Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT)

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) restores hormonal balance using compounds that are chemically identical to the hormones your body naturally produces. As we age, hormone levels can fluctuate, leading to fatigue, mood changes, weight gain, and disrupted sleep. BHRT helps bring these systems back into alignment, improving energy, focus, and overall well-being. At Meeting Point Health, we tailor each BHRT plan to your unique physiology—helping you feel like yourself again, with vitality that lasts.

What is Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy?

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) is the use of hormones that are identical on the molecular level to the ones produced by your body to treat conditions in which your own natural hormone production is low. BHRT is used to treat symptoms associated with low thyroid, estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone hormone levels in both men and women. Hormones are chemical messengers, released by your endocrine glands into your bloodstream, that are essential to the proper functioning of cells throughout your body.

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BHRT vs Synthetic Hormone Replacement Therapy

BHRT uses hormones that have the same molecular structure as the hormones made by your body and are derived from plant materials as well as mammalian sources. Synthetic hormones (such as Premarin and Provera) do not have the same molecular structure as the hormones produced by your body, and therefore can put you at risk for cardiovascular disease or certain cancers.

How is BHRT Administered?

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy can be prescribed as:

Prescribed oral pill
Cream or gel you rub into your skin
Sublingual troche
An injection every one to three weeks
Subdermal pellets implanted under the skin once every three months

What Conditions Can BHRT Treat?

Various conditions can be treated with BHRT including:

Menopause
Estrogen Dominance
Menstrual Irregularities
Low Testosterone Levels
PCOS
Insomnia
Weight Gain (Despite Diet & Exercise)
Mood Changes

The benefits of BHRT are different from person to person, so your doctor needs to monitor your treatment carefully. It may take several months of hormone therapy before the beneficial effects begin.

Types of BHRT

Estrogen Replacement Therapy

We all know that as women age, there is a significant drop in estrogen levels. This causes symptoms such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness and irritation, mood swings, fatigue, low libido, and weight gain. There is also an increased risk of heart disease and osteoporosis. To combat these symptoms and risks, many doctors prescribe estrogen replacement therapy.

Estrogen replacement therapy provides low dosages via pills or patches, generally in pill form. The benefits of estrogen replacement therapy for women are great and include:

Decreased risk of heart disease
Less severe hot flashes vaginal dryness
Decreased vaginal dryness
Improved memory and concentration
Increased bone density

Estrogen Replacement Therapy should not be done without close medical supervision and regular hormone testing. While estrogen can stimulate cells that promote the growth of cancerous tumors, the risk of estrogen-related cancers can be markedly reduced by taking progesterone along with estrogen replacement. In fact, women who take both hormones actually have a decreased chance of heart attack as opposed to those not receiving any treatment at all.

Progesterone Replacement Therapy

Many women suffer from a deficiency of progesterone or too much estrogen. This creates a picture called Estrogen Dominance with symptoms such as:

Heavy and irregular periods
Infertility
Abnormal weight gain
Endometriosis
Fibroids
PMS
Low sex drive
Anxiety
Headaches
Weight loss resistance

Causes of estrogen dominance include problems breaking down estrogen in the liver, high cortisol levels with insulin resistance, weight gain, toxic xenoestrogens such as BPA, long term use of hormone-based contraceptives.

Progesterone replacement therapy along with appropriate diet and detoxification of estrogen can help reduce symptoms of estrogen dominance.

Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT)

Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) can help increase testosterone levels in many men who suffer from low testosterone or andropause. If you have been experiencing certain symptoms of low testosterone such as those listed here, it’s time to test your sex hormones and get on a treatment plan.

Fatigue
Depression
Erectile dysfunction
Loss of sex drive
Weight gain
Insomnia
Increase in body fat

A condition called “secondary hypogonadism” can develop as a result of another medical condition such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes or obesity. In these cases, TRT with testosterone alone may not correct both the physical symptoms and sexual problems caused by this secondary hypogonadism. In such cases, it is necessary to treat the cardiometabolic condition while also using testosterone replacement to help alleviate symptoms.

TRT is usually done with a gel or patch that is applied daily or as an injectable pellet therapy you receive in the office once every few months.

Thyroid Replacement Therapy

Your thyroid can become sluggish due to a number of factors:

Chronic infection
Chronic toxicity
Genetic variations
Lifestyle – nutrition and movement
Micronutrient deficiencies – iodine, selenium, vitamin D, B vitamins
Methylation problems

The intricacy of thyroid hormone balance is an interplay of various anatomy, not just your thyroid gland. Your brain, liver, kidneys, adrenals, blood proteins and muscles are all involved in activating thyroid hormone. Problems arise when:

The liver and kidneys can become overburdened from chronic infection and chronic toxicity.
A sedentary lifestyle leads to markedly reduced muscle activation and peristalsis in the gut.
Your immune system is overburdened causing your body to make antibodies not only to pathogens and toxins, but also to your own thyroid hormone.
Stressors can cause your adrenal glands to overproduce cortisol. This can cause some T4 to be converted to reverse T3 (rT3) which slows down metabolism. High rT3 levels indicate a stressed state. Low rT3 levels may indicate an over supplementation of T3 replacement, such as with Cytomel.

We use a combination of medications and treatments for thyroid replacement therapy, especially in cases of Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thyroiditis:

Detoxification strategies with IV therapy (such as ozone and chelation), infrared sauna, cupping therapy
Natural desiccated thyroid replacement such as Armour which is a combination of T4 and T3
Low dose naltrexone (LDN) to stimulate the immune system
Maximizing gut health and elimination with nutrition, supplementation, and abdominal acupuncture.

FAQs

What to expect at my appointment for BHRT?

How does BHRT Work?

The goal of hormone replacement therapy, whether it’s with sex hormone, thyroid hormone, melatonin or others is to replace the hormone that your body isn’t producing enough of.

As with all HRT, well-being is relatively easy to maintain as long as it’s working for you – but if not, then the dosage may need to be adjusted. We will likely repeat a blood test to readjust your medication and fine-tune how much hormone you need to feel good again.

What testing is used to prescribe BHRT?

At Meeting Point Health, we will use Precision Analytics DUTCH Hormone Test or Vibrant Wellness. Depending on where you are in treatment, and what hormones we are testing, the collected specimen may be saliva, urine, or blood.

These panels are an in-depth comprehensive review of sex and adrenal hormones including:

24 hour cortisol
DHEA
Estrogen metabolites and ratios
Progesterone metabolites and ratio to estrogen
Testosterone metabolites

We’ll often combine a hormone panel with other tests such as:

Complete Thyroid Panel
TSH – an indicator of how hard your thyroid is working to increase immunity and metabolism
Thyroxine Binding Globulin – a high estrogen indicator
Total T3 and T4 (protein bound) – inactive circulating hormone
Free t3 and t4 (unbound) – activate circulating hormone
Reverse T3 – slows down your metabolism to save resources
Anti TPO antibodies – indicator of autoimmune thyroiditis
Anti-thyroglobulin antibodies
Iodine – used in the thyroid to make hormone
Selenium – a necessary cofactor used by an enzyme in the liver to activate T3

Total Toxin Burden

Mycotoxins – can degenerate phospholipids which make up the cell membranes of hormones
Heavy Metals – interfere with hormone production, oxygenation and liver function
Plastics – the biggest endocrine disruptors as these are xenoestrogens (fake estrogen)
Herbicides and Pesticides – destroy gut health and affect insulin sensitivity and immunity
Chemical Solvents and Emissions
Neurotransmitters – these affect mood, energy, digestion and more
Melatonin – a sleep hormone that also acts as an antioxidant that is immune protective

We also may add testing for serum luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) – these are hormones from your brain that work together with your ovaries or testes to stimulate production of your sex hormones.

What are the side effects of BHRT?

Who is a good candidate for BHRT?

Women who experience severe menopausal symptoms, such as mood swings, difficulty sleeping, headaches or painful intercourse are ideal candidates for BHRT. Also, women who experience menopause early as a result of chemotherapy or an oophorectomy can benefit from BHRT.

If you have tried other recommended therapies and made the suggested lifestyle changes and still have not experienced relief from menopausal symptoms, then ask your doctor if BHRT is right for you.

How long does BHRT take before I feel better?

Does Meeting Point Health accept insurance?

No, we do not accept insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid; however, we do take HSA/FSA, cash and credit cards. We also work with CareCredit if you choose to finance.

Our practitioners and staff fully understand and empathize with the challenges that patients face as they make financial decisions for proper health care. Our practice is very different from a conventional medical practice in many ways, and the time spent with each patient is usually 30-90 minutes. Visits with a physician covered by insurance generally allow for less than 10 minutes total! Conventional medical practices that take insurance maintain brief office visits and high patient loads for this reason. We cannot provide the expert care that every one of our patients deserves under those circumstances.

Insurance also dictates the types of treatments and order of treatments patients can receive for a particular condition. For example, if you visit your physician for chronic knee pain, they will likely start with a steroid injection because insurance requires that you exhaust steroid injection efforts before discussing other options, which may possibly impair your overall chances of recovery. Not good!

Opting out of insurance allows the patient and the doctor to maintain their medical autonomy, which is imperative to ensure you get the right treatment at the right time and the right dose.

How do I get started with Meeting Point Health?

Getting started at Meeting Point Health is simple. Schedule an initial discovery call online or call our office to connect with a New Patient Onboarding Specialist. During your first visit, we’ll take a deep dive into your health history, symptoms, and goals, and may recommend advanced testing or imaging to uncover the root causes of your concerns. From there, our team will design a personalized treatment plan tailored to your body’s unique needs—whether that includes regenerative therapies, functional medicine, IV therapy, or longevity care. It all begins with a single step toward feeling your best—Click to schedule a free discovery call with one of our Patient Onboarding Specialists today!

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