Twelve Minutes to Fix Your Life
September 29, 2025
How primary care's assembly-line approach fails women
In this blog, you will find:
- Why 15-minute primary care appointment addressed only one of five interconnected health concerns - and dismissed the rest as "normal aging"
- How the medical system's fragmented approach bounces women between specialists who treat isolated symptoms instead of seeing the bigger picture
- Why irregular periods, brain fog, joint pain, skin changes, and sleep problems were all connected to the same hormonal transition
- What real primary care should look like - comprehensive, coordinated care that treats interconnected health as a whole system
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Yesterday Rebecca told me about her latest primary care appointment, and I wanted to throw something.
Five concerns she needed to discuss: irregular periods, brain fog that was affecting her work, joint pain that kept her awake, skin changes that made her avoid mirrors, and sleep problems that left her exhausted.
Appointment time: fifteen minutes.
Issues addressed: one. Irregular periods got a referral to gynecology. Everything else dismissed as "normal aging" or "probably stress."
This isn't healthcare. This is medical triage disguised as comprehensive care.
Primary care has become an assembly line of rapid-fire symptom sorting instead of actually caring for people's primary health concerns. Women get bounced between specialists who only see their tiny piece of a much larger puzzle.
Rebecca's irregular periods aren't just gynecological. Her brain fog isn't just stress. Her joint pain isn't just aging. Her skin changes aren't cosmetic issues. Her sleep problems aren't bad habits.
They're all connected to the same hormonal transition affecting multiple body systems simultaneously. But our healthcare system doesn't work that way.
You get twelve minutes with a primary care doctor who's incentivized to address one chief complaint and move you along to the next appointment. Complex, interconnected symptoms that require time and thoughtful evaluation don't fit this model.
So you end up with a gynecologist who only talks about periods. A psychiatrist who only addresses mood symptoms. A dermatologist who only treats skin concerns. A sleep specialist who only focuses on sleep hygiene.
Nobody connects the dots. Nobody sees the bigger picture. Nobody understands that your body is an integrated system, not a collection of separate problems requiring separate specialists.
Meanwhile, you feel like you're falling apart and nobody gets what's actually happening.
This fragmented approach explains why so many women feel failed by healthcare. Your symptoms don't exist in isolation, but you're forced to pretend they do to fit into specialty silos and appointment time slots.
Rebecca's hormonal changes were affecting her sleep quality, which was affecting her cognitive function, which was affecting her stress levels, which was affecting her mood, which was affecting her skin and joint health.
Everything connected. Everything affecting everything else. But traditional healthcare treated each symptom as if it existed in a vacuum.
Real primary care should address hormone health, brain function, skin vitality, emotional wellbeing, and metabolic health as interconnected aspects of your overall wellness.
It should involve spending actual time understanding your complete health picture instead of rushing through isolated symptoms in abbreviated appointments.
It should focus on optimizing your health instead of just managing symptoms, addressing declining function before it becomes disease, and partnering with you to create the vitality you deserve.
Primary care should be the foundation of your health, not just a gateway to specialist referrals. It should be comprehensive enough to address the complex, interconnected nature of women's health.
Rebecca's health transformed when she found care that treated her as a whole person rather than a collection of separate symptoms requiring separate specialists.
Her energy returned when we addressed the hormonal changes affecting her sleep. Her brain fog cleared when we supported her cognitive function during hormonal transition. Her mood stabilized when her sleep improved and her stress decreased.
Her skin quality improved when we addressed the underlying hormonal causes instead of just surface treatments. Her joint pain decreased when we reduced inflammation and supported her changing physiology.
"I finally feel like I have a healthcare team instead of a bunch of random doctors who don't know what the others are doing," she told me.
That's what primary care should feel like: coordinated, thorough, personalized care that addresses your health holistically instead of fragmenting you into separate problems.
You deserve primary care that actually addresses your primary health concerns. You deserve providers who see connections between symptoms instead of treating them in isolation.
You deserve comprehensive care that optimizes your health instead of just managing your diseases within rigid specialty boundaries.
Stop accepting fragmented healthcare that bounces you between specialists who don't communicate. Start demanding primary care that treats you as a complete person with interconnected health needs.
Because when primary care actually focuses on your primary health instead of insurance efficiency and appointment quotas, everything changes. You get coordinated care instead of scattered specialists. Understanding instead of dismissal. Solutions instead of referrals.
This is what primary care looks like when it's designed around women's actual health needs instead of medical system convenience. health, energy, and vitality.
Because when women get comprehensive care instead of annual disease-hunting, everything changes. Energy returns. Confidence grows. Aging becomes something you do with strength and vitality instead of decline and resignation.
This is what women's health looks like when it focuses on thriving rather than just disease prevention. We are excited to launch a new program for women. Stay tuned for more details soon!
Meet the Author
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