1 /5 Michele Merkin: Let me start by saying that I have never in my life written a review, negative or positive, about anyone. However I am speaking out to protect other women from Dr. Hall’s negligence and irresponsible hormone dosing, as it nearly ruined my life, and the life of someone I hold very dear. It’s taken a team of doctors and therapists months to get us back on track, and to be honest neither of us has yet to fully recovered.
I was treated by Prudence Hall for well over a year, possibly two, and in the beginning I felt great, so good in fact that I even recommended her to a close friend. This is something I will forever regret because things went very dark for a very long time for both of us.
Usually known for being very social and enjoying the company of my friends, I slowly became withdrawn. I felt detached from everyone around me and started canceling trips and events with groups of people, because the thought of dealing with people and social scenarios literally gave me anxiety. I spoke to Dr. Hall about this new and unfortunate development, and she recommended that I increase my hormones. She said that it appeared from my labs I was nearing menopause, and that she wouldn’t be surprised if it hit me in the next year or so...at 43yrs old.
After increasing both my estrogen and progesterone I became horribly depressed. For 6 straight weeks I experienced sudden episodes of uncontrollable crying, for absolutely no reason, every single day. I was a complete mess. When the depression started to become debilitating, I seeked the help of a psychiatrist and another hormone specialist who said, after doing extensive blood panels, that I was on far too high a dose of both estrogen and progesterone, and started carefully weening me off.
As for my friend, she too was given the same hormone therapy treatment by Dr. Hall, and was told, like me, that she needed thyroid medication. The thyroid meds didn’t agree with me so I fortunately stopped taking them, my friend wasn’t so lucky. Like me, each time she went in to see Dr. Hall she was told to increase her hormone doses. She too ended up horribly depressed, and when she told Dr. Hall that she was starting to have suicidal thoughts, her concerns and complaints fell on deaf ears... Dr Hall never returned her call or even followed up with her! A complete violation of the Hippocratic oath. Fortunately my friend found the support of her other doctors, who helped ween her off the hormones with the help antidepressants.
The bottom line is that Dr. Prudence Hall is playing god and messing with the mind and body in ways she’s not qualified to do. If you are considering having her treat you, please research her more deeply on the CA medical board as there are several very serious and life threatening complaints. I’m a very private person, and I’m using my full name so people take this seriously, as I don’t want anyone to go through what my friend and I have been through, and I feel in my heart that Dr. Hall should lose her license and no longer be allowed to treat patients with hormone therapy. I’d give her less than zero stars but one is the minimum Google will allow.
