Budget Planner

What the Budget Planner does

The Budget Planner adds up what hormonal-health treatment might cost you each month and each year, across five goals you can stack: HRT for menopause or perimenopause, GLP-1 for weight management, PCOS care, fertility or IUI prep, and thyroid management. You check the ones that apply, say whether you have insurance, and set a monthly budget cap. The tool returns a monthly range, an annual range, and a plain yes-or-no on whether the average estimate fits inside the cap you set.

It is a straightforward calculator, not a model or a quote. Each treatment carries a fixed price band drawn from our reviewed brand directory: HRT $49-199/mo, GLP-1 $199-499/mo, PCOS care $79-249/mo, fertility/IUI prep $149-399/mo, and thyroid management $39-129/mo. When you check the insurance box, the tool swaps in a per-treatment insured floor ($20-75/mo depending on the goal) and estimates the upper end at roughly double that floor. Everything is arithmetic that runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved beyond your own device.

How to read your result

Read the headline number as a range, not a price. If you stack HRT and GLP-1 without insurance, the tool sums the bands into a combined monthly range and shows the midpoint as the average. The annual figure is simply that monthly range multiplied by twelve. The verdict line compares the average against your budget cap: if the average is at or below the cap it reports you are within budget, and if it is over, it tells you by roughly how much per month.

Use the result to frame a conversation, not to make a decision. A midpoint that clears your cap does not mean any specific provider will charge that; a midpoint that blows past it does not mean the treatment is out of reach, since dosing, formulation, and individual provider pricing move the real number in both directions. If the estimate looks workable, the tool links you to the matching best-of list or the full provider directory so you can check actual advertised prices against the range you just saw.

What the result is based on

The estimate is built entirely from five hardcoded price bands and their insured equivalents, one per treatment goal, taken from our reviewed brand directory. There is no live pricing feed, no personal quote, and no lookup of your plan. Selecting multiple goals adds the bands together; the average is the arithmetic midpoint of the summed minimum and maximum.

The insured path is a rule of thumb, not a benefit check. Ticking the insurance box assumes a typical PPO-style copay: the tool uses a fixed insured monthly floor for each goal and estimates the ceiling at about twice that floor. It does not read your deductible, coinsurance, formulary, or prior-authorization rules, so the insured range is a rough placeholder you must confirm with your own insurer.

The budget check is a single comparison: the average monthly estimate against the cap you move on the slider, which ranges from $50 to $1,000. Nothing about the verdict reflects your income, other expenses, or how a provider bills.

What it cannot tell you

• It cannot price a specific medication, dose, or brand. The bands are broad category ranges, so a low-dose thyroid script and a complex multi-drug regimen inside the same goal collapse to one figure.
• The insured estimate ignores your actual plan. Deductibles, coinsurance, formulary tiers, and prior authorization can push your real copay well outside the fixed insured floor and its doubled ceiling that the tool assumes.
• It does not include one-time or intermittent costs: lab work, telehealth visit fees, bloodwork for thyroid or fertility monitoring, shipping, or dose escalations that change your monthly total over time.
• GLP-1 pricing in particular is volatile. The tool applies one static band and cannot reflect compounded versus branded supply, manufacturer savings programs, or shortages that move street prices.
• Stacking goals assumes the treatments are additive and independent. It does not account for a single provider bundling multiple conditions or for overlap where one visit covers two goals.
• The within-budget verdict weighs only the average against your cap. Your real cost could land at the high end of the range and exceed the cap even when the tool says you are within it.