Your hormones don’t work as single hormones. They either work in conjunction with other hormones or they’re needed for the production or regulation of other hormones. So when one hormone gets out of balance, it can affect multiple hormones and cause many different side effects throughout your body.
Some people need one hormone replaced in order to balance their unbalanced hormones. But other people have to have compound hormone treatments. A compound hormone treatment is what happens when a hormone must be custom created using hormones in pill or other form in a mixture of specific levels for that individual.
The formulations created for compound hormones are different than the ones that are prescribed as is. Those, you find in milligrams or amounts that aren’t tailored to individual hormonal needs.
The good news about compound hormone treatments is that they’re made to release the hormonal amounts that your body would naturally release, so you don’t get too little or too much at once.
Many of the compound hormone therapies are bioidentical in nature – meaning the structure of that man-made hormone mimics the hormones that the body makes. Because they’re bioidentical, the body can handle them better than synthetic ones, where you can often end up with various side effects.
Your body can metabolize bioidentical compound hormone therapies the same way it can your natural hormones. The reason that compound hormone treatment is good for you is because no two women’s hormone needs are the same.
You may need more or less than the next person. By creating hormones that are right for you, you’ll find balance faster than if you were using a one size fits all hormone therapy.
These compound hormones can be prescribed specifically for things such as menopause, too. But you should keep in mind that even with compound hormone therapy, you want to start out with a small does and gradually increase as needed.
When your body has been without the right balance of hormones, giving it a sudden influx can create side effects. The compound hormone treatments can be taken much like synthetic ones.
You can take them in pill form or you can get the patch. You can also get pellets, creams or gels. Your body will process the treatment depending on whatever way it’s taken – such as through the liver, bloodstream or otherwise. The processing can change the amount of treatment that your body gets throughout the day, depending on what the treatment form is.
