How do you find a provider specializing in menopause?

Menopausefoundation.org

letstalkmenopause.org

There are no menopause specialists in the rural area where I live. In fact, I received rather poor advice from a nurse practitioner and a physician in two different local practices.

I have received excellent care and recommendations at the Menopause and Women's Sexual Health Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

-- https://www.mayoclinic.org/departments-centers/menopause-womens-sexual-health/overview/ovc-20487915

Atlanta.

@blueskies1530

Tell us....

In Kennesaw, GA, there is an NP named Heather Quaile who runs the Show Center. She prescribes hormones, runs bloodwork and offers exams.

In Senoia, GA, there is an NP named Yvone Connoway who runs Alive Functional Medicine. She prescribes hormones and also runs functional medicine testing.

Both will call in compounded creams and capsules like, Progesterone, and Estradiol + Testosterone blends.

My urology clinic will call in vaginal estrogen like Vagifem and Imvexxy to prevent UTIs. My urologist's name is Dr Edan Shapiro of Fayetteville, GA.

After my hysterectomy this fall, my gynecologist got me started on Intrarosa which is vaginal DHEA. It takes about three months but so far post-op I'm responding better to it than Imvexxy. And my gyn switched me from the Estradiol patch to a gel that I seem to be absorbing better. My clinic is called Women's Specialists of Fayette, GA.

@gravity3. thanks for starting a great conversation! You're absolutely right -- women deserve to be better educated about all of the stages of menopause and what treatments and safe and effective.

When I started going through perimenopause, my doctor told me she wasn't comfortable treating me because she'd only received a cursory education on menopause while in school. Eventually she took it upon herself to seek out continuing medical education and now treats peri- and menopausal women in her practice. In the meantime, I'd also sought out an OBGYN in my area who had started her own practice focused primarily on perimenopause and menopause, and I continue to be treated by her. But I'm lucky enough to live in a larger city with access to specialists. I know it's much more difficult in rural areas to find someone who treats, let alone specializes, in menopause.

The Menopause Society maintains a database for anyone looking to find a menopause specialist: https://portal.menopause.org/NAMS/NAMS/Directory/Menopause-Practitioner.aspx

I'm curious to hear how others have found providers who specialize in menopause!

@gravity3 My experience has been that the medical community is barely taught anything on menopause, so we have to be our own advocates on this subject. There are some women doctors trying to better educate us all like Marie Clare Haver and Kelly Casperson. Dr. Casperson has a podcast titled “You Are Not Broken” .

@marjou

Agree 100 percent

My experience with my primary and gynecologist has been that all of my complaints, whatever they are from insomnia, thyroid nodules/cysts, weight gain, joint pain, depression, dryness, etc., have all been blamed on menopause. I am 66 and have been complaining for more than 10 years. I was given Estradiol cream to use 2x a week. Not sure if it has achieved the desired outcome. Still atrophied, still dry. They have not been willing to do anything else due to breast cancer risk, they said it is a fact of life. I am frustrated with all of my doctors.