Hormone Replacement Therapy in Des Moines, WA

BHRT uses hormones that are structurally identical to the ones your body produces, as opposed to synthetic hormones, which have a different molecular structure. Bioidentical formulations can be delivered as pellets, injections, or topical creams, and they are prescribed from your individual lab results. Many patients and providers prefer them for that structural match. Your provider will discuss what that does and does not mean for your situation during consultation.

Yes. The hormonal profiles differ and so do the symptoms and the monitoring. For women, treatment often involves estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone assessed together, most commonly around perimenopause and menopause. For men, the focus is more often testosterone alongside the supporting panel. Both require individual lab work and scheduled monitoring. If your question is specifically about male testosterone, our men's testosterone replacement therapy service page covers how deficiency is diagnosed and what supervised TRT involves.

This page covers the broad hormone program: the full panel, women's hormone therapy through perimenopause and menopause, and hormone care for men beyond testosterone alone. Our men's testosterone replacement therapy page covers male testosterone specifically, including how deficiency is confirmed by blood work, the delivery options, and the monitoring TRT requires. Many men start on one page and end up in the other once their full panel comes back, since testosterone is rarely the only marker worth reviewing.

Managing symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause, including hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disruption, mood change, and vaginal dryness, is one of the most common reasons patients come to us for hormone therapy. Whether it is appropriate for you depends on your lab results and your health history, including any history of hormone-sensitive cancer, blood clots, stroke, or liver disease. Your provider reviews those risks with you specifically rather than in the abstract.

Side effects depend on which hormones are prescribed, at what dose, and by which delivery method. Reported effects during the early phase can include acne, fluid retention, breast tenderness, and mood fluctuation as levels stabilize. Pellet insertion can cause temporary soreness or bruising at the site. Hormone therapy also carries risks that require ongoing attention and vary by patient history. Lab monitoring and dose adjustment exist to manage this, and your provider reviews the risks specific to your profile before you begin.

We will not give you a number, because we cannot honestly promise one. Response to hormone therapy varies between individuals, and different symptoms often shift at different rates. Rather than working from an expected timeline, your provider evaluates your actual response using follow-up laboratory results and a structured review of your symptoms, and adjusts dosing from there.

Hormonal changes can affect body composition, energy available for exercise, and metabolic health, so hormone status is worth evaluating when weight is a concern. Hormone therapy is not a weight loss treatment and we do not present it as one. For patients whose primary goal is weight management, our medical weight loss program is the more direct path, and the two are often run alongside each other. Our InBody body composition service tracks lean mass and fat mass either way.

Long-term appropriateness depends on the individual, which hormones are prescribed, the delivery method, the dose, and the health history involved. Known risks vary accordingly, and they are the reason this program is built around scheduled follow-up labs and provider review rather than an indefinite prescription. Your provider discusses the risks specific to your situation at consultation and reassesses them at every follow-up. Hormone therapy without lab monitoring is not supervised care, and we do not offer it that way.