Bio-identical Hormone Replacement

Both men and women experience moodiness, weight gain, headaches, and energy slumps due to declining hormones. Visit Jessica Cho, M.D. of Wellness at Century City for solutions. She provides bioidentical hormone injections and topicals, as well as growth hormones, to patients all across Los Angeles. This therapy brings your hormones back into balance to relieve unpleasant symptoms and improve your quality of life. To discuss hormone therapy with Dr. Cho, call the office or schedule an appointment online.

Hormone therapy is often thought of as a treatment for menopausal women, due to drops in estrogen and progesterone that cause hot flashes, vaginal dryness, mood changes, and other unpleasant symptoms.

But men also benefit from hormone therapy during andropause, also known as male menopause. Andropause occurs as men age and experience a gradual drop in testosterone. When men reach their early 30s, they begin losing testosterone at a rate of 1-2% per year. This drop can cause symptoms such as irritability, loss of libido, weight gain, and muscle loss.

What is hormone replacement therapy?

Bioidentical hormone therapy replaces the hormones you naturally produce with versions that match the structure of hormones made naturally by your body. Bioidentical hormones are made from plant sources.

Dr. Cho measures your hormone levels to create a treatment plan that can improve your vitality, energy, and sense of well-being. Then she customizes the blend of hormones appropriate for you and administers them topically or via injection, depending on your symptoms and needs.

What symptoms suggest a need for hormone therapy treatment?

In women, symptoms of hormone imbalance usually appear during perimenopause, menopause, and during the premenstrual period. Specific symptoms that suggest hormone therapy may be warranted for a woman include: 

• Mood changes and irritability
• Unexplained weight gain
• Headaches
• Night sweats
• Hot flashes
• Insomnia

Many of the same symptoms occur in men. If a man has these additional symptoms, he may be helped by testosterone replacement: 

• Sleep apnea
• Memory loss
• Hair loss
• Erectile dysfunction
• Muscle loss
• Depression and fatigue
• Male breast development

When you come in for a consultation, Dr. Cho has you answer a detailed questionnaire. She’ll also thoroughly review your medical history and then prescribes hormones according to your age, body size, symptom report, and health history. She intends only to replace or supplement hormones as they naturally occurred in your body as a young adult.

What is the benefit of using bioidentical hormones?

Bioidentical hormones, sometimes called “natural” hormones, differ from synthetic versions made in a laboratory. Specially-trained pharmacists produce bioidentical hormones in a sterile environment at a compounding pharmacy, so they possess the exact same chemical structure as hormones made naturally by human sex organs.

Since they’re just like human hormones, the body receives, processes, and uses them readily, as opposed to synthetic hormones, which are chemically-altered substances that your body doesn’t always recognize.