What is the difference between Natural HRT and Synthetic HRT?
Natural hormones are, in fact, bioidentical hormones. The fact that the bioidentical hormones come from natural plants (soy or yam plants) does not make them bioidentical. From there they are taken to a chemical plant where they are further processed into the bioidentical forms. They are further tested for bioidentical purity, so that when a compounding pharmacy receives these products they are ready to be compounded into different dosage forms. On the other hand, synthetic hormones are hormones that may look similar to the hormones a woman used to produce, but are not bioidentical. The fact that they are not bioidentical means that they will not be metabolized into other useful metabolites that the body uses. Instead, they are metabolized into toxic metabolites that have numerous side effects. Prempro or if bought separately is a combination of Premarin and Provera, are examples of synthetic hormones.
