http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lqO5d_7quw
Dr. Stephen Graham MD discusses the side effects of hormone treatment for men and women.

An Important question we are often asked about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy or BHRT, is "What are the side effects?" It is important to know that when we optimize someone's hormones, we keep them within the normal range. We do not go above the normal range like bodybuilders or other people who might tend to abuse. Our goal is to improve a person's health, well being, enjoyment of life, and life span and not to do anything other than that.

When used in higher than normal doses, and very rarely for some people even within the normal range, some of the old thoughts were that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy might cause cancer of the prostate for men. That's very old data.

Now, virtually everyone accepts the fact that it does not cause it, but is only "possible" but not likely, that when a man already has pre-existing prostate cancer, that bhrt can accelerate it. This is why we do relatively specific testing before placing a man on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

In women, it was believed that hormone replacement with estrogen and progesterone may cause cancers in women. The findings were based on testing with "synthetic" hormones and not bioidentical hormones which mimic the bodies natural hormones.

It is now being shown that with bioidentical hormones, particularly estrogen and progesterone, that the negative effects seen with synthetic hormones are not present. So the risks of cancer that was once thought to be a side effect of hormone replacement therapy is greatly diminished, and we take precautions to ensure this is the case. Women will need to have pap smears and mammograms regularly to determine risk factors.
Dr Graham is an expert in bioidentical hormone replacement and is a supervising physician at LifeXMD's Scottsdale office. http://www.lifexmd.com