MICHELLE TOLLEFSON, MD, FACOG, DipABLM, FACLM, MSCP

Women Should Not Have to Piece
Together Their Health Alone.

I translate evidence into practical, compassionate pathways for women,

clinicians, and organizations - connecting what science shows with the

realities of women's lives across the lifespan.

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OB-GYN + LIFESTYLE MEDICINE

PHYSICIAN

THE MENOPAUSE SOCIETY

CERTIFIED PRACTITIONER  + PROFESSOR

AUTHOR + EDITOR

INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER

My Work Begins Where  Science Meets the Life a Woman  is Actually Living.

Across medicine, teaching, research, and curriculum design, I have spent my career asking one question: How do we turn evidence into care women can understand, access, and use?

I believe in both/and medicine: appropriate evaluation and treatment when needed, together with practical support for the daily realities that shape health. Good care helps a woman understand what matters now, what is realistic in her life, and what can help her move forward.

Evidence matters. So does the life a woman has to fit it into.

The Work Became Personal

My work brings together research, education, behavior-change science, lived experience, and care design so women, clinicians, and organizations are not left with information alone, but with practical next steps they can use.

Story Beat A

I was building this work before I knew how much I would need it.

Back in Colorado, I practiced obstetrics and gynecology, trained in health and wellness coaching, and began building lifestyle medicine education for students and clinicians. I kept returning to the same question: Why is health advice so easy to give - and so difficult to live?

Story Beat B

Then the question became personal.

In 2019, a routine screening mammogram detected breast cancer I could not feel. I found myself on the other side of the care pathway and experienced what a clear, well-designed system can provide: evidence-based treatment, skilled specialists, rehabilitation and nutrition support, counseling, family and friends, and a navigator who helped with the human questions as well as the medical ones.

After treatment, treatment-induced early menopause brought brain fog, disrupted sleep, fatigue, mood changes, and a rapid loss of strength. The cancer pathway had been clear. The next chapter was not. Even with my training, I could not find integrated guidance for what was happening - or how to rebuild.

The experience did not create my mission. It made an existing mission personal, urgent, and impossible to set aside.

Read more about cancer survivorship and the After the Bell story.

Story Beat C

From receiving care to building what was missing.

I went back to the literature - and, just as importantly, to community. I joined a PAVING the Path to Wellness group first as a participant, not a leader. I had spent years helping others. Recovery asked me to learn how to receive help, too.

I rebuilt gradually - not through one dramatic transformation or a perfect routine, but through evidence, support, practice, and beginning again. With Dr. Beth Frates, creator of PAVING, and Dr. Amy Comander, creator of PAVING for Breast Cancer Thrivers, I helped create and study resources and group-care approaches, then carried those lessons into clinician education and women's health competencies.

Breast cancer is part of my story, but it is not the whole story. The larger story is about a physician who became a patient, discovered a gap in care, learned to receive support, and helped turn that gap into tools, training, and better pathways for others.

Lifestyle medicine did not replace the care that saved my life. It helped me support the life that care made possible.

What I Am Working to Build

Across my work, I focus on six connected priorities - all aimed at making women's health

care more trustworthy, connected, practical, and humane.

Evidence Without Hype

Clear distinctions between what is established, promising, uncertain, or oversold.

Care Across the Lifespan

Care that connects reproductive health, pregnancy and postpartum, menopause, survivorship, and healthy aging.

Change That Fits Real Life

Approaches built around readiness, context, skills, and support - not willpower alone.

Clinicians Equipped for Action

Competencies, curricula, tools, and pathways that turn evidence into individualized care.

Support Beyond the Visit

Community, coaching, follow-up, and care models that make change less lonely.

Global Principles, Local Fit

Evidence-based approaches adapted with humility to culture, resources, safety, access, and local realities.

How I Approach the Work.

Four commitments guide how I teach, write, and build.

Start with the science. Stay with the person.
Name what the evidence supports, acknowledge uncertainty, and begin with what matters to the woman.

Make change possible, not performative.
No shame. No blame. Replace perfection with one meaningful step, practical skills, and the support to continue.

Use transitions as windows, not verdicts.
Treat transitions as moments to listen,  reassess, connect the dots, and support the years ahead.

Offer hope without overpromising.

Be honest about limits without losing sight  of what can still be strengthened, supported,  and built.

I Speak to Help People See What is Possible - and What Must Change.

I bring together evidence, clinical context, and human stories for women, clinicians, students, health systems, professional societies, and international audiences - helping people understand what matters and know where to begin.

I want women to feel less alone, clinicians to see practical possibilities, and organizations to recognize what must change.

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Grounded, Growing, and Still on the Journey.

I am a mother of three, and I feel most grounded in family, faith, the Colorado outdoors, strength, and community. Strength means something different to me now. It is not about appearance or proving what my body can do; it is about having the function and confidence to travel, work, lift something heavy, say yes to an adventure, enjoy time with my family, and keep participating in the life I value as I grow older.

Knowing the science does not make me perfect at living it. I still overfill my calendar and let stress crowd out rest. Some days I train hard; other days I bargain with myself just to begin. Sometimes the easier food choice wins, and some nights I stay up later than I know serves me. I know what it feels like to lose momentum - and to begin again.

Health is not a performance, and there is no finish line where we finally get everything right. We adapt, struggle, learn, and begin again. I remain a student of this work - of the science, of my own life, and of the women whose experiences keep showing us where care can be better. I hope that keeps me curious, humble, and close to the women this work is meant to serve.

I don't teach from the finish line. I am on the journey, too.

Women Deserve Better Than Another Miracle Promise.

Women deserve science they can trust, appropriate treatment when they need it, and practical support that fits the life they are actually living. They deserve care that helps them understand their choices without shame, hype, or impossible expectations.