In honor of World Menopause Day last Friday, October 18, a group of women’s health experts got together at Peoplehood NYC for an afternoon of intimate, female-led discussions on perimenopause, menopause and beyond—AKA the midlife flux. The event, known as Fluxx NYC, was a celebration of all things women’s health with some some of the greatest minds on the subject teaching attendees about the important pillars of lifestyle and how to build the best foundation for a long and healthy life.
Just some of the many topics covered during the 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. ET event included: Mind Over Menopause, addressing the mental health challenges and trauma that surface during menopause; Metabolic Mayhem, navigating weight gain and perimenopause; Frozen Shoulders and Tough Tendons, unraveling the link between frozen shoulder, gluteal tendinopathy and aging; Pelvic Floor Whisperer, addressing how to restore pelvic floor health and its impact on overall well-being; and Let’s Talk About Sex, exploring sexual health and vaginal changes in menopause—among others.
The afternoon kicked off with an update on the state of perimenopause and menopause, featuring Dr. Heidi Flagg, MSCP, an OB-GYN, co-founder of New York City-based Spring OB/GYN and Flow Space Advisory Council member, and Dr. Alicia Robbins, MSCP, an OB-GYN and the founder of boutique women’s health practice The Elm in Greenwich, Connecticut, along with Flow Space editor-in-chief Galina Espinoza as the moderator. The experts dived into everything from the symptoms of perimenopause, such as hot flashes and insomnia and hormone therapy to new research and the “over medicalization” of menopause, to name a few topics from their discussion.
Immediately following was a panel titled, “Mind Over Menopause: Trauma, Mental Health and Healing. Again, moderated by Espinoza, this time she was joined by Dr. Diane Dillon, a psychologist and trauma specialist with over 25 years of experience, as well as the co-author of Mommy Mantras: Affirmations and Insights to Keep You From Losing Your Mind and Dr. Sascha Griffing, a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in women’s health across the lifespan, particularly at the intersection of trauma and mental health.
“At this point in time, the research on menopause backs up the finding that mindset influences outcome, because the couple of measly longitudinal studies that are out there have actually demonstrated that attitudes toward menopause and aging actually predict symptom intensity a year later,” Griffing explained, “and they also predict greater psychological well-being in later life.”
“There are so many different things that we can do to enhance our well-being in midlife and beyond, specifically mindful attention, self compassion and mindset in terms of building resilience,” Dillon added before walking the audience through an exercise to show the power of our selected attention.
The panel ended with Griffing walking the audience through a breathing exercise, making their panel one of the most interactive of the day. And while a large portion of their discussion centered around trauma and PTSD, Dillon and Griffing left event goers collected, calm and centered.
Following the trauma and mental health discussion, Dr. Maria Sophocles, FACOG, MSCP, a nationally recognized OB-GYN, the CMO of EMBR Labs and Flow Space Advisory Council Member and Jill Foos, a national board-certified health coach, gave a talk called: “Building Your Longevity Plan.”
From there, the talks began to get a bit more granular.
Dr. Elizabeth Shah, an orthopedic and and women’s health physical therapist at Thrive Integrated Physical Therapy, who works with women dealing with a number of different issues, including pelvic floor dysfunction, who spoke about about how to strengthen, restore and reclaim your pelvic floor in midlife and beyond during her “Pelvic Floor Whisperer” discussion.
Shah was followed by the founder of Thrive Integrated Physical Therapy Tamar Amitay, PT, MS, a New York City-based physical therapist. Amitay took the audience down the rabbit hole of menopause and bone, joint and muscular health. Her discussion, titled, “Frozen Shoulders and Tough Tendons: Midlife Mobility Mysteries, educated the audience on gluteal tendinopathy, a condition related to the loss of estrogen during menopause that affects the muscles in the gluteal region, elaborated on the effects of aging while offering exercise recommendations, addressed the prevalence of frozen shoulder in menopausal women and emphasized the importance of combining HRT with physical therapy, especially for those with gluteal tendinopathy or frozen shoulders. According to Amitay, one of the many benefits of HRT is that it helps reduce inflammation and improves muscle strength and control.
Jaclyn Piasta, a women’s health nurse practitioner, national certified menopause practitioner and founder of holistic telehealth clinic Monarch Health, spoke next about the metabolic shifts of midlife and how to manage them, during her talk: “Metabolic Mayhem: Navigating Weight Gain and Perimenopause.”
Following Piasta was Dr. Alexes Hazen, a New York City-based aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgeon and founder of the beautiful skin product line Zen Essentials. Hazen spoke about understanding the skin and hair changes that come with age, during her talk, titled: “Skin Deep: When Your Hair Thins and Your Face Falls.”
The event ended with a discussion called, “Millennialpause and Attention Deficits,” led by OB-GYN and founder of Long Island-based Balanced Medical, Dr. Adrienne Mandelberger FACOG, MSCP. While Mandelberger clarified that her background is in gynecology, she disclosed her personal experience with ADHD, emphasizing her special interest in the topic. She noted that Millennials are “basically the children of ADHD,” since it wasn’t until the ’80s and ’90s that it was really discovered, and as Millennials begin to enter perimenopause and menopause, we will hopefully begin to have more and more data on how the two interact. especially considering most women don’t get diagnosed until their mid-40s.
“Women are more likely to be diagnosed [with ADHD] in adulthood,” Mandelberger explained. “I haven’t seen the data, but somebody did say that mid-40s tends to be a very common, and I don’t know if you know anything about that but seems a little coincidental to me.”