Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) is a medical strategy and treatment option for women who are experiencing loss of production or reduction of estrogen.

Through ERT, estrogen is medically administered; and replaces and replenishes the ovaries with the hormone that they’ve stopped producing naturally. Another important application of estrogen replacement therapy can be found in the treatment of menopausal symptoms, like vaginal dryness, night sweats and hot flashes. In such cases, apart from estrogen, ERT may also include progestin hormone.

How is Estrogen Administered in ERT?

There are multiple modes of administering estrogen in ERT. The most common mode is orally, i.e., through pills that must pass through liver before entering the bloodstream. Good health of liver is, therefore, vital when estrogen is administered orally.

The other modes of administering estrogen include estrogen patches, cream, gel and vaginal ring. These are transdermal modes of administering estrogen, in which it directly enters bloodstream.

When Doctors Recommend ERT?

The primary purpose of ERT is to increase the estrogen levels in the woman’s body. This therapy is recommended in the following cases:

1. Women experiencing natural menopause, where the ovaries have stopped producing desired amounts of estrogen.

2. Women who have undergone surgery to remove ovaries (oophorectomy), and are thus, medically termed as having surgical menopause.

3. Women experiencing early menopause (women below 40 years) are recommended ERT primarily to prevent osteoporosis and bone loss at a young age.

Benefits of ERT

Estrogen replacement therapy has multiple benefits to offer. These include:

• Relief from menopausal symptoms, like hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness.

• Effective prevention of early onset of osteoporosis and bone loss, especially among women with early menopausal symptoms. However, long-term use of ERT (normally, more than 10 years) is required to achieve protection against bone loss in post-menopausal women. But the doctors don’t recommend such a lengthy therapy among post-menopausal women.

• Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Post-menopausal women are many times more at risk of getting affected by some form of heart disease than their pre-menopausal counterparts. Their cholesterol levels increase alarmingly resulting in wrecking havoc on the lipid metabolism. Ideally, ERT includes both estrogen and progestin for post-menopausal women because the medical fraternity is unsure about which hormone plays the decisive role when it comes to preventing the risk of cardiovascular diseases among post-menopausal women. Thus, women with a hereditary of heart disease, obese women, smokers and hypertensive women should undergo post-menopausal ERT in order to reduce the risks of cardiovascular diseases.

• Some studies also suggest that estrogen significantly reduces the risk of colon cancer among post-menopausal women.

• Since estrogen is a female hormone, its replacement definitely improves her sexuality, sensuality, breast firmness and desire to indulge in sexual activities.

• Estrogen replacement therapy is known to slow down the ageing process by thickening and softening of the skin, which sags after menopause. Moreover, the wrinkles can be effectively dealt with the right amounts of estrogen and progestin.

• Improves the overall health of bladder muscles, uterus and vagina. Prolapse is a common occurrence among post-menopausal women, where the health of pelvic muscles drops considerably. The mild cases of prolapse can benefit significantly by ERT.

• Besides, there are several miscellaneous benefits that can be derived by women undergoing ERT, like reduction of minor depression; improvement of mood, sleep quality, and short-term memory; and overall better quality of life.

Side Effects of ERT

Although ERT has many benefits to offer to women with low or no estrogen in their bodies, this hormone replacement therapy is not entirely free from side effects. Some of these experienced by a few women undergoing ERT include:

-        Headache

-        Nausea

-        Weight gain

-        Bloating

-        Pain in the stomach

-        Weakness (feeling of faintness)

-        Vaginal discharge or bleeding

-        Mood swings

-        Depression

-        Memory loss

-        Enhanced risk of dementia

-        Skin irritation caused by estrogen patches

-        Increase risk of stroke and formation of blood clots

-        Greater risk of breast and ovarian cancer for women on long-term ERT (over 10 years)

Not all women experience these all these side effects. Only some women may be affected by some of these pitfalls of ERT. Moreover, the severity of the side effects also varies widely.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 18th, 2011 at 8:36 am and is filed under Hormone Replacement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.