BioIdentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT)

After 14 years of working in emergency medicine, at times watching as patients were herded through the emergency room like cattle, ordering tests and medications to treat the acute problem in front of me, but often times lacking the time or the open mindedness to be able to look at the bigger picture, failing to look at the patient as a whole, I myself was guilty of saying those words too many have heard, “your tests are normal, everything is fine”… and sending a patient out of the ER who is clearly not “fine”.  

Being fed up with that corporate healthcare model, tired of being pushed by administration to ‘move patients through faster’, tired of being measured by “how many patients per hour did you see this month?” rather than by - how good of care did you provide to your patient, how thorough was your treatment, or how compassionate was your bedside manner?  Being tired of everything that is the corporate healthcare machine is what drove me to ask the question - How can I do better? How can I provide my patients with a better option?  That desire, to DO BETTER, is what created ER2GO.  That desire is also what drives me to continue to learn and to continue to improve my practice of medicine.  

You see it seems that all too often once we complete our formal education, we stop learning, we stop questioning the way things are done.  When new information is presented, we demonstrate what is called ‘confirmation bias’.  What is that?  Confirmation bias is our brain telling us that whatever we heard first, whatever we were told first, whatever we knew first, is the truth and is fact, and therefore anything that we hear or are told after that, must be wrong.

The problem is… in healthcare, when we have that mindset, the patient suffers… you suffer.  Medicine is ever changing and good clinicians as well as patients are tired of the status quo.  They are tired of simply treating an illness with a prescription.  They are tired of watching the list of chronic diseases get longer and longer… heart disease, cancer, obesity, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and so forth.

I have recently gone through extensive training in Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), because it is my desire to not only learn myself, but to be able to educate my patients about all that BHRT has to offer and how it may be able to greatly improve their well being and quality of life.  Many of you may have heard of Hormone Replacement, but perhaps you are unaware of its extensive health benefits.  Hormone replacement is not just testosterone for the gym or bedroom.  BHRT is so much more than that!  Heart disease, diabetes, stroke risk, weight loss, women’s health, fatigue, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, high cholesterol, skin/hair/nail health… these are just a few of the benefits of BHRT.

You’ll notice that we use the word BIOIDENTICAL hormone replacement therapy. Giving us the “B” before HRT.  There is a significant difference in BHRT and HRT or TRT that you may have seen advertised through other clinics or websites.  I am happy to discuss these differences with you personally, but it is important for you, the patient, to know the difference before you start taking anything. We are not a MedSpa, nor are we here to just load you up with testosterone and send you to the gym.  We are here to evaluate your overall health, your history, your future goals, your risk factors, what are you happy with, and what are you troubled by.  We are here to listen and to build a trusted provider and patient relationship.

One of the first steps in educating myself and my patients is, recognizing that “your tests are normal” isn’t always the right answer.  Instead of being stuck on the "normal" numbers on a piece of paper, but rather accepting and even promoting the idea that “normal” isn’t always “optimal”.  What is “normal” on a piece of paper, might not be optimal for you, the patient.  Joining an ever increasing movement of clinicians and patients demanding that we get back to listening to our patients, listening to their symptoms, not treating based on what a number on a piece of paper reads, but treatment based on what they need.  This my friends… is the Art of Caring.  

The ART OF CARING is an essential practice if we are to make a difference in our patients lives.