By Barry Wise Smith Photo by Jordan Wald
Amy McCool didn’t know much about hormone therapies, perimenopause or menopause when she started experiencing symptoms in her late 30s. “At the time, I did not realize these changes were due to hormonal shifts,” Amy says. But by the time she was in her 40s, Amy started to experience anxiety that morphed into depression. “I was so ashamed and didn’t tell anyone about my struggles,” she remembers. “I thought I could force myself out of it.”
But as most women learn, you can’t force yourself out of hormone imbalances that can significantly affect your quality of life. In a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health, nearly 70 percent of women surveyed reported having a poor quality of life during menopause. After a year of suffering, Amy finally confided in her husband Dr. Alan McCool, a board-certified urologist, to see if he could help her figure out what was going on.
Alan started by asking OBGYN colleagues how they treated symptoms in their patients but didn’t get far, so he started his own research and began taking courses through the Academy for Advanced Women’s Health Medicine. Alan then started Amy on hormone replacement therapy (estrogen, progesterone and testosterone). “Within days of starting estrogen, I started feeling better,” Amy recalls. “I also loved the calming effect of taking progesterone at night. My sleep improved, and my early morning anxiety stopped. I woke up feeling well rested and motivated for the first time in a long time.”
Through their experience, Amy and Alan saw the need for care specific to women’s hormone health, and in June of this year, they opened Icona Health, a boutique hormone health and wellness practice. “Icona Health was created to fill a gap,” Amy says. “We felt that women needed to be a part of the decision making for their health care and deserved to know all the treatment options and what might work best for their lifestyle.”
In September, Icona Health partnered with Provision Studio, a Homewood Pilates and fitness studio, for a workshop on women’s hormone health. Amy worked as an instructor at Provision and knew founder and owner Margaret Virden Hill’s commitment to women’s health. “We’re always looking for opportunities to bring in experts from outside of fitness, because health is so much bigger than exercise,” Margaret says. “That’s one of the reasons we were excited about partnering with Icona Health. We want to create opportunities for women to hear from different healthcare and wellness professionals and learn how all of those pieces fit together.”
Margaret continues, “The idea behind Provision is providing people with the tools, education and community to feel strong and capable in their bodies for the long term. Women go through so many different seasons of life: pregnancy, postpartum, hormonal changes, aging, injuries, career changes, motherhood, menopause, and their bodies and needs change throughout all of those seasons. We think movement should be something that adapts with you, rather than something you have to force your body to fit into.”
At the workshop, women at every age and stage did a 30-minute strength workout led by Provision lead instructor Kristy McKinney followed by an education session with Alan and Amy about hormone health. Participants asked questions and learned about options for treating not just perimenopause and menopause but postpartum depression and other hormonal syndromes. “Women go from puberty to pregnancy and postpartum to pre- and perimenopause and finally menopause, and each stage has its own challenges,” Alan said during the workshop. “Our goal at Icona is to help you optimize your hormones so that you can live your best life.”
Margaret stresses the importance of women building and protecting muscle strength, protecting metabolic and hormonal health and taking care of emotional and spiritual health. “At Provision, we really want to reinforce the idea that internal beauty is more important than external beauty. We want women to feel strong, confident, capable, connected and at home in their bodies, not feel like they have to constantly change their appearance to be healthy or worthy,” she says.
In addition to perimenopause/menopause care, Icona Health also works with women suffering from PMDD, PMOS (formerly PCOS) and postpartum depression. “Our favorite thing is working with couples,” Amy says enthusiastically. “It is very rewarding when both people in the relationship are feeling their best.”
And for Amy, through Alan’s research, she has found a new lease on life through hormone replacement therapy. Her advice for women experiencing hormonal imbalances, “You are not alone, and don’t wait. If you are having symptoms that affect your quality of life, seek help and don’t be ashamed to talk about it.”
To learn more about Provision Studio, visit provisionstudio.com, and for more information about the services Icona Health provides, visit iconahealth.com.
