HRT: A Lifeline to A Symptom-less Life

Sex in the City actress Kim Cattrall loves it, Emma Thompson wouldn’t dream of a day without it and Angelina Jolie is one of its biggest advocates. What are we talking about? It’s Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), of course! So, ladies ‘over a certain age’, do read on…

When it comes to the Menopause, most women agree – it’s the hot flashes, night sweats and difficulty sleeping that are often the most difficult symptoms to come to terms with.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, there is the aches, mood swings, palpitations and reduced sex drive to come to terms with too. It seems unfair that all these ‘afflictions’ arrive at once.

Of course, not every woman feels the symptoms to the same extent, and the onset of the menopause also differs between individuals. Medical studies though, put the average age of a woman for the onset of the menopause at around 51-years-old. Some fortunate females may simply glide through their menopause with just the odd bout of poor sleep or periods of feeling low. For those that are badly affected though – and this is in the higher camp, then hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can seem like a lifeline to their former pre-menopausal symptom-less selves.

There are two main types of HRT; oestrogen with progesterone (the most common) and oestrogen-only (usually for women who no longer have a womb). Both oestrogen and progesterone are naturally occurring and it’s the gradual loss of these hormones that result in the symptoms described by a huge majority of menopausal women.

HRT via Omniya's Menopause Clinic London

Here at the Omniya, London's leading hormone clinic, we can provide a specialist form of HRT, known as Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy. Why? Because it replaces the identical hormones that each individual woman is lacking in.

It begins with an initial consultation so that the practitioner can go thorough a detailed medical and symptom history. That way your practitioner will gain a good understanding of how the menopause is affecting you as an individual. She will then check your baseline hormone levels. At this stage it’s a case of waiting until the results come through. Once your practitioner receives the results she will compare them with the medical history she has on file and then prepare an HRT formula to balance your hormones. This should then result in relieving the majority – if not all - of the unpleasant symptoms you have been experiencing.

One thing to remember though: your symptoms won’t disappear overnight. It will take some time – a few months even – for your hormone levels to build up. Your practitioner will want to meet your regularly during this time in case she feels the prescription may require ‘tweaking’ to get the best possible results.

There may also be initial side-effects of starting treatment for some individuals. However, these should disappear after the first few weeks. They can include bloating, headaches, indigestion and even acne. It is important that you keep your practitioner informed of your progress, benefits as well as side effects, so that they may guide you properly through this different period of your life.

Different applications for HRT

There are various ways to take HRT. Tablet form is one of the most popular, but it can also be taken in the form of patches placed on the skin. Other ways to administer it include via a gel, cream or a vaginal ring.

Other menopausal conditions HRT can help

One study, published in the Journal of Women’s Health, showed around 75 per cent of menopausal women suffered hot flashes. Another US medical study, carried out in 2017, showed HRT could be 98 per cent effective in ridding women of these.

Meanwhile, as well as the conditions we mentioned at the start of this article, other symptoms of menopause can include thinning hair, dryness of the vaginal and urinary pain or even incontinence. The risk of Osteoporosis is another and, although the other symptoms may be relieved or disappear altogether post-menopause, this won’t. That’s because a loss of oestrogen results in bone thinning and which can ultimately become osteoporosis. Taking HRT can slow down the thinning.

Another, equally as important, benefit of HRT is that it can also improve cardiovascular health and reduce the risk for a woman of having a heart attack.

History and future for HRT 

But how did HRT come about? Well, the news that women didn’t have to suffer the full effects of the menopause was first trumpeted in America, as far back as the early 1940s. Then, the US pharmaceutical giant Wyeth (now Pfizer), introduced Premrin. By 1992 it was the best-selling drug in America.

However, by 2002, HRT was on its way out; the reason being a study by the Women’s Health Institute (WHI) which apparently linked the combined oestrogen and progestogen HRT with an increased risk of women’s contracting breast cancer. The bad press spread rapidly throughout the world with the result that millions of women refused to take HRT (even if it had been helping – for fear of getting cancer) and many doctors wouldn’t prescribe it.

However, one of the lead researchers of that WHI study today admits the study was ‘flawed’ in that the average of the women in the study was 63, with 25 per cent of them aged 70 and over. Also, the risk of breast cancer for the participants was practically the same as that for women with obesity and those who took no exercise at all.

And now… the popularity of HRT is on the rise again, thanks to further studies and positive experiences of women who found the symptoms of menopause just too horrific not to turn to hormone replacement. And, the relief they did is obvious in anecdotal accounts from thousands of women.

Today’s HRT is, of course, subtly different to that of the early 1940s when it first hit the market. But the idea is the same – to re-balance a woman’s hormones and let her experience the pleasure of a symptom-less life once more.

Get in touch!

If you are pre-menopausal or indeed menopausal and suffering some of the symptoms mentioned in this article then do get in touch for help. You can make an appointment by calling 020 7584 4777 or emailing on hello@omniya.co.uk. Or, take a look through the HRT treatments we offer today by visiting our website at www.omniya.co.uk.