Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), Marylebone, London

Are you struggling to lose weight, even though you’re eating less? Are you gaining weight, despite exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy diet? Do you find it difficult to control your weight no matter what you do? If the answer is yes, it could be your hormones. I hear these comments regularly from my patients, but the good news is that fixing imbalanced hormones isn’t complicated, and I see hormone health as part of a 360-degree approach to looking and feeling your best.

What happens to your hormones in menopause?

Although hormone levels can dip and surge throughout life, your forties onwards is when the ‘middle-aged spread’ can appear, caused by a lack of oestrogen and testosterone. Without these crucial hormones, your fat redistributes, causing your shape to change.

Testosterone deficiency

Testosterone plays a vital role in helping us look and feel our best. It promotes libido by increasing dopamine levels in the central nervous system. It also helps maintain normal metabolic function, muscle and bone strength, liver and heart health and mood and cognitive function.

Testosterone deficiency can cause a reduction in lean body mass and increased fat mass. Testosterone can be reduced in times of prolonged stress or simply by our natural ageing process as we enter perimenopause. Hormone optimisation with testosterone has been shown to improve overall body composition, enable sustained weight loss, and lead to marked reduction in waist circumference and BMI. These improvements are attributed to improved mitochondrial function, increased energy utilisation, motivation and vigour, resulting in improved cardio-metabolic function and enhanced physical activity.

Oestrogen and progesterone imbalance

In perimenopause, your ovaries produce less oestrogen, so the body turns to other production sources, and extra fat cells effectively become the body’s safety net. This drop in oestrogen often leads to excess pounds accumulating on your tummy instead of your bottom and thighs. These hormonal changes and the way they make you feel – often tense, stressed, and anxious – send your stress hormone cortisol levels rocketing, which further increases your chances of gaining yet more weight. When optimising your hormones, progesterone can be used to rebalance a lot of the impact of too much oestrogen.

What are bio-identical hormones, and how can they help?

Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) is a customised hormone regime that is tailor-made for each patient to optimise overall wellbeing, restore imbalance and improve their quality of life. BHRT is a form of HRT that uses structurally identical hormones to your natural hormones. What makes it different to common HRT treatments available on the NHS, is that it’s fully customised – it has been compounded especially for you.

Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy can help you maintain or restore your ideal weight. By rebalancing hormone levels, we increase skin elasticity and prevent increased fat storage. You may also feel better mentally, sleep well, and the risks of you developing health problems like osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease will be lowered.

What happens in a BHRT consultation?

It’s much more than just a blood test to check your current hormone profile. We will discuss the changes you’re experiencing – and this may include symptoms from brain fog and sleeplessness, anxiety and weight gain to an inability to cope. Then we’ll do a blood test, have a further consultation, and prescribe appropriately. When it comes to weight loss, results are usually seen after a few months, and your bloods are checked quarterly at review appointments to adjust your doses if needed.

Hormones are one of the major building blocks of maintaining health alongside diet, exercise, and sleep, and they have a significant impact on your skin and body. By optimising your health on the inside, we can potentially help to fix issues on the outside. Bio-identical hormones are proven to help many people to live longer, happier, and healthier lives.

Other things that you can do to support your weight in menopause

  • Reduce your sugar intake
  • Clean up your diet and avoid processed foods as much as possible
  • Lower the Glycaemic Index of your meals
  • Optimise your vitamin D levels
  • Decrease toxin exposure in your environment
  • Stay active
  • Destress with yoga, meditation, and exercise
  • Get adequate quality sleep

Would you like to find out more about bio-identical hormone therapy? Click here to enquire or book a consultation.