Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
Ep.#110: WESTERWELL Gynecology, Health & Wellness
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We trace Dr. Susan Westerlund’s path from delivering babies to leading a thriving gynecology and wellness practice focused on menopause care and hormone therapy. We break down what modern evidence says about estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone for women and men.
• office-based gynecology focus after years in obstetrics
• expansion from Columbus to Auburn and growing demand
• perimenopause explained as a gradual transition
• wide symptom range including sleep and mood changes
• WHI study myths clarified and corrected
• benefits of bioidentical estradiol and micronized progesterone
• heart, bone, and brain protection with timely therapy
• role of testosterone for women’s libido and focus
• organic growth into men’s care and couples wellness
• how to get in touch and where to find appointments
westerwellhealth.com
Meet Dr. Susan Westerland
SPEAKER_00This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Susan Hodges.
SPEAKER_01Welcome, and with me is Dr. Susan Westerland, and she is with Westerwell Gynecology Health and Wellness. Welcome, Dr. Susan. Hey, thank you very much. Well, tell me a little bit about Westerwell Gynecology, Health and Wellness.
Building Practices In Columbus And Auburn
SPEAKER_02All right. Well, I have been a board-certified OBGYN for over 20 years. And when I first started in practice, uh, goodness, back um quite a few years ago, and I was I did mostly obstetrics, gynecology, delivered lots and lots of babies. And then uh I journeyed somehow, my husband and I, who's he's also a physician, um, we ended up in San Diego, California, and again, doing a lot of obstetrics, and um, and I guess as just a part of my own evolution and what I do, um, I that we we actually ended up somehow moving to Georgia, um, which I love. I become a southerner. I even say y'all once in a while, right? Well, well, anyway, I I worked very part-time after working very full-time and having trying to raise three sons and uh my my husband being uh uh a doc as well. And I I went out actually on my own um to start my own practice that really was uh office-based. I didn't deliver babies anymore, miss it, but I liked being um, I liked sleeping at night. The older you get, the more you realize how important sleep is. Right? Yeah absolutely. But then, so what I do, what we do basically is a lot, we do gynecop office gynecology, everything from young women and their annual exams, pap smears, um, all of that, all the way through uh the other side of our, you know, how we evolve as women into a lot of hormone replacement therapy, meaning as women go into menopause on average, age 51, um, you know, there's just uh it be it has become just a huge part of what I do and it and quite a passion of mine. So um, so even though I I do all aspects of GYN that's office-based, um, you know, a good chunk of what I do, especially in the last six years, has been hormone replacement therapy for women, and we've invited some men in. Somehow that happened very organically. So I could go on for another 10, 15 minutes on that. But um, so it's just basically trying to help people, you know, in there as they hit those menopausal, perimenopausal years to live their best life and also to give information that is has been so we've had such a lack of basically just because of the last decade, uh, sorry, two and a half decades of such misinformation about the options for starting hormone replacement therapy um as we age.
SPEAKER_01So what are um what what locations? I should have asked you that to begin with. Where are your locations?
SPEAKER_02Okay, and I'm not exactly sure how all this happened, but I'm located in Columbus, Georgia, and south of Atlanta for anybody that is not from here, not me, myself included, um, but we have a I have a practice that is right right in the mid-part of mid not far from downtown Columbus, Georgia, near St. Francis Hospital. And and just in the last maybe six months, um, we I started seeing so many patients from Auburn. And uh so decided to somehow um kind of slowly move my way into Auburn. And I ended up getting my Alabama license, and then about uh two weeks later, I had my first um uh couple some patients in Auburn. I used, I've been using a um through Houston uh hospital since they managed my practice. We I use their space and did some talks, and it's just growing and it's just been so exciting. So yes.
SPEAKER_01So uh the Houston Clinic in Auburn is very centrally located. That's a good, that's a good place to be.
Menopause Basics And Symptoms
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Exactly. And trying to grow it to figure out, you know, getting basically boots on the ground there all the time. It's just a matter of of scheduling and probably getting more people that that do what I do, uh, that we are associated, you know, basically as a larger group. Um, but just trying to uh spread the word and it's just kind of all happening organically. So it's very exciting.
SPEAKER_01So I know that um hormone replacement therapy is on a lot of women's minds, especially when they get to the age you're talking about. And I am there, and let me tell you, a minimum like a ton of bricks, and it's so so individualized. Tell me a little bit about some of the myths or misconceptions that you've come across in your practice, because there's just so much information out there, but it also is very individualized. So, how do you deal with some of those misconceptions that people have?
SPEAKER_02Okay, so I'll start with the misconceptions, but I'll also, if you can remind me, sometimes I get up on tangents, there's so much information out there, right? Yeah. Okay, so what I will tell you when a woman, let's we'll just talk about women. When a woman hits about 51, on average, she we she is menopausal, meaning she hasn't had a period for a year. So that's basically by definition what menopause is. And so think of that as her ovarian, our ovarian function. We are no longer making estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone. And um, because a lot of people think testosterone is a uh a male hormone, estrogen is a female hormone, but in actuality, we make a ton of testosterone in our lifetime. We just make a lot less than what men do, just like men convert some of their testosterone into estradiol, estrogen, and if they don't have that, it's bad for their heart, their brain, their bones. So that's a number one. That's a misconception. We, men and women, we each make estrogen and we make testosterone. So, so basically, back to um what you were just saying. Whenever a woman hits menopause, there's that in-between time, anywhere between, you know, your mid-40s, sometimes earlier, where there's a waxing and waning of ovarian function. So on some days, think of it that your ovaries spitting out, it's estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone, and some days it's not. So it's an up and down. So it's not like you go from all to none. Think of pre-menopause as you can still uh are have enough hormones that you still are technically reproductive age. You can have babies, and then no, over the course of let's say late 30s to mid 40s, and then on uh to 50, where you're no longer making any of those things. So it's not it's not an all or none phenomenon, which is why peri which is why periods can become in that perimenopausal time period, your periods can become lighter, shorter, farther apart, closer together, any, any of those things. So, and some women, as you kind of you had said about your own experience, some women can be unbelievably affected by symptoms, meaning horrible hot flashes, um, night sweats, have a hard time sleeping. Um, a lot of people don't realize that mood issues, some women, their biggest um symptoms, uh their I guess their uh their most difficult symptoms that they are dealing with are lack of sleep and and um depression, anxiety. Uh some people actually present with panic attacks and you know, somebody just puts them on a medication, and some it's often just a band-aid as to what they really need. Right. So again, and then there are some women that just do fine and say, hey, this whole menopause thing, it's not that bad. And you can never predict who who's going to be symptomatic until it all happens. Right. So so now back to the misconception.
Debunking The WHI And Hormone Fears
SPEAKER_01Yes. So what are some of the things that that we get confused about?
The Case For Estrogen’s Preventive Power
SPEAKER_02Okay, so if we were talking 25 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, so many people, if they came in and even saw a gynecologist, they would say, Well, unless you're really symptomatic, you really don't need hormones because, here we go, because you know, you do know that, you know, people women that are on estrogen, it actually can cause breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, on and on. And that was all based on probably the most uh the most incredibly horrible thing that ever happened to women's health. Meaning, let's say you and my are moms and grandmothers. Yeah. So it was called the Women's Health Initiative Study, almost ex it is almost 25 years ago. And we have been dealing with the aftermath of that misinformation for a quarter of a century. So it's only been really in the last several years that it's finally really getting out there that that was all a complete uh lie. And and no one obviously did it, uh, you know, they weren't, it wasn't intentional. It was basically a study then in that around the time I was in my training in Washington, D.C. and and other areas that all these academic institutions, but the but we we realize is that the reason why that it got such a bad rap and and everyone stopped or did not start hormones is really is the way that the the statistics were analyzed in that study. And at the time, uh the information was coming from the fact that, for example, they were using synthetic estrogen, synthetic progestins, not natural bioidentical S17-bed estradiol and natural micronized progesterone that anybody that's getting hormone replacement therapy now is should be getting. Okay, so yeah, again, again, it was a it was just a it was just when you look at that that statistical analysis, it was just poorly um over time, it was just misconstrued. And the other thing is at the time of that study, they had such a large, they had a population of women in that study that were at a much uh greater age. And so again, just by default, by age alone, our risk of breast cancer increases as we age. So again, the the the the statistics were just they they really uh it made a huge effect on what happened with women over the next quarter of a century. So what I tell people is if you live long enough, we will get breast cancer. If we get to it early, it's not going to take us out. What will 10, 20 years plus later, is heart disease. And estrogen is so pro-heart, it's so pro as far as decreasing our risk of heart disease. It's been one of the uh FDA indications for hormone replacement therapy from the very beginning. It's so pro-bone. Those of us that start on estrogen, the earlier the better, are so much less likely to ever have an osteoprotic fracture, which can be very lethal as we get older. Uh, when you look at dementia data that is showing the earlier you start it, the benefit to our brain. Uh, I have my own father that passed away from very bad dementia three years ago. And when I, you know, I will stay on my hormones for that reason and that reason only, but at the same time, we get so many benefits on how we feel, and it's so preventative. So, unlike the old days of saying you only start on estrogen to get rid of high flashes, no, we do it just as much to help prevent the biggest killer in women as we age, which is heart disease. So, again, I all day, all I do is basically say, no, no, no, no, this what what you're hearing is old news.
SPEAKER_01It's old news. And and and we're in 2026 now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And finally, and then of course, then add into it, finally, the information is being heard. Even in the last, when I think of the last year, when women here on uh when you see Oprah Winfrey talking about hormone replacement therapy, and that caused such a, you know, just a huge amount of questions, or when you hear that no, testosterone is a female hormone. And the craziness is that here, anytime that we start testosterone therapy, for the same reasons why men do testosterone for improved energy and focus and brain fog, muscle wasting as we age, when you look at, especially in women, libido, sex drive is about testosterone. And and it's pretty in unbelievable the difference that women can see. And that's an important, it's an important part of our lives and relationships. And it's just been so overlooked. And also now that we have better ways of uh getting testosterone, unfortunately, we still have to, whenever I prescribe it, I do it, quote unquote, off label because we still don't even have an FDA indication for testosterone in women, which is kind of ludicrous, right? And just know, just know that is changing, right? And um, and and like I said, it's thank goodness it's changing because it's a hormone that in our lifetime as women, we actually make more testosterone than we do estrogen. Did you hear that? More, we make more testosterone than estrogen. We can get estrogen in the form of a pill, a patch, a cream covered by insurance. Most of us absorb it, but anytime we do testosterone, we have to do it off label. So just know, thank goodness that is changing dramatically. And and women are seeing such a huge change in how they feel because we're just getting back something that we used to make.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Well, it sounds like, you know, you've you've been doing this, you know, it's been your career since uh you've been a young woman. Yeah. And uh what is what is one thing that you wish people knew uh about your business or about hormone health that you that you wish they knew, but they but they don't realize? And you've mentioned a few of those things, but is there one thing that kind of stands out?
Testosterone’s Role For Women
SPEAKER_02Well, I I guess uh that I think the fun thing about it uh is that we see men. And even though, you know, you kind of people think, well, what is a guy in a college just seeing men for, right? Well, what what I think what people have to understand is someone like myself, I was trained. I became a medical doctor how many years ago? And I was trained when I got my license to practice medicine as a medical doctor, I was trained to take care of men, women, and children. It just so happened that like most of us, we sub, we specialized. Right. And so I specialized in obstetrics and gynecology. So then that's what I did for so long. And about four years ago, as just knowing the number of women I would see, all of a sudden it uh this whole thing seeing men organically happened because when all of a sudden, here I see women in their usually uh 40s, 50s, and beyond, and all of a sudden a female would feel so good, they would go home and they their husbands or their significant others would say, Oh my gosh, she's like, What the heck? I want some of that. So so it came, it happened so organically, and men have been doing testosterone therapy for years and years and years. And that is why then men started saying, Hey, is it something I could come and talk to you about? And so it's been really fun. And what I will tell people, if you ever have, if you have a relationship where two people in a relationship, uh say, you know, pretty much the same age, all going through the process of aging and and hormones are decreasing and all that, if you have two people in a relationship where one is doing hormones and the other is not, there's a huge disconnect. Doesn't that make sense though? Yeah. Yeah. Like one is like, huh, I'm feeling really good. And the other, and so it just so happened after all these years, where women, um, because our testosterone from our ovaries drops off so much earlier than our estrogen, right? Some of those symptoms, especially uh sex drive libido issues, would be we see in women so much younger. And now all of a sudden, fast forward a decade or two, and now men have been going through that their whole life, but it's really they're noticing it. So, so here it is that it's very, I never would have thought in my wildest dreams that I would also be seeing men. And again, it's a small percentage of what I do, and it's growing. And um, so so a lot of people have said, oh, you do basically couples, couples medicine, couples sexual wellness. And I guess that's what's happened. And I've never, I've never been more um, I've never had more fun in my life, and it's wonderful to just see um how much of a difference you can make in people's lives.
Couples Care And Men’s Hormones
SPEAKER_01Well, that that is an awesome uh, you know, practice you have there and a lot of help to a lot of people. Well, tell me a little bit about how to get in touch with you. Let's go over your locations again and the website. I'm looking at the website right now.
SPEAKER_02Okay, got it. Well, our the practice, we are right over um in um in right in gosh, isn't that crazy? I've been in that space for just a couple of years, and we're trying to figure out where we're probably gonna be moving to a new location because we've just outgrown the space we're in. My my partner, Dr. Richard Stevens, he's he's an amazing. I think he I think he came on and spoke with you guys. I've interviewed him. Yeah, yes. And see, he's a guy. There you go, right? Um, but yes, we are in in Columbus, Georgia, and we are now expanding and we are seeing, we're both seeing um patients in Auburn uh at least uh at once a month, but that very soon, since I just literally got my Alabama license, which was really fun. Um, but I'm hoping to be there at least once a week and then growing it in into definitely something more. We're just trying to move as fast as we can.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And your website is westerwellhealth.com. And um, I have totally enjoyed talking with you, Dr. Susan. It has been a pleasure learning about you and about Westerwell. Thanks so much for being with me.
SPEAKER_02All right, thank you. And I look forward to spending more time in Auburn. It's it's been fun, fun, fun to be hanging out into a town I really didn't know was only about a half hour away from me.
SPEAKER_01Yes, um, Auburn is very centrally located for sure, and Columbus is just a hop down the road. Yes, absolutely. All right, well, thank you so much.
Closing And Local CTA
SPEAKER_02It was great talking to you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpauburn.com. That's gnpauburn.com. Or call three three four four two nine seven four zero.