What is Bioidentical Therapy?

Bioidentical therapy is one way that people are able to deal with some of the symptoms of getting older. Both men and women can benefit from its use. Some people should not use these hormones and it is important to consider all of an individual's health issues.

Identification

• Bioidentical therapy is the use of hormones that are the same as what a woman would normally produce. The hormone replacement contains estrogen and progesterone.

Benefits

• Benefits for women include combating symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, maintaining bone health, and fixing hormonal imbalances. For men, the benefits are a better mood, increase in muscles, and improvements sexual function.

Concerns

• The risks of using bioidentical hormones occur when they are not balanced in the body. When hormones in the body are unbalanced, a woman can have problems with bleeding heavily, ovarian cysts and fibroids.

Considerations

• Some cancers, such as breast cancer, benefit from an increase in estrogen. Therefore, bioidentical therapy might not be the right choice and other treatments for menopause should be discussed with your doctor.

Warning

• Some bioidentical hormones are custom compounded and not approved by the FDA. Since they are not regulated, it is unclear what exactly is in them and they could be unsafe.