Why Haven’t My Hormones Made Me Feel Better?

Estrogen therapy has been given like it was candy for many years. With children, when they are crying in a store what do we do to pacify them? We promise them some candy that will make them quit complaining. When patients complain of hormonal symptoms, it is standard procedure to write a prescription for a hormone pill. Start with the green one or maybe the red one or maybe even 2 of the yellow ones. Keep going with this process until the patient says I feel better. Then we must have done our job, the patient is happy again.

This is not the way to approach hormone deficiency. Where is the laboratory evidence before and after the hormones are given to assure that the job was done correctly? For other illnesses don’t most good physicians always check appropriate lab values? It should be no different with hormone therapy. Demand that they check levels before you start and then after you have been on them for at least a month. Inquire about the proper date to take the blood work, for some women it matters as to what time of the month to draw the blood work.

Let’s talk about some of the hormones that many women have been on for the past 40 years. Many women said their hot flashes and night sweats were relieved but that was about it. Sex drive was still really low if they had one at all. They couldn’t really concentrate as well as they use to, short term memory was still a factor. Most common side effect was weight gain. This is what I hear every day from patients that do a consult with us. They are so ready to feel better and feel like they use to. The most common prescriptions prescribed are pills that have conjugated estrogens; some have progestins in the pill as well. With only a few sizes to choose from, the physician does the best he or she can with picking your first trial dose. If it didn’t quite work lets do strength, if all the strengths are tried and they don’t work lets switch to another pill all together…

The only way to reach “back to normal feeling” is to look at the hormone levels and start replacing them using something that is identical to your own body’s chemical structure and recheck levels to see when you have reached the level you are looking for. Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement is the only form that I know of that can relieve all symptoms and bring back “normal feeling” or physiological levels.

If you are on hormone replacement and are still having the symptoms mentioned in our ad on the first page than I would look a little deeper and have the proper blood work drawn before and after you start taking hormone replacement.

Featured in Woman's Way Journal Oct-05   / Written by: Angie Fielden Solutions Pharmacy HRT Specialist