Having always had an interest in women’s health, my healthcare career began as a registered nurse working in the area of maternal child care. 

 

While completing my Master's Degree at the University of Virginia, I did a substantial amount of literature review on the topic of menopause, which led to two of my research projects: one of which was a review on the safety and efficacy of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, and the other studied the effects that stress may have on cortisol levels in post-menopausal women. 

 

I've continued to passionately study and review the literature on menopause symptoms since 2010, but it was during my doctoral training that I chose to focus more specifically on the concept of the anxiety experience during menopause — which is not currently well studied or understood. After two years of in-depth coursework and review on the subject, it became the subject of my dissertation study and the published results of its findings, titled Anxiety in Menopause: A Uniquely Different Syndrome.