Hormone replacement therapy has changed drastically over the past decade. Today, it’s all about personalization: Medications are tailored to individuals — there’s no more one-size-fits-all treatment. Physicians and compounding pharmacists work together with both men and women to ensure that their medications are specific to their body and their needs.
It’s called compounded bioidentical hormone therapy — cBHT:
- Compounded because it’s made just for you, like a tailored suit.
- Bioidentical because it’s identical to your body’s natural hormones, like estradiol, progesterone, testosterone and DHEA
- Hormone therapy because your body (like many people’s!) isn’t making enough of it.
cBHT has been used for decades and improved a lot of lives! And if you think it’s just about menopause, you might be surprised at some of the other conditions cBHT is used for:
- Infertility
- Postpartum Depression
- Premenstrual Syndrome
- Female Sexual Dysfunction
- Vaginal Dryness
- Osteoporosis
- Chronic Fatigue
- Fibromyalgia
- Endometriosis
- Andropause
- Hypothyroidism
- Hypoadrenalism
cBHT is a highly customizable medication that your compounding pharmacist will prepare especially for you (with a prescription, of course). And not only will the hormones be created just for you, so will the dosage form. There are a lot of options, so be sure to talk to your prescriber and your compounding pharmacist:
- Oral/vaginal capsules
- Topical creams or gels
- Sublingual (under the tongue) lozenges/troches
- Suppositories
- Oral suspensions
- Injections
- Pellets
Remember: The patient-prescriber-pharmacist triad is critical when making cBHT decisions! Make sure you have open and honest discussions with your health care practitioners!
Already using compounded hormone therapy? Share your story! The FDA is considering restricting or even eliminating cBHT, and we want to show how many lives it’s changed for the better.
Click here to go to A4PC.org/cbhtandme and let us know what cBHT has meant for you!