Two words used almost interchangeably, and one distinction that actually matters when it comes to your prescription.
The language around hormone therapy can be confusing. Standard HRT, bioidentical HRT, body-identical, compounded. The terms overlap, they are used loosely, and the marketing around them is not always careful. Here is what the distinction actually comes down to.
Standard HRT
Standard HRT uses hormones formulated to replicate the function of naturally occurring ones. They work, they are well studied, and for many women they are entirely appropriate. What they are not, in every case, is molecularly identical to the hormones the body produces itself.
Bioidentical hormones
Bioidentical hormones go a step further. They are molecularly identical to the hormones your body produces. At NUPHASE, where bioidentical treatment is appropriate, your prescription is compounded to your specific blood results rather than selected from a fixed off-the-shelf dose.
The compounding is the point. Two women with the same diagnosis can need very different things. A prescription made to your results, and adjusted as your body responds, is a different proposition to a standard dose that stays the same regardless of how you feel.
Which is right for you
That is a clinical decision, made with your clinician, on the basis of your blood results and your symptoms. Both options are available at NUPHASE. What does not change is the starting point: a blood test, reviewed personally, before anything is prescribed.
Frequently asked questions
It starts with a blood test, not an assumption.