Hormone therapy involves supplementing hormones that are lacking or out of balance in the body. This can provide relief from unpleasant symptoms and promote overall wellbeing. Vitality Hormone Center provides cutting-edge hormone replacement therapy (HRT) tailored to each patient's unique needs.
There are several reasons why hormone levels may decline prematurely, leading to a host of symptoms that affect quality of life. These include:
Hormone testing can identify where your levels are out of balance. Then, customized hormone replacement regimens can help restore optimal levels so you feel healthy and energized again.
Balancing your hormones offers a wide range of benefits:
Hormone replacement works by restoring hormones to optimal levels within your body. This can be done through:
Systemic therapy delivers hormones through the bloodstream so they travel throughout the body. Options include:
Localized therapy sends hormones directly to specific areas of the body. This includes:
The route of administration is tailored to each patient’s needs through a personalized treatment plan.
Vitality Hormone Center provides comprehensive hormone testing and cutting-edge hormone therapies so patients can regain optimal wellbeing.
During a detailed initial consultation, our practitioners take a full health history and listen closely to all symptoms you’re experiencing. They use this information to create a customized treatment plan.
We also draw blood for baseline hormone testing to precisely identify which hormones are out of balance. This helps guide appropriate treatment.
Hormone levels fluctuate constantly, so it’s crucial to keep monitoring through repeat blood tests every 3-6 months. This allows us to continually adjust dosages and therapies until full symptom relief and hormonal balance is achieved.
We partner closely with a high quality local lab for fast and accurate test results.
In addition to hormone replacement, we offer nutritional supplements, stress reduction techniques and fitness guidance for optimal wellbeing during treatment.
We carry a wide range of FDA-approved bioidentical hormones including pills, patches, gels and creams to specifically treat estrogen or testosterone deficiency.
For women, we also provide therapies for other menopausal symptoms like vaginal dryness.
Treatment plans evolve over time to meet changing needs during peri-menopause, menopause and beyond.
We collaborate with your other healthcare providers to ensure therapies are safe and effective.
Hormone therapy can help transgender individuals align their physical characteristics with their gender identity. Studies show that after medically transitioning, rates of depression and anxiety significantly decrease among transgender people as their outsides begin matching how they feel inside.
There are a variety of hormone therapy options to treat deficiencies or imbalances:
Estrogen therapy replaces estrogen lost during menopause to relieve unpleasant symptoms. Different formulations include:
All estrogen preparations can carry side effects like bloating, breast tenderness, nausea and headaches in some women. So dosages start low and increase slowly based on your response.
We monitor therapy closely to minimize risks.
Estrogen therapy helps relieve moderate to severe hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, urinary symptoms, sleep disturbances and emotional changes caused by menopause or surgical removal of the ovaries.
It may also help prevent weight gain, fatigue, heart disease and osteoporosis associated with low estrogen levels.
Those with a uterus require a progestogen to minimize any increased risk of uterine cancer from unopposed estrogen.
Testosterone is essential for energy, muscle strength, stamina, strong bones, mood regulation and sexual health in both men and women.
Testosterone therapy can take different forms:
In men, testosterone therapy may help alleviate fatigue, depressed mood, reduced muscle mass and sexual dysfunction caused by clearly low testosterone from a medical condition. It is not routinely advised simply due to age-related decline or to enhance vitality.
In women, testosterone supplements might relieve persistent fatigue, low libido and loss of muscle mass, often in combination with estrogen therapy. Effects and ideal dosages remain less studied compared to men.
Careful monitoring helps minimize potential side effects like acne, oily skin, hair loss and prostate issues in men. We collaborate closely with your primary care provider throughout treatment.
DHEA is a steroid hormone precursor produced by the adrenal glands that declines up to 80% from peak levels by age 75. This drop correlates with many age-related changes.
DHEA therapy aims to restore more youthful levels to potentially:
However, despite wide interest, robust studies confirming definitive benefits are still lacking given the complex metabolism of DHEA in the body. And optimal doses balancing potential benefits and risks remain unknown.
Options include over-the-counter topical DHEA creams or customized oral compounded DHEA prescribed in carefully monitored doses.
We stay up-to-date on the evolving research to provide thoughtful guidance about whether a DHEA trial is appropriate.
Recognizing hormone imbalance early is crucial to regaining wellness and preventing long term complications. But symptoms can be complex making proper diagnosis challenging.
Men and women both experience issues like chronic fatigue, trouble sleeping, low libido, emotional changes and reduced stamina as hormones decline. And symptoms overlap with other common conditions.
That’s why specialized expertise is so important to identify what’s truly causing health changes. Detailed history and testing of multiple hormones - not just estrogen and testosterone - offers insight to guide proper treatment.
At Vitality Hormone Center, we dig deep to get to the root cause of your issues. Accurately diagnosing hormone imbalance means timely, targeted therapy to effectively solve problems – not just mask them.
The longer hormone issues go undiagnosed, the greater the effects on physical health and quality of life. So if you aren’t feeling your best, we encourage you to schedule a consultation today.
Our experienced practitioners have advanced training in identifying hormone imbalances and customizing replacement regimens to restore optimal wellness.
We stay current on the latest research and FDA-approved therapies to provide the most effective precision treatment. Patient education and close monitoring ensures safety and positive outcomes.
We also address lifestyle factors like nutrition, fitness, stress reduction and sleep hygiene that profoundly impact hormone health and response to replacement.
What sets Vitality Hormone Center apart is our:
Recapturing health and vitality is possible with comprehensive hormone replacement therapy. Contact Vitality Hormone Center today to start your journey!
Declining or low estrogen levels are incredibly common in menopausal women causing significant unpleasant symptoms along with increased future health risks.
Even young women can experience low estrogen leading to similar issues. And men’s estrogen levels also gradually decrease with age although this rarely causes symptoms.
That’s why timely estrogen testing and replacement is so crucial to regain wellness if levels drop too low prematurely.
Symptoms arise as estrogen withdrawal upsets the balance with other hormones like testosterone leading to widespread effects.
Some common symptoms of declining estrogen include:
Vasomotor:
Vaginal Changes:
Emotional Changes:
Other:
Keep in mind many conditions cause similar non-specific complaints. That’s why at Vitality Hormone Center we dig deeper through careful evaluation and testing to determine whether declining estrogen levels lie at the root of your health changes.
Allowing estrogen deficiency to persist long term increases risks for:
Bone loss and fractures - Estrogen plays an important role building strong bones by improving bone mineral density and calcium absorption from your diet. Postmenopausal estrogen decline speeds bone loss leading to osteoporosis over time if not treated.
Heart disease – Estrogen helps dilate blood vessels and raise “good” HDL cholesterol levels for healthy circulation. So low estrogen after menopause is associated with higher heart disease.
Dementia – Estrogen may support better memory, cognition and healthy brain aging through effects on neurotransmitters and reducing inflammation. Observational studies link starting HRT around the time of menopause with better verbal memory and reduced dementia particularly for Alzheimer’s disease.
Catching and correcting declining estrogen early minimizes likelihood of developing these other health issues.
Many nonspecific symptoms can reflect changing hormone levels. That’s why accurately diagnosing estrogen deficiency requires an in-depth health evaluation plus estrogen lab testing to uncover the root cause.
We take a detailed history asking about:
We also perform a full physical exam checking thyroid, body mass index, blood pressure and breast/pelvic health.
Finally, we order blood tests checking estrogen along with other relevant hormones like FSH, testosterone, prolactin and TSH for comparison. Repeat testing may be needed to clarify results.
There are three primary forms of estrogen we measure:
Estradiol - The most biologically active form that decreases during perimenopause/menopause
Estrone – Less potent form produced after menopause primarily from testosterone conversion in fat cells
Estriol – Weak form unique to pregnancy
Together, these three estrogens decline by 60-80% over a woman’s lifespan. But estradiol drops most dramatically after menopause or surgery causing hot flashes and urogenital symptoms when too low.
So replenishing estradiol with various estrogen preparations can provide great relief!
We also check FSH levels which normally remain low during reproductive years but rise as the ovaries fail needing higher stimulation. So FSH over 30-40 mIU/ml suggests estrogen levels have dropped enough to disturb menstrual cycles and cause perimenopausal symptoms.
Comparing estrogen with testosterone provides insight about their relative balance. And other hormones like TSH and prolactin help uncover complex interplay affecting estrogen levels.
If symptoms are significantly disrupting quality of life, estrogen replacement therapy may provide welcome relief even before lab testing confirms menopausal levels.
However, we can’t emphasize enough the importance of proper testing to uncover subtle hormone issues guiding safe, effective personalized replacement therapy.
At Vitality Hormone Center, restoring wellbeing is our passion. Contact us today to see if estrogen deficiency could be at the root of your health changes.
Testosterone plays a vital role in men’s and women’s overall health. But levels often decline prematurely leading to frustrating symptoms.
Understanding common signs of low testosterone, getting accurate diagnostics and promptly starting treatment can help restore your vitality.
Testosterone deficiency causes nonspecific but disruptive symptoms including:
Physical:
Mental/Emotional:
Sexual:
Other Possible Changes:
Symptoms often develop slowly over years making low testosterone easy to overlook. A blood test is key to confirmation.
The Endocrine Society warns allowing testosterone deficiency to linger raises risks for:
Detecting declining testosterone early provides the chance to correct levels before developing related health issues. Even if total testosterone is near normal, checking “free” testosterone and SHBG levels provides a better picture of how much testosterone tissue actually “sees” .
Distinct symptoms prompt many men to get tested. But others have vague, gradual changes causing them to write off physical decline as “normal aging”.
Given testosterone’s wide-ranging roles, we advise testing sooner rather than later in men noticing health changes to uncover whether hormone imbalance contributes.
Accurately diagnosing testosterone deficiency requires two blood samples tested in the early morning along with a thorough history about symptoms affecting quality of life.
We check total testosterone, free testosterone and Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG).
Total testosterone concentration in the blood provides an overall picture but doesn’t reveal how much is available to stimulate target tissues.
As men age, more testosterone binds to SHBG proteins becoming biologically inactive. Free testosterone gives a better gauge of what tissues actually “see”.
We also calculate another value called bioavailable testosterone combining free with the albumin-bound readily usable portion.
Compare testosterone levels to reference ranges based on age and sex to determine deficiency. Two morning samples are ideal since testosterone levels naturally fluctuate.
Men produce 10-40 times more testosterone than women at every age. But andropause or partial failure of the testes causes a gradual decline in men just like ovaries in menopause.
Low testosterone combined with symptoms warrants treatment to restore strength, pleasure and vitality.
