subject: The Benefits And Drawbacks In Undergoing Hormone Replacement Therapy [print this page] HRT is a term known to many women who are approaching menopausal stage. HRT stands for hormone replacement therapy, a usual medical treatment to alleviate the annoying symptoms associated with menopause. With this, you would understand that HRT is particularly addressed to the needs of the female members of the society.
As women come to this period in their life, they experience menopausal syndrome. There are so many symptoms such hot flashes, irregular heartbeat, mood swings, irritability, anxiety, weight gain (or weight loss to some) and many more untoward feelings. This happens because the ovaries now fail to produce hormones. This happens to all women when they approach mid-life, late 40 or early 50. In order to alleviate the feeling and discard the symptoms, some are advised to go on HRT or hormonal replacement therapy.
Replacing the female hormones consist of prescribed medicines to be taken by women. As said, these are prescribed drugs so taking the pills should be upon the advice of a physician or better is a gynecologist. The medication will take charge of the hormonal imbalance caused by menopause. Estrogen and progesterone are the two lacking hormones in the female human system that needs to be restored.
Hormonal therapeutic approach to menopause had been around for several decades. And because of the positive effects, these were prescribed more often. These pills were approved by FDA (Food and Drug Administration) which makes the treatment appealing. Being FDA approved connotes safety. Going back to the history of this treatment, it had been scientifically discovered that this does not only treat the symptoms of loss estrogen and progesterone, this is also good in the treatment of loss of bone density. However, this is not all benefits as there are drawbacks and adverse effects.
Benefits of hormone replacement therapy
The benefits of this treatment had been stated that of alleviating the feeling caused by the syndrome. With this, mid-aged women begin to feel better. With the protection against loss of bone density, an incidence of fractures and broken bones is diminished. The treatment had also been known to decrease the possibility of acquiring heart ailments.
Drawbacks and adverse effects
There had been researches that showed the danger of taking estrogen without progesterone. This increases the risk of cancer of the uterus. This also increases the risk of blood clots and abnormality in the mammograms and the therapy is suspected to be the cause of breast tumor.
Fear of the adverse effects had caused the decrease in patronage for this kind of treatment. What had been done is to reduce the dosage in order to lessen the adverse effects. However, there are studies that disclosed the fact that the benefits are too enormous and outweigh the negatives. But then, with the different health risks associated with hormone replacement therapy, prescription of the medication is being carefully considered.
