Aging isn't always the easiest thing to go through. For women in particular, there are a lot of unpleasant symptoms that can come with reaching a certain age, and while many of these symptoms will go away with time, they can often be replaced by others that are just as problematic. If you're going through any of these problems or are worried about them happening to you, hormone therapy can help.
Perimenopause
Menopause is part of the natural aging process for women, but that doesn't mean that it's pleasant. Women often experience a lot of unwanted and unexpected side effects when they start going through menopause. Problems like irritability, nausea, hot flashes, and night sweats are common. These can all leave a woman feeling miserable, and unfortunately, the symptoms aren't necessarily short-lived. For some women, it can take years to move on from perimenopause to full menopause.
Menopause
Once menopause is fully in effect, meaning that a woman has completely stopped ovulating and having periods, some of the perimenopause symptoms will go away. You may experience fewer hot flashes and night sweats, for example. Unfortunately, other symptoms can often emerge.
Women in full menopause often have difficulty engaging in intercourse due to vaginal dryness, and sometimes pain during intercourse. Some women also feel as though their personality changes after undergoing menopause, too.
Bone Density
The last and perhaps most worrisome thing that can come from the aging process for women is thinning bones. Many women who go through menopause end up developing osteoporosis. This is when the bones become thin and brittle, resulting in them being at a higher risk of breaks during falls and other injuries.
What to Do
The good news here is that hormone replacement therapy can help. When you start perimenopause, the body stops producing as much of certain hormones, like estrogen and progesterone. Hormone replacement therapy puts the hormones that your body would ordinarily produce into an easily applied medical form. Women can take hormone therapy with pills, creams, and even injections. Once these hormones are absorbed into the body, the majority of these symptoms are reduced or eliminated entirely. For many women, this is preferable to allowing nature to take its course.
If you're tired of going through these symptoms or want to keep them from happening to you in the first place, it's a good idea to talk to a doctor about hormone replacement therapy.