HRT is the acronym for Hormone Replacement Therapy. It must be prescribed by a gynecologist, and consists of the administration of the amount of hormones that are no longer produced by the ovaries to make the transition into menopause smoother and more harmonious. The goal is to undo or minimize the nuisances and hazards derived from the sudden lack of estrogen hormone. In women who have undergone surgical removal of the uterus (hysterectomy), HRT consists of estrogen alone (because it is the lack of estrogen that generates all the “issues”), while in other women, estrogen should also be associated with the progestin hormone (estrogen-progestin therapy) to protect the uterus from estrogen stimulation. Some women do not tolerate progestin very well.
In addition to the estrogen-progestin therapy, for years there has also existed a therapy known as tibolone, a synthetic drug that belongs to a class of molecules known as Selective Tissue Estrogenic Activity Regulators (STEAR). The tibolone acts as an estrogen selectively where needed. But research has gone one step further to offer women a more “comfortable therapy.” The recent innovation in HRT is represented, in fact, by TSEC, Tissue Selective Estrogen Complex, a combination of estrogen with a molecule called SERM (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator), which is not a hormone and protects the uterus.
