Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Shealy.
Hi Sarah , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve spent my entire career caring for women during big transitions—pregnancy, birth, postpartum. I am educated as a Certified Nurse Midwife. I spent almost two decades as a Professor of Nursing teaching students to blend clinical skill with empathy. I’ve always loved science and evidence-based care, and I truly believe in the body’s innate wisdom when properly supported.
But despite all my training—degrees from Wellesley and Yale—when I hit perimenopause, I was completely unprepared. I have always been fairly healthy, eat well, like to exercise. Then gradually seemingly out of nowhere I had heart palpitations, insomnia, debilitating hot flashes, recurrent UTIs, and a massive kidney stone. Despite my large personal and professional network of health care providers, no one could connect the dots. I felt invisible. It was a deeply humbling—and motivating—experience. I realized there is a big knowledge gap around perimenopause and hormonal wellness in the mainstream medical community.
I’m GenX, daughter of a nurse and an engineer, a mother, and a midwife, so my approach to a problem is to study it and solve it.
My personal health struggles led me to order the clinician’s guidebook from the Menopause Society (the medical professional organization for menopause in the US). I read the guide cover to cover and began to understand the unique biology of this chapter of a woman’s life. I read dozens of journal articles and started solving my own health along the way. I decided to sit for the certification exam and passed!
As a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner, I joined a small but growing number of practitioners around the country who have a deep interest in caring well for menopausal women. I quit my professor job to found and launch HeyElli Midlife Health, my modern menopause practice.
While I miss my students, I am so honored to have this 3rd chapter of my career and get to work with women who want to feel better and are ready to take charge of their health. My practice offers care for perimenopause, menopause, and postnatal depletion. Everything I offer is individualized, grounded in science, and deeply respectful of each person’s experience.
I am particularly interested in the connections between postnatal depletion and perimenopause—two huge life phases that often get brushed aside. There’s so much overlap, and so much healing that can happen when we treat postpartum as the pivotal midlife rite of passage that it is. I have been working with my Australian doctor friend Oscar Serrallach, author of The Postnatal Depletion Cure over the last few years to bring more awareness of the importance of the postpartum time in setting the stage for the health trajectory of a woman’s life.
At HeyElli, I use a holistic, evidence-based approach that includes hormone therapy, nutrition, movement, supplements, and mindset. My clients are grateful to see how much better they can feel. I love watching them come back to themselves. My favorite thing to hear from my clients is “I feel like myself again.”
Research is now clear that menopause hormone therapy is a key piece to protecting bones, brain, and heart health for midlife women. It is very satisfying to know I am helping women be stronger and extend their healthspan.
Personally, my health has rebounded and I am stronger than I have been in years.
As it was for me, it is true for many people, often you don’t realize how poorly you felt until you start feeling better.
Returning to one’s self is a profound part of the midlife journey and it feels amazing to be strong and confident in my body. I love to ski, trail run, hike, and travel. I have 4 adult daughters who are smart and fun and accomplished. I have an amazing partner who is the love of my life. We all love to travel and eat and I want to be around for a long time to hang out with them.
When I am not in the “Menoverse,” you can find me exploring our amazing LA food scene, enjoying our beautiful city, or in the mountains. I make it a regular habit to get into the gym because we are training for life. In the kitchen, I cook like a grandmother, rarely measure anything and often improvising. A review of my camera roll by a friend revealed it is filled with images of food, snow, and babies!
I am excited to be able to do all the things I love to do for as long as I possibly can and to help as many people experiencing menopause to find their way through safely and with joy.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not!
It’s been full of pivots, steep learning curves, and growth I never expected. I spent over two decades as a midwife and nursing professor—I loved the work, supporting families, mentoring new nurses and midwives. But when I hit perimenopause, I felt completely unmoored. I had anxiety, insomnia, heart palpitations, and crushing fatigue—and despite all my clinical experience, I couldn’t find anyone who could help. That was both scary and humbling.
At the same time, my mother’s health was failing. I was traveling back and forth from Los Angeles to New York every month to help with her care. She passed just as the pandemic hit and then right away I was teaching nursing students through a global pandemic while trying to keep my family safe and grieve the loss of my mother.
That season taught me a lot—about resilience, flexibility, the fragility of life, and how quickly the ground can shift beneath your feet. Watching birthing families and students navigate so much uncertainty really deepened my empathy and renewed my commitment to making healthcare more human. I had to learn to make, edit, upload videos, create entire online courses in a short time. Keeping students engaged and still learning while much of class time was online was a challenge but made easier thanks to their enthusiasm and passion.
After becoming a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner and deciding to start HeyElli Midlife Health, then came the biggest plot twist of all: entrepreneurship. They didn’t teach how to start a business at Yale School of Nursing. I had to learn everything from scratch: websites, branding, social media, systems, strategy. It was like getting a second graduate degree in building from the ground up.
There were plenty of moments I felt doubt or imposter syndrome. But I kept going, because I believe midlife women deserve better care, better information, and to feel truly seen during this powerful stage of life.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about HeyElli Midlife Health?
HeyElli Midlife Health is a modern menopause and midlife care practice designed to support people through one of the most overlooked yet transformative stages of life. I offer personalized, evidence-based care that includes hormone therapy, nutrition, supplements, movement, and mindset—all tailored to help people feel vibrant, strong, and clear-headed again.
What sets HeyElli apart is how individualized and empowering the care is. I take the time to listen, educate, and co-create a plan that works for your unique body and life. I blend clinical science with deep empathy, and my clients know they’re not just another chart—they’re seen, heard, and supported by someone who’s been there, too.
The name HeyElli is inspired by Elli, the Norse goddess of aging, who famously beat Thor in a wrestling match—surprising everyone with her quiet, underestimated strength. That’s the energy I want to bring into menopause care: one that honors the power, resilience, and wisdom of women in midlife. This phase isn’t the end—it’s a whole new beginning.
I’m especially proud of how HeyElli is redefining menopause care: making it smarter, warmer, more accessible, and less stigmatized. I also specialize in exploring the connection between postnatal depletion and perimenopause—two transitions with surprising overlap that rarely get discussed.
Currently, I offer one-on-one virtual visits for hormone therapy consultations, symptom assessment, and holistic wellness planning.
What I want readers to know most is: this doesn’t have to be the struggle phase. You can feel like yourself again—strong, clear, and powerful. Maybe even stronger than before.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
We’re on the edge of a real transformation in midlife health. For too long, menopause has been left out of the conversation, and most healthcare providers still receive little or no training in how to support people through this stage. That’s going to change.
In the next decade, I see menopause becoming a central focus of women’s health—more research, more funding, and most importantly, a better-trained workforce. We need more clinicians who are truly prepared to support midlife with evidence-based, individualized care—not outdated myths or quick dismissals.
That’s why I’m developing something called The Meno Learning Lab—a resource hub for both providers and midlife individuals to learn the science, understand the options, and feel confident navigating this transition. It’s still in the works, but it’s part of my larger mission: to educate, empower, and normalize menopause care.
We’ll also see a rise in personalized medicine, where hormone therapy, nutrition, movement, and mindset are tailored to each individual. I think menopause clinics will become as common as OB/GYN practices, and we’ll finally start treating this chapter of life not as decline, but as a powerful rite of passage.
It’s an exciting time—and I’m committed to helping build what’s next.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sarahshealy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahthemidlifemidwife/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.shealy.543
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-shealy-msn-cnm-ncmp-menopause-specialist/
Image Credits
First Photo – Photographer Maiwenn Raoult
