My biggest wish for women who don't feel
like themselves but can't quite put it, you
know, other finger on it is to advocate
advocate
for yourself
so fiercely.
I'm Kai Sorensen, director of podcast at Balancing
Life's Issues, and this is your job now.
Let's talk about women's health.
It wasn't until 2023
that scientists used actual blood to test menstrual
products. For decades, manufacturers use saline or water.
That's how little attention women's bodies have received
in health research. In today's episode, Wendy Wellner
sits down with doctor Mariah Prince Allen, a
nurse practitioner and founder of Telehealth for Her,
to explore how women can reclaim their health
and how leaders can build hormone intelligent workplaces.
Because women's health isn't just a personal issue,
it's a leadership issue. Here's their conversation.
Morning, afternoon, evening.
We're we're new to each other, so this
is gonna be totally exciting.
So go ahead. Let me hear your elevator
pitch. Go for it. Who are you? Yes.
I'm doctor Mariah Prince Allen. I am a
board certified nurse practitioner, and I am the
owner of Telehealth for Her, which is a
virtual women's wellness practice,
where we help high achieving women who are
executives and entrepreneurs to balance the hormones, fix
their gut, and to have sustainable weight loss,
but more importantly, to really feel like themselves
again. And then I just recently got into
corporate wellness consulting,
where I've been helping businesses
develop what I like to call a hormone
intelligent workplace.
Mhmm. So that is a little bit about
me and recently have been a keynote speaker
and just recently gave my first TEDx talk.
Yes. Yes. So you rock you're rocking the
world.
Yes. I am. Trying to make a difference
in this world when it comes down to
women and their health, particularly their hormone health.
Yeah.
Well, certainly,
something that's been super interesting to me just
personally and and professionally. So,
one second story about me that not many
people knew know is I was super young
when I got my period,
and I had super horrible periods. I'm sure
this story sounds so familiar to you. Yes.
For those of you listening, you're probably very
uncomfortable right now because of me talking about
this. Right?
And I spent a good chunk of my
time
being told suck it up even by my
own mom who's, like, my best man. Right?
Like, this is being a woman. You're being
a woman. You've tough it up.
Yep.
And How old are you? I was 11
when I got I was 10.
10. Okay. Kindred spirits here. Right? Yes.
And,
the Thursday,
right before I kinda had an idea, I,
was getting engaged,
I was keeled over in pain, rushed to
the hospital,
and long story short, it was the first
of many operations. I had PCOS.
At that time, it was called Cyne Leventhal
has changed more. Super common for women. Right?
Very common.
Yes. And it's so interesting to me because,
you know, I did end up having hysterectomy.
I did take fertility drugs for, you know,
two of my three children. I hope they
knew that. They know that now.
But but the the overriding thing, what interest
me at you is I'm a can you
tell I'm an open book? I talk about
it. I love that. Me too.
But not this. But not this.
This was something.
And the only reason I ended up telling
would you like to know why I ended
up talking about this? To know why. Well,
it's so nice of you to ask me.
Thank you. I was at an interview with
a client.
And if you can imagine, I'm on Park
Avenue, in his office, in investment banking, on
this beautiful white couch. Can you envision this?
Yeah.
And you mess up the white couch.
Piles and piles of blood. Oh, man.
And he wants to call 911, which, of
course, I understood. Of course, I knew I
didn't need to call 911.
Right.
And I remember the shame, that horrible, like,
this is my fault. I'm the one that
blanked it up. I did this. I caused
this. Now I really can't tell anyone, and
that's when I actually started getting involved in
women's health. Love that.
And I realized that it's and and and
the news is worse now than ever. We've
moved far backwards,
but now you're in this world of trying
to fix this. Mhmm.
Yeah. And I think that's one of the
things too that, like, I'm so passionate about
too was because
we used to actually treat women and their
hormone health, especially, like, perimenopause and menopause. Well,
not so much perimenopause because I don't think
we just really knew what that was. But
and then in 02/2002,
when the Women's Health Initiative study came out,
we just ripped away hormone replacement therapy out
of fear that we're gonna cause women to
have breast cancers and strokes and heart attacks
and blood clots. We let one single study
change the medical world for decades.
Yep. And it wasn't really until, I think,
it was July 17,
the FDA finally had a panel
with some medical experts that said, you know,
we need to look at this black box
award. Like, we need like, this isn't quite
right. Like, you know, HR team is the
tool for women that they need, and it's
way more than just their hot flashes. And
I'm like, thank you. Finally, I've been saying
that for a few years now. I wanna
unpack something that you said that isn't as
obvious. It is to you as an expert,
but but dealing with the audience as I
do is that,
you know, you just made a a huge
statement that we just don't understand. So we
really didn't start talking about women's health until
the two thousand year. We lived in a
world of men's health, 100%
men's health.
Everything that he was done on men, everything
was talked about with men, everything with men,
and then they just said, well, women must
be about the same, so we'll just lump
them in. Right.
Yeah. And we are definitely not like I'm
still not understanding the difference between, you know,
race and culture and all the different things
that go into it. Right? So we're we're
still we have a lot to learn. So
the first thing is women's health is brand
new. It is. We're literally in our infancy
stage. We're literally in our infancy stage. Yeah.
Because women, just like children, were considered in
you know, were considered a vulnerable population
in research studies.
That's exactly right. Yeah.
And so that's sort of shocking to me.
So we don't have the data that we
necessarily
might want or might need. And then the
second thing is is there is an emotional
component to it. I think the whole field,
I think, especially when thinking about perimenopause and
menopause is new because I think celebrities have
started to talk about their experiences, and we
realized that, you know,
every woman was gonna go through this. And
despite your socioeconomic status or or your educational
well-being,
no woman had the resources to prepare for
them. And I think that was where we
started to level the playing field, I think,
when it came down to menopause.
Yeah. Yeah. And and how long it is.
Right? Yeah. That's
right. Yeah. So that's so interesting. And it
is interesting because, you know, in the corporate
wellness space, which we're both in, I will
say we do get comments and questions.
We do get seminar requests on menopause, which
I'm super happy to hear. Yeah. Everything you
wanna know in, you know, five minutes. But
I thought for the sake of our listeners,
I would start with some real tool bag.
The number one
point, the number one action that you want
not just women, but people to know about
women's health is what? What's the numb you
go first, and I'll tell you mine.
I think the number one thing I want
people to understand about women's health is that
it's not a women's health issue.
Okay. It is definitely a public health crisis,
especially when it comes down to menopause. It's
a leadership issue. Like, it's not just a
one per issue.
So we'll play tennis here. I'll give you
mine.
Mine is that, I I I and you
gotta give me a minute because I have
to do a convoluted story. But when I
went to buy my first car, I very
much my dad said get white walls. Get
white wall tires, get white wall tires. So
So I didn't know what it was, but
I trusted my dad. I got the car.
I came home and showed him. I'm like
and he's like, Wendy, there are no white
wall tires. Like, these are black wall. I'm
like, what do you mean? The guy said,
I totally believed the guy. Right.
I didn't realize that they should show the
white walls. Right?
So many years later after I got my
full hysterectomy,
the gynecologist said we're gonna do a,
you know, we're gonna test you for cervical
cancer. Mhmm. Well, if you have a hysterectomy,
you no longer have a cervix. Correct.
So to continue going for cervical cancer treatments
makes,
screenings makes no sense. But if you don't
learn to ask the question Right.
You just go into autopilot, like, sell me
the black wall. I don't know know the
difference. I'm not gonna say anything. Yeah. So
my number one is ask everything that you
might ever think of, including the stupidest things.
Yeah.
I love that too. It's not obvious. Right.
And I think it's really important because in
this situation, I normally say go talk to
your parents or your moms, your dads, but
because the studies or fields are so new,
they're not gonna be a good resource. Right?
Yeah. And I think one of the things
that I
learned when I entered into the women's health,
hormone health arena is that I actually had
a conversation with my OB GYN,
and I said, you know, do you think
this is crazy if I go into this?
And she said, no. I think it's amazing
because as an OB GYN, I didn't learn
about menopause, believe it or not. And a
lot of people come to me about their
menopause hormone issues, and I don't know what
to do with them.
But what's something very personal that you do
that helps you with your hormones?
I think for me, one of the things
that I do is I really value my,
like, peace,
and try to limit as much stress peace.
I don't even know what that means. I
know. Right? And try to, like, limit stress.
I think one of the things that we
don't think about as women is stress really
does,
impact our hormones.
And so I really am strict about saying,
okay, Yes to certain things and no to
things that I feel like will just amplify
my stress and not be good for my
overall health. So what's your morning routine?
My morning routine is I get up in
the mornings.
I usually am, like, kinda, like, looking at
my calendar for the day. I will get
up and work out. I'll usually have, like,
a cup of coffee or something if I
want to, if I feel like I didn't
rest well. But I try to start my
mornings off slow.
I am not one to just get out
of the bed and get to moving. That
is not good for your core goals. To
really,
I I would like to sit there for
a minute because I think that's something you
know, we saw some news this morning that
working moms are leaving corporate America again,
and,
I think that's a really important point. Part
of the reason they're leaving is exactly what
you just said. Yeah. You know, they want
a morning routine that works for their family.
Yep.
So having to get up at 04:00 in
the morning to have me time.
Right. Yeah. Right.
And the so I think that's a really
important point. For some people, it may be
easy to go slow, and for others, that's
as hard as getting into an Ivy League
school. Like, take it down a notch. Just
take it down a notch. Literally. I wrote
an article on LinkedIn that says, is your
morning routine sabotaging your hormones? Yep. Yeah.
And my son were like, I had no
idea. I was doing all the things you
mentioned.
Yeah.
Now
I I think what's also amazing about it
is bringing gender into the health conversation. Right.
Yes. So this is a story that I
rarely tell that I saved it for you.
I was on a cruise in Alaska, and
I had massive seizures.
Right.
And luckily did go to a neurologist that
had been studying the correlation between seizures and
menopause.
Yeah.
And, coincidentally, Brooke Shields then had seizures very
shortly thereafter, and this idea of menopause and
seizures came to be.
And one of the correlations,
maybe, of course not proven, is alcohol. So
let's talk a little bit about that glass
of wine. Yes.
What do you say or wherefore?
I tell my clients all the time, your
glass of wine every night will give you
breast cancer faster than your HRT.
Yep. Yes. Can you just stay there for
a minute? Because what you just said is
something very powerful.
You and I are both fighting a very
powerful lobby. So if you would repeat what
you just said slower and more impactful for
women to hear because we do need to
root cause it, that would be important.
Your glass of wine every night
is going to give you breast cancer
quicker
than
hormone replacement therapy.
Yeah.
So I think it's really interesting to own
some things that we do know, and that
that's one. And we always invite people to
listen to our podcast to get really hard
advice
and acting steps. So we've got slow mornings,
reduce
Yeah. Height of the wall. And I can
tell you that,
I was at a women's event last night,
and I was very disappointed that I had
to justify my decision yet again.
So I hope women
continue to support other women who don't drink.
Yeah.
Without really good mocktails out there.
Thank you. I've heard they actually filed a
little complaint with the,
restaurant. And in Europe, I have to tell
you, nonalcoholic wine is found everywhere in every
single restaurant. It's a big part of their
culture,
and I'm shouting out to the American industry
to say, get some the alkalized wine. Like,
there's tons of really good you know?
If you were to say the next shocking
thing that you think no one knows, what
would it be? I think the next shocking
thing that I would say is
that menopause causes The United States
to lose $1,800,000,000
every
year due to lost work productivity
in women.
And the answer to that is what?
The answer to that is
leaders, executives, business owners actually learning
how to have a hormone
intelligent workplace
to support the brand. Right?
Our podcast,
and this is your job now. Yes. And
for the leaders who say, I don't wanna
talk about menopause.
I don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna
deal with that. HR. Send it to HR
and then HR says HIPAA privacy.
I think the third piece of you said,
I don't really care if you care enough.
Your bottom line will care. Yes. Your your
retention rates, your productivity.
Yes. All of that stuff matters
because women who are going through menopause, they
make up such a large portion
of the workforce. And I think, you know,
we think about menopause. We think of women
in their fifties and sixties that's, you know,
halfway out of their career, but it's not.
It's the women in their forties, the women
in their late thirties.
Well, and you know what's interesting about this
is now that we know that they're just
leaving corporate America, they're gonna be starting competitive
companies. Yes. They are. And I'm like, you
go, girl. And when women start a business
I love it. I love it.
And you know what? Just so I can
tell you, even, the other day, one of
my employees was having struggling with it. We
have a video on policy, super strict about
it. But, you know, she had teams me.
I have a bad headache. I get it.
Headaches are part of it. Headaches are part
of the journey.
And so on that day, the right thing
for me to do is say no videos.
Why don't you just go low key? Turn
the lights down, but support the headache for
today. You don't need to take a sick
day because, you know, you don't need to
take but you can work around your headaches.
We can we can create an environment
that will support that.
So I think that's an interesting idea of
leaders being super empathetic. It's not so easy.
It's not. And I think too what makes
it hard is that most leaders of companies
are men.
Yet.
Yeah. So And and and, unfortunately,
and I say that with all bias, we've
also never had a woman president. No. And
I think when we get women in the
right positions, we'll see a dramatic change in
women's health.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how far we
are. So closing tips.
What what can people do? What do you
what is your biggest wish for us right
now? Send us off with a bang. My
biggest wish for women who don't feel like
themselves but can't quite put it, you know,
other finger on it is to advocate for
yourself
so fiercely.
You know? If you're not getting the answers
that you need from your health care provider,
find another one. You may have to actually
invest in your health care.
And I think that's important. And then I
would say too for the business owners
is to just learn a little bit, even
if it's just a little bit nugget, to
have that empathy
for your co workers, your colleagues, your employees
so that we can keep women in the
workforce.
Yeah. I love it.
We are wishing you all the success in
your new endeavor. Please stay I thanks for
joining. Will, thanks so much for having me.
This is awesome.
Thanks for listening to this is your job
now, produced by me, Kai. If this episode
made you think or made you feel, we
hope it also made you realize you don't
have to figure this out all alone. Leadership
today is about presence, not perfection. To learn
more, follow Wendy Wohner on LinkedIn, subscribe to
Balancing Life's Issues on YouTube, or stream the
podcast wherever you listen. Because if you're leading
people, this is your job now. Anything else
to add, Miles?