Dawn Black, ARPN, WHNP-BC, MSCP has dedicated her career to serving women, from her two decades spent as a Nurse Practitioner in the Air Force to her work now as a clinician at Elektra Health.
We sat down with Dawn to learn more about her journey, how her time living abroad shaped her career, and what she loves most about providing menopause-centered midlife care.
What inspired you to go into medicine? Did you always know you wanted to pursue a career in healthcare?
I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to go into healthcare. And I don’t necessarily know why, because I didn’t come from a family of medical professionals. I suppose it was just that I always knew I wanted to be in a profession where I could help people. It sounds so cliche to say it was a “calling,” but I really think it was. There wasn’t any other career that I considered.
What led you to practice nursing in the Air Force?
Although my dad was in the military, I never had any intention of going down that path. But then my senior year of college, an Air Force representative came to visit. And I said…huh, I might want to do that for a couple of years. I ended up staying for 24!
What kind of medicine did you practice in the Air Force?
When I was in nursing school, I wanted to be a NICU nurse. But when I joined the Air Force, there were two tracks to choose from: labor and delivery or surgery (med-surg). I thought to myself…labor and delivery is the closest to seeing babies, so I’ll do that. I eventually got transferred to Germany, and then came back to the University of Florida (Go Gators!) to get my master’s degree and became a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner.
I ended up living in a lot of really cool places during my career in the Air Force. As I mentioned, I was in Germany, but also Japan, Korea, and the Azores. I also traveled for work across the United States, including Tuscon, Arizona and Colorado Springs. My first and last assignments were here in Florida.
How did you transition from women’s health more generally to menopause in particular?
When I worked at my last clinic, we got a lot of referrals from family medicine providers and I pretty quickly realized that most of them knew very little about menopause. The patients referred to me would come in and tell me that they were mainly just offered antidepressants – or, worse yet, ignored and told “that’s menopause for you…you’re going to have these symptoms.” I became frustrated with the status quo and wanted to learn more, which is why I eventually became certified by The Menopause Society.
I love practicing menopause medicine because you can see the almost immediate benefit that women get from being treated for their symptoms and not being ignored. I can’t tell you how many times patients would tell me… thank you for listening. Too often, women’s symptoms are blown off as a “normal part of life.” They’re told that there’s nothing they can do, which is simply not true.
You’ve been seeing patients at Elektra Health for a few weeks now. What has struck you during that time?
The women I’ve been seeing are so well-versed in being able to identify their symptoms. They’ve been reading and educating themselves about menopause. So I’ve really been stepping in to educate them about their choices. Too often, women are being sold compounded formulations — and paying a premium for them — when there are safe, FDA-approved medications that are covered by insurance. These medications are well-researched, and you actually know the concentration of what you’re getting. It’s been very gratifying to educate patients about this to dispel some of the myths regarding certain hormonal and non-hormonal treatments.
Also, with medical care today, clinicians may have 15 minutes to spend with a patient. They don’t have the time to address multiple issues in one appointment. The Elektra platform allows time for questions, answers, and understanding.
If you could tell a woman who’s suffering from menopause symptoms one thing, what would you say?
We can definitely help you to feel better and on the road to feeling more like yourself again. You don’t have to feel this way.
Rapid fire round with a few fun questions…
Your favorite place to travel…
I love most everything about Europe and European culture. We try to take one big family vacation a year, and this year we went to Germany and visited the friends we made when living there in the 90s. There’s just something about European history and their way of life that keeps drawing us back. We’ve also recently traveled to Ireland and England as a family.
Your favorite book to read…
I’ve been loving Kristin Hannah recently. She writes with such emotion – her books leave me in tears. If you haven’t read The Women or The Great Alone, I’d definitely recommend it.
Your favorite type of exercise…
I actually just completed the Rock and Roll half marathon in Arizona – I try to do a race like that every year or every other year. Other than that, I love riding the Peloton bike and doing their weight training workouts on their app.
