Female Hormone Restoration

We believe that women should begin to monitor and, if necessary, correct hormone imbalances long before menopause, when there is still time to reverse this imbalance by restoring youthful hormone levels. Among younger women, it may be possible to address estrogen and progesterone levels with natural hormones, such as phytoestrogens or progesterones that can be found in plants. Among menopausal and postmenopausal women, who have dramatically reduced levels of hormones, it is often necessary to turn to specially formulated hormones that are bioidentical and supplied in approximately the same ratio found in the body. These natural hormones are often taken in conjunction with supplements that have been shown to reduce the side effects of menopause.

In addition to estrogen and progesterone, it's also important to monitor levels of pregnenolone, DHEA, and testosterone. The ideal goal of HRT therapy goes beyond the suppression of side effects caused by dropping hormone levels. The real goal of Life Extension's hormone restoration program is to restore hormone levels to those of a woman aged 30 to 35. Such an approach has wide-ranging benefits throughout the body, including psychological well-being and sex drive.

What You Have Learned So Far

Conventional hormone replacement, which relies primarily on equine (horse) estrogen and synthetic progestin, is associated with increased risk of breast cancer and heart attack. Unopposed hormone replacement (estrogen only) is associated with increased risk of breast cancer. These forms of HRT should not be prescribed for the prevention of osteoporosis or heart disease.

Women's hormone levels begin to change in their middle 30s, long before menopause sets in. At this time, progesterone and estrogen levels both decline. Progesterone declines more rapidly than estrogen, however.

When the balance between estrogen and progesterone is thrown off in favor of estrogen, a woman may be “estrogen dominant,” which is associated with a wide variety of female conditions, including endometriosis, uterine fibroids, polycystic ovaries, and breast cancer.

Natural, bioidentical hormone restoration with estrogen and progesterone offers an alternative much safer than conventional HRT.

Because all the levels of steroid hormones are interconnected, and many freely convert to one another, true hormone restoration also monitors for pregnenolone, DHEA, and testosterone.

CAUSES OF ESTROGEN DMINANCE

Beginning in perimenopause and continuing through menopause, women’s production of progesterone tends to decline more rapidly than their estrogen production does. Between puberty and perimenopause, estrogen levels can be raised by external influences, such as birth control pills or chemicals and toxins. If the ratio between progesterone and estrogen is altered in favor of estrogen, a condition may result that is known as "estrogen dominance," which is associated with increased risk of cancer and other health risks (Kubista 1990; Ashby et al 2001).

Causes of estrogen dominance include the following:

Environmental pesticides, including those found on commercially grown fruits and vegetables, which have an estrogen-like effect in the body (Tapiero et al 2002)
Exposure to xenoestrogens (external estrogens) such as those found in herbicides and in petrochemicals found in cosmetics, glue, plastic, and other modern materials (Tapiero et al 2002) Unopposed conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) Obesity, in which fat cells cause the conversion of other hormones into estrogen
Increased intake of sugar and processed food, which is linked to magnesium deficiency

Estrogen dominance often produces the following symptoms:

The Dangers of Hormone Loss

By the time a woman enters menopause, she may have already experienced two decades of hormonal imbalance and estrogen dominance. After menopause, when all hormone levels decrease significantly, aging women are at increased risk of major diseases, including the following:

Heart disease. Rates of heart disease in postmenopausal women gradually climb until they equal the rates typically seen among men. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the leading killer of American women (American Heart Association 2004). A number of negative changes in cardiovascular health are provoked by menopause, including elevations in blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglycerides. At the same time, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels drop significantly. Elevated levels of homocysteine, C-reactive protein, and interleukin-6 (an inflammatory cytokine) are all associated with estrogen deficiency (Cushman 2003; Davison et al 2003; Dijsselbloem et al 2004)

Osteoporosis. Hormone deficiencies are clearly associated with bone loss and osteoporosis, beginning even in the third decade of life. By the time women reach 50, they are at significantly increased risk of an osteoporotic bone fracture. Estrogen deficiency results in increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which cause increased bone breakdown and inflammation (Lian et al l2001). Estrogen and androgen therapy increases bone mineral density (BMD), and estrogen/androgen replacement therapy has been shown to increase BMD more than estrogen therapy alone (Notelovitz 2002).

Alzheimer's and dementia. Loss of hormones is associated with neurodegeneration and increased risk of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease (Danilovich et al 2004; O'Suilleabhain et al 2004). Deficiencies in pregnenolone and DHEA, which are both neuroprotective hormones, are also linked to reduced memory and brain cell death associated with Alzheimer's disease (Yao et al 2002). These two hormones play an important role in regulating neurotransmitter systems that are involved in learning, stress, depression, addiction, and many other vital functions (Maurice T et al 1999).

Progesterone's Balancing Act

Estrogen is only part of the hormone restoration picture. Equally important is progesterone. In a healthy young woman, progesterone serves as a counterpoint to estrogen. While estrogen builds up in the first half of a menstrual cycle, progesterone levels don't start rising until the middle of the cycle. Progesterone's job is to prepare the uterus for implantation with a healthy fertilized egg and to support the early pregnancy. If no implantation occurs, progesterone levels drop, and another cycle begins.

One of progesterone's most valuable functions is its ability to fight cancer. Whereas estrogen is pro-growth (causing the cells in the uterus to multiply early in a menstrual cycle), progesterone is antigrowth. Studies have shown that progesterone has antiproliferative effects on at least two different types of breast cancer cells (Formby et al 1998). Breast cancer is 5.4 times more common in women with low progesterone than in women who have favorable progesterone levels (Cowan et al 1981). Recent studies have also shown that natural progesterone does not affect breast cancer risk, but the synthetic progestins used in conventional HRT raise the risk of breast cancer (Campagnoli et al 2005).