When you experience menopause, your body can go through uncomfortable changes due to the decrease in hormone production. Hormone replacement therapy can help you regain control and feel better.
Women experience menopause symptoms in varying degrees. Some may struggle with their sexual libido, while others find that they toss and turn all through the night. Every woman has a different experience as her body changes from childbearing years to menopause. The one thing most women can agree on is the drain menopause symptoms inflict on their lives.
The cause of your distress, as a woman going through menopause, is your ever-changing hormones. Hormones control so much of your daily functions that when their production begins to wane, it can be a roller coaster ride of symptoms. The decrease and imbalance of estrogen and progesterone, caused by the shutting down of your ovaries, is the primary reason.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can greatly improve your menopause symptoms by restoring hormonal balance as your body goes through this natural process. Dr. Amy Bruner, a gynecologist serving Portland, Oregon, takes a holistic approach to treating menopause symptoms, including offering HRT.
Here are five menopause symptoms that hormone replacement therapy can make much more manageable, and maybe even make disappear altogether.
1. Night sweats and hot flashes
You know how it plays out. You’re in a meeting, and someone is giving a presentation. All is fine until you feel your inner furnace crank to high. You flush, begin to perspire, your heart starts pounding, and you start fanning yourself furiously to stem the perspiration that seems to be pouring out of every pore. During your waking hours, these “personal saunas” are called hot flashes, perhaps the most common, and widely recognized menopause symptom.
Up to 80% of menopausal women experience hot flashes. When your hot flashes hit at night, they’re referred to as night sweats. Either way, they interrupt your life and cause anxiety and exhaustion. HRT can be a real game-changer by balancing your hormones so those surges stop, or slow down immensely.
2. Insomnia
Just as night sweats can leave you exhausted the next day, menopause-related insomnia can rob you of the sleep that is so necessary to good health. When you don’t get enough sleep, you feel and look like it. Poor sleep can also cause you to gain weight, weaken your immune system, and make your other menopause symptoms worse.
If you’re tired of being tired and of dreaming about your bed all day, only to feel like someone shot you full of adrenaline when your head hits the pillow, HRT can balance your estrogen and provide relief, along with a good night’s sleep — finally!
3. Mood swings
Do you feel ready to snap at any moment? Or are you so blue that a casual remark by the deli clerk can make you dissolve into tears? These mood swings are more than likely the result of your ever-fluctuating hormone balance. Once you begin HRT, your mood can lighten and you feel like yourself again, helping preserve your relationships.
4. Vaginal dryness
Vaginal dryness impacts so much of your life. Sexual intercourse becomes painful, or certainly loses its spontaneity, and you may feel a constant itching, burning, and discomfort. When you experience vaginal dryness, you’re also at risk for bacterial or yeast infections. By balancing your hormones with HRT, you can restore your natural lubrication and resolve vaginal dryness.
5. Osteoporosis
Estrogen and progesterone are essential to preserving bone mass and preventing the shrinking, brittle bone disease known as osteoporosis. Not only is osteoporosis a threat to your bones, but a lack of bone mass also can greatly impact your quality of life as you age, diminishing your mobility.
Estrogen promotes the activity of osteoblasts, which are cells that produce bone. The function of these cells is essential to bone growth and sustainability. HRT can guard against the loss of your bone mass and help you to ease on into your senior years.
Don’t risk your future health or spend another day in the uncomfortable throes of menopause symptoms. Restore balance to your body. For more on how HRT can help you, make an appointment with Dr. Bruner by calling the office or using the online booking tool.
