In This Article

• Why I've changed the way I think about women's health after nearly 30 years of caring for women.

• Why understanding your biology matters more than simply knowing the name of your symptoms.

• How your body was designed to adapt, not just maintain balance.

• Why curiosity is one of the most powerful tools you can bring to your health.

• The question that changed the way I practice medicine.

Women today know more about perimenopause and menopause than ever before, but many still don't understand the biology behind what's happening inside their bodies. In Part One of this series, Michele Broad shares how her own journey, decades of caring for women, and a growing curiosity transformed her philosophy of women's health and why she believes understanding your body is the first step toward making confident health decisions.

Something Wonderful Is Happening...

Over the past several years, something wonderful has happened.

Women are finally talking about perimenopause and menopause.

Conversations that were once whispered between close friends are now happening on podcasts, in doctor's offices, on social media, at work, and around dinner tables. Women are asking questions. They're advocating for themselves. They're realizing that feeling exhausted, struggling with sleep, experiencing brain fog, or noticing changes in their bodies isn't something they simply have to accept in silence.

I genuinely believe that's progress.

For far too long, women were expected to navigate these transitions quietly, often believing they just had to push through.

Today, women are looking for answers. And I love that. But as I've watched this conversation grow, I've noticed something that has quietly changed the way I think as a provider.

Women are becoming very familiar with the language of perimenopause.

They know words like estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, insulin resistance, hormone replacement therapy, metabolic health, and brain fog.

They come into my office and say, "I think I'm in perimenopause."

Or...

"I think I need hormones."

And many of them are absolutely right.

But I've realized something. We've become very good at teaching women the names of what they're experiencing...

without always teaching them the biology behind what they're experiencing.

And I think that's one of the biggest opportunities we have in women's health today.

This Changed Me as a Provider

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know I've spent nearly thirty years caring for women.

During those years, I've learned about hormones, thyroid disease, metabolism, nutrition, medications, menopause, and all the things we traditionally talk about in women's health.

Those things matter.

They still matter.

But somewhere along the way, I realized something was missing.

That realization didn't happen overnight.

It happened through my own hormonal journey.

It happened as I watched my daughter struggle with hormonal and weight concerns.

It happened while trying to understand my granddaughter's eczema and wondering why we seemed satisfied with surface-level answers when deeper questions still remained.

And it happened after sitting across from thousands of women who all wanted the same thing:

To understand what was happening to their bodies.

I found myself asking questions that I couldn't stop asking.

Why do we stop at the diagnosis?

Why do we stop at the label?

Why are we so quick to explain what is happening but spend so little time exploring why it might be happening?

I wasn't looking for complicated answers. I was looking for complete answers.

Not because every symptom has one perfect explanation.

But because the human body is beautifully interconnected, and I couldn't shake the feeling that women deserved a deeper understanding than they were receiving.

That curiosity changed me.

Earlier in my career, I thought my job was to help women find the right diagnosis and the right treatment.

Today, I see my role differently.

Of course I want women to feel better.

Of course I want them to receive thoughtful care and appropriate treatment.

But my goal has become much bigger than that.

My goal is to help women understand the biology of being a woman.

Because I've come to believe that understanding changes everything.

When you understand your body, you ask better questions.

You recognize patterns instead of isolated symptoms.

You become an active participant in your health instead of feeling like you're simply reacting to whatever comes next.

That, to me, is Health Independence.

We've Learned the Language of Symptoms Before the Language of Biology

I think we've accidentally reversed the order.

We teach women the labels first.

Perimenopause.

Menopause.

Low estrogen.

High cortisol.

Hormone imbalance. Those labels can be incredibly helpful. They give us a common language. They help us recognize patterns. But labels are only the beginning of the conversation.

They aren't the whole conversation.

Knowing you're in perimenopause doesn't automatically help you understand why estrogen matters. Or why progesterone fluctuates. Or why sleep suddenly becomes more difficult. Or why your metabolism begins changing. Or why your stress seems to affect everything.

The label tells you where you are.

Biology helps you understand what your body is doing there.

And that's a very different kind of knowledge.

The Question That Changed Everything

As my philosophy evolved, I realized I had been asking women one question for years.

"What symptoms are you having?"

It's an important question.

But it isn't the only question.

Today, there's another question I find myself asking just as often.

"What is your body trying to accomplish?"

At first, that might sound like a strange question.

We aren't used to thinking about symptoms that way.

But stay with me.

What if your body isn't randomly creating symptoms? What if it's responding? What if it's adapting?

What if it's trying to solve a problem based on the information it's has been receiving from the life you've been living?

That doesn't mean every symptom is normal. It doesn't mean every symptom should be ignored.

It certainly doesn't mean women shouldn't seek medical care.

It simply means that before we rush to eliminate every symptom, perhaps we should become curious enough to ask why it exists.

That question changed the way I practice medicine.

And honestly...

It changed the way I look at my own body too.

Your Body Is Smarter Than You Think

One of the most fascinating things I've learned is that your body wasn't designed simply to stay the same.

It was designed to adapt.

Think about it.

When you walk outside on a hot day, your body begins sweating before you consciously think about it.

When you exercise, your heart beats faster to deliver oxygen where it's needed most.

When you don't sleep well, your body adjusts hormones that influence hunger, energy, and alertness.

Every single day your body is gathering information, making adjustments, and responding to the world around you.

That's not failure. That's intelligent design.

Researchers have spent decades studying how the body adapts to changing demands. The more we've learned, the more remarkable the picture becomes.

Your body isn't passive. It's constantly paying attention.

It's responding to your environment, your stress, your recovery, your relationships, your nutrition, your movement, your sleep, and every season of life you move through.

Which means maybe the better question isn't:

"Why is my body doing this?"

Maybe the better question is:

"What is my body responding to?"

Curiosity Changes Everything

One of my favorite phrases is:

Stop guessing. Start understanding.

I've realized that's more than a tagline. It's become my philosophy.

Because curiosity changes the way we experience our health. Curiosity replaces fear with learning.

Curiosity replaces frustration with observation.

Curiosity reminds us that we don't have to understand everything today, we simply have to be willing to keep learning.

My hope isn't that you'll finish this article knowing everything there is to know about hormones.

My hope is that you'll begin looking at your body differently. Not as a collection of symptoms.

Not as something that suddenly stopped working. But as an incredible biological system that has been adapting to your life every single day.

And once you begin seeing your body through that lens, I believe you'll never approach your health quite the same way again.

Coming Next...

If your body has been adapting all along...

Then adapting to what?

That's the question we'll explore in Part Two.

Because your body doesn't experience your hormones separately from your sleep.

Or your stress.

Or your metabolism.

Or your relationships.

Or the responsibilities you've carried throughout your life.

Everything is connected.

And once you begin to understand those connections, you'll see why your hormones don't live in a vacuum.

Then, in Part Three, we'll bring everything together and explore how you can begin creating an environment where your biology is supported, not by chasing the next quick fix, but by understanding how to work with your body instead of simply reacting to it.

I hope you'll join me, because I think the next two conversations may change the way you think about women's health forever.