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“Tell me a little bit about what brings you in today.” I start every new-patient visit with this simple request.
I am an endocrinologist, a doctor specializing in glands and hormones. I care for patients, mostly women, like myself, in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, in a busy practice in New York City. Each day my patients describe their symptoms and I try to sort out how these symptoms — like fatigue, poor sleep, strange periods, and sore boobs — and their hormones are connected. Educating patients about that connection and helping them feel better is the best part of my job.
When I graduated from medical school, I had to choose a specialty to continue my training. I chose endocrinology because hormones are fascinating! In the words of one of my mentors, endocrinology is a Goldilocks problem: too much or too little feels terrible, but get hormone levels just right and patients feel great. I really enjoy helping my patients find that balance.
Endocrinology is a corner of medicine where we treat people and they get better. I have experienced this firsthand. After my third pregnancy, I was diagnosed with a thyroid problem. The thyroid is a gland that produces hormones that affect how quickly our body works. All hormones affect every part of our body — I was so tired it was hard to get up each morning even after a full night of sleep, and my body felt puffy, like I had been inflated with a bicycle pump. But with medication, I felt my symptoms gradually improve as my thyroid hormone levels normalized.
When I see patients, my intention is to listen and work with them to implement a data-driven treatment plan. But the number of patients I can see in my office is limited — there is only so much time. Writing Hot Flash every week will give me the opportunity to share my understanding and love of hormones with a wider audience. I want to give you the information you need to have a productive, evidence-based conversation about hormonal health with your doctor.
It can feel awkward to bring up topics like mood changes and low sex drive with a doctor in your 40s and beyond, but nothing is off-limits here. I, like many of you, am squarely in this phase of life. Together we will delve into questions like: What is perimenopause, anyway? Is hormone replacement therapy safe, or even beneficial? And what can we do now to be healthy after menopause?
I think data can help us answer all these questions. For a long time, it felt like there was no new research on women’s hormonal health, but recently there has been an increased focus in the medical literature on better understanding the post-reproductive years. There is so much to discuss! We will sort through new data as it is published, look back at older data to understand what we got wrong, peek behind panic-inducing headlines, and bust hormonal myths.
So please, reach out. Let me know what questions you have about life after the reproductive years. Hopefully, what we uncover will help you feel more informed and empowered to participate in decisions about your health. That’s why I became a doctor, and why I am so excited to be here!
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