FAQ's

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Mission Health & Wellness, LLC is an integrative health & wellness clinic owned by Nurse Practitioner Tara Kegeris. Mission Health & Wellness is committed to high quality care where the mind, body and spirit are treated as a whole. Our MISSION is YOU! We will partner with you to move beyond normal, striving to achieve optimal health through a variety of services. These include: - Hormone optimization (including Bioidentical Hormone replacement therapy) ⁃ Thyroid optimization - Weight loss programs ⁃ Peptide therapy - IV nutritional therapy - Vitamin Injections  & more.

We would refer you to the tab on our website called "about us" for this question.  On that page you can read about each member of our team.

At Mission Health & Wellness, we recognize that one solution does not fit everyone.  We offer Bio-identical Hormone Pellets as well as creams, injections, sublinguals & orals.  Please refer to the tab called "Hormone Pellets" to learn a little more about each method of receiving hormones. 

There are many benefits to optimizing your hormones, including:

     - Increased energy levels

     - Improved mental clarity

     - Enhanced sexual libido & function

     - Reduced visceral & body fat

     - Healthy sense of well-being

     - Decreased depression/anxiety/mood swings

     - Better sleep

     - Fewer night sweats/hot flashes (women)

     - Improved muscle mass

     - Decreased joint pain

     - and much more!

We do not advocate synthetic medications or hormones. All of our supplements are also pure and third party tested.  We use trusted, regulated compounding pharmacies for all of our prescription medications to ensure utmost safety and to avoid substitutions for synthetics that insurance companies will often require.

We do NOT require a referral from another provider to become a patient & begin treatment here, so let’s get you scheduled!

Generally, a new patient should expect to have a new patient consultation with one of our board certified Nurse Practitioners, during which you have plenty of time to discuss your concerns. Both the provider & you as the patient can determine if it is a good fit. Often labs are run during this first appt.

Your second appointment is usually within 2 weeks of the initial consultation.  This appointment is called a lab review. It is this appointment the provider will thoroughly review the results from all of the tests that were run after your first appointment.  It is also at this appointment that your provider will partner with you on a treatment plan.

While we are very interested in our patients holistically, we strive to be experts in the services that we focus on - hormones, weight loss, IV’s, vitamin injections, gut health, etc.  We encourage all of our patients to have a primary care provider in addition to us to manage general wellness health concerns. This allows your primary care provider to better manage your care as a whole, while Mission Health and Wellness compliments this care for a great combination to achieve optimal wellness. We have a list of providers in the area supportive of preventive medicine and BHRT if you need one. 

Mission Health & Wellness is open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm for the purchasing of supplements, scheduling etc.  Our patient appointments with our providers are available between 9:00am - 4:00pm, Monday thru Friday.

We do close for most major holidays such as New Years Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving & the day after.  Additionally, we close for the entire week that Christmas Day falls in.  On occasion we may also close for staff continuing education.

We keep our google home page updated with all closures that are planned in advance.  On occasion there may be an unexpected closure due to extreme weather conditions. 

Like many in the healthcare field today, we at Mission Health & Wellness have chosen not to process any of our services through insurance.  We have grown frustrated with the many roadblocks to helping people get healthy that insurance often puts in place. We do not accept insurance because our model prioritizes a stronger patient provider relationship by eliminating the administrative burden of dealing with insurance companies, allowing providers to spend more time with each patient and focus on preventative care, rather than navigating complex billing processes and insurance requirements.  By not dealing with the insurance companies we are free to put our patients first! 

Every patient is different & as such there is not a "one size fits all" treatment plan, so costs can vary based on the plan that each patient agrees to with their provider.   Costs will be discussed & agreed to prior to any treatment being completed.

We accept all forms of payment, credit cards, checks & cash 

As a courtesy to our other patients and to us, please provide adequate notice (24 business hours) if you need to cancel or change an appointment. We often have a waiting list and, because we do not double book, your appointment time cannot be used by anyone else if you cancel on short notice. Cancellations without adequate notice or no-shows will be subject to a missed appointment fee

Both Men & Women are candidates for BHRT. As we age, or due to medical conditions such as menopause or having a hysterectomy or thyroid disease, or just normal aging, our bodies may no longer produce these vital hormones or may not make enough. By supplementing them, we can restore the hormone levels to those of a normal healthy person, improving the way we feel and improving how our body functions.

The answer is NO. Cancer is caused by many factors such as genetic mutation, radiation exposure, poor diet, smoking, chemical exposure, older age, and so on. Some cancers such as breast and prostate cancer may be hormone-sensitive, meaning that the cancer may grow faster when exposed to certain hormones such as estrogen(breast) or testosterone(prostate). However, the cancer itself is not caused by the hormone. Recent studies have shown that the risk of patients developing cancer is not increased when using bioidentical hormones.  Certain synthetic hormones can increase the risk of certain cancers and should be avoided if possible. We always screen women with mammograms and men with a blood test called PSA to check for any signs of breast or prostate cancer and we do not prescribe hormones which can promote cancer growth to patients with a history of cancer.

Much of the negativity regarding HRT stems from the misinterpretation of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study in 2002, which led to a worldwide reduction in HRT use. Other research has supported the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence menopause guidelines that the benefits of HRT outweigh the risks in the majority of women.

Many times doctors who are not trained in hormones extrapolate all hormones as being equal. Estrogen does NOT equal estradiol. Progestins do NOT equal micronized progesterone. Bioidentical hormones are different from those used in traditional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in that they’re identical chemically to those our bodies produce naturally and are made from plant estrogens. The hormones used in traditional hormone replacement are made from the urine of pregnant horses or other synthetic sources. 

Multiple studies have shown that synthetic progesterone (progestins) was found to be associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer. When the studies are done using estrogen alone (without the progestin) there was a significant decrease in breast cancer. In addition to this when looking at the bioidentical hormone formula of progesterone it appears to have the opposite effect of progestin – actually reducing the risk of breast cancer. And when it comes to Testosterone - World renowned Oncologist Rebecca Glasier implants Testosterone pellets around active breast cancer showing promising results of apoptosis (destruction) of the breast cancer cells.

No. There have been numerous studies documenting no increased risk of prostate cancer with testosterone therapy. A well-known Harvard urologist, Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, has devoted a large piece of his career to studying this issue. In fact, he is currently studying the effects of testosterone on patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Men typically do not get prostate cancer when they’re in their 20s and 30s when their testosterone levels are at their highest. It’s almost always contracted later in life when testosterone levels have significantly declined. For an in-depth read on this topic, NP Tara recommends reading, Testosterone for Life by Dr. Abraham Morgentaler.

In 2009 the Women’s Health Initiative researchers published a report on the health outcomes in a group of women treated with synthetic hormones called Premarin and Provera or just with Premarin. They found an increased rate of cardiovascular disease and a slightly increased risk of breast cancer in women who took these 2 drugs. It is important to understand that these 2 drugs are NOT bioidentical hormones. They are chemically altered hormones in the case of Provera and estrogens from a horse in the case of Premarin. Because they are not natural to the human body, they had adverse side effects on the women who used them. For this reason, we do not prescribe these synthetic hormone drugs to our patients.

Other studies (KEEPS Study, EPIC Study, and others) that looked at bioidentical hormone prescriptions such as natural estradiol and natural progesterone do not show increased risks for cancer or cardiovascular diseases. In fact, they showed no difference in risk or even reduced risk compared to women who did not use any hormone replacement at all, indicating they are as safe as the placebo in these studies.

Yes, you could do nothing and let nature take its course. You will then experience the usual signs and symptoms of inadequate hormone levels and aging such as hair loss, skin aging, loss of bone density, loss of muscle and gain of fat, fatigue, loss of libido and erectile dysfunction, vaginal dryness, sagging breasts, loss of cognitive function, aches and pains, poor mood, insomnia and increased risk for heart disease, dementia and osteoporosis.

You could use conventional medications to treat some of the symptoms of hormone deficiency. Examples would be antidepressants for depression, drugs for osteoporosis, stimulants such as amphetamines for poor brain function, pain medicines for aches and pains, sleeping pills for insomnia, anxiety drugs, cholesterol reducing drugs, sleep meds. Of course, all synthetic drugs have risks and potential side effects and are not treating the root cause of hormone loss.

You can use synthetic hormones instead of bioidentical hormones. These are technically drugs and not natural hormones and they have side effects not found in bioidentical hormones such as increased risk of blood clots and stroke, increased risks of breast cancer, increased risk of heart attacks, risk of migraine headaches, weight gain, breast diseases.

No, you do not have to continue taking hormone therapy. From a health perspective, any benefits you may have experienced from hormone replacement will eventually fade away if you stop your treatment. Your body will return to the state it was in before you started hormone replacement.

You should stop your hormone therapy when you want your symptoms to return such as low libido, sexual dysfunction, fatigue, joint pain, mood dysregulation, low energy, night sweats, hot flashes, UTIs, vaginal atrophy and when you want to increase your risk for hip fractures, dementia, cancers, osteoporosis, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, insulin resistance, Diabetes, high blood pressure, visceral fat, heart attacks, strokes, elevated cholesterol, and overall morbidity and mortality. 

120 (hopefully you understand my answer. 😃)

Yes.  For further education and information I would recommend reading Hormone expert Dr. Neal Rouzier’s books “Normal isn’t Optimal” and “How to Achieve Healthy Aging”. 

These books have an exponential amount of information behind the science of bioidentical hormones, including hundreds of evidence based references.