We all experience changes in our bodies as we age.
We may feel more tired or may be deal with brain fog.
Could our hormones be to blame and could a pellet, smaller than a grain of rice, make us feel young again?
At 41-years-old, Carolyn Wilson of Frisco is hardly old, but the busy mom of two says despite eating healthy and exercising, her body just wasn't working like it used to!
"You shouldn't be going to bed at 8:30 and then taking naps throughout the day. When I would go somewhere, I was exhausted. I would go to the park, come home and need to sit down. If that's aging, that's downright depressing!" says Wilson.
Her fatigue, brain fog, mood swings and night sweats lasted for eight years until blood-work showed her hormones were out of wack.
She went to Regenesys Physical Medicine in Frisco for bio-identical hormone replacement pellet therapy.
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Bioidentical hormone pellets are a form of hormone replacement therapy said to be more natural than the synthetic hormone pills, that have been used for decades.
Once developed from yams and soy, the pellets are now created in a lab to match the same chemical makeup of the hormones in our body.
In the procedure, a medical professional makes a tiny cut on the patient's backside and inserts the pellet, customized to the patient's needs.
In Wilson's case, she needed more testosterone.
"I was so deficient that in a few days, I noticed a difference and the difference I noticed was that I was able to stay awake and I didn't have to sit down after cleaning my kitchen," says Wilson.
Specialists say our hormone levels peak in our late 20s and early 30s in both men and women.
"Men will come in and say, 'gee I am not getting enough out of my workout anymore. I may be having a little trouble in the bedroom," says Dr. Briant Herzog, medical director of Hormone Therapy Centers of America.
"Men have more testosterone than women, so they will even have more symptoms, they just don't recognize it," says Dr. Herzog, who admits he was a skeptic of hormone replacement therapy until he researched it.
While many independent studies may find bioidentical hormone repplaement therapy is safe, it isn't approved.
On its website, the FDA says it doesn't have evidence it's safer or more effective than other hormone products.
Wilson says no matter, it has changed her life.
"I'm positive again. I'm happier."
A pellet procedure costs around $400 for women and $800 and its effects can last four months.
Side effects may include, slight bruising, minor bleeding, infection or extrusion of the pellets.
