Do You Have Hormone Imbalance Symptoms?

There are a lot of baby boomers living in the United States who are females. In fact, in 2006, the oldest of the baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 started turning 60 years old. As of July 1, 2005, an estimate of 78.2 million baby boomers was noted, and 50.8% of which are females. Thus, you would expect that everyday in 2006, 7,918 people turn 60 - in hours, that would be 330. (Source: US Census Bureau)

The figures above appropriately explains why many women are experiencing the symptoms of menopause currently. And if you are one of the 40 million women who are feeling the discomfort associated with menopause, then it pays to understand the facts.

Just exactly what is menopause? It can be defined as the cessation of menstruation for a full year. Menopause represents the end of a woman's reproductive years, and usually happens naturally around age 51 or 52 when the ovaries stop producing estrogen.

There are some women, however, who experience menopause immediately - this happens when their ovaries are surgically removed. Notwithstanding the time of the experience, menopause indeed has a big impact on women's health, mental state of mind and quality of life.

It was the year 2003 when the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) frightened women and doctors alike with the warning not to take hormones. Most women do not know the real facts about the WHI. Those women above 65 years old who are taking PremPro and Premarin, for instance, were found to have experienced cardiovascular diseases, cancer and osteoporosis - these results were comprehensively discussed, no less. Bioidentical hormones weren't part of this research.

The WHI also conducted an in-depth study on postmenstrual women - particularly on the most common causes of death, disability and impaired quality of life. It was an organized attempt to correct the inequities in women's health research and therefore provide practical information to women and their doctors. The WHI focused on synthetic hormone replacement therapy, dietary patterns plus calcium and Vitamin D supplements and their effects on the prevention of heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. The reason being because the incidence of these three diseases increases after a woman undergoes menopause.

There were about nine million American women who were still taking some form of Premarin in November of 2003. One of its forms is PremPro. Another one, Premari- stands for Pregnant Mares' Urine (PREgnant MARes' urINe); PMU for short. These are both synthetic hormones.

The release of the WHI results had an impact on the above-mentioned statistics. There was a reduction of 25 percent of the approximately 12 million women taking PMU based medications in 1999.

The facts suggest that among the 55 million post-menopausal women in the United States, around 1/3 of them are on estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) or hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Of this number, around 49 percent currently use "PMU" based products, which are down from a high of 79 percent in 1999.

There are still plenty of women who do not understand hormone therapy, and for those women who are scared, and still don't take any Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), the concept of natural bio-identical hormones is becoming more interesting. And with so many products available, even that has become perplexing. The fact that the government is controlling all bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) remedies adds to all this quandary.

Women no longer have to be baffled about hormone replacement therapy. People have gotten used to talking about bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) in menopause medicine. There's a confusion in the use of the terms, though, because hormones aren't really bio-identical. Natural hormones aren't bio-identical until the body can recognize them as hormones, and they're not considered restoration unless what has been lost is truly replaced. They can be mimicked, but they're not identical. Furthermore, they can't be replaced, instead, they can be restored. Lastly,hormone therapy needs to be rhythmic, or biomimetic, for it to become truly accurate.

What is the difference between biomimitec hormones and bio-identical hormones? Simply put, biomimetic hormones are those that are derived from natural sources and have the capability to mimic the natural undulating rhythms of the hormone blood levels in a normal menstrual period. Undulating is to cause to move in a smooth wavelike motion.

To be consistent with the chemical structure of hormones produced naturally by the human body, bio-identical hormone products are usually formulated from plant sources. Technically, the body cannot differentiate bio-identical hormones from the ones that are produced by the ovaries, however, different forms can be recognized by the various cells. So it makes sense that bio-identical hormone results might also be different.

Bio-identical hormone compounds need to be presented biomimetically for them to be biologically as authentic as human hormones. Recognition at the receptor cites are largely about presentation (like serum level, timing and molecular structure.)

The accurate terminology then is biomimitec hormone restoration therapy - it is biomimetic and it mimics the rise and fall of hormone blood levels during a normal menstrual cycle. That is Biomimetic - not bio-identical.

What is the rhythm then? The body's rhythms are governed by a master clock that works much like a conductor. It activates one section of the body's orchestra as another quiets down, taking its primary cue from light signals in order to stay consistent with the 24-hour day. Our body's hormones surge and ebb to this maestro's wand.

What is considered as the circadian clock in our cells measures one 24 hour spin of the Earth. The moon - and your body - tracks that repetitive cycle for 28 days. There's only one patented bioidentical hormone product on the market that utilizes this natural rhythm of nature to establish the proper doses of estradiol and progesterone that mimic the natural hormones produced by your body. The topical creams and their amounts change throughout the 28-day cycle to restore the hormone levels of youth.

The most recent treatment for women in menopause is multi-phasic rhythmic dosing of bio-mimetic hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) using natural hormones in a bio-mimetic way. Over 2 million women in the U.S. utilize customized hormones for menopause symptoms.

Another projection: by 2030, there will be 57.8 million baby boomers and 54.9% of them will be female. By then, the age of those baby boomers shall be between 66 and 84. Thanks to the relief of the rhythm of Biomimetic Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), hopefully they'll all live more happily.

Menopause usually affects women in their late 30s or early 40s. It can be extremely harmful both to the woman and her partner.