BHRT Consultation

The art and science of balancing your hormones.

At Replenish Center, we place a strong emphasis on determining why the patient is unbalanced and examine the causes such as stress, poor diet and other lifestyle choices.

Your BHRT Consultation is an art as well as a science. At Replenish Center we have determined that there are three major components in initiating and successfully managing a patient on BHRT. They are:

At Replenish Center we place a strong emphasis on determining why the patient is unbalanced and in need of BHRT. We do not accept that all women and men are predestined to become imbalanced and will thereby need to be on BHRT for the rest of their lives. The major causes of imbalance are stress, poor diet, and other lifestyle choices. Their impact can have far-reaching effects on the entire system, with hormone imbalance being only one manifestation. In addition, other endocrine and metabolic dysfunctions can have negative effects on hormone balance. In order to determine the cause(s), an evaluation may include, but may not be limited to:

• Nutrition
• Endocrine
• Metabolic
• Cardiovascular
• Immune
• Gastrointestinal
• Neurologic
• Psychological

This consultation is not a substitute for an evaluation by your general practitioner or specialist in any of the above areas.

Determining the cause and initiating a plan of management for your imbalance is a major part of your initial and ongoing therapy. Once the causes of hormone imbalance are corrected, we can wean a patient off the BHRT, helping them to become naturally balanced and symptom-free.

The second aspect of successful BHRT management is to ascertain the correct regimen. Many patients feel that since their symptoms are similar to their friends’ they would be on the same protocol. However, the right regimen takes into consideration one’s symptoms, lab results, medical history, current medications, physical exam, past HRT regimen(s), and response, just to name a few.

Even though we determine a regimen based on the above considerations, the final decision involves the input of the patient. This is not an easy aspect of BHRT management, as it is a very individualized approach. To manage BHRT as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ protocol will lead to inadequate dosing or, worse, overdosing which will lead to negative symptoms and side-effects. Determining the correct regimen is a process that is carried out at each visit, not just the first. BHRT is as dynamic as the patient. The correct dose often changes based on one’s diet, stressors, activity levels, etc. Blood results are only one of several factors in determining continuity of care.

The third component of successful BHRT management is determining the right interval of successive treatments. On average, the appropriate dose of BHRT pellets should last 4-6 months. However, there are some clients who last only 3 months, and others who last up to 8 months. There are many practitioners who automatically bring all of their patients back for treatment at 3 or 4 months. Replacing BHRT pellets too soon, and dosing inappropriately based on the belief that the same regimen will always be right, will eventually lead to dependence on the hormones. Also, dosing a patient with an inappropriately high level of hormones can also cause dependence and negative side effects. Patient education, and working very closely with the patient will determine the most appropriate interval of subsequent hormone placement. Our protocols are designed to help the body to be able to eventually resume its ability to manufacture adequate levels of hormones, thereby ultimately negating the need for supplemental hormone therapy.

We receive many requests for ongoing BHRT management from patients who are not happy with their current regimen from other practitioners. In order to honor such requests, we require that all new patients to our practice have comprehensive face-to-face consultation with our physician. Most patients understand that what they experienced prior to our evaluation was not as comprehensive as it should have been, in order to determine their individual needs. Even our blood work is more extensive than what they had drawn in the past. We understand that some were charged a smaller consultation fee by their previous practitioner. However, due to the comprehensive and time-consuming nature of our consultations, the full fee is charged.

We are also aware that there are some practices that do not charge for a consultation or may charge it to your insurance. We know that in such situations, it is a generic information session, which may or may not be with the physician, simply informing you of the positives and negatives of BHRT in general. Such information is freely given on our website and is also covered at our consultation in more detail. To determine with any level of accuracy what will fully benefit you where BHRT is concerned, one needs a comprehensive, individualized evaluation.

At Replenish Center, our unique approach is based on more than a decade of successfully managing over 1500 men and women on BHRT.

In the process, we have helped many become naturally balanced. Our success is attributed to our initial comprehensive consultations, very close patient follow-up in determining the correct dose and intervals of subsequent treatments, and the determination to help our patients achieve complete balance.