Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy

About Our Practice

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy in Buffalo, NY

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) relieves hormone imbalance issues like mood swings, hot flashes, and low libido. At OWM Integrative Wellness, BHRT optimizes your whole-body wellness and quality of life. The experienced functional and integrative medicine providers perform extensive testing in their Buffalo, New York office, giving them the information they need to customize your BHRT for peak results. Request your appointment online or call the office for help today.

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Who needs bioidentical hormone replacement therapy?

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) replaces and rebalances hormones. Your hormones play a critical role in virtually all aspects of your health, so when you start losing them, it really takes a toll on your body.

Women can start pre-menopause as early as their 30s. Symptoms of hormone loss like mood swings, memory problems, and poor sleep can begin at that time and then increase, peaking at menopause (usually in your 40s or 50s).

Men lose testosterone steadily after age 30. Symptoms like low libido, weight gain, and mood swings can all start around that time and increase over time.

Starting BHRT as soon as you experience issues can prevent the awful effects of full-blown menopause or testosterone depletion.

How is bioidentical hormone replacement therapy different?

Unlike many centers, at OWM Integrative Wellness we perform genetic testing as well as urine hormone metabolite testing to ensure that hormone prescription is the right choice for the client. Once hormone optimization has been started, follow up testing is done every three to six months to ensure its efficacy and safety. This hormone replacement program uses natural, plant-derived hormones that appear to the body as its own. They are therefore processed and utilized in the same way the body’s natural hormones would be. The benefits of bio-identical hormones are numerous. Most importantly, they protect the body from inflammation and cancer and are a key part of any anti-aging treatment program.

How does bioidentical hormone replacement therapy work?

Because each person’s hormone needs are different, the OWM Integrative Wellness team performs extensive lab testing. Leonard Kaplan, DO, and Kim Howes, ND, work collaboratively to prescribe and administer customized BHRT in several ways, including: Estrogen Estrogen replacement is generally applied as a topical cream or an implantable capsule.

Progesterone

Progesterone replacement is usually taken as a nightly oral capsule. Other options include troches (flavored lozenges), topical creams, or pellets implanted under the skin.

Testosterone

Testosterone comes in a few forms, including a topical cream, implantable pellets, and self-injections. If you opt for injections at home, the team teaches you how to do so safely and provides you with all of the injection materials you need.

The ultimate goal is true hormone optimization: replacing hormones and also improving whole-body wellness.

The team prescribes high-quality supplements, stress reduction therapies, nutritional support, and gut-health balancing alongside your hormone replacements to achieve these goals. This multi-pronged approach can balance hormones and revitalize your wellness to keep you young and healthy at every stage of life.

Call OWM Integrative Wellness to request your appointment for BHRT help now.

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What to know before you go

Our hormones play key roles in thousands of body’s reactions and are integral in sustaining a youthful and vital body. When their production decreases, it is evident in everything from the reduction of the quality of the skin and muscle to the reduction of mental clarity, memory, and overall feeling of well-being.

What are the benefits of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy?

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy benefits

Estrogen

• Protects the brain against dementia and Alzheimer’s

• Promotes cardiovascular health and helps prevent strokes and heart attacks

• Promotes healthy bone density • Protects against the development of osteoarthritis

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy

Progesterone

Important for male and female health:

• Increases mood stability and memory

• Improves sleep quality

• Reduces anxiety

• Lowers blood pressure

• Increases scalp hair • Helps weight loss

Testosterone

• Increases libido

• Improves self-confidence and motivation

• Increases lean muscle mass • Helps maintain healthy bone mass

• Helps reduce body fat • Improves bone density

Administration & Safety

Estrogen is typically administered as a compounded cream or a capsule. Progesterone is most often prescribed as a capsule at night, but can also be taken topically as a cream or orally as a lozenge. Testosterone can be compounded as a cream or administered as a self-injection. If a self-injection is chosen, our team will educate the client on a safe technique and provide them with the materials needed for self-injection at home.

Hormone Replacement Therapy or HRT has been misrepresented and misunderstood by many health practitioners and the public. The confusion arises from the fact that when studies were done on the safety of estrogen and progesterone, they were done on synthetic hormones only. These are the hormones found in conventionally prescribed birth control pills and IUDs and are implicated in increasing the body’s inflammation and the risk of ovarian and breast cancer. They are foreign molecules to the body and are processed completely differently than the body’s hormones.