The ZRT Laboratory Blog

I recently had a conversation with a patient who was entering menopause and fearful of starting hormone replacement therapy (HRT) because she witnessed the decline in her mother’s health after she stopped HRT at age 65. She assumed that the decline in her mother’s health was due to the use of HRT rather than the discontinuation of it. There has been much confusion and contradiction around the use of hormone therapy for menopause since 2002 when the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) released the results of their prematurely halted hormone therapy clinical trial revealing an increase in disease parameters for women on HRT.…

Tags: Hormone Replacement Therapy, Menopause, BHRT, Bioidentical Hormones

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One of the primary objectives of the Women's Health Initiative was to see if postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) improved long-term risk of coronary heart disease, among other chronic diseases. However, the combined estrogen/progestin (Prempro) arm was halted in 2002, citing that the participants’ risk of cardiovascular disease outweighed any potential benefit of HRT in the prevention…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, BHRT, Research

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Practice Takeaway: I always try to taper the estrogen dose down over a period of 2-6 months depending on the individual’s difficulty with withdrawal symptoms. Once I have the patient on a lower dose (Premarin 0.3 mg or Estrace 0.25 mg every other day at the most), I will switch over to a bi-est consisting of 50% estradiol and 50% estriol. The reason for this is, if you stop the estrogen abruptly or…

Tags: Dosing, BHRT, Bioidentical Hormones

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Testosterone replacement therapy has the potential to drastically improve quality of life of those who need it. However, many men who begin topical testosterone are given too much of the hormone. Explanations for this erroneous tendency are rooted in incorrect dosing principles that have been established on false assumptions, misconceptions, invalid conclusions and aggressive marketing instead of…

Tags: Testosterone, Dosing, BHRT, Andropause

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Estrogen. We've heard Dr. Zava call it the "angel of life, and the angel of death." Too much can be hazardous. Too little can be problematic also. Not many people realize this, but estrogen plays a role in more bodily functions than just reproduction. In fact, estrogen has many important functions in the brain. Studies show that decreasing levels of estrogen can cause two of the most common…

Tags: Menopause, Neurotransmitters, Estrogen, BHRT

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This article is republished courtesy of The Official Website of John R. Lee, M.D. If you missed part one of the article, read it here. A Recipe for Beating (and Preventing) Breast CancerThe latest research on natural progesterone and breast cancer clearly indicates how important it is for women to maintain healthy, normal levels of progesterone that are in proper balance with estrogen. Doing so…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Breast Cancer, BHRT, Estrogen, Estrogen Dominance, Progesterone

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This article is republished courtesy of The Official Website of John R. Lee, M.D. This is part one. Part two of this article can be found here. Two months ago, a large team of scientists working on multiple continents published a research study that came to startling conclusions about breast cancer and natural progesterone. The team determined that unlike synthetic progestins, which increase breast…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Breast Cancer, Progesterone, BHRT, Estrogen, Estrogen Dominance

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When was the last time you thought about your personal risk for breast cancer? Even though it’s no longer National Breast Cancer Awareness month, it’s never too late to start thinking about this important topic. Don’t let the disappearance of pink ribbons rob us of the greater message of our hard won awareness: that despite all the money raised and the billions spent, we still have no guaranteed…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Breast Cancer, Estrogen, BHRT, Patient Education, Estrogen Dominance

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When a patient says that she wants “natural” hormone therapy, does the term mean the same thing to you as it does to her? Let’s explore that question further by dissecting the terminology most commonly used by patients (and even some experts) when discussing hormone restoration therapy: “natural,” “synthetic” and “bio-identical.”NaturalThe term “natural” cannot be used to describe hormones or…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, BHRT, Patient Education, Dosing, Bioidentical Hormones

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In the 13 years since the landmark Women’s Health Initiative (WHI 2002) revealed greater risks for heart disease, stroke and breast cancer among women taking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), the dialogue around women’s health has changed dramatically. Back in 2002 when the bad news about hormones hit the headlines, millions of menopausal women stopped using HRT overnight and big-Pharma profits…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Menopause, BHRT

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