Hormone Replacement Therapy May Help Your Heart
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You might be at the point in your life where you have to have hormone replacement therapy. One of the reasons that this therapy is needed has to do with the changes in hormonal balance during times of post or actual menopause.
When taken correctly, hormone replacement therapy or HRT works to bring the hormones back into balance and you end up feeling better. You might be aware that HRT is one of the most commonly prescribed treatments for people who are struggling from a loss of estrogen or the estrogen-progesterone imbalance that can occur before and during menopause.
The replacement treatment can bring relief to side effects such as insomnia, mood swings, hot flashes, night sweats and low libido. It used to be that once you were thought to be in menopause, you were given a prescription for HRT – and for good reason.
The hormones that need to be replaced aren’t just to alleviate the symptoms associated with menopause. The estrogen that your body produces is needed to help your body function from head to toe.
Without enough of it, your entire body is impacted – especially the heart. Without enough estrogen, your LDL cholesterol can rise drastically into the warning zone while it decreases your good cholesterol.
When you take HRT, it helps keep your cholesterol level for both the good and the bad kind where they need to be. Not only that, but HRT fights against constriction in your blood vessels.
It also promotes overall cardiovascular health. It’s true that HRT is known to raise the risk for the development of blood clots. But several factors weigh into a woman’s odds of this happening. If she’s a smoker, used birth control pills or is obese, then her risk of developing blood clots on HRT is greater than a non-smoker, healthy weight woman who did not use birth control pills long term.
If you’re someone who’s experiencing hormone levels that are off balance, you’re at high risk of having a heart related incident such as a heart attack because estrogen is needed to keep the known risks (bad cholesterol, narrowing of the arteries) of heart disease low.
Any woman who has a history of heart related health problems should not take HRT. Though studies have shown that the adjustment period of being on HRT can be difficult, the long term prognosis for women with unbalanced hormones is better than not being on it.
Just because you start HRT doesn’t mean that you have to stay on it. You can use it to bring your hormones back into balance and it can be used just while you’re going through menopause so that you don’t have to deal with all of the side effects that come along with that.
