Ok, so you have done some research and feel bio-identical hormone replacement is something you feel comfortable exploring.

Let’s begin the conversation like this. We know you. We may not know you by name and we don’t know what you look like, but we know women and we know what makes them tick. How do we know? It’s simple, we are our demographic.We know that if you give strong intelligent women good information, they will make good decisions about their healthcare.

Wine, Women and Hormones® was launched in 2007 when several friends were sitting around the table drinking wine chatting about their lives and how they were feeling as they moved through their forties and fifties. An underlying theme was uncovered which was they weren’t feeling so great. They were gaining weight, they couldn’t sleep and they were tired of being tired.

In the years since then, Wine, Women and Hormones® has reached thousands of women and together we’ve uncovered recurrent themes.For example, we know women tend to put other people first. We know you would spend a lot of time and money driving all around town to get your son that perfect pair of baseball cleats. We know you put the health of your families first. We know a lot of you simply “white knuckle” through the changes in your body and the correlating symptoms because you feel that’s “what strong women do”. But what if? What if you convinced yourself that you were worth it? What if there was a better way? What if you put yourself first and starting feeling great again? Now it’s time to address the underlying logistical questions that most women have about launching their journey.

Cost:
Finding the RIGHT Doctor“How much is this stuff going to cost me?” It’s a great question and the good news is you’re probably going to be pleasantly surprised with the answer.
Firstly, the most important part of the bio-identical hormone equation is getting yourself to the right doctor. This doctor is probably not your ob/gyn… It is imperative that you get to see a healthy aging doctor.

What does this mean?
Healthy aging doctors (also sometimes referred to as anti-aging doctors, but let’s face it we are all aging and nothing any doctor does is going to stop that) are trained in a model of medicine that adheres to the notion that optimal health should be the goal.

This is a model of medicine that strives to get to the root cause of what’s ailing you and stop disease before it has a chance to take impact upon your body.

On average, western medical schools provide about 4 hours of training on the endocrine system and therefore (in their defense) western MDs who are interested in providing resources to their patients in this area are not armed with information.

Therefore, good healthy aging doctors have to go the extra mile to educate themselves by seeking further training on their own dime. This process is not cheap.

A good healthy aging doctor will spend, on average, about an hour with a patient at an initial visit. That’s a lot of time considering the average visit to a primary care doctor is 10 minutes. For these reasons most health aging doctors charge cash for their visits. They simply cannot afford to accept insurance as their reimbursement from insurance will only cover about 10 minutes of their time and they need more time to conduct a proper assessment.

Bottom line: Most healthy aging doctors charge between $200-$400 for an initial visit. That being said, there are a limited number of these doctors that do continue to accept PPO insurance.

An important step in getting yourself to the right doctor is realizing the different types of doctors that may specialize in bio-identical hormone replacement.

• Medical Doctor (MD)“Doctor of Medicine” is the doctoral degree for physicians. For most of us, these are the “Western Thinking” or “allopathic” doctors we are most accustomed to seeing in the United States.
• Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO)A professional doctoral degree for physicians in the United States which carries the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as physicians with a Doctor of Medicine degree. A big difference between MDs and Dos is that Dos must complete 300 – 500 additional hours in the study of hands-on manual medicine and the body’s musculoskeletal system.
• Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND)Also known as the NMD (Natural Medical Doctor)This title (recognized in 16 states including California) refers to a medical degree granted by an accredited naturopathic medical school.Those holding a degree from an accredited institution generally practice as primary care doctors. Naturopathic medicine utilizes complementary and alternative medical treatments emphasizing a holistic approach to patient care.
• Nurse Practitioner (NP)An advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) who has completed graduate-level education (either a Master of nursing or Doctor of Nursing Practice degree). Nurse practitioners treat a wide range of acute and chronic diseases (within their scope of practice) and provide appropriate treatment for patients, including prescribing medications. The core philosophy of the field is individualized care that makes prevention, wellness, and patient education priorities.

Cost:
TestingTesting in an integral part of a healthy aging doctor’s assessment process. When you visit an experienced healthy aging doctor they will probable want to run a significant amount of blood work. It is important that your doctor conduct the appropriate tests to determine a comprehensive analysis if what is going in on your body.

Often this blood work will in fact be covered by PPO insurance. HMO coverage can be tricky however you may demand blood work is run and it can be covered in certain circumstances.

In an effort to keep costs down, many women with insurance have their blood work run through their primary doctor and then take the results to a healthy aging doctor to be assessed.If you do not have insurance, many health aging doctors can offer you a very fair cash price on blood testing as they negotiate with coops for a flat rate cash price.