by SXHH Marketing | Nov 20, 2020 | Wellness
Most of us know that getting a yearly checkup is important, but do you know which preventative women’s healthcare services you need each year? Unfortunately, there’s a lot of confusion around what your annual appointment should include. When you request a women’s annual exam, some physicians only conduct a gynecological exam and a breast exam. However, this may not address your health as a whole.
Women’s healthcare means looking at your health as a whole. Make sure your annual exams address every aspect of your wellbeing.
Instead, make sure you receive a comprehensive women’s wellness exam. These look at many different systems in your body. These appointments can help with preventative care and early detection of serious conditions. This is even more important as we age and our risk for serious health conditions goes up.
Preventative Women’s Healthcare Visits: Are you Getting the Services You Need Each Year?
Generally speaking, each year you should schedule an appointment to talk about your physical, sexual, reproductive, and mental health. Addressing each of these elements of your wellbeing can help you stay happy and healthy. However, in some clinics this means making multiple appointments and seeing different doctors. Many women each year receive medical exams that only address their sexual and reproductive health.
This often comes down to a misunderstanding of which women’s healthcare services are included in the type of appointment. For example, do you know the difference between a well woman exam and a women’s wellness exam? They may sound like the same thing, but many doctors provide different services for each.
Instead of dividing screenings up between different appointments and doctors, our providers offer total women’s healthcare solutions. This means we look at your health as a whole and can help you address many different aspects of your wellbeing to help you feel your best. We can combine all the services you need for a comprehensive checkup into one appointment to help make things easy for you.
What is a Well Woman Exam?
As we’ve mentioned, there’s a lot of confusion around what different terms mean for women’s healthcare. However, most people call their annual gynecological exam a well woman exam. These appointments are designed to mainly address your sexual and reproductive health. During a well woman exam, you might receive a pelvic exam, a Pap test, and a breast exam. You might also talk about family planning or your risk for sexually transmitted infections.
Pelvic Exam
A pelvic exam assesses whether your uterus, cervix, ovaries, and bladder are healthy. This includes a visual and a manual checkup to look for anything that might indicate that something might be wrong. Many physicians recommend getting a pelvic exam once per year, but you may need more or less frequent exams depending on your specific circumstances and risk factors.
Pap Test
Pap tests are a screening tool for cervical cancer and are often done at the same time as the pelvic exam. This test involves swabbing the cervix and then looking the cervical cells for abnormalities. In the past, women were recommended to get a Pap test every year between ages 21 and 65. However, these guidelines have changed, which may lead to some confusion over when you need a Pap test. Current recommendations are to receive a Pap test every three years so long as your past tests have been negative. Depending on your risk factors, our provider may recommend more frequent tests.
Breast Exams
Breast exams are another part of a well woman exam and are an important part of preventative women’s healthcare. These exams can help with early detection of many things, including breast cancer. From ages 20 to 40, the recommendation for women at an average risk for breast cancer is to receive a breast exam from their physician every one to three years. After 40, the recommendation is to receive a mammogram every year.
A mammogram is an x-ray for your breasts. Physicians use these x-ray pictures to look for changes to your breast tissue or other signs that could be cancer. Before 40, your breasts tend to be denser, which can make it difficult to detect the signs of cancer on a mammogram. That is why the recommendation switches from routine breast exams to mammograms as we get older.
What is a Women’s Wellness Exam?
A well woman exam is an important part of taking care of your health, but it’s not the whole story. A women’s wellness exam helps address your health as a whole and screen for conditions that aren’t necessarily part of your reproductive system.
A women’s wellness exam may include a well woman exam, but also looks at your overall health. At many other clinics, these are the appointments where you talk about your lifestyle and discuss your risks for conditions like high blood pressure.
Our women’s healthcare providers provide comprehensive women’s wellness exams to take a broader look at your health. Yearly checkups with our team include exams and screenings for your physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health. We may conduct a physical exam, a gynecological exam, a blood test. We’ll also discuss options for staying healthy and any concerns you have about your health.
At your annual women’s wellness exam, our team screens for many different health conditions that may affect you, some of which may not cause any symptoms. For example, depending on your age and risk factors, we might screen for:
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- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- Sleep apnea
- Allergies
- High cholesterol
- Hormone imbalances
- Vitamin deficiencies
- Cervical cancer
- Breast cancer
- Sexually transmitted infections
Our team personalizes these screenings based on health recommendations and your individual risk factors. Also, we’ll talk to you about your lifestyle and help you determine if there are any changes you can make to help reduce your risk for certain preventable health conditions.
Women’s Healthcare Services and Screenings Should Change as You Age
Another important thing to know is that your annual exams and screenings will change as you age. As we get older, our health risks can change. Therefore, your yearly women’s healthcare exams should change, too.
We’ve already mentioned that you may need to switch to mammograms after a certain age, but that’s not the only change. Your exams may look different at each stage of your life. For example, your risk for osteoporosis goes up after menopause. Therefore, we may recommend including a bone density scan as part of your yearly checkup appointment once you reach menopause. Our women’s healthcare team personalizes your exam to you, which means it should change as your lifestyle and health risks do.
Find the Right Women’s Healthcare Physicians for You
In most cases, women should receive both a well woman exam and a women’s wellness exam every year. This can help you with early detection for preventable diseases and conditions. Only receiving a gynecological exam each year will likely not help detect things like high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Our women’s healthcare providers provide comprehensive annual women’s wellness exams to help you stay healthy. We provide both well woman and wellness services to help address your whole health.
At HerKare, our goal is to help you feel your best. Our team provides comprehensive, compassionate care for women at every stage of life. We are a clinic owned and operated by women for women. We listen and we understand your needs. Book an appointment with our team today. We are here for you.
by SXHH Marketing | Nov 5, 2020 | Hormone Replacement Therapy, Menopause, Wellness
In the midst of flu season, the COVID-19 pandemic, and winter, where respiratory illnesses like colds can run rampant, many of us are wondering how to help our immune systems fight off viruses and other bugs that can make us sick. Studies suggest that estrogen replacement therapy may help improve your immune system after menopause.
Estrogen replacement therapy may help your immune system during menopause.
Several studies show that hormone imbalance treatment may help keep your immune system in good shape if you have low estrogen levels. Therefore, if you’re experiencing menopause symptoms, now may be the time to address them with our provider. We conduct a full blood panel to determine if your hormone levels are low and offer personalized care to help you take care of your health.
Summary
- After menopause, declining estrogen can weaken immune defenses, making infections and illnesses more common because estrogen enhances immune response and helps fight bacteria and viruses. Studies suggest estrogen replacement therapy may improve immune function and regulate changes that occur with low estrogen levels.
- Pre-menopausal women generally have stronger, more reactive immune systems, partly due to higher estrogen, but after menopause both aging and low estrogen can reduce certain white blood cells, making the body more vulnerable to infections. Research shows estrogen replacement therapy may enhance antibody response to flu vaccines and help to better protection against illnesses.
- Because estrogen interacts with immune cells, maintaining balanced estrogen through therapy may support overall immune health and reduce the severity of infections during and after menopausal transition.
Your Immune System After Menopause
During our pre-menopausal years, the female immune system is generally stronger and more reactive compared to the male immune system. Many researchers believe this is due, in part, to higher levels of estrogen in our bodies. Studies suggest that estrogen may have an enhancing effect on immune response and our immune systems. Pre-menopausal women are less likely, on average, to experience infections like the flu or colds compared to after menopause. Also, post-menopausal women are more likely to experience more severe infections that may become life-threatening.
Both aging and low estrogen levels may have a negative affect on your immune system, potentially weakening it. After menopause, estrogen levels for most women are about 90% lower than they are before menopause. Therefore, during this stage in our lives, we experience a change in our immune system that may make us more vulnerable to infections. This is a concern at any time, but especially during the winter season where colds, influenza, and other illnesses are more common, as well as during the current pandemic. However, research suggests that hormone replacement may help regulate some of these immune changes.
Estrogen Replacement Therapy May Help Improve Immune Response
Estrogens may enhance many different elements of the immune system. For example, estrogens may help stimulate an inflammatory response in your body. This inflammatory response helps you fight off infections if you come into contact with bacteria, viruses, and other germs that can make you sick.
After a hysterectomy, women experience many of the same symptoms as menopause, because they produce lower estrogen levels. Research suggests that estrogen replacement therapy may help reverse some of the immune system changes that happen after a hysterectomy. This suggests that menopausal women may benefit from a stronger immune system when taking estrogen. Other studies have found that hormone therapy was associated with an improved systemic immune response for post-menopausal women. Therefore, estrogen replacement therapy may not only help alleviate uncomfortable menopause symptoms, it may also help your body’s immune system fight infections.
Estrogen & the Flu
There are several medical studies concerning how estrogen affects the immune system. Many of these studies involve the use of estrogen replacement therapy. For example, several studies show that estrogen replacement therapy may help improve menopausal women’s immune response to the influenza vaccine. In one recent study, women who received hormone replacement for menopause symptoms had better antibody responses to flu vaccines compared to those who didn’t take hormones. That study also saw a direct correlation between estrogen levels in the HRT group and the number of vaccine-specific antibodies in the blood.
Another study around estrogen replacement therapy and the flu is that estrogen may help reduce the amount of flu virus that can replicate in your body. When a virus infects one of your cells, it starts replicating itself. These replicated viruses then go on to attack more and more of your cells. The more the virus replicates itself, the more severe an infection can be. The researchers in the study suggested that this may be an added benefit of using hormone imbalance treatment for menopause symptoms.
Why Might Estrogen Play a Role in the Immune System?
Many medical studies look at the effects of declining estrogen levels during menopause on the immune system. Research has found that certain types of white blood cells decline after menopause. Post-menopausal women also generally have higher levels of cytokines, which can cause chronic inflammation. Also, studies have found that immune cell function are also reduced after menopause. Low estrogen levels are also associated with fewer B and T cells. However, estrogen replacement therapy may help reverse some of these effects on the immune system. One reason may be because of hormone receptors in immune cells. This may allow estrogen to help control immune response.
Also, estrogen levels may have an indirect influence on your immune system. Low estrogen levels during menopause may lead to some uncomfortable changes in your life that can affect your immune system. For example, many women experience insomnia during and after menopause. Lack of sleep can take a toll on your immune system and overall health. Another common symptom of menopause is anxiety, which may also affect your immune system the same way high stress levels might. Therefore, other changes during menopause could lead to a weaker immune system. Estrogen replacement therapy may help relieve these symptoms to help you feel your best and live a healthier, more comfortable lifestyle.
Let’s Talk about Estrogen Replacement Therapy for Menopause Symptoms
At HerKare, we are here to help you address your unique health needs at every stage of life. We provide comprehensive healthcare for women in a warm, welcoming environment. Our clinic is owned and operated by women who understand and take time to help you find underlying causes of your symptoms. Whether you’re experiencing uncomfortable menopause symptoms or are looking for preventative well woman care, our providers are here for you. We provide personalized treatment plans based on your lifestyle to help you feel better. Learn more about your health and how we can help you start feeling your best by booking an appointment today! Our team at HerKare is here for you.
by SXHH Marketing | Oct 20, 2020 | Hormone Replacement Therapy, Menopause
An estimated 21% of American households purchase grapefruit juice, with many more eating the fruit whole. While grapefruits do have their positive effects, it’s important to understand that it may cause a drug-food interaction with estrogen replacement therapy. If you’re taking hormones for menopause symptoms, then it may be best to stay away from this citrus. The FDA requires a warning label about grapefruit and estrogen reactions on all estrogen medications, as it may cause serious side effects.
Summary
- Grapefruit and grapefruit juice can interact with estrogen replacement therapy by affecting how your body metabolizes the hormone, which could lead to higher estrogen levels in the bloodstream. Grapefruit contains compounds that is responsible for breaking down estrogen, which means more of the hormone stays in your system instead of being metabolized normally. Even just a glass a day can affect estrogen metabolism.
- Short-term effects of higher estrogen levels from grapefruit may include nausea, breast tenderness, headaches, or spotting, potentially making hormone therapy less predictable. Some clinicians warn that increased estrogen exposure could raise risks like breast cancer or cardiovascular events.
- The FDA requires warning labels about grapefruit interacting with estrogen medications, underscoring why many providers tells patients to avoid grapefruit while on hormone replacement. Discussing grapefruit consumption with your HerKare provider helps you stay safe and adjust your treatment if needed.
- While grapefruit has nutritional benefits, its ability to change estrogen levels means most women taking estrogen replacement therapy are advised to avoid it entirely. This precaution helps keep hormone levels more stable and reduces the risk of unexpected side effects as part of your treatment plan.
You may need to be careful about what you eat with estrogen replacement therapy. Grapefruits can cause serious food-drug interactions.
Does Grapefruit Affect Estrogen Replacement Therapy?
You might be thinking to yourself, “how much harm can a grapefruit cause?” When it comes to estrogen replacement therapy, it can actually be quite a lot. Grapefruit juice interacts with many different medications, including estrogen hormone imbalance treatment. Grapefruits and grapefruit juice affects how your body absorbs certain medications. In many cases, this may increase the amount of medication that goes into your bloodstream. It may also make medications stay in the body longer. Therefore, mixing grapefruits and estrogens may lead to serious health consequences from extra high estrogen levels.
How Does Estrogen Replacement Therapy Work?
There are three types of estrogens: estriol, estrone, and estradiol. Estradiol is the more potent form of the hormone, and the National Institute of Health deems it the most form of estrogen in a woman’s body. The goal of estrogen replacement therapy is to bring low estradiol levels back into healthy ranges. This can help with hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes, and many of the other symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. Bioidentical estradiol is an FDA-approved medication for helping relieve menopause symptoms, and this is the hormone replacement treatment we use to help treat low estrogen levels.
Estrogens, as well as other types of hormones, are the messengers of the body. They can change how cells in your body function. However, they can only change certain target cells. Target cells have receptors to a particular hormone that allows it to change the cell’s function. Whether naturally produced or as part of your estrogen replacement therapy regimen, estrogens work by binding to estrogen receptors in cells in your body.
How Does Grapefruit Affect Estrogen Levels?
So, how exactly does a grapefruit interact with medications like estradiol? Grapefruits contain organic compounds that affect many different enzymes. One of these enzymes is the CYP3A4 enzyme, primarily found in your liver and digestive tract. Estrogens, whether naturally produced or as part of your hormone imbalance treatment, are metabolized by this enzyme in your liver. By inhibiting these enzymes, grapefruit reduces how much estrogen you can metabolize. This leads to more of the hormone going into your blood.
The effects of grapefruits on your estrogen-metabolizing enzymes can last up to a few days. Over time, with frequent grapefruit consumption while taking estrogen medications, patients may even see estrogen levels increase by up to 30%. In addition, progesterone is also metabolized by the CYP3A4 enzyme. There are currently no studies that show the effects of grapefruit on progesterone. However, some researchers warn against consuming grapefruits with progesterone due to the potentially similar effects.
Can I Consume Any Amount of Grapefruit with Estrogen Replacement Therapy?
A common question we hear is, “what if I just limit how much grapefruit I eat?” Others wonder if it’s okay to drink grapefruit juice so long as it’s not on days when they receive their hormone injection. Unfortunately, even small amounts of grapefruit can affect your estrogen levels. In fact, most of the studies done on grapefruit-drug interactions were based on just one glass of grapefruit juice per day. Even one glass can affect medications for as long as 72 hours. Another study saw that estrogen levels increased significantly after eating just ½ a grapefruit per day.
Therefore, it’s best to avoid grapefruit, grapefruit juice, and other foods with grapefruit in them to be safe when taking estrogen replacement therapy. While this may seem easy, there are some foods and beverages that you wouldn’t expect to have grapefruit ingredients in them. For example, many citrus flavored soft drinks contain some form of grapefruit, so it’s important to check the labels.
What are the Potential Effects of Mixing Grapefruit and Estrogens?
You might be wondering just how bad the effects are of grapefruit and estrogen interactions. By causing more estrogen to enter your bloodstream rather than being metabolized, this can cause serious side effects. High levels of estrogen due to grapefruit consumption during estrogen replacement therapy may cause both short and long-term effects.
Short-Term Side Effects
In the short-term, after eating a grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice, you may notice some side effects. Grapefruit juice may increase your risk for experiencing side effects from your hormone imbalance treatment. For example, you might notice menstrual pain, breast tenderness, nausea, headaches, or spotting. Some other effects you may notice is increased bloating, tiredness, or even weight gain. These could be due to the extra estrogen in your blood due to grapefruit’s effects on how your body metabolizes hormones.
Long-Term Effects of High Estrogen Levels
There are some other potential effects of mixing grapefruit with estrogen replacement therapy. Long-term effects may have serious consequences for your health. For example, long-term exposure to high estrogen levels is associated with an increased risk for breast cancer. Since grapefruits may lead to high estrogen levels, this is a potential effect. However, it’s important to note that researchers are still studying this potential effect.
Also, while grapefruit juice bottles often bear the American Heart Association’s heart healthy checkmark, mixing it with estrogen has the potential to affect your cardiovascular risks. Grapefruit can increase the amount of estrogen in your body, and high estrogen levels in your body can increase your risk for certain conditions. Some heart problems associated with high estrogen include an increased risk for heart attack, stroke, and blood clots. Therefore, it’s important to follow the FDA’s warning against ingesting grapefruit and grapefruit products while taking estrogen replacement therapy.
At HerKare, we provide quality, compassionate health care for women. Our medical professionals take the time to listen to how you’re feeling and the symptoms you’re experiencing. Then, we work to find underlying causes of your symptoms and find personalized treatment solutions for you. Schedule an appointment today to talk to one of our providers so we can help you start feeling better.
by SXHH Marketing | Oct 14, 2020 | Uncategorized
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by SXHH Marketing | Oct 5, 2020 | Hormone Replacement Therapy, Menopause
Of the 28 million Americans who suffer from migraine headaches, women make up 70% of those patients. Also, about 40% of women will experience a migraine at least once by the time they reach menopause. What’s worse, more than half of women with migraines notice their migraines change during menopause, most of them reporting that they happen more often and feel more intense. In some cases, this may be due to fluctuations in estrogen levels, which hormone replacement treatment may be able to help.
Migraines may get worse during the transition into menopause and after, but hormone replacement treatment may help.
First, it’s important to understand the difference between a headache and a migraine. A headache is pain or pressure in your head. Headaches usually affect both sides of your head. A migraine generally has more severe head pains and also has other symptoms. Some symptoms of a migraine include:
- Sensitivity to light, sound, or smells
- Nausea and vomiting
- Dizziness
- Numbness or tingling in one side of the face
- Distorted vision
- Mood changes
- Neck stiffness
In addition, some people experience migraine with an aura. This usually includes visual disturbances like seeing bright flashes, shimmering spots, blind spots, or zig zagging lines.
Is Hormone Replacement Treatment Safe for Women with Migraines?
You may be wondering if hormone replacement treatment is safe to take if you have migraines. It’s a common misconception that you can’t use bioidentical hormones if you have migraines. Some women shouldn’t take combined estrogen and progesterone oral contraceptives if they have migraines with aura. Experiencing migraines with aura slightly increases your risk for strokes, and taking certain types of birth control pills can make this stroke even worse. This is usually the source for the misconception that hormones are unsafe for women with migraines.
Actually, studies show that women’s hormone care is safe for women who experience migraines. One study looked at 85,000 U.S. women and found no evidence of an increased risk of heart attack or stroke for women with a history of migraines. Additionally, some women notice that hormone replacement treatment actually helps their migraines, especially if they get worse leading up to the transition into menopause.
Why Are My Migraines Worse During Menopause?
Many women notice that their migraines get worse during and after menopause. This is especially true of the 70% of women who have migraines associated with their menstrual cycle. Migraine headaches may have several triggers, including hormone changes and other issues that tend to occur and get worse during menopause.
Hormone Replacement Treatment May Help with Hormone Fluctuations
Women may experience migraines due to hormone fluctuations. For example, during the beginning of their period or during and after menopause when hormone levels fluctuate and decline. Hormone injections may help reduce menopausal migraines by helping keep your hormones in balance.
Why would hormones have such an effect on migraines? While the exact cause of migraines is still debated, many researchers believe that they are caused by changes in brain chemical levels, possible serotonin levels. They believe that these changes can cause the blood vessels in your brain to swell and push up against nerves that cause the migraine. Estrogen may play a role in this because it is thought to help increase serotonin levels and serotonin receptors in your brain. However, as we age, estrogen in our bodies start to fluctuate and gradually decline, which can cause the more commonly known menopause symptoms like hot flashes and mood changes. Hormone replacement treatment may help with these symptoms and may also help prevent fluctuations that may cause migraines.
Other Migraine Triggers During Menopause
In addition, there are many other things that may happen during menopause that can trigger migraine headaches. For example, many women notice that their migraines are associated with hot flashes and night sweats during perimenopause. Women’s hormone care may help reduce the frequency of your hot flashes which, in turn, may also help reduce how many migraines you experience.
Also, some other common triggers of migraines during menopause include lack of sleep and stress. Many women experience more of these issues because of physical, emotional, and social changes during menopause. Night sweats may make it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. You may feel more stressed because of mood changes and other menopause symptoms. In some cases, relieving these symptoms can also help with migraines.
Can Hormone Replacement Treatment Help My Migraines?
A recent study linked migraines during menopause to hormone fluctuations. The women in the study who experienced worsening migraines also experienced greater changes in hormones, namely, a more significant drop in estrogen. Rapid or large changes in hormone levels may lead to migraine headaches. The goal of hormone replacement treatment is to help boost hormone levels up to healthy ranges and also help reduce fluctuations. Therefore, some women do notice that their migraines improve after starting on hormone medications for menopause. Additionally, hormone replacement treatment may help reduce night sweats and other symptoms that may be triggering your migraines. While hormone replacement treatment is not a treatment for migraines, women who begin therapy for hot flashes and other menopause symptoms may also experience migraine relief.
Women’s hormone care is different for everyone, so not everyone will notice this effect. It’s important to talk to one of our providers about your symptoms to find personalized treatment plans for both menopause symptoms and migraines. For example, other underlying conditions can cause migraines during menopause, such as vitamin D deficiency. Our team is here to help you find solutions for your symptoms.
At HerKare, our goal is to provide you with the quality, compassionate care you deserve. As an advanced women’s health clinic, we offer treatment solutions for women at every stage of life. Whether you need general women’s wellness care or testosterone replacement therapy for menopause symptoms, we are here to help you feel better. Our physicians take the time to listen and understand to help create treatment plans tailored to you. We also provide advanced treatment monitoring to help you optimize your treatment and help you reduce your risk for serious preventable diseases. Book an appointment today for a health assessment to discuss your symptoms and overall wellness.
