Audio Version of this article.
If you’re like me – in the modern world it can feel like you’re drowning in a sea of information. For my sanity – I had to actually put a plan in place to handle this information overload. Without my “INFORMATION BOUNDARIES” I end up frustrated, confused and overwhelmed. So how do I narrow this sea of information down to a digestible stream? I ask 2 questions when I’m presented with new information.
First question – do I trust the person/entity delivering this information?
Second question – is this information pertinent to me?
So I think it is only fair that I let you know who I am, how I have developed my knowledge and what audience might find my information helpful.
My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Science in Education. I love teaching and truly planned on becoming a teacher, until I took an unexpected fork in the road. I had enrolled in graduate school as I wanted to eventually obtain a doctorate in education. On my first day I happened by a counselor’s office to ask them about another passion of mine which was medicine. I was the first in my family to go to college so entertaining thoughts of medical school when I started my university studies had seemed too daunting. After I graduated, however, I found myself again thinking about medical school. Luckily for me, this counselor was very impressed with the fact I had graduated Summa Cum Laude and had worked to pay for my education. He encouraged me to follow my dream. I took a leap of faith and have been forever grateful that I did. I completed the required classes and was accepted into medical school.
In medical school you do rotations to get exposure to many facets of medicine. When I did an Obstetrics and Gynecology rotation I knew it was for me. First of all, I loved working with women. Growing up I had so much respect for the women in my life – my mother, grandmother, aunts, and teachers. I call women the MOST NOBLE CREATURES ON THE PLANET EARTH. Serving women just felt right to me. Secondly, I called Obstetrics and Gynecology “happy medicine” – I enjoyed the relationships developed with women in the office, I enjoyed participating in the miracle of birth and I enjoyed the surgery.
After my Ob/Gyn residency, I joined 2 male doctors in a private practice. At that time female physicians were just starting to enter the field. When you’re a new Ob/Gyn fresh out of residency you have to build up a clientele. What I quickly discovered was that my older male partners assigned me what they considered “undesirable patients”. These patients were women who didn’t need a baby delivered and didn’t need surgery, but they had a list of complaints they wanted the doctor to address. Truthfully, they found these women – not worth their time. This was a big eye opener to me for 2 reasons. First and foremost, since I admire women I was very discouraged to see them treated this way. Secondly, Ob/ Gyn training is all about deliveries and surgeries with almost no time devoted to learning how to help women with hormone imbalances, nutrition, lifestyle and general health issues. Well it was quite the learning curve, but I dug in and devoted myself to learning how I could help these women. Once I learned something new I was also delighted to use my teaching skills to help women become a partner in their health! Paying close attention to women and what they were experiencing, it quickly became evident that the “standard of care” treatments I had been taught in my training such as non bioidentical hormones therapies and antidepressants didn’t work well to solve their problems. Since women needed quality solutions and not band aids – in 1993 I became an extremely early adopter of bioidentical hormone treatments and functional medicine solutions.
I’m proud to say that before the Women’s Health Initiative study was released in 2002 and declared that Premarin and Provera (non bioidentical hormones) were not good solutions – my patients and I ,working as a team, had discovered better solutions 10 years earlier!
A little personal side note here – I had two lovely daughters in my first 3 years of private practice and later ( probably due to the high demands and stress of being an Ob/Gyn) I experienced early menopause , thyroid dysfunction and adrenal fatigue! Nothing like personal experience to add context and knowledge to my understanding of women’s health issues.
In 2005 in an effort to deliver the best care for women at midlife – which I describe as women in their 30’s to 70’s (midlife is not the beginning of your life and it’s not the end of your life) I started The Midlife Wellness Center. The first of its kind in the Midwest. At the Midlife Wellness Center I specialized in giving women the time they needed to tell their story and the type of individualized treatment plans that could address all aspects of their health. Looking at the “ big picture” of a woman’s health I found was very important and increased the success of her health plan.
I can truly say I am an “OG” in the field of Midlife Health! I have devoted so many years to the study of women’s health. It is these decades of experience and the thousands of women I have treated that has taught me the valuable lessons so important for improving the lives of women.
In 2023 I retired from clinical practice, but the teacher in me still wants to educate women on what they can do to live their best life. In my retirement, I am continuing to educate with my newsletters and I am collaborating with my daughter Mallory on Instagram to reach the younger generation. I find women to be very smart and very capable of being proactive participants in their health. I also love that when you educate a woman the information usually trickles down to other members in her family.
If you’re interested in what you can do to improve your health and your families health – what I call HEALTH YOURSELF ACTIONS – then welcome! I am so glad you have found my website. Since I’m retired and this is a labor of love my newsletters will be posted when I can find the time to write them – but the whole collection will be on my website so you can refer to them when needed.
I hope you find this information helpful.
Your Women’s Health Expert and Advocate,
Dr Brenda Smith MD
