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Dr. Cinthia Becerra, a bioidentical hormone replacement specialist, is the co-founder of UroVallarta, the first comprehensive urology clinic in Mexico. She treats patients with hormone deficiency to significantly improve their lifestyle.
Hormone production commonly starts to decline after 35 years of age. When this happens, a man can experience several changes. The optimum level is between 20 and 35-40 years old but after age of 45, production decreases 50% to 60%. Then, there is an effect where testosterone begins to convert to estrogen. When this happens, there are noticeable changes in the body such as increase of belly and pectoral fat, or it takes a lot of effort to lose weight. However, testosterone unbalance is not exclusive to older age. There have also been cases with younger patients.
Symptoms related to menopause range from tiredness, loss of motivation, loss of interest in doing things that once they enjoyed, and even mood changes. Other physical symptoms can be a loss of muscle mass and strength, and sexual performance is where it may affect the most. Sexual desire, quality of erections and orgasms decreases.
There are many symptoms from lack of testosterone but it’s easy to replace it. Bioidentical hormones have been in the market for about 18 years and 5 years in Vallarta on the hands of Dr. Becerra, and has treated both men and women. This hormone comes from the root of yams, where they chemically extract a substance called diosgenin.
Pharmacy hormones can last up to five years, but they have a lot of preservatives that later are the ones that cause our allergies
One of the benefits from bioidentical hormones is that dosage is highly personalized. With synthetic hormones (the ones you get at the pharmacy), it’s the same dosage for any person and they are 10x more powerful than formulas that we produce. Bioidentical hormones are customized based on various factors, including but not limited to body weight, clinical symptoms, age, and activity levels. With time, the amount is adjusted depending on how it is working, hence it is personalized. Every person is different.
Another benefit from bioidentical hormones is that they are prepared for them to be used in short-term, within six months maximum. Pharmacy hormones can last up to five years, but they have a lot of preservatives that later are the ones that cause our allergies.
What is most important is that there’s also the benefit of feeling good overall. One has energy, motivation and desire to do things that they once enjoyed. At UroVallarta, Dr. Becerra prides herself for giving excellent care to her patients. She listens to them, she provides the necessary attention, proper time and support.
Right now ‘gluten-free’ seems to be a popular thing, however, the problem is not the gluten itself but rather the fertilizers that it has
UroVallarta invests in technology to offer the same standard of quality than any other place in the US. This includes lasers and noninvasive therapies as treatment, and at a more accessible cost. The clinic performs noninvasive surgeries where patients recover and leave on their own feet. These surgeries can be for prostate, a vasectomy, circumcision, or any other that patients don’t need to stay overnight to recover.
Hormonal deficiency can be seen in younger people due to the stress factor. Other external factors include the contamination in our food – the hormones in them. Right now “gluten-free” seems to be a popular thing, however, the problem is not the gluten itself but rather the fertilizers that it has. Our body doesn’t know what to do with these substances and it starts to have a lot of separation at the hormonal level which then these gaps are filled with the fertilizer rather than the hormone. Because of this, now you start to see problems that we haven’t seen before. For example, women are starting to get fibroids at a younger age.
With transgender patients, they won’t feel the drastic change when going through transition because the main advantage of bioidentical hormones is that it doesn’t carry the risk of liver damage. These are more tolerable and are safer overall. Patients also don’t suffer depressive changes, whereas with synthetic hormones which get people to have strong psychological swaps.
Each treatment is personalized and there are various ways of application. Dr. Becerra is an expert in this field and she is the go-to doctor in Vallarta. If you’ve had any of the mentioned symptoms, it is recommended to go get checked out. It’s as easy as one simple blood test and a discussion about the symptoms that have been experienced.
Adverse effects are minimal since these are hormones that are most compatible to the body. Synthetic hormones, or even worse, anabolics that you see advertised in stores around town are 100x more powerful so the person taking these carry the risk of getting heart attacks, clots In the brain, testicular shrinkage, etc., and there is also no one to tell them what dosage to use. Another thing to consider is that we don’t know if these are bootleg substances. Bottom line: be safe, take care of yourself and always go with a professional.
