Customized Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is HOT! You've seen it on Oprah, Dr. Phil or The Doctors Show, you've heard about it from Robin McGraw and Suzanne Somers, and your friends are talking about it. The BUZZ is out there....so what are the next steps?

First things first: Get educated on natural hormone replacement therapy: read, gather information and talk to other women.
Step Two: Begin a symptoms diary. Hormone imbalance causes a huge array of symptoms, both obvious and subtle. You need a baseline to know where you are right now so you can clarify and measure your success. Maintain a symptom sheet and begin monitoring your daily symptoms. How are you on a normal day? How do you wake up? What is your stress level? How much exercise do you get? How is your diet? Do you get headaches? Weight gain? Blood pressure? Mood swings? What is your energy level? The key is to know yourself and recognize the difference between the way you used to feel and the way you currently feel.

Step Three: Saliva Testing. Because hormones are tightly bound to proteins called sex hormone binding globulins (98% of hormones are bound) you should use saliva to measure hormone levels. Saliva tests measure hormones at the tissue level, which is a better reflection of how they are interacting in the body. The research suggests that using saliva testing gives us the best scenario of current hormone levels. Once you know where your levels are, you can work on getting back to where you need to be for a healthy, vital life.

Step Four: When your saliva test results come back contact your MD for an appointment. Explain that you are interested in using Customized HRT and map out what you have done, and your goals of the appointment, as well as the treatment. Try and gauge the comfort level of your MD. Hopefully you have had a good long-term relationship with your MD and s/he will welcome this opportunity to partner with you. Often s/he will refer you to someone else if they aren't comfortable. At least you know that upfront and your time won't be wasted. If you don't have a physician, you should contact a compounding pharmacy in your area for a list of MDs they typically work with in Customized HRT. You can also go to the Internal Academy of Compounding Pharmacies (lacprx.org), type in your zip code and they will provide you with a list of compounding pharmacies in your area.

Step Five: Monitor your success. Continue your daily symptom diary to measure improvement and also to identify areas that need more tweaking. Reevaluation is the key to continued success and growth. Some symptoms improve dramatically allowing improvement in your quality of life. Other symptom improvements are more subtle. Revisit saliva testing in 6 months, if needed. Look for improvements in your hormonal levels as well as opportunities to make dosage adjustments. Testing gives us a road map to improve treatment. There might be a need to improve the adrenal gland with adrenal support supplements, look to see the functioning of the thyroid gland, or add/subtract nutritionals to improve the functioning of your cells and organs.