quality of life, please don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment at our office in Rogers, Arkansas, at your earliest convenience.
You Might Also Enjoy...
Meeting Your Cosmetic Goals With Botox®
There are more tools than ever before to help you meet your cosmetic goals, but Botox® still rises to the top as one of the easiest and most effective. Explore all that we can do with this cosmetic injectable.
7 Lifestyle Habits That Help Control (or Prevent) High Blood Pressure
Since May is High Blood Pressure Education Month, we thought we’d take this opportunity to address this potentially life-saving subject. Better still, we outline key ways to keep hypertension at bay.
Better Menopause Management: 4 Health Benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy
Each year in the United States, 1.3 million women begin their transition through menopause, and many experience dramatic quality-of-life symptoms. Explore how hormone replacement therapy can ease this journey.
4 Benefits of Good Nutrition
Your car relies on the right fuel and additives to run well — and the exact same thing can be said of nutrition for your body. Here’s why nutrition is vitally important to your health and wellness.
What Is the Carotid Intima Media Thickness (CIMT) Ultrasound?
It might seem like serious heart disease strikes without warning, but the signs might have been there all along. That’s where screening tests like a carotid intima media thickness ultrasound comes in.