HORMONE THERAPY FOR WOMEN IN SHERMAN, TX

You are not imagining it. Night sweats that wreck your sleep, a short fuse you do not recognize, a sex drive that disappeared, brain fog in the middle of a meeting. When hormones shift, especially around perimenopause and menopause, it can feel like your body changed the rules without telling you. Hormone therapy is one of the most effective tools we have to help, and today there are more ways to take it than ever.

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What hormone therapy can help with. Hormone therapy (replacing hormones your body is making less of) is most often used for hot flashes and night sweats, poor sleep, mood changes, vaginal dryness and painful sex, and low sexual desire. But hormones also help protect bone, lowering the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.

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Your options. There is no single best hormone therapy. What works depends on your symptoms, your health history and your preferences, and many women use a combination. The main options include:

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• Estrogen - pills, skin patches, gels or sprays. The most effective treatment for hot flashes and night sweats.

• Progesterone - taken alongside estrogen by women who still have a uterus, to protect the uterine lining.

• Vaginal estrogen - low-dose creams, tablets or rings that treat dryness, irritation and some bladder symptoms right where they start. Learn more on our Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause page.

• Testosterone - has many benefits for women and also can help some women with low sexual desire.

• Compounded bioidentical hormones - custom-mixed creams, capsules or troches (lozenges) prepared by a compounding pharmacy.

• Hormone pellets - small pellets placed under the skin that release hormones over several months.

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A note on coverage: insurance usually does not cover compounded hormones in most cases (including creams), and pellets are not covered by insurance.

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What "bioidentical" actually means. Bioidentical simply means the hormone is chemically the same as the one your body makes. That surprises many women, because several FDA-approved prescriptions, including estradiol patches and gels and micronized progesterone, are bioidentical. Compounded bioidentical hormones are different: they are mixed to order, which allows custom doses. Although their ingredients are FDA-approved, because they are custom made, they themselves are not FDA-approved. We talk through the pros and cons of each so you can decide with confidence.

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How we build your plan. Your first visit is a conversation about what you are feeling, your personal and family history, and what you want from treatment. We usually then order hormone lab testing (and possibly other testing depending on when your last set of labs were done and what was included), and we interpret the results alongside your symptoms rather than chasing a number. From there we start a treatment, check in on how you feel, and adjust over time. Symptoms that look hormonal sometimes are not, so we also look at the bigger picture, including thyroid, B12 and vitamin D, and sometimes even iron, cortisol, or other levels. See our Hormone Imbalance page for more on symptoms and causes.

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Is hormone therapy right for everyone? There is not one type of hormone therapy that is right for everyone. For most healthy women who start within about 10 years of menopause or before age 60, the benefits generally outweigh the risks, but the form and type of hormone used and the one that yields the best results and least risks must be determined by you and your doctor. Your doctor or other healthcare provider will go over your own risks before you start.

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Ready to talk it through? Text or call us at 903-957-0275 to schedule a visit. Our board-certified gynecologists, Dr. Strobel and Dr. Cryer, and our team of nurse practitioners care for women across North Texas and Texoma, with bilingual support.