The Menopause Wisdom Panel: Key Insights from Leading Experts

The Panelists

The Brief

I recently hosted The Menopause Revolution Wisdom Panel for the Real 50 over 50, the brilliant panelists discussed menopause from multiple perspectives. Our conversation focused on dispelling myths, addressing misconceptions, and providing actionable strategies for women navigating this significant life transition.

The panel highlighted that menopause is not merely about reproductive and vaginal health but represents a comprehensive metabolic and immune shift that impacts brain health, bone density, cardiovascular function, and overall well-being. The panelists emphasized the importance of understanding menopause as a new beginning rather than an endpoint, requiring adjusted approaches to nutrition, movement, and healthcare.

A central theme was the fragmentation of healthcare and the need for women to advocate for themselves by seeking providers knowledgeable about menopause, maintaining comprehensive symptom lists, requesting appropriate testing, and being willing to “fire” doctors who dismiss their concerns.

Holistic Solutions & Lifestyle Medicine

The panel emphasized the importance of looking beyond pharmaceutical interventions alone. Dr. Jessica Drummond encouraged women to recognize menopause as “a huge metabolic shift” and to set foundations through nutrition and movement that support long-term health. She advised building muscle and bone as protective measures for heart and brain health, suggesting a combination of “hormones, nutrition, particular exercise, and rest” as the foundation of menopausal wellness.

Michelle Folan underscored the value of envisioning long-term health goals: “When I’m working with clients, most of my clients are 55 and older, one of the first things I do is ask them what their long-term goals are. When I say ‘How would you like to be able to get up off the floor unassisted when you’re 85 years old?’ women are hungry for that.”

Kate Wells compared health maintenance to home ownership: “We buy insurance on our house in case there’s a massive storm and the roof falls. But we don’t pay to maintain the infrastructure of our house through insurance – we pay out of pocket. A little bit of understanding how we can help ourselves navigate through some of these changes is thinking about what we can do, where do we reallocate where we spend our money?”

Building a Healthcare Team & Expecting More

Dr. Drummond encouraged women to look beyond physicians alone: “We should start looking outside of physicians as well because there are very highly trained Allied health professionals – physical and occupational therapists, naturopathic physicians, health coaches, even fitness professionals can be very well versed in the specifics of perimenopausal training if they’re trained in perimenopause and menopause.”

Kate Wells delivered perhaps the most powerful directive of the session: “Expect more from your interactions with practitioners. When the doctor says ‘it’s just part of getting old,’ your response is ‘nonsense – what’s your second offering on this topic? Because that first offering is not going to work for me.'”

Dr. Drummond built on this by emphasizing team-building: “Build a team; don’t expect one person on your healthcare team to answer everything. Know that we actually do physiologically have the tools available to us right now to really mitigate the physiologic effects of aging dramatically.”

Vaginal Health & Sexual Wellbeing

The panel addressed the often-overlooked issue of vaginal health during menopause. Rachel Braun Scherl noted that her company provides resources to help women discuss vaginal health with their doctors, stating: “We have a resource called ‘How to Talk to Your Doctor About Vaginal Health’ that helps them when the doctor says ‘Oh, it’s just part of getting older.’ It’s a resource that says ‘Hang on a minute, I don’t think so. What if that way of thinking is wrong? How do we get you some resources so you can help me?'”

Kate Wells discussed how her company, Parlor Games, grew from addressing this gap: “We focus primarily on vaginal health, and then hormones kind of wave out from that.” She emphasized that many patients don’t feel empowered to push back against dismissive healthcare responses, so her company helps “give them the words in order to push the practitioner to help them at a deeper level.”

Financial Impact & The Business of Women’s Health

The panel discussed the challenges of entrepreneurship in women’s health. Rachel Braun Scherl highlighted significant barriers: “It’s difficult to be a woman to raise money, it’s difficult to be in women’s health, it’s difficult to be a woman in women’s health.” She noted that only “2% of venture capital goes to women” and described the challenges of accessing advertising channels for women’s health products.

Despite these obstacles, Kate Wells shared how her company has grown successfully without external funding: “We have not had to raise funds. We have grown the business just by not paying ourselves very much but reinvesting in the business and making some sensible decisions.” She also discussed their commitment to work-life balance through a 30-hour work week structure that has contributed to excellent employee retention.

Dr. Drummond pointed to a fundamental problem in women’s healthcare: “We also have a problem in women’s health in that we still are very behind in research. The reality is we don’t actually know what works. Any disease that is more prevalent in women, which is many of the kind of longer-term chronic illnesses, is dramatically underfunded.”

The panel collectively emphasized that women’s empowerment during menopause comes through education, self-advocacy, and working with healthcare providers who understand the comprehensive nature of this life transition. By approaching menopause as a metabolic shift requiring holistic care rather than just hormone management, women can navigate this phase with greater confidence and improved well-being.

I’m so grateful that these wise women show up, vulnerably share their stories, and openly explore such important topics month after month.

Please connect with these remarkable women and others in the Real 50 over 50 community. Mark your calendars to join us every Wednesday LIVE at noon ET and for our monthly Wisdom Panel.