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Understanding The Different Types
Estrogen therapy can be an effective way to treat moderate to severe symptoms of the menopause such as night sweats and hot flashes. It is because of a decrease in the estrogen level that such unpleasant symptoms occur.
There are a variety of ways that estrogen therapy can be administered and as with all treatments you should discuss the benefits and individual risks with your health care provider before embarking on a course of estrogen therapy.
Once you have decided that estrogen therapy is right for you then you will find that there are several options including: pills, patches, vaginal inserts, and creams.
Let’s first take a closer look at pills used in estrogen therapy. These are taken orally and used for a certain number of days throughout the month. Pills have to contain more estrogen if they are to be effective, as some of the estrogen will be filtered out by the kidney and liver as it passes through the body.
Patches are another form of estrogen therapy and work by allowing small doses of estrogen to be absorbed evenly through the skin by the use of a patch. These are a good option if you are forgetful about taking medication.
Another option is to consider a vaginal insert. This is simply a small ring that is placed into the vagina and releases estrogen. The estrogen in these inserts usually lasts for 90 days and therefore they will need replacing every 3 months. The down side of a vaginal insert is the fact that they will not relieve night sweats or hot flashes.
Estrogen therapy cream is a cream that contains small amounts of estrogen. The cream is applied directly to the vagina and will help with vaginal itching, dryness and soreness. As with the vaginal inserts estrogen therapy cream will not help with night sweats and hot flashes.
Although estrogen therapy has some very important and much needed benefits there are still some risks to be considered before going down this route. It is important to discuss carefully with your health care provider which course of therapy is best for you and your needs.
Each year check in with your health care provider to make sure that you are using the lowest dose possible that will work for you and that you are not taking the estrogen therapy longer than is required. This of course will depend on the reason why you are using the therapy in the first place.
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