In our practice at the Center for Clinical Age Management the approach to menopause is completely different from that which you will get from your conventional practitioner. We never take the cook book approach to treating our patients. We believe each one of our patients is an individual with different genetic make up, dietary customs, varying degree of symptoms, unique medical and family histories. We try to take into account all of this information then in association with appropriate blood hormone levels we tailor a hormone treatment plan to the individual patients needs. If the patient is still menstruating on somewhat of a regular basis Blood levels are done on day 2 and day 21 of the cycle. In non-menstruating females or females on continuous hormone replacement the day of the blood draw isn't any longer important. In menopause patients whom are cycling HRT we check on day 21. All patients routinely have their serum total and free testosterone levels and DHEA levels checked. Patients after being started on treated are told to return in approximately 12 weeks to have their blood levels recheck on there bio-identical replacement therapy in order to see if levels are appropriate. Now depending on the information received treatment might consist of simple oral replacement or a patch but in majority of cases we prefer the use of custom-compounded natural or bio-identical replacement. Custom compounding allows the individualized dosing and combinations of therapy depending on the woman's preference or tolerance. As discussed earlier it allows for unique modes of administration of hormones, including sub dermal implants, sublingual tablets, rectal suppositories and transdermal gels or creams. Products could be prepared without binders, fillers, preservatives and adhesives that are found in patented products. Some patients leave the office with just a transdermal gel others with sublingual drops transdermal gel and some oral capsules each patient receives a treatment plan for her unique individuality.

I never was able to understand conventional medical dogma that you don't need to get sex hormone levels to replace them, when you replace thyroid hormone you check levels, when you give insulin you check blood sugar levels, when a men receives testosterone you follow testosterone levels but when it comes to estrogen and progesterone replacement the norm is to blindly replace with a standard dose and hope for the best, maybe that is one of the reasons why compliance is so poor when it comes to conventional HRT.

Menopause Treatments in the Breast Cancer Survivor or High-Risk Patients

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