The importance of ordering the correct blood test before you have a hormone replacement consult.
When a person contacts BioBalance Health to determine appropriateness for hormone replacement, Drs’ Maupin and Sullivan order lab tests to be drawn before they come in for their first visit. This is different than the typical hormone practice who see a patient and then order a standard list of hormone tests after the first visit, and then the patient comes back for their second visit to review the lab results and get treatment.
The most important reason Dr. Maupin wants to review the results of a new patient’s blood work and their medical history before they ever pay anything to BioBalance Health® is that it saves that patient the cost of one visit with the doctor, and the second reason is that this protocol speeds up the treatment for the patient by shortening the time between the first visit with the doctor to the testosterone pellet treatment. “Most of my patients have seen 3-10 other doctors trying to get effective relief for their symptoms and it is cruel to cause them to wait longer for symptom resolution.” The pellet insertion is generally provided at the first visit to the BioBalance Health Office immediately after the first physician consultation…patients receive the advice and bio-identical hormone testosterone pellets plus or minus estradiol and start to feel better within 1 and 21 days.
More importantly, those patients who will not benefit from Testosterone and or Estradiol pellet therapy, their protocol of obtaining blood work before a person becomes an established patient, saves many patients money by providing them with the judgement of Dr Maupin and Dr. Sullivan that after reviewing their medical history and blood work, that they will not benefit from hormone replacement. These patients are saved the time and money of a consultation if they cannot be helped, and the doctors can use their time taking care of patients they can help!
An example of this situation is when an 18-year-old adolescent thinks he needs testosterone to be “fit”. First of all, most young men make plenty of testosterone and do not need to replace their testosterone, and by the doctors reviewing their information and avoiding a consultation, is the best way to proceed.
Dr Maupin and Sullivan are not a one-size-fits all medical practitioners. They realize that not everyone is a good candidate for testosterone and estrogen replacement. They also believe that patients should not have to pay for being told they are not good candidates at this time. Their hope is that as their patients’ lives unfold, should they become good candidates for hormone replacement, they will remember their care and return.
One of the most common questions Dr. Maupin gets asked by prospective new clients is the question “what tests do you order and why do you order those?” Dr. Maupin responds that when people find out how many vials of blood that the test requires, they gasp and ask “Why?”. She tells them that she is not just looking for your sex hormone levels but to determine your general state of health, your risk of future heart disease, the balance of all of your glands, and well as diseases that can become worse with the addition of estradiol and testosterone replacement. “We want to provide a foundation of youthful estradiol and testosterone levels that in turn stimulates healthy growth hormone production. After your hormones are optimal, we then treat pre-illness to reverse the diseases that are beginning because of low horomones and aging. Then we work with you to normalize your diet and exercise so that your risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer drops substantially. We identify genetic diseases that no one has tested for and we take action to halt the future damage. BioBalance® is much more than a hormone practice, and we need many tests to discover the source of the many symptoms of aging that patients come to us to treat.
For example, we test for Homocysteine that when elevated causes high risk of stroke, heart attack, and miscarriage. Very few physicians order this blood test, and the treatment is cheap and effective: Take methy-B12 and methyl-folate daily to erase this risk of dangerous diseases! That is a very important test to take that can change your life!
Many of our patients complain that the phlebotomist takes “so much blood”, but it is a tiny fraction of our supply, and our testing can save your life! Our panel of blood tests is created to test for hormone deficiencies and excesses (testosterone, estradiol and estrone, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal hormones, and pituitary) that are common in people over 40 and are rarely diagnosed and treated. This specific group of blood tests also looks for metabolic diseases and pre-disease like diabetes, hemochromatosis, erythrocytosis, and that takes a lot of blood!
Drs. Maupin and Sullivan use your results to diagnose you and formulate a treatment plan that will both treat your symptoms and prevent disease. The first blood test is also used to obtain YOUR baseline data from which to compare your future tests and mark your improvement. Other tests diagnose conditions that worsen with testosterone, like Erythrocytosis (too many red blood cells in the blood that make it thick) and should be managed while taking testosterone.
Drs. Maupin and Sullivan apply a wholistic and individualized method to their care of your health, with the goal being patients who are well, happy, feel young and are productive throughout their lives.
A last word about cost of blood work. Lab tests are often expensive if you have to pay for them on your own, but we order them in a way that will allow insurance to pay for them or apply them to your deductible. If you do not have insurance or if you have high deductibles for your insurance, we can extend to you the discount we receive from the labs because of the volume we generate. We are happy to pass that discount along to you which is much lower than the cost that the lab changes directly to patients.
Please don’t let the number of blood tests dissuade you from receiving the care you need!
Go to Biobalancehealth.com, touch the New Patient button, choose male or female, and fill out your form and print your lab requisition! That’s it!
This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author, with Brett Newcomb, MA., LPC., Family Counselor, Presenter and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com.
