Too many people still think of menopause as “that time of life” when women should “just deal with it.” Women experience everything from feeling invisible and unheard when trying to talk about the symptoms to gaslighting when the medical world brushes off changes as “just getting older” or “normal stress.”
That’s not how we treat clients at Inspirations Med Spa. Our all-female team listens to you and hears what you’re saying. We respect the realities of menopause, so that you don’t have to fight a “second war” against societal expectations and stigmas.
Instead of ignoring your concerns, we support you in addressing them.
Book a consultation with us. Talk to a hormone specialist honestly and openly about your menopause issues. We help you explore choices, such as HRT in Portage, MI, that can put the pause on menopause symptoms.
Quick Start Guide
- The Causes of Menopause
- Identifying Menopause Cycles
- Our Menopause Support: Biote Pellets
- Complementary Treatment Support
- FAQs About HRT and BHRT
Menopause Happens to All Women
Menopause is a natural biological process that happens to all women. It involves the permanent cessation of menstruation, and it marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years.
According to the World Health Organization, “Natural menopause is deemed to have occurred after 12 consecutive months without menstruation for which there is no other obvious physiological or pathological cause and in the absence of clinical intervention.”
The causes of menopause range from the effects of natural aging to alternative medical reasons, such as hysterectomy procedures, certain medications, physical trauma, disease, and other causes.
Menopause Occurs in 4 Stages
Surprisingly, what people think of as “menopause” covers multiple steps in a cycle of change. All women are different and will progress from perimenopause to post-menopause over different time frames, but it follows the same pattern in hormone fluctuations.
Stage 1: Pre-menopause
Pre-menopause covers everything before perimenopause. This includes women’s symptom-free fertile years, usually up until the mid-to-late 40s.
Stage 2: Perimenopause
Perimenopause marks the beginning of the symptoms associated with menopause, and this period generally lasts 3 to 5 years.
Common symptoms can include:
- Menstrual cycle fluctuations
- Moodiness
- Hot flashes or night sweats
- Mental fog
- Vaginal dryness
- Lack of sex drive
- General achiness
Many women talk about this window as “starting menopause” even though it’s a separate phase in this hormonal cycle.
Stage 3: Menopause
And it’s on. For the 12 months directly after your last menstrual cycle ends, which is also the countdown to the defined moment of menopause, women often experience new or worsened symptoms:
- Continued hot flashes
- Hair loss
- Breast volume loss
- Facial hair increase
- Urinary incontinence
- Heart palpitations
Stage 4: Post-menopause
At the 1-year point past your last period, post-menopause starts. This stage (though not all of the symptoms) lasts for the rest of your life.
For many women, post-menopause comes with a gradual decline in menopausal symptoms.
Unfortunately, the decreased estrogen levels at this stage create a higher risk for osteoporosis and heart issues. Modern research indicates that up to 20% of bone loss (osteoporosis) can occur post-menopause.
Menopause Support at Inspirations Med Spa
All of these changes, including the negative side effects associated with menopause, come from dropping levels of hormones like estrogen and progesterone. Now for the good news: most symptoms can be managed by hormone therapy treatments, such as BHRT and HRT in Portage, MI.
Hormone Optimization for Women
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) help women even out the sudden shifts in hormone production. This supports systems to function more in line with optimal levels, which can restore mental clarity, fight afternoon crashes, and even help with unexplained weight gain.
Our individualized dosing means you get the right amounts of missing hormones to help alleviate your unique menopause symptoms.
What HRT and BHRT treat:
- Hot flashes and night sweats
- Vaginal dryness
- Discomfort
- Mood changes
- Poor sleep habits
- Fatigue
- Low libido
Our Primary Choice for Menopause Treatment: Biote
Any hormone therapy that helps you safely is the right one. As professional wellness providers, we prefer the bioidentical hormones in Biote pellet therapy, because they’re molecularly identical to the hormones your body naturally produces.
Because of this, your body more seamlessly absorbs the hormones for consistent levels compared to synthetic options.
The Pellet Approach to Hormone Optimization
When it comes to BHRT vs. HRT in Portage, Biote’s bioidentical pellet delivery method steadily releases hormones, providing long-term balance and a more natural approach to hormone restoration.
Biote pellets are placed under the skin, usually on the back of the hip or top of the buttock, where they steadily release hormones for 4 to 6 months to rebalance your hormone levels and manage symptoms.
During your hormone administration session, your nurse practitioner first numbs the treatment area with lidocaine. Then, they gently place a small hormone pellet beneath the skin in a quick, in-office procedure. The steady-release design helps your body maintain internal balance without the daily ups and downs associated with pills, creams, or injections.
Most women notice improvements within 2 to 4 weeks as the body processes and incorporates the hormones.
Complementary Treatments for Menopause
Women can pair our BHRT and HRT in Portage with several other treatments and therapies at Inspirations Med Spa. This allows you to fully address menopause symptoms, so you can enjoy the best wellness possible during this season of change.
Vitamin Injections
Menopause symptoms and hormonal imbalances can take a lot out of you. The fatigue, brain fog, and mood swings affect you and the people you love. Our vitamin injections help boost your energy, increase mental clarity, and even diminish mood swings.
These personalized vitamin and nutrient injections deliver what your body needs directly into the bloodstream. Soon after each session, patients feel recharged, supported, and more like themselves.
Wellness Services
With all that’s going on during menopause, trying to stay on course with your nutritional needs and fitness plans can seem overwhelming. The wellness services at Inspirations Med Spa help you fuel your body and support your energy and stamina with an activity plan that’s tailored to you.
We’ll guide you with great information and planning tailored to your unique body. Plus, we’ll be behind you with support, cheering you on as you face your challenges.
Emsella
Another, less shared effect of low estrogen levels during menopause involves urinary incontinence. This hormonal shift can weaken pelvic floor muscles, reducing pelvic floor support for the bladder and urethra. When the urethra can’t seal property, leakage occurs.
Our Emsella chair, sometimes called the “Kegel Throne,” delivers high-intensity focused electromagnetic (HIFEM) energy into the pelvic floor. This causes those muscles to contract like they do during Kegel exercises, but at rates of up to 11,000 contractions in a single 30-minute session.
This stimulation quickly retrains and rebuilds those supportive muscles for restored urinary control.
Because it also increases blood flow, many women find their libidos enhanced too.
FAQs About Hormone Replacement Therapy
We’re happy to answer all your questions about BHRT and HRT in Portage, MI.
Why are doctors hesitant to prescribe HRT?
Some traditional healthcare professionals shy away from HRT and BHRT because of several reasons that don’t really apply in the modern world.
- In 2002, a Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study said that HRT significantly increases the risk of breast cancer and heart disease. Eventually, facts came to light showing that the study had major flaws. The “black box” warnings about HRT were removed by the FDA, but the damage the report did for women’s health still lingers with some professionals.
- Menopause “blindness” in medical training creates a lack of information and treatment protocol familiarity for providers.
- Some providers have hidden (or not-so-hidden) philosophical or personal bias toward “natural transition.” They feel that a woman should weather menopause rather than have the symptoms treated.
HRT, and especially BHRT, allow women to safely and effectively treat negative effects of menopause. It’s the kind of relief women need and deserve.
How do I know if I’m a candidate for BHRT?
Most of our menopausal candidates for bioidentical hormone replacement therapy exhibit symptoms identified with hormonal imbalance. These moderate-to-severe symptoms can include:
- Hot flashes
- Night sweats
- Sleep issues
- Mood swings
- Brain fog
- Vaginal dryness
- Decreased sex drive
- Anxiety
- Depression
- And more
We do rigorous testing for hormone levels before prescribing any HRT or BHRT therapies. We’ll also examine your medical history to confirm that hormone therapy makes a safe choice.
Contraindications that may preclude you from having hormone therapy include a history of:
- Cancer, especially breast/uterine/ovarian cancers
- Blood clots
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Coronary artery disease
Active medical issues that prevent participation in HRT/BHRT include:
- Liver disease
- High blood pressure
- Undiagnosed bleeding
We do everything in our power to help you find an appropriate treatment. Plus, we recommend consulting with your healthcare provider to discuss your symptoms and whether HRT in Portage could still be a viable option for your care.
What is the difference between standard HRT and BHRT?
Hormone replacement therapy and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy differ in how they source their hormones.
Traditional replacement hormones (HRT) can be made from the urine of pregnant cows or horses, or from other synthetic (lab-created) sources. These HRT hormones usually come in standard doses which can’t be customized as easily.
Bioidentical hormones are derived from plant sources (primarily wild yams, soy, or cactus). They are preferable because they’re chemically identical to the hormones the human body produces.
Our BHRT pellets can be custom-combined to provide different hormones, and different dosages, for a personalized treatment regimen based on your specific needs.
Press Pause on Your Menopause Symptoms
BHRT and HRT in Portage, MI, help thousands of women live better during the menopause cycle.
Schedule a free personal consultation and be heard and understood by our team of female providers. At Inspirations Med Spa, we empower women to live their best every day.
