August 2025
Dr. Polly Watson is a board-certified OB-GYN with over 20 years of experience, specializing in menopausal, sexual, and functional medicine. She is an expert in addressing a wide range of hormonal concerns, including PCOS, PMS, perimenopause, menopause, low libido, and sexual pain. As a certified practitioner with the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), Dr. Watson integrates holistic care approaches that go beyond traditional medicine.
Can you share what inspired you to transition from traditional gynecology to focusing on menopausal and functional medicine?
My mother went through menopause at the age of 38, and she was a huge inspiration for me going into women's medicine. I saw how profoundly her needs were not addressed and her concerns were not taken seriously. This led me to focus on menopausal medicine early in my career, having become certified with the Menopause Society almost 15 years ago. The transition to functional medicine was really inspired by my patients. They were coming in with bags full of supplements that I didn't really know anything about. I especially remember getting questions over 15 years ago about adrenal fatigue that I couldn’t answer. When I brought these questions to the Menopause Society, I felt like they were kind of dismissed. I knew that my patients were genuinely suffering, and I needed to expand my training. So, I started with the American Institute for Holistic Medicine with Mimi Girardi and took a week-long class on understanding supplements. It was like a lightbulb went off! I was suddenly around healthcare providers who weren't exhausted and burned out, but healthcare providers who were excited, inspired, and inspiring. Here were a group of doctors who were looking for connections and solutions rather than just writing prescriptions. These folks had hope. I was hooked.
Can you share how your training with the Institute for Functional Medicine shaped your practice and the perspective through which you practice today?
I started my training with the Institute for Functional Medicine in 2016-2017 and learned so much about the gut-brain axis, the gut microbiome, lowering systemic inflammation, and understanding energy production and mitochondrial health as it relates to toxicity, and so much more. The key takeaway from functional medicine training is really understanding and appreciating how interconnected all the body systems are, which is so different from Western medicine training where we're really taught to think within our own system and not really expand beyond the single system we were trained in. I think this is so important for hormonal health because we know that as our hormones are changing, it affects our insulin resistance, it affects our gut mobility, it affects our gut microbiome, it affects our energy production, and everything else in our body. So, I love that I can incorporate functional medicine training into hormonal health because I feel like women deserve care that embraces their whole person. Incorporating functional medicine training into hormonal management raises the bar far above what is currently offered in pellet clinics or that is offered with online hormone replacement therapy prescribers. Our job as functional medicine physicians is to help educate and empower the patient to lower inflammation in their bodies and promote longevity for the rest of their lives. We are not here just to write you a prescription, either being a bioidentical hormone or a supplement. We're here to act as teachers so that we can partner with you and give you the tools so that you can age better for the rest of your life.
What are the key differences between functional medicine and conventional medicine, particularly in treating hormonal imbalances?
I think a huge difference between a conventional approach and a functional medicine approach is really illustrated by perimenopause. Perimenopause is a time in our lives which can last between two and ten years and is characterized by enormous hormone fluctuation that can affect all body systems and really have wide-reaching health consequences. In traditional Western medicine, we're really just taught to flatten out the hormonal fluctuations by putting women on hormonal birth control pills. So, in that model, we're not really working with the body systems; we're just trying to cover them up and mask the symptoms. From a functional medicine standpoint, we would be looking at either nutraceuticals to help boost progesterone or giving bioidentical progesterone, helping balance blood sugar, helping normalize circadian rhythms, working on identifying and treating insulin resistance, improving lean body mass with weight training and adequate protein intake, and supporting healthy stress management strategies to normalize cortisol. All of these things that we would use in functional medicine will really serve this patient for the rest of their lives, not just the season of imbalance. In functional medicine, we're not trying to mask the symptoms; we're trying to understand the root cause of the symptoms and address that problem.
What role does your podcast, "Menopause Rescue," play in educating and supporting women through midlife transitions?
I am so excited to share my podcast, "Menopause Rescue," with your community. It has really been a labor of love to try to get the word out and help women advocate for themselves in the healthcare space. We know that only 7% of OB/GYNs feel confident about managing menopause after they finish their training. That is abysmal. Women shouldn't have to do their own jobs and manage their own families and also have to be experts in some healthcare issue they have no training in. So, my goal with the podcast is to help educate and empower women so that they can be better advocates for themselves as they try to get the healthcare that they deserve during the menopause transition.
How do you integrate sexual medicine into your practice to provide comprehensive care for women?
Training I have done with ISSWSH (International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health) and ISVVD (International Society of Vulvovaginal Disease) has been transformative in giving me tools to help women succeed in overcoming challenges in sexual medicine. My toolbox for treating these conditions got much bigger when I had more training. More importantly than that, I learned how to listen and ask better questions. We can’t get anywhere in addressing sexual medicine concerns unless women have a safe space in which she feels comfortable discussing her problems. We talk about sex with compassion and humor. Sexual health is just as important as mental health or cardiovascular health. It deserves just as much attention and care.
