Dr. Ade
Welcome to the Modern Midlife Collective podcast. The place where we get unapologetically real about thriving in midlife health, hormones, and everything in between.
00:12
Dr. Jillian
I'm Dr. Gillian.
00:13
Dr. Ade
And I'm Dr. Aday.
00:14
Dr. Jillian
Together we're your guides to navigating this powerful season with confidence, strength, and the wisdom you deserve. Welcome to the very first episode of the Modern Midlife collective. I am Dr. Jillianne Woodruff. I'm a board certified gynecologist, a cosmetic gynecologic surgeon, a sexual medicine expert, and a nationally certified menopause provider. I'm also the chief medical officer of Modern gynecology and skin here in Anchorage, alaska.
00:46
Dr. Ade
And I'm Dr. Ade Akinda, pay Dr. Of nursing practice. I'm a family nurse practitioner. I'm an obesity medicine specialist, and I'm also the owner of Rejuvenate Health and Wellness here at Anchorage, where I help women rebalance and restore their health through root cause medicine. We're so excited to welcome you into this space that's been on our heart for so long.
01:06
Dr. Jillian
Yes. We've been talking about this for quite some time and decided now is the time to do this. We are surrounded by women, of course, women. And we're surrounded by myths and misinformation regarding midlife hormones, menopause and more. And so we wanted to add our voices and bring evidence based medicine, real information, live truths, a life from the lives of our patients, the lives of our friends, and share what we know with you. Women are often dismissed when they go to their providers with issues that are arising in midlife and they're told that everything is normal. I hate that. It may be typical, but it's not normal if you're not feeling your best self. So we wanted to change this narrative. We created Modern Midlife Collective.
02:02
Dr. Ade
Absolutely. And we want you to know that this isn't just a podcast. It really is a conversation, a sisterhood, a space for real life talk about health, hormones and the power of midlife. Because we know that in midlife it's important for you to thrive right through midlife and beyond. So we're building this community because midlife women deserve better information and compassion. We want you to feel cozy, feel like you can grab a cup of coffee or some tea and listen to two people who are women just like you and experts in their field. So you're not alone in this chapter. You don't have to figure it all by yourself.
02:35
Dr. Jillian
Yep. Our mission is to empower women in midlife and beyond through honest conversations, expert guidance, community Support across hormones, health, aesthetics, and longevity. Dr. Aday, it's wild to think about how our friendships turn started here in Anchorage, Alaska, to women of color, mothers, wives, and building a business in this beautiful, unpredictable place.
03:03
Dr. Ade
Absolutely. It has been, man, it seems like the time is just flying, but I feel like we found each other at the very perfect time. Even though there was a lot going on, we're getting through the pandemic in 2020, but it's not every day that you find people who are so aligned. You know, we've got very, you know, similar paths, and our families kind of really just love each other. And you're running a practice. I'm running a practice. We're raising kids. And we've got this big dream, and it's great to see it actually coming to fruition. And we're actually doing this podcast together. So exciting.
03:36
Dr. Jillian
We should probably talk about our medical practices because we both practice clinical medicine full time. And for both of us, I think, starting our practices, it was a leap, you know, a leap of faith in knowing that we could do this on our own, but not really on our own, knowing that we are surrounded by people that can support us now. When I created Modern Gynecology and skin, I saw a need in the community. I wanted a place where women could come and have their gynecologic needs met, also their aesthetic needs met. I wanted to combine that into one place where you could look and feel your best on the outside side and on the inside. So patients started asking me for more information.
04:23
Dr. Jillian
They started asking me for things that I needed to learn more about so that I could bring that into my practice to better serve my patients. So Modern Gynecology and Skin was a way for me to deliver the needs of my patients in a spa like setting. And I know you have similar goals and really listening to your patients. So tell us about your practice. Rejuvenate Health and Wellness.
04:50
Dr. Ade
Absolutely. I mean, your practice shows that you actually listen to your patients, you know exactly who you're serving, and you've made it really seamless. Right from how women come in for their cosmetic needs, gynecological needs. And we know that women, as they're transitioning through midlife and realizing the changes in their bodies and their skin and their hair, it only makes sense to integrate these services, these therapies that will help them, whether it's IV therapy, whether it's esthetics for skin. So it's really great to kind of have all that. And you also integrated nutrition to help women too. So Absolutely. It really inspired me, and I decided to take that route into going a little further with trying to help women understand their bodies. Like, what's really happening with your nutrition, you know, with your sleep.
05:39
Dr. Ade
All those little lifestyle pillars really matter, right along with everything that you're doing on the outside, what are you doing on the inside to make sure that you continue to thrive? So I've been working in functional medicine, looking at the root cause and helping women who struggle with weight loss to feel better in their skin and have more energy. So I wanted to create a space, like you, Dr. Jillian, where when they come in and they feel. Feel like they're hurt for the first time, they're like, aha. So this is what was going on all this time. Thank you so much. So it's not just about giving prescriptions. It's about really listening to women and understanding what they're going through in that stage of life.
06:16
Dr. Jillian
So I don't know about you, but in medical school, we did not learn these things. Many of the things that I am helping women with today are things that I had to really study on my own, research on my own, find communities could help me to learn this information. In fact, many things, I learned the complete opposite, you know, as I was caring for patients. So when it came to hormones, the things that I learned in medical school and residency were surrounding studies like the Women's Health Initiative that were perhaps released before they should have been. The data was released before it should have been. It was misinterpreted, and misinformation began to spread at that point. And so those are the things that I learned. We shouldn't do this, we shouldn't do that. And now we're backtracking.
07:06
Dr. Jillian
People are starting to have this conversation and find out, why do we say we shouldn't have hormones when hormones are literally the messengers of our body that, you know, help us to see, hear, think, you know, our heart, to function properly, to do all the things that we need. So even sexual medicine, even though I'm a gynecologist, we did not learn a lot about actual medicine in terms of why am I having pain, why do I have low desire, how can I increase my orgasm? Those are things I had to really study later. And these are things that are very important to women throughout life. It's not a, oh, only in your 20s and 30s. This is a. Throughout life, we want to have pleasure. We want to need our hormones.
07:53
Dr. Jillian
As you're talking about nutrition and metabolic health and you went medical school, that isn't something that we put together. So I don't know, was it different for you in nursing school or in your program to become a nurse practitioner? Did you get this information at that time?
08:08
Dr. Ade
Not at all. In fact, you probably know. I will actually say it's probably about the same experience. You know, in nursing school, you're taught to, of course, diagnose as a nurse, like, you know, based on a particular assessment, and then you carry out the treatment plan in conjunction with the doctor. Right. And there might be some standing orders, but everything comes down to symptoms and a treatment, whether it's medication or certain things, according to a diagnosis. They're always diagnosis related. Right. So you have to have something wrong with you for you to be able to treat. So nursing can be a little bit different. And we try to take a holistic view about how are you feeling, are you sleeping? So that's the only thing that I think might be a little bit different with nursing.
08:52
Dr. Ade
We are taught to kind of look at the whole picture, what is the family dynamic. But at the same time, you're still limited by what you can do. Now as an advanced practitioner, you can do a little bit more. You can also diagnose and treat, but again, it still goes back to the disease kind of treatment. You're treating something, a symptom. So you have to go back and really look at the education that's out there. You know, if there's hormone education, lifestyle management, you know, functional medicine. And now we know that there's a lot more that can cause disease. So before you get to the point where you're getting sick, how can we reverse those things so that you can thrive and not have to rely on medication? So just like you, I had to really go back and learn, and I'm still learning.
09:38
Dr. Ade
There's always something new. And we know now that hormones don't cause cancer. Actually, hormones can be a way for you to thrive and not have to deal with those symptoms, like menopausal symptoms and, you know, all the other benefits you get even if you don't have menopausal symptoms. So it's great to see more providers out there that are learning and are open to accepting that, yes, there is more you can do besides having to be sick for the rest of your life.
10:05
Dr. Jillian
That's right. And I know that you study functional medicine, which I love, because you just mentioned getting to the root cause of what is causing your issues or your symptoms, and that's, you know, very different. I think that in traditional medicine, yes, you know, they do Try to get to the root cause. But again, with traditional medicine, it is treating symptoms a lot of the times and symptoms that could really harm you know, or. Or lead to significant disease. Whereas in functional medicine, you do are able to hopefully spend a little more time with your patients to kind of go back to the beginning to figure out where this started and then start there with your treatments.
10:46
Dr. Jillian
I started studying lifestyle medicine and I'm working towards that certification, but I love lifestyle medicine because very similar, but using your lifestyle to prevent and to treat, manage chronic conditions. And I absolutely love learning more about the power of our own bodies to heal by using that six tenets of lifestyle medicine. So nutrition, movement, sleep. And we do talk a lot about why sleep is so important. Social connections. So building those connections, that community, which is we are hoping that we're adding to with the modern midlife collective and avoiding toxic substances. So, you know, we do know and we're learning more and more about alcohol can increase your risk of cancer. And there's a lot about different things in the environment that are risky, even in our food systems and farming and things that can be really harmful to our health.
11:49
Dr. Jillian
The chemicals that we are around that we may ingest, that we may use in our bodies. That's very interesting to learn about. Nobody can be perfect and do everything right. So it's what can you do? What changes can you incorporate and how can you use your lifestyle for you?
12:08
Dr. Ade
Absolutely. And I think, you know, it's from that alignment, right, that were like, hey, you kind of have the same kind of thinking. And that's what kind of brought us together. Remember, we talked about all these different things as were traveling and just having, you know, coffee, going for walks and realizing, okay, you know, we've really got to. We have to really bring this out to more women so that they can be educated. And I'm just glad that we are finally bringing this just not from just in our clinics, but out to women through this means. So very excited about this podcast.
12:43
Dr. Jillian
Me too. And then we probably need to talk a little bit about our lives here in Alaska because it is quite unique to live and to work here. And so we should probably add in little bits about that throughout our podcast. I will just start with, I had a friend visit this weekend and we had dinner reservations and were late because there was a moose in the driveway blocking my exit from the garage. So we're in the car and I call the restaurant to let them know that I'm going to be late because I'm Trapped in my garage due to a moose in the way with their baby. And the person at the restaurant was very, of course, you know, very understanding. And my friend was shocked at how they took that in stride and just told us, yep, be safe. Of course.
13:31
Dr. Jillian
That's perfectly understandable. And she's like, never in her life would she have said those words, I can't get out because of the moose.
13:40
Dr. Ade
Only in Alaska. I just think he's.
13:43
Dr. Jillian
I know. I grew up.
13:44
Dr. Ade
I worked in New York City for a long time, and I could only imagine me calling in. They'd say, I can't get to work, and say, hey, there's a moose in my driveway. I can't come into it. And what they would say, you better get into work right now.
13:56
Dr. Jillian
Exactly. Only here can you be late because of a moose. So this is a wild and, you know, it's definitely the last frontier. It's a very beautiful place to practice. The people are also very kind and beautiful. And I think many people are surprised by the diversity that you'll find here in Alaska. There are the people here from everywhere. So there are, you know, our native Alaskan indigenous population, which just adds such beauty. We're living and working on their land, and it's amazing to learn more about this community and to be a part of that community. And there are military bases, several military bases, two here in Anchorage and one in Fairbanks. And so that brings in people from everywhere. And when you have and when you're surrounded by this diversity, it is beautiful.
14:47
Dr. Jillian
And it also lends itself to the practice of medicine and being able to care for all types of people from all different places. And we learn from each other.
15:00
Dr. Ade
Absolutely. And I think that's one thing I was actually very surprised about. And in fact, people ask me all the time, you know, what's the diversity? Like I said, you've got to come see it. You see all kinds of people from all walks of life. You know, they're bringing whatever culture that they came from in their experiences. And it's important, like you said, to really take that lens and really delivering personalized care. So things are never the same.
15:23
Dr. Jillian
You know, it's not.
15:24
Dr. Ade
Some things look different. It's like you see a pertinent, a certain pattern, but then it looks different in someone, and that's because of who they are. Right. Genetically or, you know, whatever their history might have been. So it makes it very interesting and rewarding, for sure.
15:37
Dr. Jillian
So what can you expect from us here on the modern midlife collective? We will be bringing you podcast episodes every other week. On Wednesday, we're going to be talking about hormones, aesthetics, intimacy, weight, longevity, lifestyle medicine, maybe even parenting, time management. All of the things that no one taught us, but we wish they had.
16:02
Dr. Ade
Yeah, absolutely. We'll be very honest, practical, bringing you the least evidence, of course, evidence based and hopefully a little bit of fun and just our own personal and lifestyle experiences. And we'll be bringing you expert guests and keep the science very digestible. We're here to help you feel empowered. That's the whole point. And not overwhelmed.
16:23
Dr. Jillian
So if you've been feeling alone in this phase of life, please know that you are not alone. We are in it too. That's right.
16:31
Dr. Ade
Thank you for being here with us. We are just getting started and we're so glad that you are part of this collective.
16:38
Dr. Jillian
So grab your tea, your coffee, your journal, take a walk with us and welcome to the Modern Midlife Collective. When women step into their power and midlife becomes your most meaningful chapter yet. Let's do this together.
16:54
Dr. Ade
Thank you for tuning in to the Modern Midlife Collective podcast. We hope today's episode has inspired you to take bold steps towards thriving in midlife.
17:04
Dr. Jillian
If you loved what you heard, please leave us a review and share this episode with a friend who's ready to step into their power.
17:11
Dr. Ade
We'll be back next week with more insights, strategies and real talk to help you live your best life at any age.
17:18
Dr. Jillian
Until then, remember, thriving at 40 and beyond isn't just possible, it's your birthright. We'll see you next time.