Female hormone therapy isn’t just for hot flashes. If you’ve experienced mood changes with your periods, birth control pills, or menopause, this is not news to you. Just like oxygen, water and blood sugar, hormones have an important role in every part of your body.
We experience a broad array of mental & emotional changes as our hormones change. Is it any surprise, then, that balancing or replacing those hormones can help your mood?
If you are like most women, you’ll experienced a few of these before or after menopause:
- Irritability
- Weepiness
- Depression & fatigue
- Anxiety
Tired and feeling blue ever since your periods ended? You are not alone. Don’t worry, science is catching up!
This month, JAMA Psychiatry published results from a randomized clinical trial showing that perimenopausal and post-menopausal women were significantly less likely to develop depression if taking bio-identical hormones.
January 10, 2018
“Conclusions: Twelve months of [transdermal estradiol and oral micronized progesterone] were more effective than placebo in preventing the development of clinically significant depressive symptoms...”
Clinically, I see my patients prove this to be true. And it’s not only true for women in menopause. I’ve observed:
- Men with depression able to stop antidepressants once on testosterone
- Younger women with less depression & anxiety once on progesterone
When I recommend hormone support, I rarely just prescribe a standard estrogen patch. Individuals deserve to have a complete picture of their hormone health to ensure safer prescription therapies and better symptom relief. This means quality labs and individualized hormone prescriptions.
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