You’ve probably established a good remote work routine by now. You angle your camera to only show the clean parts of your house. You dress up just enough to look professional, even if you’re wearing pajama bottoms. You remember to turn off the background from your last virtual hangout before meeting with your work team.
But you might be new to telehealth, and preparing for a telehealth visit with a hormone specialist is probably a new ballgame.
The sudden need for widespread telehealth has increased access to care for millions and expanded treatment possibilities. For people struggling with hormone imbalance, this new way of connecting to practitioners can be particularly valuable, as it allows for increased privacy and convenience. Taking the first step, however, can be overwhelming. How will it work? What do I need to tell them? Don’t I need a physical exam?
By learning how to prepare for a telehealth appointment with a hormone specialist, you can ensure that you get the support you need to work towards achieving hormonal balance.
Choosing the Right Telehealth Hormone Specialist
Today, there are more health care practitioners offering hormone therapy via telehealth than ever before. But not all practitioners are created equal—and choosing the right hormone specialist can be critical to your success.
Practicing via telehealth adds new considerations to seeking out care, as not all practitioners have the resources to offer their services remotely. While the American Medical Association estimates that 60-90% of practitioners now offer some type of telehealth services, about half of those are doing so for the very first time.
Your telehealth practitioner should offer:
- Communication via secure telecommunication methods
- Availability of easy at-home testing
- Partnerships with trusted labs and compounding pharmacies
- Discreet home delivery of testing and medication
Working with a practitioner who has a formal telehealth strategy and expertise in the developing patient-practitioner relationship remotely is particularly important for patients who have ongoing medical needs—such as those with hormonal health issues.
Prepare for a Telehealth Appointment With a Hormone Specialist
So you’ve found the right specialist. Now what?
Knowing what to expect and how to prepare for a telehealth appointment with a hormone specialist can put you at ease and help you address your symptoms as soon as possible. The following steps can help you get ready for your appointment:
- Prepare your information. To make your appointment as productive as possible, have all relevant information available. This can include:
- General health history
- Family health history
- Symptoms. Be sure to look over a list of hormone imbalance symptoms for women and for men—there may be some you’re overlooking
- Any diagnoses from other practitioners regarding your symptoms
- Any medications you are currently taking or have taken in the past
- Health goals. What are you hoping to achieve?
- Find the right spot. Seeing a practitioner outside of a medical setting may be unfamiliar, but many find that it is actually easier to open up about health problems from the comfort of their own home. To get the most out of your appointment, choose a quiet place where you have privacy, won’t be distracted, and are able to talk freely. While there is nothing to be embarrassed about, these are personal issues that you don’t always want other people to hear.
- Make sure you have the right technology. How are you connecting to your practitioner? Make sure you have the right system, your equipment can run it, and you are in a place with a good connection. You don’t want to have trouble communicating.
- Be charged up. It’s not just about your hormone levels—your battery levels matter too.
- Write down questions. Have your questions written down and ready, so you don’t go blank at the crucial moment.
- Understand the next steps. Receiving hormone replacement therapy involves at-home testing, treatment, and follow-up. Know what to expect so you can understand how to prepare.
With these steps, you can set both you and your practitioner up for success.
Remote Hormone Therapy Can Help You Reconnect
When your hormones are out of balance, you don’t feel like yourself. Your physical and mental health can suffer, and you may feel disconnected from who you used to be. Finding a specialist who offers bioidentical hormone replacement therapy as part of a comprehensive health and wellness program may be able to help you alleviate disruptive symptoms and restore your sense of self. And with telehealth, you can do it no matter where you are.
If you want more guidance on remote hormone replacement therapy, BodyLogicMD can help. The practitioners in the BodyLogicMD network are experts in hormone health and understand the challenges of your changing body. With telehealth, a BodyLogicMD-affiliated practitioner can assess your needs and can create a personalized BalancePro plan to help you achieve your health goals. Set up your telehealth consultation, or take the BodyLogicMD Hormone Balance Quiz to learn about how hormones may be affecting your everyday life.
Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. All content on this website is for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent diseases.
