Top 5 Myths About Hormone Replacement Therapy

I am here to debunk the top five myths of hormone therapy for men and women.

Myth #1: Hormone Replacement Therapy causes cancer.

So I’ve been a nurse practitioner for about 18 years(Angela Jayes, CNP). When I was in school, I was told, oh my gosh, never, ever, ever give a woman a hormone. You will give her cancer and she will die. So there was a study that came out that there were four women that were given Hormone Replacement Therapy(HRT) hormones, and they were synthetic hormones, The synthetic hormones actually do cause cancers. There’s an increased risk of cancer with those. But if you look at the bioidentical or you look at the more natural things that are out there, those are not going to cause cancer. So if you are using what we use at our clinic is biote, that is a program that’s specific for each individual based off your symptoms, your history and your labs. Those are safe and they actually prevent those cancers. What are some of the synthetics? The main one that you probably have heard of is Premarin. Premarin is pregnant mare urine. So it is processed and it’s usually a cream. And you use it for some hormonal related issues and it can cause cancer. Some of your birth controls can cause cancer. They are all synthetic so you need to be really careful and educate yourself and know that yes, that is a myth 100% a myth. That study has been debunked multiple times. Bioidentical hormones do not cause cancer. They actually prevent cancers.

Myth #2: HRT is only for women going through menopause.

That is actually not correct. Because if you think about all the foods that we eat are processed foods, McDonald’s, Burger King, even our just our meats that you get at the grocery store are full of hormones. Those hormones cause a dysfunction in our body hormones. So if you think about what we’re eating and how our hormones are getting out of whack faster, then it is not true. I’ve actually tested people 26-30, actually, even 22. But you can’t really do anything with anybody under 26. They actually had low testosterone. But another crazy piece of that is, is if you go to the doctor, a lot of times they’ll tell you it’s normal. So as soon as you start getting into that premenopausal-menopausal-post menopausal, your testosterone is going to be right around 12, maybe 25 if you’re lucky. For women, it should be 150 to 250. Men are running probably right around 300. They should be 1100 to 1400. This is based off of the biote program. And that’s what we use at our clinic. It’s individualized and it’s specific for each person. So why do we need to walk around and feel like we’re in menopause? Who wants to be in menopause? Let’s actually do something about it. But you need to go and get those labs checked by somebody that understands and doesn’t believe these myths, so definitely get it checked.

Myth #3: Hormone Replacement Therapy will make you gain a lot of weight.

It can make you gain some weight. It doesn’t make you gain a lot of weight. But if you watch what you eat. So if you eat clean, what does that mean? Proteins. Complex carbs. Stay away from the simple carbs. You won’t gain weight. The weight that you might gain is water weight. It’s usually the first round, as if you go on you won’t gain weight, but if you do, there’s a remedy. We always have a remedy for every side effect that’s potential with bioidentical hormones. So you just need to talk to your provider and they will educate you prior to getting the bioidentical hormones, but you just need to make sure you’re upfront with your provider that that’s a concern, because actually it’s not a big concern and it is a treatable if it does happen and it’s always water weight, it’s not fat. If you eat garbage, of course you’re going to gain the fat. But if you eat clean, you don’t have to worry about that. Not at all.

Myth #4: Natural remedies are safer and more effective than Bioidentical HRT.

Let’s think about this. And actually we’re going to use my husband as an example for this. So when we first started dating he was having low-T issues. So I actually went to GNC or you know, other vitamin shops that are out there. But I went to GNC, I purchased him this pill, this vitamin that he could take that should boost his natural testosterone. Well, we checked his bloodwork. It wasn’t really working. So then we went to the injections, the synthetics. Because at the time, that’s all I knew. So I started giving him those synthetics. And then he was going up and down and up and down. So he was just constant rollercoaster of emotion and feelings and things like that, because the synthetics don’t stay in your system very long. Then we switched him to the bioidentical pellets. He feels great. He has a constant nice level. He stays steady. he feels good. Emotionally, everything is better. We’ll just leave it at that. But everything is better if you do the bioidentical, it’s more natural. It’s what our body needs and our body recognizes it as its own. Sure, you can try those vitamins. I personally feel you’re probably just throwing your money away. If you want to do that and you want to try that route first, go right ahead, but go to somebody and get your level checked. That’s important. Don’t just say, oh, I don’t. I have these symptoms. I’m going to go try a pill, get your go to a medical professional and have it checked, and then actually get the education that you need to make a good decision about what’s right for you.

Myth #5: You can’t stay on Hormone Replacement Therapy indefinitely without any risk.

That’s a huge myth. I’ve actually been on it two plus years now. and there’s people that can be on it. As long as you want to feel good and you want to feel like you’re not in menopause, or you don’t want to feel like you’re getting old, you can stay on it. Now, you need to make sure, like I’ve said, that you get a medical professional and you’re actually being checked because you need to be monitored often just to make sure that you’re not having any issues or problems. So you may get high levels. You may have to take a break, something like that. But once you start, you’re really going to like the way you feel, and you’re not probably going to want to go off of them so you can stay on them as long as you want. I’ve given them to 75 year old males and 73 year old females, and it’s, you know, why stop the things that make us feel good, you know, so we can keep doing them? Absolutely. We can keep doing them. They do not cause problems and it actually protects your bones. It protects our breasts. It protects you from cancer, can help with your cholesterol, heart disease, all of those things. Prostate issues. It can actually help you with all of those. So why would you want to stop something that is making you feel good? So if you’re being monitored and you’re being checked often, it’s it’s safe. Trust me, it’s safe.

Bonus Myth #6: Testosterone Therapy is only for men.

So we’re going to give you a number six a bonus myth. A lot of people believe, or you never knew that a woman could get hormones. That is a total myth. Just because of that study that we talked about, about back in number one. That is why all of us women are told that we can’t get hormones, that they’re going to kill us, they’re going to give us cancer. We can actually. And actually, testosterone is more important for women than men. Our(women) levels are lower. They(men) need a higher level. But it’s really important for us to feel normal. Depression, anxiety, foggy brain, low libido. You know, all of these things, we’re, you know, oh, you’re just getting old. Who wants to feel like you’re just getting old? Let’s stop the process. At least slow the process. Let’s feel good as we get old. So hormones are just as good for men as they are for women. So we need to take control of our lives and make ourselves feel better. So listen ladies, you can get hormones.

So we talked about the five myths and a bonus myth. So educate yourself, they’re debunked. They are not true. Educate yourself. Take care of yourself. Be healthy. Be happy. Enjoy life.