All You Want To Know About HRT Patches!

HRT Patches

Menopause, known as the 'change of life', simply means the end of menstruation for a woman. The term is also used for referring to the months and years in the life of a woman before and after her final period � a time that may bring with it some physical and/or emotional changes. Menopause is a gradual process. The ovaries begin to produce lower and lower amounts of hormones. The reduced amounts of hormones cause the menstrual cycle to become irregular and eventually to stop completely.

For some women the symptoms of menopause can prove very difficult to live with. If troubled by symptoms of menopause, one may wish to consider hormone replacement therapy as an option. HRT replaces the hormones that the body of a woman stops producing after the menopause. This results in the easing or alleviation of most of the symptoms of the menopause for example hot flushes and night sweats. It also helps to prevent osteoporosis and heart disease in women who are at a risk of having conditions in their later years.

How do the patches work?

One of the forms of HRT is by using patches. The applied skin patch results in the required hormones being delivered directly into the bloodstream. Since they don�t have to travel through the stomach and liver first, the dose is also lower than the dose in tablets which results in less side effects.

The patches need to be replaced once or twice weekly. They need to be placed on clean, dry skin. One should never use cream or talcum powder on the area where one intends to put the patch. The best area is often the upper buttocks.

The patch may be left on when swimming or having a bath. It should be covered when sunbathing and removed if using a sun bed. One need not place the patch on the same area every time. One has the option of using alternate sites.

However some women develop skin irritation at the site of the patches but this is less of a problem with the modern patches. Until recently it wasn�t possible to deliver progestogens through a patch and women with womb who were using oestrogen patches had to take progestogens in tablet form for about fourteen days each month. But patches are now available combining both hormones.