Hot flashes, weight gain, intimacy issues: these are old friends. Am I oversharing? The fact is that menopause and women’s health was my entrée into healthcare. Helping evolve the Knowmenopause website also evolved my POV, as an ad professional—and as a human being. Learning medical details was “easy.” What confounded me was the tone-deaf surround-sound confronting too many women, from society… and even some health pros: “It’s the same for everyone, honey, so deal!” Suddenly, I wasn’t crafting clever promotions for B2B tech or 3-in-1 cable service. Now I had a responsibility to, and increasing respect for, individuals who were confronting this change—indeed, “The Change”—in their bodies and lives.
Even as I’ve engaged with other serious conditions, those first lessons stay with me. An opportunity to revisit the field, even through others’ eyes, is a chance to reflect, anew, on what should drive all our contributions to an active health dialogue.
Here’s to responsibility and respect…
From the August 01, 2014 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
