My Why

I understand—it might seem odd. A guy with a beard and an accent like he just stepped out of a peanut field, talking about women’s health and menopause? What does a man, raised in a house full of boys, know about a woman’s experience? And why would he choose to dedicate his medical career to helping women overcome challenges he’ll never personally face?

It’s a fair question.

But as far back as I can remember, I’ve always felt a deep discomfort with inequality—whether it was the school bully picking on smaller kids, or whole groups of people being treated unfairly. As I progressed through over a decade of medical education and training, I was shocked to see that these inequalities still existed in healthcare. Not only that, but I discovered new ones along the way.

I realized something troubling: while we have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, not everyone has equal access to it. And even for those who do, the quality of care isn’t always the same. For example, we don’t blink an eye when it comes to treating conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes. Yet, when it comes to treating obesity—something that affects over 40% of Americans—there’s still a stigma. It’s even worse when we talk about women’s health. A man can walk into nearly any doctor’s office and get treatment for low testosterone, but women often struggle to find help for the very real and debilitating symptoms of hormonal imbalance. Why is it okay to treat men for their hormonal changes, but women are told their suffering is just “natural” and they should live with it?

That’s not acceptable to me.

After hearing the same stories from patient after patient—women who were doing everything “right” but still couldn’t lose weight or continued to struggle with unexplained symptoms—I decided to take a different path. I committed myself to the mission of helping people, especially women, get the care they deserve. I sought extra training in women’s hormones, understanding how critical hormonal health is to vitality, well-being, and quality of life. I formed partnerships and developed solutions to provide affordable access to the most effective weight loss treatments, even for patients who can’t afford the sky-high price tags of Big Pharma’s brand-name medications.

I refuse to stand by while women are gaslighted, ignored, and left to suffer in silence. I refuse to be a part of the problem.

My conviction only deepened when I watched my own sister-in-law—a 47-year-old mom of four—struggle with perimenopausal symptoms that left her exhausted, foggy-headed, and disconnected from her family. She visited multiple doctors in her home state of Alabama, only to be dismissed at every turn. So, she made an 11-hour drive to Texas, seeking a physician who truly understood her symptoms and their root cause. That physician treated her with evidence-based hormone replacement therapy, and she got her life back. Almost immediately, her brain fog cleared, her energy returned, and she was able to show up for her family in a way she hadn’t in years.

If a woman is willing to drive 11 hours just to receive the care she deserves, that speaks volumes. First, it proves her suffering was real, despite what she had been told. And second, it shows the glaring lack of appropriate care for women’s health issues across our country.

No one should have to go through what my sister-in-law did. In a nation as wealthy and advanced as ours, no woman should have to suffer needlessly or go to extreme lengths to get treatment for something 100% of women will experience—menopause. Every woman deserves to be the hero of her own story, and that’s why I started New Leaf Online: to give women the care they deserve and help them reclaim their health, their vitality, and their confidence.

On a more personal level, I’m also a husband and father to two strong, healthy daughters. I want them to grow up in a world where they never have to wonder if they’ll be taken seriously when they walk into a doctor’s office. I hear stories almost every day from women who have been dismissed or told that their suffering is “just part of life.” These stories are heartbreaking, but they also strengthen my resolve to change the landscape of women’s health and break the stigma surrounding hormone replacement therapy and medical weight loss.

I may not know what it’s like to go through menopause, but I know this: women deserve better. You deserve better. And at New Leaf Online, we’re here to make sure you get the care and support you need to thrive.