Hormone therapy uses drugs to add, block or remove hormones. It is also called endocrine therapy. For more information, click the link https://houseofaesthetix.com/ provided to proceed.
It may help prevent cancer from growing and spreading. Doctors use it to treat certain types of prostate and breast cancer. It is usually given along with other treatments.
The type and dose of hormones used depends on your health and risk. You can receive hormone therapy at home or in a hospital or clinic.
Hormone therapy is treatment that adds, blocks or removes hormones. It is also called anti-hormonal therapy or endocrine therapy. Some types of cancer use the body’s natural hormones to fuel their growth. Hormone therapy reduces or blocks these hormones to stop the cancer from growing or spreading.
Hormones are chemical messengers that control how certain cells and organs function and grow. There are many different kinds of hormones in the body, including estrogen and progesterone, which help with menstruation, reproduction and the immune system. Hormones travel through the blood to affect other cells and tissues. Cancerous cells need the hormones estrogen and progesterone to grow and spread. Cancer treatments like surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy block hormones to prevent them from fueling cancerous cells. Hormone therapy can be used with these therapies or on its own.
The type of hormone therapy you get depends on the type of cancer you have and your symptoms. Your healthcare team will discuss this with you during an office visit specifically dedicated to deciding whether or not HT is right for you.
For breast cancer, a hormone called estrogen can stimulate the growth of tumors that have receptors on their surface. About 8 out of 10 breast cancers are estrogen receptor positive (ER-positive). Healthcare providers use hormone therapy to lower or block the amount of estrogen your body makes or to keep the estrogen from attaching to cancerous cells. They can use hormone therapy to treat a breast cancer that has recurred or to lower the risk of it coming back after surgery, radiation or other treatments.
Medications that combine estrogen with progestin or with other drugs are commonly used in uterine cancer. This is called combined or cyclic estrogen and progestin hormone therapy. During cyclic therapy, you take estrogen for 25 days each month and progestin for 3 to 5 days. During this time, you may have monthly bleeding.
Hormone therapy can help women who have gone through early or surgical menopause (primary ovarian insufficiency). These patients usually have very low levels of estrogen and may experience menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness. Some doctors prescribe a combination of estrogen and testosterone for these women to improve sex drive and bone density and prevent osteoporosis.
Hormone therapy adds, blocks or removes hormones to slow cancer growth and prevent it from coming back (recurrence). It may be used alone as the main treatment or along with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. It can be used before surgery to shrink the tumour and make it easier to remove or before radiation to reduce the risk of the cancer returning in the breasts or chest wall (local recurrence). It is also sometimes used for metastatic hormone-sensitive breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, especially the bones (distant recurrence).
The most common type of hormone therapy is taking drugs that block the body’s natural hormones. The drugs can be tablets you take by mouth or injections. They may be given by a doctor or nurse in a hospital clinic or at home.
Another type of hormone therapy is having surgery to remove the organs that make hormones. In women, this is usually the ovaries. In men, it is often the testicles. You can then take medicines to stop the ovaries from making hormones or have an operation to remove the prostate gland to stop it producing testosterone. Hormone therapy can also be combined with targeted therapy, which targets the specific chemicals that fuel cancer cells.
You will need to see your cancer doctor, called an oncologist, regularly while you are having hormone therapy. Your oncologist will ask about any side effects you have and can help control them.
Hormone therapy can cause side effects such as hot flushes, tiredness and changes in mood. It can also affect fertility for women and bring on early menopause for men. It can be hard to predict exactly how you will feel because it depends on the type of hormone therapy and how much you are taking.
For some types of hormone therapy, doctors may recommend that you start and then stop the medicine for a set amount of time. This is called intermittent dosing and can lower the risks of side effects without affecting the long-term outcome of the treatment. For example, if your PSA level is low and the doctor believes that the cancer has not come back, you may stop taking the hormone therapy drugs.
Hormones are chemicals that travel in the blood and control how some cells and organs act and grow. They can be produced by glands in the body or made in a lab.
The type of hormone therapy you get will affect what side effects you might have. Whether you have them and how severe they are depends on the type of treatment, how long you take it for and your gender.
For women, hormone therapy can cause menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats. It can also affect their vaginal function and change their menstrual cycle. It can also lead to osteoporosis, which causes bones to become thin and weak so they break more easily. It can also lower a woman’s libido and cause loss of or difficulty with an erection.
Some of these side effects may last after the treatment ends. Your doctor will help you watch for and manage these side effects. They might recommend a schedule of regular physical examinations and medical tests, called follow-up care.
If you have a hormone-sensitive cancer, your health care team may suggest that you take hormone therapy as part of your treatment plan. There are many types of hormone therapies used to treat different cancers. They can be taken alone or in combination with other treatments.
Some types of hormone therapies work by blocking or changing the way your body makes and uses certain hormones. This helps prevent them from boosting cancerous cell growth. For example, aromatase inhibitors (such as letrozole) block the enzyme that turns other hormones into estrogen. This can reduce estrogen levels and slow the growth of ER-positive breast cancers. Other types of hormone therapies include selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) and estradiol.
Some of these medications can raise your risk for heart disease, stroke and blood clots. They can also increase your risk for endometrial cancer and gallbladder problems. You and your health care team should discuss these risks before you start hormone therapy.
Hormone therapy can reduce the risk of a cancer coming back after surgery and radiation, or of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body. These medicines stop or lower the amount of hormones that cause cancer cells to grow and divide, but they don’t work for every type of cancer.
Your doctor will decide whether or not hormone therapy is right for you. This will depend on your age, your health history and your symptoms. It also depends on the type of hormone therapy and how long you take it. The longer you take hormones, the more likely it is that they will increase your risk of blood clots, stroke or heart attack. It’s best to start hormone therapy at a young enough age that you won’t have these increased risks.
If you have a uterus, you can get hormone therapy by taking estrogen with progestin. This is called estrogen-progestin hormone therapy or EPT. If you have a hysterectomy, you can get systemic estrogen or ET without progestin.
Both types of hormone therapy have risks. They may increase your risk of endometrial cancer, which is a growth of tissue in the lining of the uterus that usually sheds during menstruation. They can also raise your risk of other diseases that affect the lining of the uterus, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
The types of medicine used in hormone therapy are called aromatase inhibitors and selective estrogen receptor modulators. They reduce the levels of certain estrogens in the body by blocking the enzyme that makes them. They can also help prevent cancerous cells from getting the boost from estrogen that they need to grow and spread.
Your doctor will give you a prescription for the amount of medicine you need to take. You can either get it at a pharmacy or have your doctor give you the medication at an office visit that is dedicated to hormone therapy. Your doctor will talk to you about how long you need to take hormone therapy and answer any questions you have.
