You’ve been looking forward to your post-reproductive years — no more periods and no more worrying about an unplanned pregnancy. All too soon, you find these benefits are outweighed by new challenges, such as hot flashes, night sweats, and painful sex due to vaginal dryness, to name just a few side effects of menopause.
If your transition through menopause is bumpy, board-certified gynecologist Dr. Jack Tubbs and the team here at Associates in Obstetrics & Gynecology want you to know that there are solutions, starting with hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Each year in the United States, about one million women make the transition through menopause, which occurs when you stop having your periods for 12 months in a row.
While the freedom from periods is certainly a benefit, the sudden drop in certain reproductive hormones, such as estrogen, estradiol, and progesterone, can lead to a number of changes in your body, including:
About 80% of women report hot flashes and night sweats, and a majority of them describe the symptoms as moderate to severe. We’re still unclear as to the exact cause-and-effect mechanism between your hormones and your body temperature, but there’s no question that perimenopause and menopause are responsible for the hot flashes.
During the day, the hot flashes are troublesome enough, but when they occur at night, you can lose valuable sleep.
Your estrogen hormones tasked themselves with ensuring that your vaginal tissues were healthy, elastic, and well-lubricated to encourage intercourse and childbirth. When these hormones dry up, so can you vaginal tissues. In fact, more than half of women experience uncomfortable vaginal dryness after menopause.
Another concern is that women lose bone density after menopause. In fact, half of women over the age of 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis.
The above are just some of the more common issues that are associated with menopause, and there are others, which range from urinary incontinence to mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
Whatever your combination of side effects, the odds are good that hormone replacement therapy can help.
If you’re experiencing quality-of-life and/or health issues that stem from the drop in your hormone levels, it makes sense that replenishing these hormones is the best solution.
At our practice, we offer bioidentical hormone pellets, which are molecularly identical to your natural hormones. We place the pellets under your skin, and they slowly release the hormones into your system over the course of about four months, at which point you return for another round.
Through HRT, we can greatly reduce most of the symptoms we list above, allowing you to enjoy your postmenopausal years.
To learn more about how HRT can improve your symptoms during menopause, please contact our office in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to schedule an appointment.
