Your hormones are responsible for a variety of functions in your body, from your metabolism to your sexual function to your mood.
When your hormone levels fluctuate, these other functions in your body are naturally affected.
One of the biggest causes of fluctuations in hormone levels in women is menopause. Pregnancy and menstruation also affect hormone levels, but these are usually temporary fluctuations that resolve quickly.
Menopause, however, is an entirely different beast.
At San Antonio Prime Wellness, we help our menopausal clients navigate this new time in their lives with fewer unpleasant symptoms through hormone replacement therapy.
What Is Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women?
Hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, is a type of medication that contains female hormones.
The main goal of HRT is to replace estrogen lost through menopause. When you experience menopause, your ovaries stop making estrogen. This change results in a variety of unpleasant symptoms that decrease your quality of life and can make a lot of everyday things difficult.
Signs You May Need HRT
What are the signs you need hormone replacement therapy?
Low Libido
Everyone’s libido levels are different. Some people have naturally lower libido levels. However, it is not normal for your libido to change suddenly.
When your estrogen levels decrease, it can become more difficult to feel sexually aroused. This change is natural since women aren’t fertile after menopause and can no longer produce offspring.
However, just because a decreased sex drive after menopause may be natural doesn’t mean you have to live with it.
Hormone therapy can help you experience a boost not only in your sex drive but also in your overall sexual interest.
HRT can also address symptoms of painful sex that are caused by both vaginal dryness and the thinning of your vaginal tissues, another symptom of menopause. These issues contribute to making sex uncomfortable and even painful for some women.
Constant Vaginal Burning and Itching
When you have symptoms of vaginal itching or vaginal burning, you certainly want to be seen by your doctor. These symptoms can be indicative of sexually transmitted infections or yeast infections.
If these issues are ruled out, however, the burning and itching sensations are likely due to decreased estrogen.
One of the roles of estrogen in your body is to keep your vagina lubricated. Estrogen also maintains the thickness and elasticity of your vaginal tissues.
When your body’s estrogen levels are low, usually due to menopause, your vaginal tissues thin and become inflamed, resulting in vaginal atrophy.
HRT can help address these issues and make everyday life and sex more enjoyable.
Severe Night Sweats
Everyone gets a little sweaty at night from time to time. But your hormones play a big role in regulating the internal temperature of your body.
Decreased hormone levels can result in expanded blood vessels, which contribute to creating heat in your body that results in night sweats.
Mood Swings
An obnoxious stigma around menopause (and female hormones in general) is mood swings. Women experiencing hormonal changes are frequently the butt of jokes, but these issues are anything from laughable.
Estrogen is linked to your brain’s serotonin production, which is also known as the feel-good hormone. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in regulating your mood and emotions.
Therefore, when your estrogen levels plummet, your serotonin production is disrupted, which greatly affects your mood.
When your estrogen is low, you can experience mood swings no matter what is happening in your life since the root cause of the issue is in your body and your brain. Luckily, hormone therapy can replace depleted hormones and help regulate your mood so you can feel like your old self again.
Insomnia
Chronic insomnia can wreak havoc on your life and contribute to:
- Issues with memory and concentration
- Distracted driving
- Anxiety or depression
- Increased risk of potentially life-threatening conditions like heart disease or high blood pressure
Insomnia isn’t just the inability to fall asleep; instead, it can involve difficulty staying asleep, waking up earlier than normal, and sleeping less overall.
Some in the medical industry believe that insomnia is a symptom of a symptom; in other words, it is a symptom of anxiety, depression, bladder problems, night sweats, and so on.
When other symptoms of depleted estrogen are addressed, your sleep hygiene and health can improve.
Bladder Problems
As if all the other issues around menopause weren’t enough, menopause can also weaken your urethra.
This weakening creates a host of urinary problems. For example, it’s very common to experience incontinence during everyday activities like coughing or laughing. These bladder problems can also keep you up at night, contributing to insomnia.
Hot Flashes
Hot flashes are one of the most common complaints among women who are experiencing hormonal changes due to menopause.
The lack of estrogen toys with your body’s hypothalamus, which begins to misjudge whether you’re hot or cold. This misjudgment creates the domino effect that results in uncomfortable hot flashes.
Hair Loss
Finally, depleted estrogen levels can affect the health of your hair.
When your female hormone levels start to drop, your hair grows much more slowly than normal. In some cases, the decreased hormones trigger a response in your androgens, shrinking your hair follicles and resulting in hair loss.
Both of these contribute to thinning hair.
Start HRT Today
If you have experienced any of the common symptoms of menopause — or you’re approaching menopause and want to try to prevent these symptoms — consider HRT at San Antonio Prime Wellness in San Antonio, TX. Contact us today for a free consultation.