Introduction
Hormonal drugs are various drugs that contain hormones. Hormones are endogenous substances that are not absorbed through food. For example, there are sex hormones, thyroid hormones, pituitary hormones, pancreatic hormones such as insulin or glucagon, and adrenal hormones such as aldosterone.
The most commonly used hormonal drugs contain sex hormones, either female sex hormones, such as estrogens or gestagens, or male sex hormones, such as testosterone or androgens. Hormonal drugs are used for various diseases or they are used for contraception or to minimize menopausal symptoms. Some patients abuse hormonal drugs to gain more muscle mass or to achieve better performance in sports. Other patients use hormonal drugs to achieve ovulation and thus have a chance of becoming pregnant. Thus, there are many different hormonal drugs, all of which are used very differently and sometimes serve very different purposes.
Hormonal drugs for women
There are three different hormonal drugs used in patients to prevent pregnancy in the long term. One is the regular contraceptive pill and the micro pill, and the other is the minipill, both of which differ in the hormones they use. If a patient has unprotected sex and still does not want to get pregnant, there is a hormonal medication, the so-called morning-after pill, which can be taken shortly after sexual intercourse and thus prevents pregnancy.
In addition, a three-month injection can also be used, which also contains progestins and is injected once every 3 months as a depot.
- The contraceptive pillThe contraceptive pill is a hormonal medication that patients use prophylactically if they do not want to have children despite sexual intercourse. Correctly the pill is called an oral contraceptive because the pill is taken by mouth (orally) and prevents pregnancy.
Although the contraceptive pill is not used to cure a disease, it is a hormonal drug which, in addition to its actual effect, namely contraception, can also have side effects, such as the risk of a blood clot (thrombus) forming. The contraceptive pill contains two different hormones, which is why it is also called a hormonal drug. On the one hand the pill contains the female sex hormone estrogen and on the other hand it contains a progestin called progesterone.
The Pill gives a patient a constant, steady hormone level, which suppresses ovulation and also prevents the lining of the uterus from building up sufficiently to allow an egg to implant. As a hormonal drug, the pill thus suppresses ovulation and thus prevents pregnancy.
- Micro pillThe micro pill also contains both hormones, although the hormone concentration here is much lower than in the classic contraceptive pill. However, the structure of both hormonal drugs is very similar and their safety hardly differs.
- MinipillThe minipill, on the other hand, contains only the hormone progestin and also prevents ovulation, which is why it is used as a hormonal drug to prevent pregnancy.
- Morning After PillIf a patient has had unprotected sexual intercourse and then takes the hormonal drug “morning after pill”, pregnancy is also prevented by delaying ovulation until the sperm have already died.
There are two forms of hormonal medication for this purpose. There is the morning-after pill, which contains only progestins in a high concentration, and there is the morning-after pill with the active ingredient Uliprista.Even though contraceptive pills are not drugs in the classical sense, as they do not cure any disease but only prevent pregnancy, they should be regarded as hormonal drugs whose benefits and risks must always be weighed against each other.
There are several reasons why a patient cannot become pregnant despite the desire to become pregnant. Depending on the cause, there are different hormonal drugs that can be used and help the patient to become pregnant.
One reason for not being able to get pregnant can be that the patient has too high a concentration of the hormone prolactin in her body. This can have various causes, such as insufficient thyroid function (thyroidal dysfunction). In this case, the patient can take hormonal medication that suppresses the hormone production of prolactin.
As a result, less prolactin is produced and the patient can become pregnant thanks to the hormonal drugs. If the cause is that the patient is not ovulating, hormonal drugs such as clomiphene or gonadotropin can help. Many patients suffer from menopausal symptoms during the menopause.
There are various hormonal drugs that help to balance the hormonal imbalance and thus minimize the menopausal symptoms. One of these hormonal drugs, which is obtained from silver candle extracts, is called Cimicifuga. This hormonal drug acts very similar to the female hormone estrogen and can therefore help to minimize menopausal symptoms.
The drugs Femininon® C, Galafem® or Jinda® can also help to minimize menopausal symptoms as hormonal drugs. Their mode of action is based on restoring the hormonal imbalance that exists during the menopause. The structures of the female sex hormone estrogen are imitated, which can help to reduce the decreasing estrogen concentration during the menopause. These hormonal drugs have some side effects and can sometimes increase the risk of breast cancer, so it is always important to strike a benefit-risk balance and use the hormonal drug only under strict medical supervision and control.
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