30
Nov
Signs That You Need Hormone Replacement Therapy
Women who reach 30 years of age or are over 35 years old can suffer from symptoms that can disrupt their daily life. Most of them have to do with low hormone levels, which start to deplete once we reach that age. The side effects of the deficiency can drain your energy completely leaving you frustrated with life in general.
This is where hormone replacement therapy can prove invaluable. The treatment is provided by medical spas and is ideal for women who are deficient in testosterone, progesterone and estrogen in their late 30s or early 40s i.e. shortly before, during or after menopause. Optimizing these hormones can lead to a healthier and happier life.
Top Signs You Need Hormone Replacement Therapy
The side effects of hormone deficiency can vary as per your age and health. Here are the top signs that you should look out for and which make hormone replacement therapies necessary:
1. Frequent Irritability
If you find yourself getting angry or irritated at the smallest things and on a frequent basis, you may be a candidate for this treatment. This can be anything from getting angry in traffic to screaming at your partner for refusing to take out the trash to forgetting to feed your pet dog. The reason why you may be susceptible to triggers may be hormone imbalance.
2. Loss Of Interest In Activities
Have daily activities lost their appeal suddenly? If you don’t find enjoyment from the things you once loved to do, depleting hormones may be to blame. This can include having trouble sleeping, brushing your hair, going to work or any other task that you used to do without thinking twice about.
3. Rapid And Unexplainable Weight Gain
Rapid weight gain is common in women who reach 30 years of age or are older. However, if your weight gain is more rapid than it should be, hormonal issues may be to blame. Chances are that your body is unable to metabolize fat as fast as it used to.
In other words, your body may have stopped needing as many calories as it did before thus resulting in leftover fat. It cannot process that stored fat as quickly as it could when your hormone levels were perfectly fine. These two factors come together to lead to weight gain that no amount of exercise may be able to shed.
4. Muscle Loss
Weight maintenance and muscle mass maintenance go hand in hand. The latter is more metabolically active than the former. In fact, a pound of muscle can burn between 7 to 10 calories while a pound of fat can only burn 2 to 3 calories in 24 hours.
If you have hormonal issues, no amount of diet and exercise will allow your body to metabolize protein efficiently, a component that muscles need to grow. If damaged muscle cells are not replaced with healthier cells, they can atrophy. In the end, you experience muscle loss and gain additional weight at the same time. Since fat cannot burn calories as fast as muscles can, rapid weight gain is understandable.
5. Low Libido
Sexual activity can lose its appeal if hormones refuse to cooperate by remaining balanced. While sexual drive can decrease as we age, it can also be the result from hormonal deficiencies. Hormone replacement therapy may just be the ticket to a happier sex life for you.
Who Can Benefit From Hormone Replacement Therapy?
Besides the aforementioned symptoms, there are other severe side effects of hormonal imbalance that you may not be taking seriously. Women who experience the following should take up this treatment immediately:
- Suffer from moderate to severe hot flashes – Hormone replacement therapy can relieve night sweats and menopausal hot flashes that can otherwise make life very difficult.
- Suffer from frequent fractures and bone loss – The treatment is known for preventing bone loss conditions in women such as osteoporosis.
- Eases vaginal itchiness and dryness – Menopause can make intercourse uncomfortable as it can dry out the vagina. Hormone replacement therapy can ease those symptoms and rejuvenate the libido.
- Experience early menopause – If your ovaries were removed and you were younger than 45 or your ovaries lost normal function before you turned 40 that means that your body has less estrogen than it should have. This can lead to a number of uncomfortable conditions rapid mood swings being the least of your concern. Hormone replacement therapy is often the go-to solution to eliminate symptoms which can include heart disease and even dementia.
What To Expect During Hormone Replacement Treatment?
If you suspect that you are suffering from a hormone deficiency, make an appointment with a medical spa right away. The process is quite streamlined and once it is done, you only have to come in a few times per year to maintain balance. Here is what you can expect:
The Consultation
You will not be prescribed this treatment if you are not a suitable candidate for it. In the initial consultation, the doctor will ask you a series of questions which will help him/her evaluate your overall health. This may also involve a small test for hormone deficiency followed by an explanation of a course of treatment that will be designed specifically for you. It will be based on how unbalanced your hormone levels are.
The Treatment
During the treatment, the doctor will clean the point of insertion and administer a topical and injectable anesthetic. After that, a small scalpel will be used to access the subcutaneous skin layer where the implant will be placed. The hormones will be administered in pellet form via a special injection. This will be inserted under the skin and the pellets will be deposited. The wound will be closed and bandaged so the injection site can heal properly. The entire process takes 15 minutes tops.
Hormone replacement therapy can be the key to your happiness. Get in touch with a medical spa to book an appointment today!