Bioidentical hormones are hormones that are identical in molecular structure to the hormones produced naturally by the human body. As we age, our bodies produce less of key hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and DHEA. Replacing these declining hormones through bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) can provide relief from unpleasant symptoms and help patients feel healthier and more energetic as they get older.
At Vitality Balance Clinic in Sanford, we specialize in customized bioidentical hormone therapy to help both men and women address hormone deficiencies and imbalances. We use a compounding pharmacy to formulate treatments with bioidentical hormones tailored to your unique hormone profile and health goals.
There are many potential benefits associated with properly administered bioidentical hormone replacement:
For women going through perimenopause or menopause, restoring optimal hormone levels can alleviate symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, irregular periods, trouble sleeping and mood changes. Our specialized bioidentical hormones can provide safe, natural relief.
One of the most common complaints we hear is chronic fatigue. If your hormones are out of balance, your body has to work harder just to complete everyday tasks. Balancing hormones with bioidenticals gives many patients increased energy, vitality and an overall enhanced sense of wellbeing.
Hormone imbalances can negatively impact mood. Restoring balance with customized hormone replacement often lifts brain fog, relieves anxiety/irritability, lessens depression, and leaves patients feeling more like their usual happy selves.
As we age, it becomes easier to gain weight and harder to lose it. Hormone optimization helps regulate fat storage and metabolism - making it easier to achieve or maintain a healthy body composition. Patients often lose stubborn belly fat and find it easier to build lean muscle.
Difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep plague many adults. Getting better sleep is one of the first improvements many patients notice after starting hormone replacement therapy. Falling asleep faster, sleeping more soundly through the night and waking more refreshed become the new normal.
Lack of desire and sexual functioning problems are incredibly common, especially for women over 40. Balancing hormones often brings back sexual desire, arousal, pleasure and functioning.
Aging leads to thinning hair/hair loss, brittle nails, dry skin, wrinkles and sagging skin. The right bioidenticals enhance collagen production for supple skin and shine thickness for hair and nails.
Age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) leads to feeling physically weaker. Hormone optimization helps build lean muscle mass increasing strength for everyday activities and exercise.
In addition to building muscle and strength, balancing hormones enhances recovery from intense workouts. Patients find they make better progress towards fitness goals.
Estrogen and testosterone help keep bones strong and dense. Bioidentical hormone therapy may decrease risk of osteoporosis and bone breaks.
There is evidence that balancing hormones, especially with testosterone therapy, leads to healthier cholesterol levels, blood pressure and cardiovascular function - reducing risks.
Estrogen and progesterone play key roles in reproductive health for both men and women. HRT provides important protection against urinary incontinence as well as uterine and breast cancers.
The wide-ranging benefits of properly administered bioidentical hormones make hormone optimization an invaluable part of maintaining optimal wellness as we age. Contact Vitality Balance Clinic today to discover the renewed vitality, health and passion that balanced hormones can bring back into your life.
The first step towards bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) is diagnosing any hormone deficiencies or imbalances with appropriate medical tests.
At Vitality Balance Clinic, we take an integrative, whole person approach to testing that looks not just at a few hormones in isolation, but how a patient’s whole endocrine system is functioning.
Many doctors solely order blood tests to assess hormones - but saliva and urine testing provide critical additional diagnostic insights.
Blood testing only shows what is happening in circulation at the exact moment the sample was collected. Hormone levels are by nature dynamic - fluctuating throughout each day.
Blood tests cannot provide key details on the total amount of free active hormones accessible to cells or hormone metabolites breaking down.
Without a more complete picture, significant hormone dysregulation can be entirely missed. That’s why we insist on more extensive testing.
At minimum, we order the following three types of tests:
These three testing techniques combined provide the comprehensive insights needed to uncover the root causes of patients’ symptoms.
We can then formulate fully customized bioidentical hormone therapy to restore balance by precisely supplementing any low hormones as needed. Ongoing testing helps ensure optimal long term hormone health.
Contact us to discuss setting up your testing today. Rebalancing your hormones could transform your health, wellbeing and quality of life.
While bioidentical hormone replacement therapy provides tremendous benefits, making positive lifestyle changes boosts total wellness even more. We provide all our patients guidance to enhance the effectiveness of their customized treatment plans.
Eating a diet high in vegetables, healthy fats and clean protein supports the body’s ability to properly use supplemental hormones. We suggest removing inflammatory foods like:
And emphasizing anti-inflammatory whole foods instead like:
Making better food choices balances blood sugar, reduces inflammation, removes toxins, enhances detoxification and provides high quality nutrients.
All of these factors help our patients derive maximum benefits from optimizing hormones with bioidenticals. Work with our nutritionists to find the best dietary approaches for your unique needs.
Chronic stress negatively impacts the whole endocrine system – especially cortisol regulation. Making time to actively alleviate stress through methods like meditation, yoga, massage, hiking in nature, journaling and/or speaking with a therapist relieves taxed adrenal glands.
Stress less = better hormone health.
We also advise focusing on gratitude, self-love and growth mindsets as part of complete mental wellness. Our mindset guides biology. Approaching life from a positive, engaged perspective sets the stage for hormone balance and passion to thrive once again.
Regular movement is vital for optimal health as we age. Get clearance from your provider to start exercising 3-5 times per week. Walking, swimming, gentle yoga and lifting weights help:
Increasing activity of any kind aligns perfectly with the goals of hormone replacement - enhancing mood, sleep, sexual interest and metabolic function.
Quality sleep allows hormone pathways to properly regulate and recharge. Get 7-9 hours nightly by:
Commit to making sleep a top priority. Renewed energy and vibrancy await.
Lifestyle interventions magnify the power of bioidentical hormones. Contact Vitality Balance Clinic today to start reclaiming your best health and life now.
Unlike conventional hormone therapy, bioidentical hormones are custom-made in a lab to be molecularly identical to the hormones your body produces naturally. This allows them to bind more efficiently with hormone receptors, potentially resulting in improved treatment outcomes with fewer side effects for issues like menopause, aging, and hormonal imbalances.
If testing uncovers hormone deficiencies or excess, Vitality Balance Clinic has multiple safe, proven treatment options to bring your levels back into optimal range.
The mainstay of treatment is replacing missing hormones using bioidentical hormones. As described above, these are lab-made to be exact replicas of endogenous human hormones down to the molecular level. This makes them perfectly recognized and used by the body.
Unlike conventional animal-derived or synthetic hormones, properly matched bioidenticals have a very high safety profile with minimal side effects. Sourced from plant compounds, they are natural and bioavailable.
Working with our high-quality compounding pharmacies allows for completely customized combinations, doses and delivery methods tailored to what each unique patient requires based on symptoms and testing.
For women, common imbalances treated include:
For men, testosterone levels drop about 1% year over year from age 25 onwards. If levels fall enough, low T symptoms manifest:
Balancing hormones alleviates unpleasant symptoms - restoring optimal functioning and greatly improving quality of life.
In addition to bioidentical hormones, we often suggest specialized dietary supplements called nutraceuticals to provide further endocrine system support:
Targeted natural agents enhance our body’s innate ability to regulate hormones on its own - perfectly complementing precisely dosed bioidentical replacement therapy.
As mentioned in the prior section, making positive changes to diet, activity levels, stress reduction and sleep quality bolsters the effectiveness of bioidentical hormones supplements.
We support each patient in developing customized nutrition, fitness, stress coping and sleep hygiene practices that meet their unique needs and preferences. Incremental shifts add up to big improvements fairly rapidly.
If your hormones are imbalanced, contact the hormone optimization experts at Vitality Balance Clinic today. Discover renewed energy and passion. Feel like your happiest, healthiest self once more through the power of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy optimized by targeted lifestyle changes. We tailor all treatments specifically for your needs based on symptoms and test results - no one size fits all protocols. Reclaim your edge and love of life now.
When properly dosed based on testing and adjusted over time, bioidentical hormone therapy has an excellent safety profile for both men and women. Made identically to human hormones, bioidenticals are extremely bioavailable and well tolerated, carrying only around 4% risk of minor side effects like nausea or headaches that pass quickly.*BHRT is much safer than conventional synthetic hormone replacement*, which differs enough from endogenous human hormones to sometimes cause issues.Made from natural plant compounds, bioidenticals also avoid risks associated with animal-derived hormones in older preparations. Ongoing bloodwork helps ensure optimal dosing over the long term.
We offer multiple delivery methods to cater treatment plans to each patient's needs/preferences:- Topical creams - Apply to thin skin areas like inner wrists and chest. Easy to adjust dosing. (Best absorption for DHEA, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone)- Sublingual drops - Place under the tongue to absorb directly into the bloodstream. Convenient portable. (Best for DHEA, estrogen, progesterone)- Oral capsules - Swallow just like a supplement or vitamin for systemic effects. (Testosterone, DHEA)- Pellets - Tiny compressed hormone cylinders surgically inserted under the hip skin every 3-6 months for steady release. Most hands off method. (Testosterone, estrogen and/or progesterone combined)- Injections - Administered every 7-14 days. (Testosterone, hCG)We educate patients on the pros and cons of each approach to develop the optimal regimen based on needs, goals, preferences and cost considerations.
The price tag varies based on what types and combinations of hormones need balancing, testing frequency, dose, delivery methods and the use of supplements. Costs often run $250-500 monthly. While not covered by insurance, some plans reimburse partially.We break all options down transparently so patients can access the treatments that work best for their bodies budgets. Financing plans may be available.Ultimately we find most patients feel the substantial benefits hormone therapy brings to their relationships, work, fitness and wellbeing makes the investment worthwhile.
When properly dosed, serious reactions are very uncommon. As the body adjusts in the first weeks of therapy, some temporary effects like fluid retention, greasy skin/hair or headaches may surface. Tweaking protocols minimizes these nuisance symptoms that typically resolve on their own.To avoid risks, patients on testosterone therapy track hematocrit to ensure optimal red blood cell production and reduce clotting risk. We run bloodwork at least 1-2x yearly to catch any imbalance early.*With an attentive specialist guiding your personalized hormone regimen based on regular testing, you are highly likely to enjoy all of the many benefits of balanced hormones with minimal side effects.*
