When talking with women about what we do here at Regel PharmaLab I hear a variety of responses when it comes to the topic of estrogen.  This hormone seems to be the one that gets the most attention.  Researchers have found over 400 functions of estrogen in the female body. I will let our Bioidentical Hormone Specialist here at Regel, Anita Hester, RN, explain some of those important functions and hopefully clear up some of the confusion about this important chemical messenger.
There are actually many kinds of estrogens produced by the body, but the three main ones are estrone, estradiol and estriol.  They are produced mainly in the ovaries but also in the adrenal glands, liver and fat cells.  Estrone is a sort of reserve estrogen that comes from estradiol in the ovaries.  If the estradiol level gets too low then the body can use estrone to make more estradiol. Estradiol is the strongest, most active form.  This is the form that you lose at menopause when the ovaries stop working.  Estriol is the weaker of the three estrogens and has been shown to be protective for the breasts.  It has been used for this purpose in Western Europe for many decades.
All of the estrogens are important for many reasons such as decreasing fatigue, decreasing total cholesterol, maintaining memory, maintaining bones, improving sleep, helping with absorption of minerals, controlling symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, preventing vaginal dryness, keeping skin moisturized, acting as an antioxidant, facilitating a multitude of neurological actions, turning on progesterone receptors, decreasing the incidence of dementia, preventing depression, balancing pH, regulating mood, maintaining sexual desire, and much more.
As you can see, estrogen is very important for us as women.  As we age our bodies become deficient and we may suffer from a lot of annoying symptoms.  Estrogen deficiency also puts us at risk for many problems such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and dementia to name a few.  Deficiency of estrogen can be remedied safely by replacing what is missing with natural hormone therapy.  Bioidentical estrogens are an exact match to the estrogens that your body makes. Using natural estrogen (along with natural progesterone which is necessary to balance estrogen) instead of taking synthetic estrogens, makes hormone replacement safer.  Most of our hormone patients are using much lower doses of estrogen to relieve symptoms than women who are on synthetic estrogens, which are made from horse hormones.  Also, we know that research has shown topical estrogen therapy to be safer than oral therapy.  Saliva testing can determine if there is a need for estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.  If you are experiencing hormone imbalance symptoms, we can help you. Would you like to know more about saliva testing and our Cool Ladies Club contact us at (901) 757-9434 or info@regelpharmalab.com.  For even greater details come to one of our seminars where we provide education about bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.  Follow this link  http://regelpharmalab.com/events/bhrt-seminar.