Midi Team
Jill Herzig has spent her entire career communicating with women about health, wellness, and what’s really going on in our bodies. She brings her passion for learning and education to our content, user experience, and clinical care. This is her story of going through hormone transition:
Feeling sideswiped and confused
“I hit perimenopause on the earlier side, at 42, and the first sign was missing periods, but I had no idea what was causing that. I had just started a big new job as the editor-in-chief of a major women’s magazine. I was under pressure, and thought that the few pounds of stress-weight I’d lost might be the issue. So I went to a new ob/gyn with a great reputation, and he ran tests. When the results came back, he told me I was in menopause…and that was it. He didn’t ask me about possible symptoms, or help me understand all the potential things that might crop up for me, or talk me through treatment options. He just sent me on my way, feeling sideswiped, confused, and alone.”
Hot flashes, bathroom runs, and zero help
“Pretty quickly, I started to get hot flashes and night sweats. I’d find myself in staff meetings, with twenty or more editors gathered around me, trying to oh-so-subtly run my finger over my upper lip to wipe away the sweat. Not pretty. At night, I was up five times or more kicking off covers and pulling them back on, then trying to function the next day on fractured, frustrating sleep. I also got famous for running super-efficient meetings, but the real reason I cut to the chase was that I had to pee constantly! Now I know that estrogen depletion can cause a ton of urinary problems, in addition to hot flashes and a vast array of other symptoms. But because my doctor hadn’t said a thing about any of them, or told me to reach out for treatment, I suffered through with lots of lip-dabbing, bathroom runs, and coffee (which didn’t help with the peeing, but I was too exhausted to care).”
Building the care that was missing
Fast forward nearly a decade. Motivated by the utter lack of support I'd gotten from the medical establishment, I joined Midi as a co-founder, to help build the missing piece in women's health: accessible, expert menopause care. I was thrilled to become one of Midi's very first patients in New York. At that point I was 56 and thought my remaining symptoms weren’t “bad enough” to warrant hormones. But when I looked at my bone density scan with my Midi clinician, neither of us liked what we saw: Osteopenia, a precursor to osteoporosis, had already set in. So I started on an estrogen patch and nightly progesterone, ostensibly to strengthen my bones (HRT is FDA-approved for that purpose). Then came unexpected relief from a host of symptoms I'd been putting up with, like the frog that gamely swims in boiling water. Instead of struggling to nod off at night, using meditation apps and wind-down rituals and pops of melatonin, I fall into deep, dark sleep—the kind of rest I used to get and could barely remember. I’m less stressed, maybe because of all that sleep, or maybe because progesterone is considered the relaxation hormones. I now think that my memory was affected by menopause, because on HRT it’s sharper than it has been for ages.”
Refusing to simply accept new symptoms
“Even with the protection of HRT for my bones, I have to pay extra close attention to osteoporosis prevention, so a lot of my daily routine is focused on that. Midi has taught me to lean into healthy eating, but also augment with supplements. I keep tackling new goals: My next one is handling stress better with the help of a “cortisol manager,” because lower estrogen means higher cortisol, and that makes me super reactive. I find it’s a matter of always noticing what’s going on, refusing to simply accept new symptoms, and trying different approaches until I feel a positive change.”
Jill’s regimen
- Estrogen patches and nightly progesterone
- Daily activity, with an emphasis on weight-bearing workouts like Pilates, plus bone-toughening cardio (jogging)
- Magnesium, Calcium, and Vitamin D for bones
- A diet rich in calcium, including tons of leafy greens and tinned fish (“sardines in salad—don’t knock ‘em til you try ‘em!”)
- Cutting out added sugar wherever possible
- Cortisol manager for stress
