Hormone therapy Miami for men is a treatment that involves the use of hormones to balance androgen and estrogen levels in men. Hormone therapy also can involve the use of non-hormonal drugs. Most men receive hormone therapy when they are between the age of forty and sixty years old. For many men this form of therapy offers improved quality of life as well as increased longevity. There are several steps involved in hormone therapy for men. In this article we will discuss those steps and what you should expect.
There are two different forms of hormone therapy for men. One is known as docetaxel and the other is known as radiation therapy. Both treatments involve the use of drugs to lower androgen levels in men. In docetaxel, a dose of antiandrogen is administered monthly for six months. The most commonly used hormone in docetaxel is dutasteride, which blocks the conversion of testosterone into the more harmful androgen called DHT.
Radiation therapy for men treated with prostate adenocarcinoma is typically used for approximately four to twelve months. Treatment options include either weekly or semisolid instillation of a radioactive substance into the prostate, or a procedure known as “ruvatriptan”. Both treatments are done under a general anesthetic and both involve repeated courses of therapy.
The primary objective of hormone therapy for men with prostatic carcinoma is to control the progression of the disease through reducing overall tumor size. The goal is also to improve quality of life and overall survival. Therefore, a number of recent clinical trials have examined the effects of different hormonal regimens on overall survival, specific survival outcomes, and overall survival. These studies found very consistent and encouraging results.
Meta-analyses of these trials showed that women treated with estrogens had longer life expectancy than women treated with testosterone alone; survival was better for women with prostatic carcinoma that had undergone combination therapy; and, the absolute risk of death was not different between treatment groups.
One of the most interesting aspects of these studies was that the exact cause of the tumor did not influence patients’ life expectancy or survival. Therefore, further studies are needed to explore the potential biological mechanism of action of bioidentical hormone therapy for men with prostatic carcinoma. Perhaps future trials will determine whether the same bioidentical hormones that act to treat cancer cells also have the effect of shrinking tumors and reducing the side effects many women experience with hormone therapy.
Unfortunately, given the very early age at which this treatment is begun, men with this condition are often diagnosed before the presence of any symptoms, and only then when their symptoms are becoming increasingly obvious. This can be a difficult choice for men, as their symptoms can be similar to those of prostate and breast cancers. Unfortunately, it is quite common for cancer to be in advanced stages by the time symptoms are visible to the patient. By the time a tumor is detected, other treatments are available such as radiation and chemotherapy.