What are hormones?

Hormones drive our lives. They are messenger substances in our body that determine our metabolism, growth, energy, reproduction, feelings, health and much more. The world of hormones is very diverse. They work through complex reactions and connections in the body. They all belong together like a network and are interconnected. 

If the hormones become imbalanced, this can lead to severe complaints. This is often the case in the female cycle. Many young women suffer from premenstrual syndrome. But especially during the menopause and in the menopause, many women have complaints that are due to an unbalanced hormone balance. Men also often feel the hormonal imbalance as they get older, the so-called andropause.

But these are only the common examples. Stress at work and during leisure time, unusual emotional events, an unrhythmic lifestyle (shift work) and much more. All this can quickly bring our hormone balance into imbalance.

A lack of thyroid hormones, which are primarily responsible for energy and metabolism, can also throw us out of balance.

It is important to determine the hormones in the blood. Often lifestyle measures and a change in diet can already contribute a lot to balancing the hormonal equilibrium. But this is always not enough.

In such cases, therapy with bioidentical hormones can help.

What is bioidentical hormone therapy?

It is a therapy with hormones that have exactly the same biochemical structure as the body's own hormones. The plant raw material for this comes from the yam root. It is the plant hormone diosgenin. It is modified by certain chemical processes and is then identical to human hormones, i.e. identical to the body. Hormone imbalances can thus be treated naturally and without side effects.

Indications for a therapy with bioidentical hormones

Examples:

• Burn Out
• Premenstrual syndrome
• PCO syndrome (polycystic syndrome)
• Potency disorder
• Hashimoto's thyroiditis
• Postpartum depression
• Hot flushes
• Insomnia
• Desire to have children
• Depression
• Neurodermatitis
• Memory problems
• Lack of libido
• Lichen sclerosus
• Hypothyroidism
• Migraine

Bio-identical vs. artificial hormones

Regular hormone replacement therapy is treatment with synthetic, i.e. artificially produced, hormones. The best-known examples are contraceptive methods such as the anti-baby pill, the hormone-releasing intrauterine device, three-month injections or menopause therapy. Their chemical structure does not match the human hormone structure and has no developmental capacity, which severely limits their numerous functions. Long-term therapy with these hormones is not known to be free of side effects. [1]

Is bioidentical hormone therapy dangerous?

In two studies [2], bioidentical hormones were compared with artificial hormones. The bioidentical hormones did not favour breast cell growth.

Bibliography

1 Clin Exp Obstet Gynecol. 2011;38(3):225-7. Br J Pharmacol. 2014 Nov;171(22):5032-48. Eur J Intern Med. 2017 Jul;42:54-60. Obstet Gynecol. 2014 Aug;124(2 Pt 1):292-9. N Engl J Med. 2017 Dec 7;377(23):2228-2239.

2 Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2007 Jan;101(2):125-34. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2012 Oct;28 Suppl 2:12-5.