Aging can be a frustrating process as your body’s functions begin to slow, leaving you with life-altering side effects, especially at the hands of lower hormone levels. If you’re experiencing changes in your physical and mental health that you can’t explain, a hormone deficit might be to blame, which is where bioidentical hormone replacement therapy comes in.
At Lafferty Family Care, Dr. Scott Lafferty and our team want to ensure that our clients in Bentonville, Arkansas, have the tools they need to navigate every stage of their lives. While there’s little that can be done to stop the passage of time, we can ease the journey by making up for what Mother Nature is taking away — namely your hormones.
Here are five reasons why bioidentical hormone replacement therapy may be right for you.
All too often, hormone replacement therapies are thought to be a woman’s domain thanks to the precipitous drop in hormones that accompanies perimenopause and menopause. While women do experience a sharper drop in their estrogen levels as their ovaries begin to shut down, men also experience declining testosterone levels as they age.
In fact, men’s testosterone levels begin to fall in their 30s, albeit very slowly. But as the years go by, the deficit can add up, leaving older men with increasing side effects because of the decline in their sex hormones.
So whether you’re male or female, you can benefit from bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
As the name suggests, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is just that — a substitute that’s molecularly identical to your own hormones. Our bioidentical hormones are synthesized from a plant chemical that’s extracted from yams. The added benefit of this natural resource is that yams don’t typically contain anything that can set off an allergic reaction, which means your body tolerates the replacement therapy well.
When we administer your bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, we do so using pellets that we place under your skin. These pellets slowly release the bioidentical hormones as needed and can last for several months before you need to come back for more.
This solution is ideal if you’ve been dealing with messy creams or daily pills.
The goal behind bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is to restore your quality of life. For women who are experiencing a bumpy ride through menopause, complete with vaginal dryness, hot flashes, and weight gain, this therapy helps rebalance your hormone levels to reduce these physical side effects.
For men, declining hormone levels can lead to loss of libido, fatigue, and weight gain, which the bioidentical hormone therapy can help address.
While researchers aren’t exactly sure about the effect that hormones have on our mental health, the fact is that many men and women experience mental side effects from lower hormone levels, including anxiety, moodiness, and irritability. Many of our patients simply complain of just “not feeling quite like themselves.”
With bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, our goal is to address not only your physical side effects but to restore your mental clarity again and regulate your moods.
If you’d like to explore bioidentical hormone replacement therapy further, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. Or you can use the online scheduling tool to set up an appointment.
