By replenishing your hormone supply, HRT reduces your menopausal symptoms. It can also protect you from diseases such as osteoporosis. HRT involves taking estrogen and, if you still have your uterus, another hormone called progestin (progesterone). Estrogen can be taken as pills, skin patches or gels.
The main benefit of HRT is that it can help relieve most menopausal symptoms, such as: hot flushes. night sweats. mood swings.
By supplementing your body's natural hormone levels, HRT can help you maintain a more youthful body composition. While this effect is particularly evident in men, research suggests that women can also benefit. HRT is also known to help women maintain softer, smoother skin, resulting in a younger look.
Your body will begin to redistribute your weight. Fat will collect around your hips and thighs and the muscles in your arms and legs will become less defined and have a smoother appearance as the fat just below your skin becomes a bit thicker.
It usually takes a few weeks before you feel the benefits of HRT. It can take up to 3 months to feel the full effects. If you have not felt the benefit of HRT after 4 to 6 months, it may help to try a different type. It can take your body time to get used to HRT.
When starting HRT, it's very common to experience some initial side effects or start-up symptoms such as breast tenderness or breast size increase. Some women describe slight nausea, headaches or abdominal bloating. Light erratic bleeding is also quite usual.
NHS Inform says although many women believe taking HRT will make them put on weight, there is no evidence that this is the case. And many actually find they lose weight by using HRT as it shifts the metabolism back into a pre-menopausal state. Studies have backed this up too.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can affect weight loss in women. In addition to having less abdominal fat, the same study found that women undergoing HRT were almost one whole point lower on the body mass index (BMI) scale, and they had nearly 3 pounds less of fat mass.
How Estrogen Replacement Therapy Can Help with Belly Fat During Menopause. Recent studies show that menopausal women on hormone therapy tend to have less body fat, especially visceral belly fat. Because estrogen affects how your body distributes fat, low estrogen levels can contribute to gaining fat in your belly area.
The body will begin to burn the fat located in the waist, shoulders and back. The majority of the fat will migrate to the hips, thighs and buttocks, which may result in a smaller waist and larger hips.
Taking the right type of oestrogen can really help improve this low mood and other symptoms related to the menopause. Many women find that they feel calmer, have more energy, are more motivated and generally much happier when they take HRT.
One of the common treatment options for menopausal symptoms is hormone replacement therapy (HRT), supplementing your hormone levels to rebalance your system. However, you may prefer to move through menopause without using hormone treatments. And, women with previous hormone-dependent cancer shouldn't use HRT.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
Systemic HRT can improve sleep quality, making it easier to get off to sleep, with less night-time waking; it has also been shown to improve chronic pain, mood and genitourinary symptoms. A 2017 study also demonstrated an improvement in hot flushes and night sweats.
The main benefit of HRT is that it can help relieve most menopause and perimenopause symptoms, including hot flushes, brain fog, joint pains, mood swings and vaginal dryness.
In fact, they have found evidence for an increased risk of blood clots and stroke. They also found an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer in women using HRT. Most of the effects of HRT - positive and negative - are seen while women are taking HRT, and disappear once they stop.
Many women actually find that they lose weight by using HRT as it shifts the metabolism back into a pre-menopausal metabolic state. Progesterone can sometimes cause fluid retention which can mimic weight gain, but there are alterations that can be made to the regime to minimise this impact.
HRT contains hormones that stimulate breast tissue and so breast tenderness and growth can be a side effect of your hormone therapy. Speak to your doctor if you have any concerns about this.
Some women find that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) helps with their fatigue. HRT is an effective way of managing menopause symptoms and can improve the overall quality of your life, energy levels and sleep.
HRT with Estrogen May Lower Fear Response & Anxiety
They found that estrogen may have a calming effect on the fear response, including for women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, there is some evidence that increasing estrogen may reduce anxiety-like symptoms.
Another reason why some women may appear to gain weight occurs when background anxiety, with reduced appetite, keeps weight a little lower than it would be naturally. This anxiety is often reversed by the positive impact of HRT, which in turn can increase appetite and weight over time.
It is often used in HRT for women since an imbalance of progesterone causes women to overeat. DHEA: A hormone that promotes weight loss by increasing the body's metabolism, preventing fat storage, and decreasing the appetite for dietary fats.
Some women find that taking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) helps to alleviate some common symptoms, including menopausal joint pain.