8X Top Doc in Obesity Medicine
8X Top Doc in Obesity Medicine
Women’s health is complex in ways that a standard annual exam and a prescription to manage symptoms were never designed to address.
The relationship between hormones, metabolism, thyroid function, stress, and sleep doesn’t resolve itself in a fifteen-minute appointment. Meaning for most women, their symptoms never get the clinical attention they actually require.
At Activated Health & Wellness, we spend time with you. We conduct a thorough clinical assessment of what is driving how you feel and build a care plan around your specific physiology, your history, and your presenting symptoms.
Women’s symptoms are frequently undertreated because they’re difficult to diagnose within the constraints of conventional care. A standard workup measures a narrow range of values, leaves limited room for clinical nuance, and rarely accounts for the way hormonal, metabolic, and systemic dysfunction interact with each other over time. For women inside this system, the result is often years of unexplained symptoms and inconclusive answers.
At Activated Health & Wellness, the evaluation starts where a standard workup stops. We take a root-cause approach to women’s health, which means the diagnosis informs the treatment. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to for every patient who walks through our doors
We assess the full hormonal picture, the metabolic environment, thyroid function at every level of the conversion pathway, adrenal rhythm, and how these systems affect each other. What drives fatigue in one woman is not what drives it in another, and a care plan that doesn’t account for that distinction isn’t truly built around the patient.
The following represent some of the most common concerns we evaluate and treat at Activated Health & Wellness. Many women present with several issues simultaneously, which itself signals systemic imbalance rather than isolated conditions. Comprehensive evaluation often reveals connections that a single-symptom approach would miss.
Perimenopause and menopause Hot flashes, sleep disruption, mood shifts, cognitive changes, and metabolic effects | Hormonal imbalance Estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone: individually and in relationship to one another |
Persistent fatigue and low energy Even with reasonable sleep, nutrition, and lifestyle habits | Unexplained weight gain Particularly around the abdomen, resistant to diet and exercise |
Thyroid dysfunction Hypothyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's, and conversion issues | Diminished libido and sexual wellness Changes in desire, arousal, comfort, and satisfaction |
Mood instability, anxiety, and depression Often hormonally driven rather than purely psychological | Sleep disruption and insomnia Difficulty falling or staying asleep, night sweats, and unrefreshing rest |
Irregular cycles and PMS Including PCOS, luteal phase insufficiency, and cycle-related mood and energy patterns | Insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction Especially prevalent in perimenopause and with hormonal imbalance |
Long COVID symptoms Fatigue, brain fog, hormonal disruption, and systemic inflammation post-infection | Preventive and functional medicine Proactive, comprehensive care for women who want to optimize, not just maintain |
Not sure if your symptoms warrant a deeper evaluation? Take the free Female Symptom Checklist at activated.health. It takes five minutes and gives your provider a meaningful clinical starting point before your first visit.
Our services are not delivered as standalone treatments.
Each one is integrated into a comprehensive, individualized care plan informed by your diagnostics, your history, and your goals.
Restoring the hormonal foundation that underlies everything else.
Hormones don't operate in isolation. Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid hormone, cortisol, and insulin are in constant communication influencing mood, cognition, metabolism, sleep, cardiovascular health, bone density, and libido simultaneously. When the balance shifts, as it inevitably does across a woman's life, the effects are felt across every system.
At Activated Health & Wellness, we begin Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) evaluation with a thorough hormonal panel assessing estradiol, progesterone, total and free testosterone, SHBG, DHEA, and thyroid markers alongside a complete metabolic picture. We discuss your symptoms in depth, review your personal and family health history, and build a protocol that reflects your biology.
HRT can be delivered through pellets, creams, troches, patches, or injections. We monitor your response at regular intervals and adjust as your needs evolve, never simply setting a dose and stepping away.
Who this is for: Women experiencing perimenopause, menopause, or unexplained symptoms, including fatigue, weight gain, sleep disruption, low libido, mood changes, and cognitive fog, who have not had a comprehensive hormonal evaluation.
Identifying what your body is actually working against, then addressing it.
A woman's weight is deeply influenced by hormones, and not just the reproductive ones.
Thyroid function, cortisol rhythm, insulin resistance, and inflammatory load all shape how the body stores and releases fat. This is why standard advice so often fails: it targets behavior without addressing the underlying physiology.
Our medical weight loss approach begins with a comprehensive metabolic and hormonal evaluation. From there, we build an individualized plan that may include prescription weight loss medication, hormone optimization, exercise and nutritional guidance.
For patients who want a fully structured path, our 20-week program includes lab monitoring at regular intervals, body composition tracking, provider accountability at each stage, health coaching and a complimentary aesthetics consultation.
The outcome we are working toward is not just a number on a scale. It's a body in better metabolic balance, with energy and function that reflect it.
Who this is for: Women who have struggled with weight despite sincere effort, or who suspect hormonal or metabolic factors have not been properly evaluated. Also ideal for women navigating weight changes during perimenopause or menopause.
Care that goes as deep as your health requires.
A standard physical is designed to identify what's wrong, instead of evaluating how well everything is working. It doesn't account for the quality of your hormonal environment, the efficiency of your thyroid conversion, your inflammatory burden, your nutritional status, your family history as it relates to preventive risk, or the early metabolic patterns that can predict dysfunction years before it becomes a diagnosable condition.
The question we start with is different. We ask how well your body is actually functioning and what your history tells us about where it may be headed. We review your full clinical picture including your labs, your family history, your lifestyle, and how you've responded to care in the past and build a plan around what that picture specifically shows. As your health evolves, so does your care.
Who this is for: Women who want thorough, proactive care built around their full health picture, particularly those who have felt rushed, dismissed, or managed rather than genuinely evaluated.
Restoring comfort, sensitivity, and function — naturally.
The O-Shot is a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) procedure that uses growth factors derived from your own blood to regenerate tissue, improve vascular function, and restore sensitivity in the vaginal and clitoral region. The result is improved sexual responsiveness, reduced discomfort during intercourse, and, for many patients, significant improvement in stress urinary incontinence. The procedure is performed in-office, requires no general anesthesia, and involves minimal downtime. Because it uses your own biology rather than synthetic materials, it is well-tolerated and carries a low risk profile. Results typically develop over four to eight weeks as tissue regeneration occurs.
Who this is for: Women experiencing reduced sexual sensation, discomfort during intercourse, low libido with a physical component, or stress urinary incontinence including those navigating menopause-related changes in sexual wellness.
The following services complement our primary offerings and are available as part of a comprehensive, individualized care plan.
| Medical Aesthetics | Anti-wrinkle injections and customized medical-grade skincare treatments delivered by experienced providers in a clinical setting. A natural complement to a hormone optimization or weight loss journey. Because looking and feeling your best go hand in hand. |
| Body Sculpting — PHYSIQ | Non-invasive body contouring using heat and electrical muscle stimulation to reduce localized fat and improve muscle tone. No surgery or downtime. Most effective as a complement to a weight loss or hormone optimization program. |
| Long COVID Care | A root-cause approach to persistent post-COVID symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, hormonal dysregulation, and systemic inflammation. We treat the whole picture, not individual symptoms in isolation. |
Women’s health is a discipline that touches every aspect of how a woman functions and feels throughout her life, and it deserves to be treated that way. Our diagnostic approach goes deeper than the standard of care. Treatment protocols are individualized around each patient’s specific clinical picture. And the relationship between provider and patient is ongoing, built on the understanding that optimizing your health is a process, not a single appointment.
Dr. Melody Rodarte, DO, FACP, is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine and has been recognized as a Phoenix Magazine Top Doctor for eight years. She and her team bring clinical expertise, genuine curiosity, and meaningful time to every patient relationship. You will not feel rushed or dismissed. Most importantly, you will not leave with a prescription in hand and no understanding of what is driving your symptoms.
“When I hit menopause I gained 30 pounds practically overnight, had zero energy, and my thyroid gland seemed to just stop working. After being gaslit that this is all just normal, I finally found Dr. Rodarte. She listens and is compassionate. We were able to improve my thyroid levels, manage my hormones, and I am down to my pre-menopausal weight. I am happier and feeling better than I have in years.”
“For the past three years, my thyroid levels are well managed and I genuinely feel like myself again. I never felt rushed or overlooked, and I always felt like a partner in my own care, not just another number.”
“For the first time in my life I'm getting dietary answers with no shame or blame and honest help and empathy. I was so apprehensive walking through those doors and now look forward to going.”
No referral is required. You can request a consultation directly through our website or by calling 480-571-1000.
Our standard evaluation typically includes estradiol, progesterone, total and free testosterone, SHBG, DHEA-S, LH, FSH, thyroid function (TSH, free T3, free T4, and in some cases reverse T3 and thyroid antibodies), a full metabolic panel, fasting insulin, HgbA1c, inflammatory markers, and nutritional status. Additional markers are ordered based on your individual clinical picture.
For most women, yes, particularly with bioidentical or body-identical hormones, appropriate dosing, and regular monitoring. The research on HRT has evolved significantly, and current evidence supports its safety and effectiveness for the majority of women when properly prescribed. We review your personal and family health history carefully before recommending any protocol.
The depth of our diagnostic evaluation, the time we spend with each patient, and the degree to which we individualize care are meaningfully different from what a conventional clinical visit allows. We are not managing a chief complaint, we are building a comprehensive understanding of your health and optimizing it proactively.
“Normal” reflects a statistical population average, not your specific optimal function. Many of our patients arrive with labs their previous providers considered unremarkable, and leave with a clearer understanding of why they feel the way they do. We evaluate results through a functional lens, looking for patterns that predict dysfunction rather than simply relying on thresholds for disease.
Activated Health & Wellness is not an insurance-based practice. This allows us to spend more time with our patients and focus on truly personalized care. If you need labs or imaging, you can still use your insurance for those, and out-of-network benefits may apply. We can provide a superbill for potential reimbursement (note: this does not apply to Medicare patients). HSA and FSA are also accepted. For financing, we accept CareCredit and Cherry, subject to approval. We also offer 15% off for first responders and their spouses as a thank-you for their service.
Schedule a consultation and let’s build a plan around what your body actually needs.
The guide that Dr. Melody Rodarte, DO, FACP, gives every new patient before anything else.
1485 S. Higley Rd. Ste. 104,
Gilbert, AZ 85296
480-571-1000