Why Women Need Their Own Wellness Spaces
Recently, I hosted a private Female Fridays session where women could ask Kelly Casperson, MD candid, unfiltered questions about hormones, sexuality, and intimate health.
It was one of the most powerful 90 minutes I’ve experienced in months and it was rated 4.9/5 by participants.
Women asked questions they’ve never been able to ask in a mixed room about sex, vaginal care, rectal cancer, hormones, vibrators, and everything in between. When the call ended, many were so grateful and reached out directly stating so.
The recurring reflection:
“I’ve never been able to talk about this before.” " I felt so safe and connected to our YPO community to share."
That’s what this work is about creating safe, informed environments where women can speak openly, without fear, shame, or needing to justify why their voice deserves to be heard.
After our session, Dr. Casperson and I discussed. She said:
”It’s unbelievable the poor level of access women have to doctors who are actually up to date. Female physiology deserves its own research, language, and care pathways. [You're] creating spaces where women can […] get science-based information that helps them advocate for themselves. That changes healthcare outcomes.”
And yet, days later, a male physician told a colleague: “Why do women need their own wellness spaces? Men and women face the same health issues.”
That comment reminded me how deeply this outdated belief still runs in medicine that women’s bodies, hormones, and stress responses should fit neatly into systems designed around men.
I’ve spent three decades building businesses, raising a family, and navigating my own body through perimenopause. I’ve sat in countless boardrooms where “wellness” was discussed as a productivity metric rarely through the lens of how a woman actually feels in her body.
Women do need their own wellness spaces.
Not to separate ourselves but to understand ourselves.
Our biology, energy cycles, and leadership rhythms are different. We deserve the freedom to listen to our bodies, to talk openly about hormones, stress, vitality, and aging without apology.
Research continues to show that women’s health remains dramatically underfunded and under-researched. Most clinical studies still use male biology as the default. That gap shows up everywhere from how we train, to how we recover, to how we lead.
If you’re leading a company, community, or forum and want to explore how to build truly inclusive wellness systems by and for women, reach out. I speak and facilitate workshops on female vitality, leadership, and the science of women’s wellness.
And for those still doubting whether women “need” their own spaces…
Perhaps it’s time to ask whether the spaces we already have were ever built for women in the first place.
To your vitality,
Lizanne
https://lnkd.in/en-87pNe