Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy, commonly known as BHRT, is the process of using supplemental hormone doses with identical chemical structures to the hormones produced naturally by the human body. The purpose of using the therapy is to treat and reduce symptoms of menopause, post-menopause and peri-menopause in women, as well as low testosterone, fatigue, low libido, and andropause in males.
The Creation of Treatments
Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy treatments are created at compounding pharmacies or conventional pharmacies. The treatments can be purchased at conventional pharmacies where the hormones are offered in a specific range of conventional doses, while at a compounding pharmacy, exclusively custom-made hormone cocktails are created. In either situation, these prescriptions are created based on a number of tests that are administered by practitioners. Several prescription medications are made from wild yams and soybeans that have unique compounds chemically processed and transformed into identical copies of the hormones produced by the human body. Nothing that is synthetic, or artificial is used in the making of Bio-Identical Hormones.
The Various Forms of Treatment
Fixed doses are one form of the treatment. Another kind is rhythmic cycles that is based on natural cycles and aims to copy the times during which women were at the peak of their reproductive performance. This is a comparatively newer approach towards BHRT but is rapidly gaining popularity.
The Administration
The bio-identical hormone preparations can be in the form of injections, oral pills/capsules, creams, or surgically implanted pellets.
FDA Approval
While a few bio-identical hormone preparations are produced by drug manufacturers and provided in standardized doses with FDA approval, others are not. These unapproved preparations are developed at compounding pharmacies. Because these are custom-prepared for patients on a patient-to-patient basis, they are not FDA approved.
Custom-made Hormone Preparations
As these are compounded products prepared for individual patients, the products are not standardized. The absence of approval does not necessarily mean that they are bad, it only means that because of the absence of one standardized sample that can be submitted for evaluation to FDA, they cannot be approved. FDA approved BHRT preparations come with several warning information, while compounded products will not. .accompanied byajsfasfkba all.
