HOUSE CALL: An alternative for hormone replacement therapy

This article from The San Angelo (TX) Times may be repeat information for those of you who have been reading this blog for quite some time, but for those of you who are fairly new to Holy Hormones, this gives a good overview of how bioidentical hormone therapy works. I do want to clarify two points, however:

• Most doctors who are truly specialists in this field prescribe the hormones individually (usually by creams or some other delivery than by mouth) rather than mixing them together in formulas. Especially when beginning hormone therapy, it's important to be able to pinpoint by trial and error which hormones may be causing unwanted side effects, and that's impossible to do if the hormones are all mixed together. It's impossible to "tweak" dosing if the hormones are mixed together rather than made up individually as creams.
• Some hormones (estradiol) are available in commercially prepared doses transdermally----by patch. Many of you have heard of the Vivelle Dot or the Climera patch. Each comes in several different dosages. Remember, however, that hormonal balance is not just slapping on a patch of estrogen-----progesterone and testosterone balance is just as important.