Welcome to You Are Not Broken, the only podcast that combines science, medicine, and psychology, to re-educate your brain and help you live your best-to-love life.

And I'm your host, Ford Certified Female Urologist, Dr. Casperson.

Who is a good candidate for hormone replacement therapy?

So, you know, basically the guidelines now are that we try to use hormones, you know,

around the menopausal transition for the management of symptoms.

So, you know, you'd be somebody that's having symptoms, typically hot flashes or vaginal atrophy issues and for the shortest amount of time that, you know,

feels appropriate. And so, you know, the way we do it now also depends on, you know, what the

symptoms are. So if somebody's coming in primarily because they're having pain with the

intercourse, we might be able to focus on using vaginal estrogen, you know, so that again,

it has the most potent impact right where we want it to go and maybe doesn't get in the bloodstream

as much, you know, as opposed to if somebody's having, you know, other issues, they may need

what we would call like systemic estrogen or something that will be absorbed by the whole body.

So, you know, we would use that and we evaluate whether it's still needed at fairly regular intervals.

And so, you know, that is appropriate. Now, you know, women that should not be getting extra estrogen at any age, you know, are going to be, you know, women that are smokers, women that have serious heart, you know, cardiovascular issues. You know, there are certain things that estrogen can raise the risk of blood clots for. And so that applies to birth

control as well. So, you know, same thing. So, you know, anything that, you know, would make getting

extra estrogen or risk is something that we would consider. Certainly patients that have estrogen

sensitive cancers. So if somebody has a history of an estrogen sensitive breast cancer or something

like that, those are also

things that we think about.

Love it.

Perfect.

Let's talk a little bit.

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