MAKING THE DECISION THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU

Whether your plan includes hormone replacement therapy, medical weight loss, or both, your care at High Country Wellness goes far beyond a prescription. You’ll have ongoing support from Stephanie, Donna, and our team as we monitor how you’re feeling, track your progress, review appropriate labs, and make adjustments when needed.

Depending on your treatment plan, your care may also include body composition testing and tracking, health coaching, educational guides and resources, ongoing educational emails, and a supplement bank to use toward additional recommended supplements.

We know that making meaningful changes in your health often takes more than medication alone. That’s why we’ve built education, coaching, resources, and ongoing support into your care, because we want to give you the best opportunity to feel better, make progress, and succeed long term.

The first few months of treatment are important. This is when we’re learning how your body responds, making adjustments, tracking your progress, and helping you build a strong foundation for the months and years ahead.

That’s why your initial 3–6 month program is intentionally high-touch. During this time, you’ll have multiple visits with Stephanie or Donna, lab reviews, health coaching sessions, body composition testing and progress tracking, along with education and resources to support you between appointments.

We’ve designed this time to give you more support when you need it most. Rather than handing you a prescription and asking you to check back months later, our team stays closely involved as we learn what’s working, what may need to change, and how we can best support your goals.

After your initial program, you’ll have the option to transition to an annual plan for continued medical monitoring, treatment management, and support.

Yes, we know there are online services, med spas, and other practices offering hormones and weight-loss medications at a wide range of prices.

When comparing options, we encourage you to look beyond the cost of the medication and consider the care, personalization, and medical oversight surrounding it.

At High Country Wellness, we take the time to understand your health history, symptoms, labs, goals, and concerns before recommending treatment. When compounded hormone therapy is appropriate, we work with a compounding pharmacy that allows us to prescribe specific formulations and doses based on your individual needs rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.

Just as importantly, we continue to monitor how you’re responding. Through follow-up visits, lab reviews, body composition tracking, health coaching, education, and ongoing support, our team can see what’s working and make adjustments when clinically appropriate.

For us, the prescription is just one piece of your care. We want you to feel confident that there’s a knowledgeable medical team paying attention to your health and progress every step of the way.

High Country Wellness is a direct-pay practice, which means we don’t bill insurance for our office visits. We know this can feel like a significant investment, and we want you to understand why we’ve chosen this model.

Direct-pay allows our team to spend more time getting to know you, provide more personalized care, and build your treatment around what you need rather than what an insurance plan allows or requires.

It also gives us the flexibility to provide the high-touch care that’s important to us, especially during your first few months of treatment when we’re closely monitoring your progress, reviewing labs, making adjustments, and helping you build a strong foundation.

Many services may be eligible for HSA or FSA use. We recommend confirming eligibility with your plan administrator.

Hormone changes and metabolic health can sometimes overlap, which is why looking at the bigger picture matters.

Changes in hormones, sleep, energy, appetite, body composition, muscle mass, and metabolic health can all influence how you feel. When appropriate, your provider can evaluate both hormone-related concerns and weight-related goals and determine whether addressing one or both makes sense for you.

If both are concerns for you, you can also learn more about our combined women’s hormone replacement therapy and medical weight loss approach.

That’s completely fine. You don’t have to do both.

Some women come to us specifically for hormone replacement therapy to address symptoms associated with perimenopause, menopause, or other hormone changes. Others are primarily interested in medical weight loss and improving their metabolic health. For some women, addressing both may be appropriate.

Your care is based on you- your symptoms, health history, labs, goals, and what you and our team decide is appropriate. We do not fit every woman into the same program.

It’s completely normal to have questions or even feel a little nervous about starting a new treatment. We want you to ask those questions.

Before recommending treatment, Stephanie or Donna will consider your health history, symptoms, risk factors, goals, and appropriate lab testing. Once you begin, our team continues to monitor how you’re feeling and responding and can make adjustments when clinically appropriate.

That’s a big part of why ongoing care matters to us. We don’t want to prescribe something and disappear. We want to know how you’re doing along the way so we can make adjustments.

Hormone replacement therapy is not one-size-fits-all, and it isn’t appropriate for every woman. That’s why we look at your individual health history, symptoms, risk factors, and goals before recommending HRT.

When HRT is appropriate, we’ll talk with you about the hormones being recommended, why we’re recommending them, potential benefits and risks, and how we’ll monitor you throughout treatment.

This is one of the most common questions we hear, and understandably so.

Much of the concern surrounding hormone replacement therapy began after the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study published in 2002. Following that study, many women stopped hormone therapy, and many healthcare providers became much more hesitant to prescribe it.

Since then, we’ve learned a great deal more. Researchers have continued studying hormone therapy, and today we know that the decision to use HRT is much more individualized than we once thought. Factors such as your age, the timing of treatment, your medical history, your family history, and the type of hormone therapy all play an important role in determining your risks and benefits.

At High Country Wellness, every treatment plan is personalized, and we’ll review your medical history, discuss your individual risk factors, and answer all of your questions before recommending hormone therapy.

For many healthy women entering perimenopause or menopause, hormone therapy can be a safe and effective treatment that significantly improves quality of life. Our goal is to help you make an informed decision based on the most current evidence, not fear.

When compounded hormones are appropriate for your treatment plan, we work with a compounding pharmacy to prepare medication based on the prescription written specifically for you. This allows our team to prescribe certain formulations or doses based on your individual needs rather than treating every woman exactly the same.

Stephanie or Donna can walk you through what is being prescribed, how to use it, and why that particular option has been recommended for you.

A compounding pharmacy prepares customized medications based on a prescription from a licensed healthcare provider. Compounded medications can be useful when a patient needs a dose, formulation, or combination that isn’t available as a standard commercially manufactured medication.

Because compounded medications are different from FDA-approved manufactured drugs, we think transparency matters. Our team can explain why a compounded option is being recommended, where your medication is coming from, and what monitoring is part of your care.

We’ll look at the things that matter for your goals. Depending on your treatment plan, that may include your symptoms, labs, body composition, weight, measurements, energy, sleep, strength, mood, sexual health, or how you’re feeling and functioning in everyday life.

Regular check-ins and tracking help our providers understand what’s improving, what isn’t, and whether something needs to change.

No. Medication may be one tool in your treatment plan when it’s medically appropriate, but our medical weight loss approach is about much more than receiving a prescription.

We’ll track your progress, including body composition when appropriate, and you’ll have access to health coaching, education, and resources to support the changes you’re making along the way. We care about more than seeing a smaller number on the scale. We want to help you make meaningful progress while supporting your overall health.

We understand how frustrating it can be to finally decide to do something about how you’re feeling and worry, “What if this doesn’t work either?”

Your first treatment plan isn’t usually your forever treatment plan. Our team will continue to evaluate how you’re feeling, your progress, appropriate labs, and other measures relevant to your care. When clinically appropriate, Stephanie or Donna can make adjustments based on how you’re responding.

We learn from your response rather than expecting every woman’s body to respond exactly the same way.

Every woman is different, and we don’t want to promise an unrealistic timeline. Some changes may be noticeable sooner, while others can take more time. It depends on what we’re treating, where you’re starting, your treatment plan, and how your body responds.

Our team will help you understand what realistic progress looks like for you and what we’ll be watching along the way.

No. Many women begin experiencing symptoms during perimenopause, which often starts in your late 30s. If you’re noticing symptoms and they’re affecting your quality of life, you don’t have to wait until menopause to seek help.

Depending on your symptoms, goals, and medical history, hormone therapy may be prescribed as:

• Creams
• Pellets
• Injections
• Oral medications

We’ll discuss the pros and cons of each option and recommend the one that’s the best fit for you.