‘Good empathy and a good ear’: New women’s health clinic brings attention to midlife, menopause and individualized care

For years, Trisha Brooks and Veronica Triaca have seen female patients navigating the hormonal and physiological changes of mid-life, fielded concerns about their changing bodies and, with what little time they had in clinical settings, deconstructed the myths surrounding menopause.

Triaca, a pelvic surgeon and urogynecologist, and Brooks, a family nurse practitioner, are the owners and founding clinicians at Restore Women’s Wellness, a new women’s health practice in Concord that opened its doors to patients for the first time on Tuesday.

Both providers, who themselves fall in the 40-55 age demographic principally served by their clinic, aim to wring out of a hurried, overburdened healthcare system the time, concentration and individualized care that can be so hard to come by in traditional clinical settings.

“In the Concord area, there’s a lot of great healthcare organizations but, unfortunately, healthcare today cannot focus on the concerns of patients in the way that we are, with time and diligence and good science, but also good empathy and a good ear,” Triaca said.

In-depth assessments, with hour-long consults, are a cornerstone of that philosophy. Aware that insurance companies could attempt to hamper their time spent with patients, Triaca and Brooks decided not to accept insurance for in-clinic services, although insurance typically covers lab work, prescriptions and, to an extent, hormone replacement.

The choice could preclude some women from accessing their care, but “being able to dictate what we do and get to know the patient specifically is really the core of what we’re trying to establish,” Triaca said.

The status quo in women’s health has deviated, for systemic reasons, from what should be the standard of care, Brooks said. Hormonal changes can begin in women as early as their 30s. In midlife, the symptoms of menopause can range from hot flashes and night sweats to sleep disturbances, cognitive difficulties like brain fog, weight gain, joint pain, vaginal dryness and other disruptions to daily wellbeing.

Restore Women’s Wellness approaches these concerns by melding medical and aesthetic expertise. Looking good and feeling good can go hand-in-hand, and formulating the appropriate treatment plan begins with earnest listening.

“You hear so many women who have been told for years that their symptoms aren’t real or it’s just stress, or, you know, take a bath. They haven’t felt heard. I feel like this is really going to help, hopefully empower women to take back their health and their lives,” Brooks said. “Honestly, midlife should be probably the best part of your life.”

Apart from apathy toward women’s pain, misconceptions about hormonal replacement therapy and a general lack of education about women’s health among physicians has, in recent years, complicated access to treatment in midlife.

In 2002, a Women’s Health Initiative study linked hormonal replacement therapy with a higher incidence of blood clots, stroke and, most notably, breast cancer. The study, which chilled feelings around such therapy virtually overnight, is now widely regarded as flawed, with further research pointing to the value of hormonal replacement therapy’s role in supporting women’s bone density, sexual function and longevity, as well as alleviating some of the discomfort of menopause.

“A lot of folks end up struggling talking about hormone replacement, because up until now, certainly in my mother’s generation, it was not considered the right way to go,” said Triaca, a pelvic surgeon and board-certified urogynecologist. “And there’s probably some emotional components. Talking about sex is hard, but as a urologist, we talk about sex all the time.”

Although the clinic targets patients passing through a particular phase in their lives, Brooks emphasized that, as far as women’s sexual, hormonal and reproductive health is concerned, it’s never too late to seek professional care.

“Time is never up, right? Like, there’s no end date, really, to seek help for any of these things,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be hormone replacement either. There’s a lot that we can do, really at any age, 60s, 70s. We want to keep women healthy and feeling good.”