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What Is Hormone Therapy?
Explore the transformative benefits of hormone therapy for your overall well-being. Next Health offers expert guidance and personalized solutions. Contact us.
Next Health Staff
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December 6, 2023
Hormone therapy involves taking certain hormones – usually testosterone – in order to make up for any hormonal imbalances that might already affect your body.
Any good hormone therapy plan will involve taking a baseline test first. The baseline test checks your body for different levels of hormones like testosterone and estrogen by measuring several biomarkers.
For example, Next Health’s baseline hormone test checks over 50 biomarkers, and can be done at home or in-clinic. This allows clinicians and healthcare providers to come up with plans to take patient health to the next level with the appropriate treatments.
Once biomarkers are identified and hormone levels are understood, patients can then take synthetic hormones. The hormones are usually provided via pills, although some plans may opt for injections instead.
The artificial hormones introduced into the body can then work to provide a number of positive benefits over time.
How Does Hormone Therapy Work?
Hormone therapy works in two ways:
- Providing your body with more hormones if it doesn't make enough of that particular type
- Providing your body with certain hormones so that it starts producing more of another type of hormone naturally
In either case, the goal is to provide your body with an adequate level and mixture of hormones for your optimal health goals.
Next Health’s hormone therapy uses bio-identical hormone that are synthetic, but they are created to be chemically identical to the hormones produced by a patient’s body.
Most Next Health Members that enjoy hormone therapy utilize pellets that are administered by a medical professional, and they slow release over a 4-6 month period based on cardiac output. The minimally invasive procedure is a small incision in the gluteal area, and the pellets are placed under the skin.
This provides a number of beneficial effects. For instance, the body is less likely to reject bio-identical hormones since it won’t recognize them as foreign elements. Bio-identical hormones can also be absorbed a little more quickly by the body. Daily injections can cause hormones to be absorbed almost immediately by the body, creating an uncomfortable roller-coaster effect that most people find unpleasant.
Once your body has the hormones produced by hormone therapy, it’ll start to change or adapt depending on the hormones given. For example, testosterone is a popular hormone therapy subject. That’s because testosterone can affect a lot of things, including:
- Sexual energy
- Skin quality
- Daily energy levels
- Mental acuity
- Endurance and strength
- Systemic inflammation
- Pain management
With proper hormone therapy, and as a patient takes more testosterone into their body, they may see improvements to all of the above categories.
For hormone therapy to be effective, it must often be taken regularly and consistently. That’s because most people who seek out hormone therapy do not produce enough of the hormone in question naturally.
Does Hormone Therapy Really Help With Anti-Aging Skin Care?
It can, though it depends on the factors that are currently affecting your skin.
Our skin naturally ages and shows signs of wear and tear as it gets older. Specifically, our skin produces less collagen and elastin; these are two compounds that our skin cells need to retain their elasticity and to keep their shape and youthful vigor no matter what skin type or skin tone.
In many ways, cellular collagen and elastin production is tied to hormone levels, especially testosterone. This is true for both men and women, although women need less testosterone than men on average. But both sexes produce less testosterone as they get older, which is also why they experience less energy and sexual vigor on average.
Through boosting your body’s supply of testosterone, you might find that your skin benefits from anti-aging effects as a side effect. Several studies have shown that hormone replacement therapy has been found to:
- Hydrate skin
- Thicken skin
- Improve elasticity
- Reduce wrinkles
All of these are due to cellular changes that occur throughout the body, but especially because of boosts to collagen and elastin.
This isn’t to say that hormone therapy is the perfect anti-aging skin care treatment for everyone. It’s only a good choice if you have low testosterone levels or other hormonal imbalances. Your skin can also show the signs of aging due to a variety of conditions or problems, including genetics, sun damage, a dry climate, or even poor personal hygiene.
For the best results, those looking to benefit from anti-aging skin effects should consider adopting a healthy skin care routine with anti-aging specific formulations, and ensuring that they eat a healthy diet before moving on to hormone therapy. Furthermore, a hormone baseline test should be taken before ingesting any extra testosterone or other hormones. The baseline test can tell you whether your body has low testosterone in the first place.
Benefits Of Hormone Therapy
Those who do choose to undertake and maintain hormone therapy over the long-term may see a variety of powerful benefits.
More Skin Elasticity
For starters, hormone therapy can boost skin elasticity. Collagen is a type of protein that your skin cells use to maintain their shape over the long-term. The less collagen your skin has, the more likely your skin is to collapse on itself and form wrinkles. Furthermore, low collagen can eventually cause aging spots or hyperpigmentation as your skin cells degrade and fail to replicate properly.
By boosting testosterone and other key hormones, your skin cells may produce more collagen naturally. The boost to collagen will cause your skin cells to replicate healthier than before, simulating the healthy replication of younger cells.
As your skin becomes more elastic and smooth, you’ll enjoy some ancillary benefits like:
- Better skin hydration -- loose and wrinkly skin dries out more easily, which can lead to itchiness and even acne if dead skin cells clog up your pores
- Smoother skin rather than rough or calloused skin
- Clearer skin, both in terms of aging spots and acne
Wrinkle Erasure
Hormone therapy may also be able to help with wrinkle erasure. Wrinkles are primarily caused by skin dryness and skin cell aging, both of which are connected to collagen production. As your body produces more collagen and your skin retains moisture more readily, you’ll experience fewer wrinkles over the long-term.
Additionally, sun damage and too much sun exposure are also big culprits -- even if you're already starting to see signs of aging, it's never too late to start protecting your skin with sunscreen. Choose broad-spectrum SPF 30 for the best protection!
Existing wrinkles may eventually fade or become less dramatic with time. When combined with a good skin care routine and other anti-aging efforts, hormone therapy may very well help your skin look much younger than it currently does.
Improved Endurance/ Energy/ Libido
Hormone therapy does more than just boost the look of your skin and alleviate certain signs of aging. Specifically, testosterone hormone therapy can provide your body with a noticeable boost in daily energy. This daily energy can then be used to pursue your goals or to complete your workout routines more readily.
Many people also experience a boost in libido after they start hormone therapy. This is true for both men and women, as testosterone is heavily linked to sex drives in both. Other side effects of hormone therapy include:
- Greater hair growth
- Faster muscle growth
- More mental agility
- Better memory
Summary
All in all, hormone therapy is a beneficial treatment for many people who may be experiencing some of the early signs of aging or whose bodies are slowing down and changing as the years go by.
It may be able to help treat some of the signs of aging, including hydrating your skin and removing some wrinkles. But hormone therapy is best used with other wellness routines and practices, including implementing a skin care routine, healthy eating and regular exercise.
Fortunately, you can learn more about the ideal health routine for your body by working with Next|Health, so come see us today and we'll get you on the right path to a younger looking and younger feeling you!
Sources
https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-testosterone
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