Soft as a Daisy © lynette sheppard
Enjoy Part III of my interview with Evernow CEO, Alicia Jackson. As I mentioned in the previous posts — this is the future of healthcare for menopausal women. Read on for more about this revolutionary telehealth option.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
How does Evernow work payment wise? is it appointment-by-appointment, or is it a subscription service? If it’s subscription service, do members have the same practitioner all the time or does that change?
Alicia Jackson:
Oh, good questions. We decided to go with a subscription service. It includes your health intake, an initial full consultation with the provider, and any follow-up questions that you ever have. We offer unlimited communication with the providers. We aim to get back to you within 24 hours, often we respond within one or two hours. The first month is just $5.95 and then it switches to a subscription trial. The pricing depends on your treatment protocol.
We can adjust your treatment if necessary and offer support if you’re having side effects. Occasionally, a woman will have side effects, particularly when starting hormonal therapy.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
So true.
When I interview somebody, I always ask this. What question have I not asked you that you would like to answer for our readers? Or what else would you like to share?
Alicia Jackson:
I want to say that women come to us believing that they’re alone. They don’t realize that there are many women feeling just as they do and wondering where to get help. You are not having a far-out-in left-field experience, even if it feels like it. You are not alone. There is help and there are proven treatments. We’ve built an organization with excellent medical care that I would go to; that I would comfortably recommend to any of my close friends.
Recently, a friend came to me and I said, “You should come see our doctors. They are the best in the world. I love being able to say that we have recruited a team of people that I would send my mother to because I believe she would get better care than anywhere else. The whole focus of our medical team is to stay up to date on the latest medical research. Every week we examine a series of questions. What does the medical evidence say about this? What do you know from your practice about how this works?
We try to balance that pragmatism of what the medical societies say with what we do in practice. That is what needs to come together to deliver great care for women. We try to be clear with women about those categories and share what we know. One of our core values within the company is intellectual honesty. By that, I mean that we value being truthful with women about what we know, what we don’t know, and through that process; – supporting and empowering them to make an informed decision.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
That’s really wonderful. If intellectual honesty is a core value, do you want to talk about what the other core values might be?
Alicia Jackson:
We have two other core values. Empathy is number two.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
Tell us more about that.
Alicia Jackson:
Empathy means really listening to each woman who comes through our virtual doors, understanding where she’s at and what she’s seeking. We don’t believe in being paternalistic and telling her that “this is the right answer.” We want to work together to figure out what will work for her.
And the third core value is wit. We all like to laugh a lot, and I think that’s a really important core value. Anytime you’re going through a hard situation, whether it’s menopause or something else — you really have to find a way to have joy — to have fun with whatever you’re going through. It helps keep us healthier.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
Oh, true. Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more, which is why a lot of the stuff on the blog and in the book is funny. Because if you don’t laugh, you’ll just cry forever. So you might as well laugh because this is some funny stuff.
I think that the health care practitioner can be a great support but the support of other women going through the same thing is a critical piece. I wish I could say more women had started their own menopause goddess group after I had shared the guidelines of how to do it. It’s not hard, but whenever I send out surveys, the reason women don’t start a group is that they don’t want to lead it or it seems too hard. Yet all the women want to join such a group.
This is the most important thing a woman can do for herself during this transition time. Menopause is mostly in my rearview mirror now, as it is for most of the original goddesses, but we all realize that if we hadn’t had each other, we might’ve survived menopause, but we would never have thrived. And I’m happy to report that we have all thrived.
Alicia Jackson:
Tell me more about that. I’m interested to hear what you mean when you say thrive.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
When my good friend, Theresa, and I started the group, it was because we were going through stuff that we never expected. I’m a nurse. But there was only one sentence in a 1300 page textbook on women’s health about menopause. No wonder I didn’t know what hit me. And it isn’t any better today. My son-in-law became a nurse last year and there were two sentences about menopause in his textbook.
When menopause hit, we didn’t know what was going on. I anticipated that I might be a little warm and that would be it. Instead, it was unbelievable. The stuff that was happening to my girlfriend and I threw us for a loop. So we decided to invite some women of a certain age to see if they were having trouble as well. It was a slumber party with a focus. We didn’t know what to expect, so we developed icebreakers and exercises. We didn’t need them. Two minutes after arrival, fifteen women were just downloading. At first it was about hot flashes, all the horrible physical things. Then it was the emotional things, the changes in relationships and everything else. Then our whole focus shifted to what the second half of our life might look like. We met once a year for 15 years.
Alicia Jackson:
That’s awesome.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
It really is awesome. Of course, the first time we brought up our vision for our second act, there were fifteen blank stares. Finally, somebody said, “I don’t know, grandchildren?” With a question mark at the end. So it meant that we had no freaking idea what we would do for the rest of our lives. We helped one other through that by support and what we called compassionate truth-telling. For example, if one of us was spinning out a vision that sounded nice but was completely nuts, we’d say to her “Do you actually see how that doesn’t make any sense?”
We did thrive. We helped one another and we pumped each other up. We all did more than we ever thought we were capable of. Among the fifteen of us, we had two divorces, one marriage, multiple career changes. Yet, when we asked ourselves, what was the most important thing in helping us thrive? Everybody said hormones were important, but not the biggest thing was support from one another. It was huge.
Alicia Jackson:
That’s wonderful. One of the woman leaders in our company is in her early forties and is going through the earliest stages of menopause already. She told me, “I have this dream that actually there’s this like secret society of postmenopausal women who are so freaking amazing that that’s why you don’t hear anything about them.” And you’re saying, we’re here. This is so heartening.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
I like that. I will send you the links to how to make the group. Maybe she will want to create her own group. These days, our original group doesn’t meet regularly. We have seen each other on Zoom since the COVID pandemic. Recently eight of us ended up going to Croatia together. None of us had been there, it was just a ball. We get together now and again, in an organic fashion when we do. I can honestly say that our group has been a synergistic thing. We have all become so much more than we would have been If we’d done things alone.
Alicia Jackson:
I am so glad to be connected with you.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
Same here. I mean, I’ve been meeting some really awe-inspiring young women through this. It thrills me that you and they are so proactive. Their menopause will definitely be a better transition than ours.
Alicia Jackson:
Well, nobody else was doing this. This problem exists. And I asked myself “why is no one solving it?” I guess that means I have to build a company that will. Actually, it chose me. I had no other choice.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
I absolutely get it. I always say that the reason I had such horrible menopausal symptoms was because I was meant to do something about it. When my girlfriend and I got the group together, she said, well, we’ll do this group and you’ll write a book about it. And I said no, I won’t. I wrote one book and it almost killed me. I am never writing another book in my life, but like they say, never say never. The wisdom that these women shared was so amazing, I had to do it. Then the blog took on a life of its own. I can’t quit because there are too many women going through this transition alone.
Alicia Jackson:
And they need somebody who has their back and is looking out for them.
Menopause Goddess Blog:
Right. So I can’t ever take it down or stop it. That’s just the way it is.
I must say, Alicia, that It has been such a treat to talk to you. I am extremely excited about Evernow and what you are doing to help menopausal women. This IS the future of healthcare for women. I wish Evernow had been around when we were going through the Pause.
Click here to learn more about Evernow: evernow.co
Full disclosure: I have been compensated for this post. However, as most of you know, I don’t accept compensation for anything unless I whole-heartedly believe in it as a help for menopausal women. That’s why we don’t have any ads here.
