Hormone Pellets

Hormone pellets are specially compounded hormones, usually implanted in a fat pad on or near the hip. Each pellet is about the size of a grain of rice.  Once inserted, the pellets are slowly and steadily absorbed over a period of months.

This eliminates the need for you to take a hormone by mouth, or to apply it to the skin.  Of course, you also won't need to be injected with the hormone.

Hormone pellets have been around for decades, in fact, back to the1930s. The safety and effectiveness of hormone pellets is well known.

The hormones most commonly implanted are estrogen and testosterone.

There are three forms of estrogen, designated E1, E2, and E3.  The most powerful and most prevalent is E2, mostly made by ovaries in women.  Unfortunately, commercial E2 is derived usually from animals (such as pregnant horses) and is not at all similar to human E2.  This form of E2 has been linked to some very poor adverse effects.  Compounded E2 is derived from plants and is bioidentical to human E2, so there are not the same risks of adverse effects. Sometimes, we choose to have the compounded estrogen be a mixture of the different forms of estrogen, so you get the effects of all of them.

Testosterone is needed by both men and women.  In fact, some experts have described testosterone as the "anti-aging" hormone, since so many of the indications of aging are traceable to testosterone deficiencies.

Progesterone is frequently implanted, but is also just as frequently taken by mouth. Either way is good.

There are obvious benefits to each type of hormone replacement technique.  The advantage of pellets is the simplicity of the insertion (about 15 minutes, usually less), in a nearly painless in-office procedure.  Pellets are also more cost-effective.

The out-of- pocket costs of pellet implants is generally $400 or less for females and $800 or less for males (who need more pellets and a more extensive procedure).  The procedure and pellets are not covered by insurance.

Preliminary and follow-up labs (about every three months) are covered by insurance.  If you don't have insurance, we can make arrangements for an affordable lab to do the tests.