Is Hormone Therapy Safe for Menopause? There is no simple answer to the question since in reality, Hormone Therapy can be beneficiary but the use also processes some medical risk. The best way to know how safe Hormone Therapy can be for women in menopause is to understand both the benefit of using Hormone Therapy and the medical risk it carries.
What is Hormone Therapy for Menopause?
Hormone Therapy is a kind of Hormone replacement therapy, a form of medication containing female hormones to boost or replace the hormones body no longer produce after menopause. On menopausal stage or close to menopause, women always develop some discomforting menopausal symptoms such as vaginal dryness and hot flashes among others, Hormone therapy is prescribed as the most effective treatment for menopausal symptoms. But just as other medicines, hormone therapy has its risks just as its benefits.
Why do Menopausal Women need Hormone Therapy?
Menopause is a normal change in any woman life when their period stops, mostly between the ages of 45 to 55. But this change always comes with a cost. During this menopausal stage, woman’s body starts to produce less and less of estrogen and progesterone hormones. These Lower hormone levels in menopause may lead to a lot of menopausal symptoms such as Hot flashes, dry vagina, shrinking of the vagina, Thinning of bones (osteoporosis) and Night sweats.
Hormone Therapy for menopause is seen has a standard treatment for these symptoms. But not all women need Hormone Therapy because many of these changes will go away over time without treatment for some women while some others don’t even experience most of the menopausal symptom.
What are the Benefits of Hormone Therapy?
Hormone Therapy for menopause can have a lot of health benefit but it all depends on the type of Hormone Therapy. The benefit gain from taking systemic hormone therapy is different from what you get from taking low-dose vaginal preparations of estrogen and other type of Hormone Therapy. Some of the common benefit of Hormone Therapy for menopause includes;
- Reduce osteoporosis risk by increasing bone mineral density to stop thinning of bones in the body.
- Hormone therapy improves vaginal dryness which significantly reduces pain with sexual activity.
- Reduction in the frequency of hot flushes.
- Improvement in sleep, muscle aches and night sweats.
- Reduction in vasomotor symptoms.
- Improvement in mood changes.
- Taking Hormone therapy can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
There are some other benefit of Hormone therapy depending on the type, dosage and the duration of treatment. Hormone therapy should not be a continues treatment, treatment should be stopped within a period. Although long-term protective effect for women who take it for a few years, but some benefit may decline after discontinuation of Hormone therapy.
What are the Risks of the use of Hormone Therapy?
The risk of Hormone Therapy for menopause also varies from the type of treatment to the dose. For some women, Hormone Therapy may increase their chances of developing diseases such as breast cancer, gall bladder disease, strokes, heart attacks and blood clots.
To be safe, it is recommended to consult your doctor on the type of Hormone Therapy that will be best for you and the period you should take it.
Who Should not take Hormone Therapy for Menopause?
Hormone therapy is considered risky for some women because of either their medical history or their current medical condition. Some includes;
- Women that have problems with vaginal bleeding.
- That has had certain kinds of cancers, stroke or heart attack.
- Women that have had blood clots, liver disease or think they are pregnant.