If you have reached midlife and are considering hormone replacement therapy to help you get through midlife changes, there are some concerns of which your doctor should make you aware. Issues erupt if your doctor discovers that you already have tumors or polyps growing on your endocrine glands. If that is the case, you will need to proceed with caution. Here is how you can proceed with hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) and not encourage tumor, polyp or nodule growths.

Locating All of the Growths

Your doctor will locate the growths you currently have throughout your body. If they are present, you may have pituitary microadenomas (tumors on the pituitary gland in your brain), nodules on your thyroid and parathyroid, tumors in your pancreas, liver, kidneys and ovaries/testes. They may be located in other organ tissues as well, in which case they have to be documented before your doctor will begin treatment.  All of these growths will need to be documented and monitored with some frequency to make sure the added hormones you are taking will not cause the growths to get bigger.

Taking Smaller HRT Dosages to Start

Your doctor will probably start you on the smallest dosages possible so that you can begin to feel some relief from your midlife symptoms but not antagonize your tumors, polyps and nodules. Some women and men report that even the smallest dosages provide enough relief from their symptoms that they do not have to increase the dosages and take additional risks to feel better. If that is the case, then your doctor will only have to monitor your various growths during the duration that you are taking HRT.

Increasing Dosages to Relieve Symptoms and Then Pulling Back

If the small dosages that your doctor prescribes are ineffectual at relieving your symptoms, he or she may gradually increase your HRT medicines until you have reached a therapeutic level. Every few months after the dosages have been increased, your doctor may want another ultrasound or CT scan of your endocrine organs to make sure the growths have not grown any larger. If there is a noticeable change in the size of some or all of your tumors/polyps/nodules, then your doctor may pull back and ween you off of your HRT. In addition to weening you off of your hormones, he or she may perform biopsies of some of these enlarged growths to make sure they have not become malignant. Talk to a doctor, like http://www.centraliowaobgyn.com, for more help.