This question is for women but anyone is welcomed to comment.
I’m trying to eliminate menopausal symptoms that are affecting my life. To minimize and/or eliminate hot flashes, occasional night sweats, brain fogs and other things, I was considering bioidentical hormone replacement therapy as I am post menopausal.
Is it safe?
I will ask my liver specialist and gynocologist as well but I just wanted to see if there are anyone out there with chronic hep b and are on hormone replacement therapy.
I use air fan from Walmart and I shower 7 days a week.4 days with body wash and shampoo and conditioner the other 3 warm water and get out.Hopefully that helps also having a pyjamas does help 7 pair different pair every night. hopefully that helps I’m not expert just my personal experience .
@catcher.007 I’m interested to know what info you were given on hrt and hepB. I’m perimenopausal and on hrt. My SHBG is coming up very high and the only suggestion my menopause doctor has is that hepb is the cause I don’t know if that is correct nor does my liver specialist.
Thanks @josocks for bringing this topic back up, as we never got a good response to @catcher.007’s original question. Would be great if one of our @HealthExperts could weigh in on this.
The liver is involved in metabolising oestrogen so my understanding is that HRT is not recommended in patients with “active liver disease” or severe liver disease such as decompensated cirrhosis. However if your hepatitis B is well controlled and your liver function is good then I am not aware of any contra-indications. There is even some evidence that HRT may reduce the risk of liver cancer in people with hepatitis B.
So talk to your liver specialist to confirm but I think it should be fine.
Mark Douglas, Infectious Diseases Specialist.
Good questions! I’m 50 y/o and in perimenopause. I tried vaginal estrogen about a year ago and found it did raise my ALT/AST to an abnormal point for me (could not find any other cause and I’ve been on Vemlidy many years) so I was advised to stop by my GP. My ALT/AST resolved to my normal soon after stopping. This caused me some alarm, as my GP said vaginal was a more conservative approach rather than oral forms. I feel in the next few years I’ll be having this conversation again, but next time it will be going through my Hepotologist. I wish I had more helpful information to give, but mainly wanted to post that you are not alone with deciding on HRT and having HBV.
I too have read of Estrogen being a possible protectant against HCC, but I don’t know if we are comparing apples:apples (naturally producing estrogen/younger female to a non-natural production of estrogen/older female) especially since HCC risk does go up as a a progression of aging and having chronic HBV. Best wishes and keep us posted, and I too will keep this post and update as well.
Just necroing this thread, but I’m in the position right now. I’ve been just getting through menopause without HRT but I’ve been reading that there are better outcomes for women on HRT with Hep B. Given that this is based on an observational study (not sure what other factors might have conflated the study) I don’t know which direction to take. HRT has a risk of increasing cancers in your body yet it also has multiple benefits for women overall and possibly protective for your liver. Everything seems like a damned if you do/don’t situation…not sure what to do since I’m experiencing a lot of menopause related issues right now but also don’t want to feed any existing cancers that I don’t know about.
I’m glad you posted because I forgot about this thread and have updates on my situation.
Soon after my post summer began and my occasional night sweats turned into daily hot flashes that were impacting my day to day life and sleep. I also read The New Menopause by Marie Clair Haver and she gave updated research on the safety and advances in HRT. I also re-read of some of benefits of Estrogen on the liver, in relation to HBV and HCC. So, I talked with my hepatologist and PCP about HRT. Both agreed it would be fine to try, since my blood worked did reflect menopause. Both felt the patch would be better than oral, due to the liver. I’ve been on BHRT patch a month and feel like a new woman! I don’t know if I can believe all the new research, but it makes sense to me now. At the very basic level, my quality of life has been restored with the end of hot flashes, sleepless nights, and sad mood. I feel like the women I used to be and love it. I would recommend the book, as some are not candidates of HRT and it does give very detailed and scientific up to date information. I hope this helps and best wishes for you!! I know how you feel, hugs!
.