Episode 4 - Navigating Menopause

Navigating menopause - both as a woman and as a clinician - can be daunting! Finding trusting resources and support is not easy. 

Dr. Susan Baumgartel is changing all of this! She's creating an amazing space for everyone - clinicians included - to learn about menopause and how to reduce the overwhelm that often accompanies this time of life. 

Dr. Baumgaertel is an internal medicine physician with over 30 years of clinical experience. In 2020 she launched MenopauseMenu, a free informational website providing nourishing support for menopause and beyond. 2021 started a new chapter as she stepped away from direct patient care and founded a novel telemedicine business model, myMDadvocate. She uses her extensive medical experience and expertise to serve patients by providing medical consultation and advocacy support. Common topics include aging with intent, preventive care, menopause, chronic diseases, autoimmune conditions, weight management, behavioral health, cancer and survivorship support, caregiver stress, coping with chronic pain, and referral advocacy. She also serves as an ally to primary care and specialty physicians and surgeons by helping to “offload” more thorough and deep-dive discussions with patients on medical issues and navigational concerns, a service that our current strained healthcare system often cannot support in a timely manner. She published her first book "The Menopause Menu" in 2023—an all-in-one giftbook, medical guide, and recipe book for navigating menopause.

Find her here!

https://www.mymdadvocate.com/

https://www.menopausemenu.com/

Check out her awesome book - The Menopause Menu
https://www.menopausemenu.com/book/

https://www.youtube.com/@dr.susanbaumgaertel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-baumgaertel-md/

https://doctorsonsocialmedia.com/susan-j-baumgaertel-md/

https://www.facebook.com/MenopauseMenu/

Transcript

0:08

Welcome to the PurposefulMD Podcast. As a physician, you've sacrificed so much of your life for other people. Your patients, your family, your friends, and your colleagues. What would it feel like to spend time doing what you enjoy, and to live without guilt? I'm your host, Dr. Laura Sutton, a family physician, certified coach, and business owner. If you're a medical professional on a journey towards your most purposeful life, a life with more time and energy, and ultimately more joy, then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to the purposeful MD podcast. I am delighted to be talking today with Dr. Susan Baumgartel. She is an internal medicine physician with over 30 years of clinical experience. In 2020, she launched menopause menu, which is a free informational website providing nourishing support for menopause and beyond. Love that. In 2021, she stepped away from direct patient care and founded a novel telemedicine business model, MyMDAdvocate. She uses her extensive medical experience and expertise to serve patients by providing medical consultation and advocacy support. She's an expert on multiple topics, including aging with intent, preventive care, menopause, chronic diseases, autoimmune conditions, and much more. She published her first book, the menopause menu in 2023, which is an all in one gift book, medical guide and recipe book for navigating menopause. Welcome Dr. Baumgartel. Oh, thank you so much. It's a pleasure and a treat to be here. Thank you. Yeah. It's great to have you. So tell us about your story and your background and how you got to where you are now. Yeah. So actually, um, born in Seattle, raised in Ontario, Canada, came back for the rest. And, uh, my degree before medicine was in architecture and urban planning. So that was, uh, fun. And actually I'm, I'm always kind of marrying art and medicine together. So that's always kind of a theme for me. Uh, med school and residency was at University of Washington, Seattle. And, uh, I basically worked, in a company that became a large company, uh, for 25 years, clinical medicine, full time internal medicine. And then, um, back, uh, back two and a half years ago, peeled off kind of pivoted and, um, along the way started my own business, uh, which next month is celebrating its second anniversary. And it's my MD advocate. And it's really a way that I felt. I could better serve patients. You know, I knew I wasn't ready to retire, but I thought, you know, how can I still give back and care for people? And it was really exciting to develop this model. Um, so that I can really be there. It's a telemedicine based platform and I do medical consultation and advocacy work. That's awesome. I love that. I love that so much. I was looking at your website and. Um, and so I'm going to read a little bit about, and I'd love to hear this from you, how you were taking care of patients of all ages. And you kept hearing this common theme about women that were in this menopausal transition and were really struggling and didn't have the resources and have the support that they felt like they needed. So share a little bit about that. Yeah, the story, you know, as anything in my life is always a story, you know, it starts actually back in 2012 when I developed a program called menu for change, which was a weight management and wellness program. And I employed a lot of different professionals, including naturopathic doc, acupuncturists, nutritionist, exercise physiologist, psychologist. And we helped mostly women. There are a few men, but women who are, um, wanting to work on weight management and that ran for seven years. It was just, you know, my baby. And then I sunset at that program for a number of reasons, just really are, are, are big organization was being bought out. And I thought, you know, the sign, the signs on the wall. And so, um, that was kind of the stepping stone toward developing what I ended up calling my website menopause menu. Um, and that was really the culmination of, I guess, my entire career thinking about women in particular, uh, certainly women in their forties, fifties, sixties navigating this time period. And I just thought, gosh, there's something there I could do something different. I could, I could provide information, I could be a value to them. And so that was kind of the, growth point for me developing my work, uh, helping women in menopause. I love that so much. I just, I love that you saw this need that women were not. Not feeling like they were heard in the medical community and that you stepped in and said, Hey, I can, I can do something about this and I can, I can help these women. Well, I even reflected, you know, on my own experience, you know, when I had a woman in the, in the exam room for whatever purpose, and, you know, the question would come out about, well, you know, I've had these nights quite, so I don't know what to do, or, you know, I'm. I have this weight gain and I, I, I'm sick of it and I eat better and I exercise and how come it's right around my waist, you know, and these frustrating kind of issues. And I realized, um, you know, there wasn't like a perfect resource, you know, it wasn't like if I sent it to a medical resource, then you have to look up every third word. It was ridiculous. And then we all know the other side of that coin, which is a snake oil salesman and the stuff that's just woo woo. And just not even really, you know, uh, evidence based in any way. So I thought, gosh, there's got to be a better way to get information in a reasonable, you know, succinct, accessible way. That's not just them talking to their best friend or their mother or their aunt, you know, or their colleague at work. And, uh, I also felt it was important, especially as I practiced to, uh, have space for them to be heard because, you know, I know even from personal experience and I've already been through menopause, when you go in, let's say for your annual, let's say you're just in there because you know, you hit your elbow and it hurts, you know, there's no time and our fast pace, boom, boom, boom, boom, your visits are so, you know, your hands on the doorknob and that's when they talk about the chest pain, right? The old doctor joke. It's not a joke. So women, I think are not, um, allowed the time to be heard. Like when you think about it, in that circumstance, who's going to bring up their topic of vaginal dryness or libido problems. I mean, it's, it's, first of all, it's very sensitive, maybe embarrassing for some women issue. So getting this into the limelight, getting this into the forefront, uh, allowing women Um, the resources to learn some things and then feel confident talking about it or asking about it. I think is a mission that probably any doctor should have and certainly anyone caring for women. Yeah. So important. So important. It makes me think about, so I'm a family physician and even in my training and I'm curious your experience as well, we were not trained in women's health. We were trained in obstetrics and gynecology, how to deliver babies, how to evaluate post menopausal bleeding, some of those types of things, how to, how to work up irregular periods. But as far as when women got to menopause, there's just this black hole of information. And we know that so many of the studies on non women's health related issues. We're done on men studies on cardiac problems or just any type of medication that you can think about. The, the famous ambient studies, right? They were not tested on women. And I remember back to my training, even thinking about chest pain, you brought up chest pain, that the symptoms that women most likely present with for cardiac issues were considered atypical, but we're half the population. So why are those atypical? They're just different. So I'm curious to see your. And so I'm curious about your perspective and how you, how you really gained that knowledge that was missing. And at least in a lot of medical training, when I was training 20, 25 years ago, it just wasn't there. No, I completely agree with you. And, um, I feel like part of my process has been experiential and, you know, cumulative experience over time. I think also you have to have an interest in something where you have to be curious about it. One thing I was thinking about that actually happened fairly recently, um, after I wrote my book called the menopause menu, um, I'm having these book groups, and what book parties basically, uh, like someone that knows me will say, Hey, I want to get 10 women together and come over if it's in town, I'll come over, but it's not as soon. And so this one party, I went to a really wonderful group of women. I only knew one, uh, and you know, we're sitting around in a living room and everyone's kind of, you know, Curious about, uh, you know, ask me questions and the theme that comes up that kind of blew me away, but didn't blow me away. This one woman said, you know, almost very defiantly like, you know, Hmm, I don't know about you doctors, kind of, you know, attitude. She said, well, you know, I, I go in and, and, and I'm having these hot flashes and I think I have brain fog and I don't know what's going on, and I felt like I was gaslighted. I said, what do you mean by that? She said, well, you know, my doctor said, well, I'm too young. I said, well, you know, I didn't want to ask how old she was, but she said, well, I'm 43. It's like, well, uh, and, and then, then she went further. And then she said, well, we talked about it some more. And it was a female doctor said, she said to her, well, to be honest, I never had any, I never had any training in how to diagnose or treat menopause. And that's when this woman said, you know, I just had to go elsewhere. Guess what? Of course she went to an alternative medicine, um, uh, you know, kind of arena. So I heard this more than once. I thought like, wow, this is a disservice to women who are hopefully trusting or, or, or could be trusting their position to listen to them and to think about what's going on, to be thoughtful and careful. But, um, you know, is it a, is it a system complaint? Yeah, probably is, um, the timing, you know, who has time or maybe an access issue? Uh, was it that particular doctor? Hopefully not, but maybe it just wasn't, you know, in the moment, it wasn't something that they could converse about, but it just got to me. I thought, wow, we've got to do a better job. And that was, You know, it wasn't how I started my book, but that's kind of where I thought like, wow, now I have this ability or this tool to kind of, you know, help people learn more in a way. That's not too scary with lots of difficult medical words, but not woo woo and kind of, you know, um, you know, junk science. So to me, it was important again, to, to have women, um, be able to have access to information. Yeah, I love that so much. And I love that you're, you're. Focusing on how to get information in the hands of women that are going through these symptoms and also to other clinicians. Recognizing, like you said, that we don't really get this training that much, unless you go into reproductive women's health or something along these lines, then we might not get this level of training. So how can you provide support to the clinicians taking care of these women too? I think that's a great mission. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I didn't set out to just treat women and actually in my own business, uh, which is for patients in Washington state. Uh, I do a lot of different things. It's definitely not a menopause practice. Um, but, uh, to me that was very invigorating to know that I could kind of hopefully make a difference. Yeah. Yeah. And you talked a couple of times about, you used the term snake oil, and I know there's a lot. Um, and there's a lot of evidence out there that is not evidence based and these women are really just trying to seek solutions and seek some relief talking to their friends and colleagues and maybe family members about what they're going through and getting recommendations about things that are not evidence based. And at the same time, there's a gap in what is evidence based that we can offer to women. And so it kind of makes sense that they're really looking for alternative treatments. So Tell us what you're doing to focus on this evidence based care. Yeah. So I guess part of this also was like, how do, how do, uh, women get information? And, uh, and when I say women, I, I don't mean just, uh, uh, genetically, it just, uh, anyone who identifies a woman, anyone who's going through menopause. And in fact, men need to learn this too. Uh, it's so important because, you know, everyone knows someone who's going through menopause. In our modern society, uh, for right or for wrong, uh, we get these little tidbits of information, sound bites, you know, TikTok, it's, it's a five second blip and, you know, and if the information cycles 24 7, you know, people are scrolling on their phones on their toilet, you know, and it's just, you know, no one's going to sit down and read a book. I should say read cover to cover, unless it's a fiction or something they're having to study for, you know, a class or a test. So how do you get information out in the right way? Um, that, that's I guess in part, um, how I developed my website, Minimized Menu, which, um, people who go to it kind of say, Oh, it's a blog, and there's blogs, there's, there's videos, and there's, there's recipes. But actually under the information tab, there's 16 different sections, and that, Interestingly, they correspond to the chapters of my book. And so let's say you have urinary difficulties where you can click on that and kind of get some videos or some recipes or some, you know, blogs and of course in the book, it's different. So getting it, um, into, uh, I have never been us versus them, like science versus non science to me, it's all a blend and it's really important. So yes, evidence based. Science based medicine is, is absolutely essential, but it doesn't mean you can't talk about all the other holistic things that are important or valued or cherished by a patient. So if they want to consider acupuncture for hot flashes, well, just because the, you know, the, uh, menopause society has said maybe it doesn't do, do vasomotor symptoms. Well, if this person feels good and better doing that. And indirectly, maybe they have some changes that then reduces their hot flashes, bingo. So, so I like the fact that you can kind of put it all together and, um, it serves a lot of different people's needs. Yeah, definitely that non judgmental approach, which I really appreciate in what you're saying about, Hey, if this works for you and it's, it's not harmful for you, then certainly try it. If this helps with your symptoms. So yeah, just because, and we know this just because there's no evidence means. Or does it necessarily mean that it's not going to be helpful in some situations? So, yeah. And I, I took that approach as well with hormones because that's a huge topic. Uh, you can't talk about menopause, talk about hormones. And I, when I, when I wrote about this in the book, I thought, you know, this is not going to be, uh, hormones versus not hormones or like everything is solved by hormones or, or don't take hormones. It's not going to be polarized. And so I wove that into a lot of the different topics as of course, it's an option. And for someone, some women, it's the only option, you know, pry that away from my cold dead hands. Right. For other women, it's like, no, I never want to do that, you know? And so it, it, it allows a space to look at all those options and not labeled as like, you gotta be on it or don't ever take it. And that to me was important again, when you're giving. Especially a woman who's busy and maybe they're midlife and they're balancing so many things. They want to have choices. They want to be educated, but they also want to have choices. Definitely. So if a woman comes to you as part of your telehealth practice and is suffering from some of these symptoms, she's in her forties, fifties, what do you do with her? So I'll first just, um, preface that my practice is not primary care. And so I don't prescribe or don't treat or manage. I can't consult. So actually I had a woman who reached me out, reached through, uh, me through the North American, the menopause society website, found me. Turns out she was in Washington state. Yay. So I could see her and she's been working with me every month. And, uh, initially it was really managing her horrendous night sweats and hot flashes and just the brain fog and all that stuff. But then it gradually transitioned to, you know, life journey, like her, her mother who was having issues or just her job stress and just, you know, things with her kids and just. You know, in that way, it's almost like a medical coaching or medical, you know, I call it consultation, but it's a medical coaching. Um, and so yes, it's kind of with the menopause stuff in the background, but that's not just the focus. But there did come a point where I thought, you know what? Well, you really need to consider hormones for lots of reasons. We talked about those options. And I was able to, again, um, kind of advocate for her and, and, and help her, uh, connect with, um, uh, an OBGYN and it really made a huge difference. So it's kind of partnering with someone and, and kind of peeling back all those layers or so many layers, and then kind of deciding what's at the root, is it, is it, is it just menopause? I shouldn't say just, but is it menopause or, are there other things that are, uh, that are factoring in? And I guess that's probably what any really good primary care doctor does all day long, right? You and I, you know, so, um, it it's, it's simplifying what we do, but it's also allowing the time for it. And I think that's the value when I kind of set out to do my own business is that I had time and that's just golden, right? Yeah. That's so important. And of course, being from a primary care background to the, the lack of time that we. are able to spend with our patients is really heartbreaking. It's, it's very difficult. I'm lucky enough to be in an environment where, where I can spend a little bit more time with my patients. So that's, it's really helpful. We can dig into some of those quote unquote, social issues you mentioned about taking care of older parents. A lot of women in this age group have older parents, and then we also have teenage kids. And so that sandwich generation. Stresses of life were having trouble sleeping and that just compounds everything. And so it's definitely multifaceted. And yes, I think a lot of primary care physicians either don't have the training and so they don't ask those questions. It's not really typical to ask about, like you said, vaginal dryness, libido, urinary incontinence, and sometimes those things are embarrassing. And if a woman has had a negative experience with a clinician in the past, she's not likely to bring those things up. Yeah. And then she'll go to her best friend or her. Right. And then that just perpetuates wrong, but it's just not probably gonna, you know, solve her issue. Right. Or she keeps it silent and then suffers and then that doesn't help anybody. So yeah. What's been the best part of this journey for you? Well, gosh, so many good parts. I guess looking back. Um, you know, I've been a physician for 30 years and I feel like now that I've pivoted, I see this journey just extending for quite some time, you know, it's not like up 65 retire. I just feel like this could go on in a really wonderful way. Um, and then being a first time author, brand new experience, you know, self publishing is not for the faint of heart, um, but seeing where that's going and the excitement that has for me with, um, kind of. Standing my reach and really helping people in that way. Um, I really just like this. Um, uh, what someone told me recently is a portfolio career. I'd never heard of that term before, but one of my colleagues said, Oh, portfolio career is like, Oh gosh, I'm going to use that. And it makes sense because it's not just and say just, but you know, I was a physician for so many years. I still am, but now I'm kind of broadening that. That reach. And, um, I find that I'm happier. Uh, I'm definitely more rested. I can attend to all the self care things that fell by the wayside for way too long. And that that's, that's a, that's a trifecta that's good, good, good all around for everyone. And so, um, I'm, I'm very excited by it. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about your book. Tell us about that journey and how you got started and the self publishing love to hear about all of that. So the menopause menu, gosh, um, it was, uh, a spinoff from the website, of course, it's much more than that. It's an experiential book. So, you know, I thought of like when I was a kid, um, my mother was an artist. And so you think about the coffee table book would be like Georgia O'Keeffe, or it could be, um, Emily Carr and the group of the seven and just big book. You open it up in your lap. You can just turn anywhere. You just stare at the beautiful art and read something about it. And then five minutes later you go. And so I thought, well, gosh, if I have something that's of that flavor of that ilk, something that's beautiful that people want to come back to, you don't have to read cover to cover in a certain order. Maybe you just want to look at a picture or something. So I started with that theme and really kind of developed it. And so there are 16 chapters, uh, 16 major symptoms or issues of menopause. Obviously there are more than that for menopause, but that, that helped, uh, kind of form the backbone of this book. With each chapter you get a recipe. So that's really fun. Um, and then I have kind of interspersed along with the really good solid medical advice. I have lots of goodies like, you know, poems or haiku or quotes from colleagues. Um, there's even a, I made up a menopause mini bingo. That's kind of fun. And now there's a, the book is, the chapters are arranged like a fine dining restaurant. So, you know, you come in, there's the entree, there's the, sorry, there's the, um, uh, introduction, which is just the beginning of the chapter. There's the amuse bouche, it kind of tickles your appetite. Then there's the appetizer, there's the entree, there's the palate cleanser, and there's the dessert. Those are different sections of each chapter. And the dessert is kind of like what I'd say is the wild cards. It's like, there's a lot of fun stuff. And chapter two is on night sweats and there's like a blooper reel, which is really funny. Um, and you know, there's just kind of a, um, you can open that book, you can read for five minutes and you can learn something and then you can walk away and read it later. And so, um, to it was just a fun creation project and it was great to see it come alive. That sounds lovely. And it sounds like it's really just perfect for what women in this age group really need. They're busy. They don't have time necessarily to sit and read a book cover to cover. And that just, that sounds amazing. Yeah. So now it's available on Amazon, of course. Um, I'm just putting the finishing touches on the ebook. So that's coming out soon. Uh, I didn't have that first. And actually I was wondering if I was going to do an ebook because it's so. tactile and experiential. It's nice to actually pull the book. I'm probably a bit old fashioned too, but ebook, it turns out it's going to be fine. There's lots of colors. So it worked out well. Um, it'll never be an audio book. It wouldn't really fit for that, but, um, I'm, I'm connecting with a lot of women, as I mentioned, you know, book parties, which are fun. I've done a lot of local, you know, bookstore and, and, and local regional events. And then, um, I'm also kind of getting in into this new, um, uh, phase where people who are having conferences or, uh, workshops or retreats or summits, maybe they want like a little glam bag or grab bag or kind of parting gift. And so that would be something that people are considering. So it's really, it's just, to me, it's, it's an organic learning experience. I don't have a marketer or promoter, but, uh, I love that part too, because I get to meet so many different people. Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. I love that so much. Well, Dr. Baumgartel, it's been so wonderful to talk to you. This has been amazing. And I am so glad that you're doing what you're doing and, and putting all this wonderful energy and knowledge out into the atmosphere, supporting women and supporting clinicians. Well, it's a great journey. And, uh, I get to meet people like you along the way. So I feel, feel very lucky if people want to reach out and I'm reachable and they can go to my, myMDAdvocate. com. And I have my phone number, my email address there. Uh, they can also, um, get some fun free tidbits on my menopause mini website. And of course my book on the Amazon. I'm also on LinkedIn and I have a Facebook webpage, menopause mini. So. Uh, and God forbid I have a YouTube channels, not very active, but, uh, you know, just put myself out there. Yeah. I love that. And we'll provide all those links for our listeners. So thank you so much for being with us. It's been wonderful to talk to you. Thank you. I appreciate it so much. Thank you for listening to the Purposeful MD podcast. If you like what you hear, please rate and review the show. Please also visit my website, www. thepurposefulmd. com for free downloads or to discuss working with me as your coach.