Are You an Eligible Candidate for Hormone Treatment?

Whether it is the estrogen or progesterone treatment that you are interested in or a combination of the two, you are first going to need to make sure that you are going to be an eligible candidate for the treatment. Of course the first step will be for you to talk to your doctor.

They will perform a few standard tests and ask you certain questions, and the information they get from this they will be able to use to determine whether or not the hormone treatment is going to be the right option for you.

Before you go ahead with the hormone treatment however, there are a few key issues that you are going to need to be aware of.

Hormone Treatment

First you should recognize what the benefits of hormone treatment are. Long-term hormone therapy for the prevention of postmenopausal conditions is no longer routinely recommended, however women take estrogen for short-term relief of menopausal symptoms and often end up gaining protection against various health conditions such as osteoporosis and heart disease.

Risks

It is also important for you to learn about the possible risks that are associated with this therapy, and in fact The Women's Health Initiative found that women taking the combination of estrogen-progestin used in the study had an increased risk of developing certain serious conditions. According to this study, over one year, 10,000 women taking estrogen plus progestin compared with a placebo may experience anything from seven more cases of heart disease to eight more cases of stroke.

Is it for You?

To determine whether or not the hormone treatment is going to be right for you, you are going to need to weigh out the benefits versus the potential risks. Data surrounding hormone replacement therapy can be scary and confusing, but the absolute risk to an individual woman taking hormone therapy is surprisingly low, depending on your personal situation.

Just make sure that you have a serious discussion about this with your doctor and get their opinion as a medical professional. Remember to be honest, for instance when they ask you about your general lifestyle and whether you are taking any medications, you are going to need to tell them everything so that they can ensure the hormone therapy is not going to cause any negative side effects or leave you worse off than you were to begin with.

The bottom line is that as long as you are an eligible candidate for the treatment, this can be a really great option.