In this week’s episode of Routes of Healing, Dr. Siri Chand Khalsa sits down with Dr. Michelle Gordon, a triple board-certified physician (Surgery, Obesity Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine) and menopause expert who helps high-performing midlife women feel like themselves again.

Together, they explore what happens when women hit the “second act” collision course: menopause, body changes that don’t respond to old rules, aging parents, identity shifts, and the quiet (or not-so-quiet) realization that serving everyone else has come at a cost. Dr. Gordon shares her own pivot from a 15-year surgical career to telehealth-based, physiology-forward medicine rooted in behavior change, hormones, metabolism, sleep, brain health, and compassionate truth-telling.

This conversation moves through the cultural fallout of the Women’s Health Initiative, why many clinicians stopped prescribing hormones (and why the science has evolved), the promise and pitfalls of GLP-1 medications, and why individualized dosing, follow-up, and “dose vs. volume” literacy matter—especially in a world of fast, protocol-driven telehealth.

If you’re navigating midlife, questioning “why nothing works anymore,” or you’re a clinician hungry for a more honest model of care, this episode offers clarity, permission, and a powerful reframe: a belief is just a sentence repeated and you can rewrite it.

If you’re inspired by our exploration on Routes of Healing, a physician-led podcast uplifting the wisdom and lived experience of integrative & lifestyle medicine doctors, subscribe to receive new episodes weekly.

1. Midlife reinvention: menopause, empty nest, aging parents, and purpose
2. “Beliefs are sentences”: how early programming shapes destiny—and can be changed
3. From surgeon to prevention: why Dr. Gordon left surgery and rebuilt her identity
4. Menopause symptoms that get dismissed: flushing, weight gain, brain fog, sleep disruption
5. The Women’s Health Initiative fallout: what many clinicians were taught, and what’s changed
6. Hormones today: transdermal estrogen, progesterone for sleep, testosterone, vaginal estrogen
7. GLP-1s in real life: benefits, side effects, titration, and why individualized dosing matters
8. Obesity as a disease: inflammation, insulin resistance, leptin resistance, “food noise”
9. Why “eat less, move more” fails for many: energy balance without shame
10. Nutrition anchors: protein targets and practical breakfast strategies
11. Compounding pharmacy caution: understanding dose vs. volume and doing the math
12. Board certification in Obesity Medicine: why expertise matters (and how rigorous it is)
13. Executive health model: care outside insurance, built for continuity and outcomes
14. Confidence as a clinical...