Hormone Therapy & Pellet Therapy in Tampa

It means the hormone molecule is structurally identical to the one your body produces, such as estradiol, progesterone, or testosterone. It is a statement about the molecule and nothing else. It does not tell you who manufactured the product, how it is delivered, or whether it is right for you, and it does not by itself make a preparation safer or more effective than another. Some bio-identical hormones are commercially manufactured and others are prepared by a compounding pharmacy. We will tell you which yours is, and discuss what that difference means, before you start.

It is a brief in-office procedure, not surgery in an operating room. You lie on your side, the skin over the upper hip or gluteal area is cleaned and numbed with a local anesthetic, and a very small incision is made. The pellet or pellets are placed under the skin, and the incision is closed with adhesive strips rather than stitches. You are awake the entire time and can drive yourself home afterward.

Pellets are generally re-dosed every few months rather than on a fixed date, and in practice the interval often falls somewhere in a three to six month range. Your own interval is individualized. It depends on the hormone, the dose, your metabolism, and, most importantly, on what your follow-up labs and your symptoms show. Some people need re-dosing sooner than a typical interval and some later, and we would rather test than guess.

You will get written aftercare instructions at the visit. In general we ask you to keep the site clean and dry, to avoid swimming, baths, and hot tubs for several days so the incision is not soaked, and to hold off on heavy lower-body exercise for a few days. Bruising, tenderness, or mild swelling at the site is common and usually resolves on its own. Call the office if you develop spreading redness, drainage, fever, or pain that is worsening rather than improving.

Not inherently, and anyone who tells you one route is simply better is skipping the part that matters. Pellets remove the daily and weekly steps, which is exactly what some patients need in order to stay on therapy. Injections and creams keep the dose in your hands, which makes them easier to adjust and easier to stop, and that flexibility matters more for other patients. Some hormones are also better suited to one route than another. The comparison is worth having in person, with your labs and your schedule on the table.

A pellet can sometimes be removed, but removal is not simple and is not the routine answer to a dose that turns out to be higher than you need, because pellets sit under the skin and begin dissolving. This is the main practical limitation of the route, and it is why we tend to start at a conservative dose and adjust at the next insertion instead. If being able to stop treatment the same day is important to you, an injection, cream, or oral preparation is the better fit, and we will say so.

Hormone therapy and pellet therapy at Premier Internal Medicine are self-pay and are not billed to insurance. The initial consultation is $200, and follow-up or phone visits are $100. Laboratory testing, medication, and the pellets themselves are separate from the visit fee and are quoted before anything is ordered. Our insurance-based primary care panel is currently full, but the self-pay consultative track is open to new patients, so you do not need to be an established primary care patient here to be seen for this.