Hormone Replacement Therapy

Dr. Larry Richardson is an expert in medical weight loss and hormone therapy for women & men. He has been expertly trained and certified by several of the best Bio-Identical Hormone practitioners in USA.

Our hormone replacement therapies can help to revive energy, focus, and strength so you can continue feeling younger for longer. Proper Hormone treatments can provide a wide range of results including better bone density, increased energy, weight loss, and more. Most importantly, proper BHRT can reduce your risk of heart attack and strokes.

Your customized Hormone Therapy will start from  Comprehensive Hormone Deficiency Tests. We will order the lab at your nearest CPL draw station. Once we schedule the lab work and coordinate with you the proper date, you just need to walk in and get your blood drawn. This helps Dr. Richardson check the exact levels of your hormones.

Customized Treatment Plan

If the levels from your labs are unbalanced, Dr. Richardson will customize your treatment plan. Many women have an imbalance of estrogen and/or progesterone while men are mostly deficient in testosterone.

Prescribe Bio-Identical Hormones to improve your overall well-being

Hormone Optimization

We don't prescribe and forget you. Your follow-up labs & consultations will be every three months to monitor your progress and make any necessary adjustments.

At Family Weight & Wellness Clinic, in order to help our patients take care of themselves at less cost, we also offer a yearly VIP membership. You will get a 15% discount if you purchase a VIP membership.

© 2020 by Larry A. Richardson, MD, MFOMA

As more and more patients are enjoying our Weight Loss and Bio-identical Hormone Therapy, one of the most popular questions I hear is "Why don't you offer pellet therapy?"

Here is why I don’t recommend pellets:

While there are some practitioners of bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) that promote the use of pellet therapy in their clients, I have chosen to take a different therapeutic course for my patients in the interest of giving them the best options in terms of convenience, comfort, cost and long-term considerations.

In my years as a physician, I have found that when doctors try to replace hormones and modify cycles and rhythms in the human body, it is generally best to attempt to emulate the body’s own natural patterns and levels as closely as possible.

A brief study of human physiology will reveal that most of our body’s major processes, including hormonal secretions, follow a diurnal (daily) pattern, often with peaks and valleys of the levels and activity of the process under consideration. One such example would be a normal cortisol level that typically peaks around 8 am and falls to its lowest level around midnight. Another hormonal example is testosterone, which is often highest about 8 am and lowest around 9 pm.

One of the main reasons I disagree with the use of pellets for BHRT is as follows.

When pellets are inserted, the hormones begin a steady rise and reach a peak around 30 days (1 month) later. On average, they then begin a steady decline and reach their lowest levels between 4 to 6 months after insertion. Why take such care to make hormones that our bodies recognize as being ‘natural’ and identical to our own hormones, yet then deliver them by pellet therapy in such an ‘unnatural’ dosing pattern? Even though the hormones released are considered ‘bio-identical’, such an abnormal delivery pattern (ie, not diurnal) of the hormone itself does not sound very ‘physiological’ to me!

Other considerations regarding pellet therapy are as follows:

• Pellets are sometimes promoted to last ‘about 6 months’, though actual efficacy (relief of symptoms) is often much less than that (eg. 2 to 4 months).
• If the pellet dosing is wrong (particularly if too high and/or causing problematic side-effects), they cannot be removed. If the dose is excessive, it cannot be readjusted. Symptoms must be dealt with until the pellets dissolve and the levels drop. It is quite rare that doctors get hormone dosing optimized on the first attempt. Adjusting hormone dosing is a regular part of treating patients with hormone imbalances and it can take months to get everything just right.
• If the pellets are placed improperly or if the body rejects them for whatever reason, they may cause visible bumps or nodules (often uncomfortable) within the skin as the body extrudes the pellet.
• Insertion of pellets requires an office visit and a small surgical procedure each time (every 3, 4, 5 months?). This procedure always carries a small risk of infection and is certainly more costly to the patient than alternative prescribing methods of hormonal delivery. At the very least, there are always some ‘post-op restrictions’ after each implantation.
• In theory, pellets are no more effective than a gel, cream or injections.
• Pellet implantation invariably causes scar tissue. It is not often revealed that in some patients, after about 2 years of pellet insertions, some may have so much scar tissue build-up that they are no longer pellet candidates.