Answers to Common Menopause Treatment Questions

It’s super easy! You make your appointment online, at your convenience. You put in minimal information for us to contact you with login information for a televisit, you pay, you start your visit, and we make a plan just for you.

For most women, it’s best to start with a 60-minute visit for the first encounter. This gives us plenty of time to go over your history, your medicines, and your concerns. We can thoroughly cover your needs, and make a plan to get you feeling better. We usually only need this length of visit once. From there, we can follow up with you as needed in shorter visits.

The 30-minute appointment may be appropriate for simple, initial consults, but more likely an extended follow-up visit. This is where we have already met in an extended visit, but we may need to meet again for various reasons. You could be on a treatment plan that may need to be adjusted, you may have some new concerns, or you might have lingering concerns that have not been fully addressed.

Lastly, our quick 15-minute follow up is for those women who are on a treatment plan and doing well. They may just need refills of medications, or have a quick new concern they wish to specially address.

We wanted to have the most simple model for my patients and myself. Insurance adds a whole different layer of complexity with health care delivery. We did not want to make this process complicated for the patient. No extra staff and overhead administrative cost or hassle. Time is money, right? If you are going to spend your money, you wish to have great value for that money spent. If you have a 30-minute appointment, you get the doctor, face to face, for 30 minutes. By not having to collect insurance information, send claims in, appeal claim denials, and put out statements to collect fees, we are able to completely focus on you and your needs. You get exactly what you pay for. We understand that the cost of all healthcare may seem high, and we want this process to be a cost-effective option. We strive to provide the best possible care, and some of the things that make us unique, may help explain our prices.

When compared to other menopausal care practices on the market, we believe that the care we deliver is competitive in quality, safety, convenience, and cost. Our fee schedule is a pay as you need model. Many similar businesses online require a subscription service, and you pay a monthly fee. Here you pay for each visit, as you need, “a la carte” and there are no hidden or recurrent fees.

While we are unable to bill your insurance company, you can use your HSA (Health Saving Account) and/or FSA (Flexible Spending Account) to pay for prescriptions. We are also happy to provide you with purchase receipts that you may submit on your own to your health insurance company for possible reimbursement.

Possibly, and frequently, we order blood work as part of the workup. Once we determine what you need, we can send an order to your local lab, or your personal primary care physician’s office. Once you have the lab results back, you can upload them to your patient portal for your doctor to review, and we can make a plan from there at your next visit. We may do this occasionally to get your medication levels just right-so they are effective with the fewest side effects.

It really depends on your individual needs. We might recommend dietary changes, vitamin supplements, hair and skin products, and exercise and movement prescriptions. If we prescribe medications- it could be oral tablets, compounded hormone creams, patches, sprays, or even hormone pellets. We can send your medication to your local pharmacy, a local compounded pharmacy, a mail order pharmacy, or in the case of pellets, have you make a pellet insertion appointment in my local office. If you are too far away to get a pellet appointment with us locally, we can try and arrange care with a physician near you.

We offer after hours and weekend visits for your convenience. We work long days in the office, just like you do, and love the idea of getting my care outside those traditional times. You can log in at home, with a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine-no judgement here), and relax in the comfort of your home. No traffic, parking hassle, no crowds, no waiting room, and no delays. You do not have to burn your PTO time or take a day off to get the care you need.

I am in a unique position to deliver the best menopausal management care. I am a menopausal, mother of three, wife and full-time practising physician and surgeon. I have worked in this area for over 25 years. Osteoporosis and dementia run strong in my family. My friends are all in the same boat-balancing family, job, marriage, friends, and trying to still enjoy all life has to offer. We struggle with our sleep, our mood, our sex life, exercise, and trying to remember everything we need to take care of to get through our days. I get you. I am you. Likewise, I have extensive training in this arena- I am a graduate from Georgia Tech in Molecular Genetics, an honour graduate from Mercer University School of Medicine. Furthermore, I trained in a rigorous Ob/Gyn residency at Washington University in St. Louis and became board certified in Urogynecology subspecialty in 2013. I studied and passed the Menopause Society Board exam and am one of the few such providers in my state. All of this gives me a unique and highly qualified position to deliver the best and most up-to-date care for my patients.

We literally go head to toe with your care. We talk about sleep, mood, libido, concentration, hair skin and nail health, bone health, body aches, muscle mass, weight concerns, low energy, sexual function, hot ashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, and sexual pain. Your menopause may be causing symptoms that you had no idea had anything to do with menopause. Your chronic diseases may be exacerbated by menopause. The most important subject to cover is the symptoms that you are most concerned about, and that is different for every woman. Your goals will drive every visit.