A Nature’s Balance educational article about compounding pharmacies, bioidentical HRT, topical hormone creams, and different HRT delivery methods.
Quick Hormone Definitions
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Estradiol Progesterone Estrogen HRT Bioidentical Hormones Compounding Pharmacy Topical HRT Xenoestrogen Phytoestrogen
What You Need to Know About HRT
Like I’ve said, if you’re going to take over a job the body used to do, you need to do it as closely to the way the body did it as possible. If you don’t you will create other problems for yourself.
In this publication I’m going to explain the types of HRT on the market so you will understand which one mimics the way the body dispenses hormones. But first I need to explain a few things.
I’m an herbalist and I’ve formulated and manufactured hundreds of products in the last 25 years, but I’ve also studied (for 20 years) extensively about hormones (via medical texts and scientific literature), and the more I learned about what hormones do, the more I came to think that they’re probably the most important chemicals, (along with enzymes) in the human body. Every function that occurs in the body is initiated by one or more hormone. You couldn’t digest your food, conceive a child, give birth, stave off illness, maintain body temperature, have proper brain function, accomplish cell reproduction, or a million other things without hormones. Therefore to maintain optimal health it’s imperative that you maintain proper hormone levels, and to accomplish that you need...information.
If you don’t know the difference in; bio-identical hormones, herbs, herb extracts and isoflavones. You really need to learn if you’re going to endeavor to use HRT because only one of these things can actually replace your hormones. The rest of them will disrupt them.
Bio-identical hormones - are hormones that are made in the exact same chemical structure as the human body makes them; progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, DHEA, cortisol, melatonin, T3, T4, etc.
Herbs - are plant materials that can be made into various products. They contain chemicals that can be used for many things but not as HRT, because they are hormone disruptors. Here are a few of those herbs; wild yam, chaste tree, red raspberry, damiana, dong qui, ginseng, black cohosh, blue cohosh, soy.
Herb extracts - are the active chemicals derived from herbs such as the ones above. They also should never be used as HRT because they are also hormone disruptors. If any herb or herb extract is marketed as a ‘woman’s’, ‘menopausal’, ‘premenopausal’, or ‘female; herb or herb formula do not use it.
Isoflavons - where an herbal extract contain many different molecules, isoflavons are very specific molecules derived from plants, such as dioscorea (extracted from wild yam) and genistein (extracted from soy). When in this molecular form they also should not be used as HRT because they are also hormone disruptors. These two chemicals are used by pharmaceutical companies, and treated with enzymes, to make bio-identical and non bio-identical hormones. Your body cannot turn the chemicals in herbs, herbal extracts or isoflavons into hormones and only bio -identical hormones should be used for HRT.
Xeno-estrogen - the prefix ‘xeno’ means that something comes from an ‘outside’ source. So xeno-estrogen ‘implies’ that you are getting estrogen from some outside source other than your own body. The truth is that the only out side source of ‘xeno’ estrogen is HRT.
The substances people are talking about when they use the term ‘xeno-estrogen’ are substances that fit into the same cell receptors as estrogen. In the scientific community these substance are referred to as ‘endocrine (hormone)
disruptors’ because they ’disrupt’ how hormones work. Substances that disrupt your hormones are herbs, herb extracts, isoflavons, soy, certain juices, and petrochemicals.
Bisphenol A (the hardener in plastic) will fit into estrogen receptors in men, women and children, and not only does it disrupt the cell’s message, it damages it causing the development of; breast (in men and women) prostate, testicular, brain and bone cancers.
Phyto-estrogen - something you need to know is that there is no such thing as ‘phyto (meaning plant) estrogen. Plants do not contain ‘hormones’. Plants contain chemicals called ‘sterols’ which are similar to substances made in the human body called ‘steroids’ (hormones). Plant sterols are similar enough in chemical structure to human hormones that they can fit into human hormone cell receptors, and there are 1,000’s of plants in this category. The job of a hormone is to settle into a cell receptor, go into the cell, go to the message center, and deliver instructions that tell the cell to do something. But because plant sterols are not hormones, they can’t do that. Sterols perform 1 of 3 actions.
1. They give only ‘partial’ instruction to the cell.
2. They give ‘no’ instruction to the cell.
3. They give the ‘wrong’ instruction to the cell.
Only the right hormone in the right receptor can give the correct and complete instruction to the cell. So never use any substance that is called ‘phyto-estrogen’.
What is Bio-identical HRT?
There are many different chemical structures for progesterone, estrogens, testosterone and DHEA, and other hormones on the market that are not bio-identical, they’re made by pharmaceutical companies, and they have ‘Brand’ names like; Biest, Triest, Estrace, Enjuvia, Menest, Activella, Angeliq, FemHRT, Jinteli, Mimvey, Prefest, Premphase, PremPro, Premarein, Depro Provera, Andro Gel, etc.
The only way to get bio-identical HRT is with a prescription from a compounding pharmacy, or in OTC (over-the-counter) products sold in health food store and on the internet. But beware, OTC products are not all created equal, and if your prescription doesn’t say ‘bio-identical’ the pharmacists will put non bio-identical hormones in it and you nor your doctor will know it.
If you’re going to use any type of estrogen HRT you will need to make sure that you use a proper progesterone product with it, or you can put yourself at risk of developing cancer. That’s why you need to understand what a proper progesterone product is, and that is one that has no herbs, herb extracts, so called phyto- estrogen, soy isoflavons, dioscorea or genistein in it. C21H30O2 C18H24O2 Depo Provera is Medroxyprogesterone acetate a (non bio-identical) progesterone. C24H34O4
Types of HRT
You also need to understand the different types of HRT on the market so you can make an informed choice or tell your doctor what type you want in your prescription.
Oral – this includes pills, capsules, lozenges and sublingual's. Hormones are secreted into tissues and the blood stream. They’re not secreted into the digestive tract. When you ingest hormones 90-95% of them are digested and the by-products of that digestion are toxic to the liver and can cause liver damage. That’s why there is a liver damage warning on the package inserts of oral prescription HRT. This goes for bio-identical and non bio-identical.
There are three types of liquid sublingual's; oil, alcohol, and water based. Bio-identical hormones are soluble in oil and alcohol, but not in water. The hormones used in water based sublingual’s are called ‘wetable’ (because they can dissolve in water) and are not bio-identical. Some pharmacies use wetable hormones in the alcohol based sublingual’s too.
It doesn’t matter if you get an oil, alcohol or water based sublingual, as soon as you put them under your tongue, it causes you to salivate and soon you swallow the saliva along with the product and it gets digested.
Oral HRT does not mimic the way the body dispenses hormones but is the direct opposite and can actually create additional problems for your body (like liver damage).
Pellets (under the skin) - as you can see from this chart, hormone levels are declining for about 40 years. That means that the hormone levels of a 20 year old women are different than that of a 22, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, etc. year old women.
Each year of your life after puberty your hormones are lower. When you first start experiencing symptoms they will be light and intermittent and you may only need HRT a couple days before your period.
As time goes on those symptoms will become greater in number, severity and frequency and you will need to use your HRT maybe the whole week before your period, then two weeks, then three, then every day.
Because your hormones decline over a long period of time you will need to increase your HRT slowly. To be able to do that you need an HRT product that can be adjusted to the needs of your particular body.
Pellets only have 5 doses and cannot accommodate a slow rise. You have to jump from one dose to the next and if those doses are too low or to high you have no way of adjusting them.
Plus, this is an expensive and invasive way of administering HRT. You have to make an appointment, go to the doctor and get this pellet inserted under you skin, and you have to do that every 1-3 months for the rest of your life.
Your hormones naturally go up and down during each month’s cycle, but the pellets deliver the same amount of hormone every day all month long, and if you exercise it delivers even more into your system. This is really bad for women who are still having a cycle because it will throw the whole thing out of whack.
Also, there are side effects of these pellets; weight gain, blurred vision, acne, increased facial hair, headaches, breast tenderness, spotting, cramping, bloating, hot flashes, mood swings, irritability, infection and scar tissue at the injection site, and if you have any of these bad reactions and want the pellets removed it will have to be done surgically.
Vaginal Suppositories - they melt and most of the product ends up in your under garments, which is a waste of money. Inserting hormones into the vagina does not make them more effective than rubbing them into the skin because hormones are not ‘site specific’, they do not work where you apply them, like an antiseptic ointment, they have to get into the blood stream to be able to travel to the tissue they will have an effect upon.
Patches - Beware of doctors that tell you your HRT patch is bio-identical, if it has a brand name it contains non bio- identical hormones. Here are some of the more common patches. Climara, Estraderm, Vivelle-Dot, Climara Pro, Combipatch and Menostar.
The hormones and the petrochemical ingredients in patches are highly cancer causing and the actual patch it self irritates the skin
Also, patches have the same problem as pellets of delivering the same amount of hormones all day long, every day of the month, but at least you can take it off if you have a bad reaction to it.
Topical - Topical HRT is noninvasive, inexpensive and you don’t need to see a doctor unless you want a compounded product. It comes in oil, cream or gel formulations. Oils and creams are best because some gels will sit on the skin and prevent a lot of the hormones from being absorbed.
Topical HRT mimics the body’s own delivery system and is the best way to supplement your hormones. When it’s made correctly it absorbs into the blood stream and the hormones are where they need to be within a less than a minute.
With topical HRT everyone can buy the same product, find the dose that’s just right for their body and stage of hormone decline, and adjust the dose to fit the natural ups and downs of the cycle just like the body does it. Plus they can slowly raise the amount they apply as their hormones decline throughout life.
Prescription HRT Products
I’ve formulated and have been manufacturing, and using, creams that contained progesterone, estradiol and DHEA for 20 years, and I know exactly how they should be made and if they are working or not.
Creams are a mixture of oil soluble and water soluble ingredients and are made in two parts. The oil soluble ingredients are put in one vessel and the water soluble ingredients in a separate vessel. Each are heated to a certain temperature, then combines, and mixed at high speed to make the ingredients stay together.
Your skin absorbs oil and repels water. Hormones are oil soluble and have to be incorporated into the oil in order to be absorbed into the blood stream. Therefore when making an oil or a cream with hormones in it, the hormones have to be put in with the oil soluble ingredients. Once the hormones are melted in the oil, then it can be blended together with the water soluble ingredients. You have to make the cream with the hormones already combined with the oil, you cannot make the cream first and add the hormones later because they have not been combined with the oil.
But that’s what compounding pharmacies do! They buy a ‘base cream’ without any hormones in it and add the hormone powder to it. This is basically the same as putting the ‘oil soluble’ hormones in with the ‘water soluble’ ingredients when making the cream. Compounding HRT creams this way cuts their effectiveness by approximately 90%. In other words, they’re only about 10% effective and a waste of your money.
Not only that, the cream bases are made of toxic petrochemicals. So while you may be doing a little something for your hormone levels, you’ll be rubbing cancer causing chemicals into your skin on a daily basis.
Why Doesn’t Your Doctor Know All This
It’s not their fault, your doctor doesn’t know the truth about menopause, hormone testing or compounding pharmacies because they’re a doctor. They’re not a pharmacist, they don’t own a testing laboratory, they don’t manufacture hormone testing products or cosmetics. Let me explain...
Menopause - doctors are trained with the idea of menopause being a ‘time of life’ or the ‘change of life’ and Taber’s medical dictionary backs up this idea with their definition that includes the words ‘change of life’ as a synonym for menopause. It never mentions the fact that menopause is nothing more than one of over 115 symptoms of declining hormone levels and not, in fact, a ‘change of life’.
The idea that menopause is something that starts and stops at a certain time later in life has put the attention on hormones way to late in life. This allows a women’s hormone to be declining for many years before she does anything about it, and since a woman’s body needs estrogen and progesterone for over 400 functions, the less of each she has, the faster her body ages.
If doctors were trained to tell women to start monitoring their hormone levels at the end of puberty and start supplementing as soon as those hormones dip below their 18-20 year old levels. It would greatly slow the aging and deterioration of the female body.
Hormone testing - doctors do not own hormone testing labs and don’t know how the tests work. Therefore don’t know the problems that can occur or the flaws in each type of testing methods. They have to trust the lab that the tests are accurate.
Compounding pharmacies - doctors don’t make HRT products, so they don’t know how hormone creams and oils should be made. They also don’t know how the compounded products are made. It’s for these two reasons that they have no way of knowing that’s there’s a problem.
Why Do I Know These Things?
I know these things because; I’m a woman, I’ve been using HRT for 20 years, I’ve been consulting men and women on how to balance their hormones for 20 years, I’m self taught and not indoctrinated by medical school, I own a cosmetics manufacturing company, I owned a hormone testing lab, I’m well versed in how compounded products are made, and I manufacture hormone testing products.
When you’ve done everything in the whole process of HRT you see what the problems are and can do something about them, and that’s what I’ve done.
1. I educate women on when to start paying attention to their hormones.
2. I‘ve formulated and manufacture Over-The-Counter creams that contain progesterone, estradiol and DHEA.
3. I’m developing the first, in home or doctors office, hormone test that solves all the problems with all the hormone testing methods.
4. I know how compounded products are made from working with pharmacies.
5. I know how to use HRT properly to not throw the monthly menstrual cycle out of whack.
6. I know how to teach women how to find the proper balance of each hormone for their body and time of life.
All of this makes me more than qualified to expose the problems in the HRT industry and help doctors help their patients solve their hormone decline problems and have a better life.
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Next in the library: What You Need to Know About Hormone Replacement Therapy