Fortunately for all of us, the stigmas surrounding women’s health are beginning to fall, and leading the charge is Dr. Carolyn Moyers of Sky Women’s Health. Dr. Moyers was kind enough to have a Worthy Convo with us. (This is an important Worthy Convo, so don’t click away!)

Photo shared with permission by Sky Women’s Health

Tanglewood Moms: What inspired you to found Sky Women’s Health?

Dr. Carolyn Moyers: The name itself tells part of the story. It’s drawn from a Chinese proverb — “Women hold up half the sky” — and from the book Half the Sky, which follows women around the world who have endured unimaginable suffering, often in silence, often without anyone advocating for them. That book stayed with me. I wanted to be part of the solution.

But the professional path to getting here was a decade in the making. I practiced across different settings — traditional OB/GYN, ob hospitalist work, building a gynecology program within a hormone therapy clinic. And across all of it, I kept seeing the same thing: women with real symptoms being dismissed, undertreated, or rushed through a system that wasn’t designed for the complexity of what they were experiencing. Menopause, perimenopause, sexual health — these weren’t being addressed with the seriousness they deserved.

I started dreaming of a place that cared about the details. The experience. The expertise. Somewhere unhurried, where a woman could sit across from her physician and actually be heard.

That’s Sky Women’s Health. And the mission goes beyond the exam room — I want women to be empowered to advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities.

TWM: How does the concierge model allow you to more fully serve your patients?

Dr. Moyers: The concierge model removes the ceiling. In a traditional practice, I might see 25 or 30 patients in a day. There’s simply no way to do justice to something as nuanced as menopause or sexual dysfunction in that structure.

At Sky Women’s Health, our members have direct access to me. Appointments are longer, there’s no rushed handoff, and when something changes — when a symptom evolves or a question comes up between visits — they can reach me. We’re managing their health across time, not just addressing a complaint at a single visit.

It also means I’m not practicing to satisfy an insurance billing code. I’m practicing to get results. That changes everything about how I approach care.

TWM: Can you define perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause?

Dr. Moyers: These three terms get used interchangeably, and they really shouldn’t be.

Perimenopause is the transition — the decade or so leading up to your final menstrual period. This is when most symptoms begin: irregular cycles, heavier or lighter bleeding, sleep disruption, mood changes, brain fog, hot flashes. It’s a gradual, variable process, and it looks different for every woman.

Menopause is technically one day. It’s the point 12 months after your final menstrual period. That’s it. One day in your history.

Postmenopause is everything after that — the remaining decades of your life. This is when certain risks, like bone loss and cardiovascular changes, become increasingly relevant. The conversation doesn’t end at menopause; in many ways, it’s just beginning.

One important note: that definition assumes a woman has a cycle to track — and not every woman does. For those who don’t have periods due to an IUD, endometrial ablation, or hysterectomy, menopause is defined differently. In those cases, we look at FSH levels — a hormone that rises as the ovaries wind down. An elevated FSH on two separate occasions, at least four weeks apart, is how we confirm menopause when cycle tracking isn’t possible.

Photo shared with permission by Sky Women’s Health

TWM: Are there things women in their 30s can do to prepare for menopause?

Dr. Moyers: Eat whole foods. Prioritize sleep. Lift weights — bone density loss starts earlier than most women realize, and muscle mass is protective. Get your annual health checks and use your 30s to establish baselines: blood pressure, lipids, blood sugar, thyroid. These numbers matter in context over time, not just as a single snapshot.

And start paying attention to your body. Perimenopause can begin earlier than you expect — sometimes in your late 30s.

TWM: How does your background as a DO inform your approach to hormonal and sexual health?

Dr. Moyers: My osteopathic training gave me a framework for looking at the whole picture. When a patient comes in with hormonal symptoms, I’m not just looking at one organ system — I’m thinking about sleep, stress, nutrition, relationship context, all of it. Root cause matters, not just symptom management.

My OMT fellowship training also prepared me for hands-on assessment of pelvic floor dysfunction, which is deeply connected to both hormonal and sexual health. These things don’t exist in isolation, and my training reinforced that.

TWM: Why did you start the Sky Women’s Health podcast?

Dr. Moyers: The exam room has limits. There are only so many patients I can see, and so many conversations I can have in a day. The podcast is an extension of those conversations — a way to reach women who may never walk through my door.

My goal is to help women become better advocates for themselves, even if I’m not their physician. If a woman listens to an episode and walks into her next appointment with better questions, then it’s doing exactly what I hoped.

TWM: What’s one thing you wish patients knew that traditional medicine doesn’t teach?

Dr. Moyers: Perimenopause is a clinical diagnosis — and most women don’t know that.

When you come in with real symptoms and your labs come back normal, that isn’t a dead end. It means we’ve ruled out other conditions that can look exactly like perimenopause: thyroid disorders, diabetes, among others. That’s important work. But normal labs do not mean you are not in perimenopause. There is no blood test that confirms it. The diagnosis lives in your symptoms, your cycle history, and your experience.

The second thing: waiting until 65 for a bone density scan is too late. Bone loss accelerates in the years surrounding menopause, and the window for early intervention is earlier than traditional guidelines suggest — especially if you have risk factors like early menopause, family history, low body weight, or long-term use of certain medications.

TWM: What’s one menopause myth you’d like to bust?

Dr. Moyers: Your sexual pleasure matters — and medicine has ignored it for far too long.

Changes in libido, pain with intercourse, decreased arousal and sensation — these are real, common, and treatable. They are not an inevitable part of aging. They are not something to quietly accept. And they are absolutely something your physician should be asking about. If they’re not asking, or not comfortable having that conversation when you bring it up, find someone who will.

The post Worthy Convos: Dr. Carolyn Moyers Is Busting Women’s Health Myths first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.