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There is considerable controversy regarding the use of hormone supplementation as a means of anti-aging and for reducing the symptoms of hormone deficiency or imbalance.  Certainly, the use of synthetic female hormones in the form of birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women has had less than ideal effects.  There is also no disputing the damaging effects of using testosterone and growth hormone for the purpose of enhancing muscle growth and athletic performance.  But what about the “new age” use of hormones, including bioidentical hormones for treating PMS, the symptoms of menopause, and for countering the effects of decreasing hormone levels that occur with aging in both women and men?

First, what are “bioidentical” hormones?  These are hormones that supposedly are identical to the hormones your body produces naturally, as opposed to synthetic hormones that are similar to, but somewhat different chemically from your natural hormones.  I say supposedly, because bioidentical hormones may be much more like your body’s natural hormones than synthetic hormones made in a laboratory, but because they are usually derived from plant sources, I have my doubts that they are exactly the same (there may be subtle differences that we are not able to detect with our current methods of chemical analysis). 

Bioidentical hormones are also supposedly much safer than their synthetic hormone counterparts.  Here I say supposedly because this has yet to really be proven conclusively.  I would say that because they are much more chemically similar to the body’s natural hormones, bioidentical hormones are probably much safer than synthetics and probably much less likely to cause problems such as cancer and cardiovascular disease - at least when they are used properly.  Even so, there really has not been much study on the safety of using bioidentical hormones, especially long-term.

But beyond the question of the relative safety of bioidentical hormones as compared to synthetics, I take issue with how hormones of all kinds are often used.  Commonly, what I see happening is hormones are being prescribed in such a way as to create unnatural hormone levels in the person taking them.  It seems that many practitioners who prescribe hormones think it’s a good idea to produce hormone levels in their patients that would be normal for people in their 20’s or 30’s.  This is of course fine if the patient happens to be in their 20’s or 30’s, but what if the patient is in their 50’s, 60’s, or older?  Is this really healthy? 

The body is designed to go through certain changes as we age.  In childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, the body is rapidly growing and developing, and hormones are an important part of these processes.  During one’s 20’s and 30’s the stage is set in the body for reproduction, which requires a slightly different hormone balance.  As we get older, many of the body processes that required high levels of certain hormones are no longer of major importance, and so the hormones that supported those processes begin to decrease.  How much they decrease depends on several factors, including genetics, but in large part depends on the individual’s diet, sleep, and activity and exercise levels.  To put it simply, the “younger” your lifestyle, the younger you tend to stay in terms of hormones. 

But now along comes hormone supplementation and we can artificially (whether we are using “natural” or synthetic hormones) alter our hormone levels.  We now can effectively cheat the system.  We don’t have to watch our diets, get regular exercise, and get plenty of good quality sleep to keep our youth-promoting hormone levels up.  To many, hormone replacement, especially with the assumed to be safe bioidenticals, is the fountain of youth.  To me, the question remains as to whether this fountain of youth may be poisoned in some way, and that question probably will not be answered for at least several years.

Now, I can certainly appreciate that many people use hormone supplementation to control certain unpleasant symptoms.  If they are getting good symptom relief from taking hormones, whether they be bioidentical or synthetic, it is unlikely that the person will change what he or she is doing unless some specific serious risk to them is identified.  So, while I think there is still much we need to investigate regarding the long-term safety of using hormone supplementation, this may be the best option currently available for improving symptoms and quality of life for some people. 

What I am proposing though is to give consideration to another approach first, before resorting to taking hormones for the rest of your life.  What I have found is that in many cases, unpleasant symptoms arise because of an imbalance in hormones, as opposed to an actual deficiency of one or more hormones.  For example, a common scenario in women who experience a lot of PMS symptoms and/or menopausal symptoms (some women transition from PMS to menopausal symptoms as they age), is the pattern of estrogen dominance.  Estrogen dominance means that they have more estrogen relative to progesterone than they should have.  Typically this is treated through some sort of progesterone supplementation, and this may in fact be necessary in some cases.  But in many cases of estrogen dominance, the progesterone level is not low, per se, just low relative to estrogen. 

My premise is that it is preferable to balance the two by helping the body modify its relative production of estrogen and progesterone.  In other words, instead of simply giving the patient progesterone to compensate for the excess estrogen, I prefer to try to get the body to stop producing the excess estrogen. 

In the long run, I believe that it is better (whenever possible) to bring the hormone that is too high down to a normal range rather than to artificially increase a hormone that is at a normal level into an abnormal range to compensate for the hormone that is too high.  So how do we do that?  Visit my follow-up to this post, “Hormone Balancing Without Hormones” to find out! 

Stay tuned to my natural remedies blog for more on hormones and anti-aging.

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