Hormones and Our Bones
Hormones play a huge role for both men and women when it comes to bone health and osteoporosis. This coming Wednesday, June 25th I will interview hormone expert and endocrinologist, Priya Krishnamurthy. Bone loss accelerates for women, starting before menopause when cycles become irregular. Some women can lose 1-3% yearly, for the 5-7 years post-menopause.In an ideal world, a baseline bone density testing should be done before menopause, for those at risk for low bone density or osteoporosis.
Hormone therapy is a reasonable choice for women who have low bone density or osteoporosis, especially during the years surrounding menopause, and who have no contraindications, such as estrogen-related breast cancer in their health history. The use of HT has been shown to aid in the stabilization of bone loss prior to and during menopause.
For decades hormone therapy has been sidelined due to concerns that estrogen may cause breast cancer. Estrogen does not cause breast cancer; however, it can promote breast cancer growth for those women that have estrogen positive breast cancer. Is it ever safe to take estrogen after a diagnosis with estrogen positive breast cancer? Hormone therapy recommendations can be very difficult to navigate.
Some health professionals profess that they are hormone experts. Some “anti-aging” doctors recommend high doses of hormones while other doctors recommend forms of estrogen that are not effective for preventing post-menopausal bone loss. Hormones can be delivered orally, transdermally, vaginally and even rectal applications.
Some of the questions that we will discuss; How long can you take hormones? Can you start HT 10 years post menopause? Should you consider testosterone and does testosterone help bone. Some women are sensitive to progesterone, what can be done in this situation? Does hormone therapy increase the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease?
Come join us at the MasterClass for a discussion regarding bio-identical hormone therapy, risks and benefits.