Functioning Is Not Thriving | Dr. Stephanie Zwonitzer on Hormones, Menopause, and Sexual Wellness
The Intimacy InquiryShow Notes
Dr. Stephanie Zwonitzer is a doctor of nursing practice, certified nurse practitioner, and the founder of Revive Institute of Sexual Health, a cash-based clinic dedicated to hormone optimisation and sexual wellness. She also hosts the podcast Between the Sheets with Dr. Z. Her path into this work began in cardiac, surgical, and geriatric nursing, but it was urology and sexual medicine that changed everything: saving relationships, addressing erectile dysfunction and vaginal pain, and realising that dramatic change was possible for patients who had simply been told their bodies were done. In this conversation with Andrew, Stephanie traces the thread from a rural Wisconsin upbringing where sex education meant abstinence and essentially nothing else, through a clinical career that repeatedly exposed the same gap: nobody in mainstream medicine was connecting hormonal decline to quality of life, and nobody was treating sexual wellness as the essential part of overall health that it is. They cover a great deal of ground. Why erectile dysfunction is often one of the first signs of heart disease, and why it is always multifactorial. What happens to testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone from your 30s onwards, and how those changes affect everything from cognition and mood to pain during sex. Why hormone replacement therapy is still not taught in standard medical school training. Why women were not required to be included in US research studies until 1993. And why early hormone replacement may reduce the risk of dementia, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. Stephanie and Andrew also explore what it means to redefine sex as pleasure rather than performance; the value of wellness tools and a self-pleasure practice; what providers can learn from the BDSM community about ongoing consent; and why a single yes is not a yes for life. She explains why she walked away from corporate medicine and ten-minute appointments to found Revive, a clinic where she takes as long as each patient needs, examines hormones in combination rather than in isolation, and has no intention of franchising. Practical, warm, and long overdue. Revive Institute of Sexual Health: revivish.com Between the Sheets with Dr. Z: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/between-the-sheets-exploring-sexual-health-wellness/id1760176031?uo=4 https://www.instagram.com/betweenthesheetswithdrz/
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