Is bioidentical HRT addictive?

Do women experience any side effects coming off NHRT? Based on observation, “no”. Women who stopped using natural progesterone cream were not bothered by drug-related ‘withdrawal’ symptoms. Rather, they reported a resurgence of their estrogen dominance symptoms indicating their body genuinely required natural progesterone supplementation to support their hormone balance.

Synthetic HRT is another story entirely. We’ve seen women seek out doctors other than their own GP who will surgically insert a replacement estrogen and/or testosterone implant long before replacement due date. They claim that as time went on, their implants became less and less effective, and they experienced withdrawal symptoms even though blood tests indicated normal to high levels.

We suspect the medical profession recognises the potential to become addicted to, or reliant on implants.

Women who withdraw from HRT do experience very distressing side effects as a result of estrogen levels dropping and the brain being conditioned to what our website refers to as “an estrogen conditioned threshold”. The body appears to be conditioned to these high levels of estrogen, and variance appears to trigger a reemergence of symptoms with a vengeance. Depression and anxiety surface, often peaking at around 3 months after discontinuing estrogen.

This is one reason why long term estrogen users need to ‘wean’ off estrogen slowly in order to allow the biofeedback mechanism in the body to adjust, and allow for adequate time for natural progesterone to saturate the body and to buffer this huge ratio difference. Women who go off estrogen therapy ‘cold turkey’ find it a very uncomfortable experience, and may return to HRT despite all their previous side effects purely because they are unable to cope with the inevitable withdrawal and associated menopausal symptoms which appear to be far worse than those faced by women going through a difficult menopause ‘naturally’.

Interestingly, many women who stop taking synthetic progestogen tablets after experiencing negative side effects usually feel instant relief, especially if they replace progestogens with bio-identical progesterone. We have not seen evidence of actual withdrawal symptoms coming off synthetic progestogens other than the thickening of the uterine lining, particularly if estrogen is continued.

Whilst a woman continues to use estrogen therapy, estrogen will dominate the hormone environment allowing the potential problem of uterine buildup to occur whilst that woman is being weaned off estrogen. This is when initial high levels of natural progesterone (10%) may be called for until there is a balanced ratio between estrogen and progesterone.

A reduction program of progesterone is required in accordance to the reduction of estrogen levels in the body. And it’s only when a woman has totally weaned off estrogen and is asymptomatic for 4 months will she then be able to establish her true physiological dose of progesterone (around 20-32mg). There have been cases where, after 4 months, symptoms have not abated and a very small dose of natural estrogen was required.

Use hormone blood profiles to ascertain levels. It’s important to make sure that your progesterone is actually opposing uterine buildup. So work closely with your doctor, and have the required tests that keep a check on this.

Important: As you wean off estrogen you must take a break from estrogen at the same time you take a break from progesterone, otherwise estrogen dominance will reside which has the potential to cause uterine problems.