Hormone Replacement Therapy

Settling in or a reason to call on hormones

Hormone replacement therapy raises one aftercare question again and again: which changes are part of settling in, and which mean phoning your physician? Your prescriber answers that. Below is what to settle when the first prescription is written and what to keep by the phone after it. The pages are written with Long Island City readers in mind, and no prescriber is ranked.

A woman injects her abdomen outside a Queens pharmacy at night beneath elevated subway tracks.

What to have your prescriber confirm up front

Which changes does my clinician expect in the first weeks, and which do they want a same-day call about?
Who answers out of office hours, and which number do I use?
Which of my other medicines and conditions should I list at the first visit?
What will be checked at follow-up, and when?
When symptoms get worse instead of better, should I stop or wait? Ask for that rule on paper.

Questions 1, 2 and 5 are the urgent ones, because they decide what you do on a bad night. Questions 3 and 4 can be settled at the visit.

Hormone questions, one page each

Each hormone therapy question has its own page, listed here by what you may be trying to settle:

Your prescriber's hormone instructions come first

Society guidance and regulator advisories on hormone therapy have not yet been set side by side here, so your own clinician's written instructions are the starting point.

If you want a patient guide to read next to those instructions, read the MedlinePlus patient guide to hormone therapy for menopause. If you want the newest society position, read the ACOG expanded recommendations for managing menopause symptoms. If you prefer a plain summary, read the NYU Langone article with the facts about menopause and hormone therapy. If you want the research weighed, read the narrative review of menopausal hormone therapy risks, benefits and emerging options. If something worries you, call your physician first.