How Tafiq Akhir Became Mr. Menopause | Origin Story
===
Tafiq Akhir (Mr. Menopause): [00:00:00] How does a man become a leading voice in menopause education and strategy? Well, it's a question I get asked a lot now, but what's interesting is that for many years that never came up at all. So today I want to share how I got into this work, what actually qualifies leadership in menopause education and how clarity.
Not gender helps many women navigate menopause with better understanding. I'm Tafiq Akhir, Mr. Menopause here and welcome to the Mr. Menopause Show.
On the Mr. Menopause Show, this is where we make menopause. Make sense? No noise, no guessing. Just clear, compassionate evidence-based education. And you know, for over 15 years, I worked in private practice and women sought me out for support with hormone balance, health and weight management. The conversations were all about symptoms, [00:01:00] confusion, frustration, and most importantly, relief.
It was about finally understanding what was happening in their bodies. My gender was never even part of those conversations. It wasn't until COVID when I started doing this work online more visibly, and the attention started to shift towards who was delivering the information rather than the quality of the information itself.
But I do have to say what grounded me then and what continues to ground me to this day is remembering the women that I worked alongside for all those years. The relief that came with understanding the confidence that returned once their symptoms were actually managed and fully explained in a way that actually made sense to them.
The work didn't change, the education didn't change, the care didn't change, and the outcomes didn't change either. So I kept strong in my dedication and you know, one of the reasons why clarity matters so much to me [00:02:00] is because I've seen it. And I know how overwhelming menopause can feel when you don't have the language of what's happening in your body.
And that's also why I wrote my book because it's specifically designed to explain menopause in a clear, practical way without fear or fluff. And you know what? If you wanna go deeper into this work, you can actually read the first two chapters for free. They lay the foundation for understanding how menopause of.
Affects the whole body and why so many symptoms are often missed or dismissed. And I share the link for those chapters in the description. And look, I also want to share that I'm not here to mansplain or tell women what to do either, nor do I profess to know what it feels like to actually have gone through menopause.
But menopause education. Is not built on lived experience alone. You know, if that were the case, cardiologists would need to experience heart attacks and OBGYNs would need to give birth [00:03:00] leadership in menopause education is built on depth of study, clinical, understanding, real world application and responsibility.
I've studied, I've trained, I've certified, I've tested. Most importantly, I've listened. See, for more than two decades, I have worked alongside women as they navigated this transition, translating complexity into clarity and helping women understand what was happening in their bodies. Menopause education is not about a single part of anatomy, right?
It's about interconnected systems in a woman's body. And I bring objective, non-biased, evidence-based guidance that's grounded in research and client results. And it's all about delivering information responsibly. And you know, the more similarities that I saw with my clients and my mom, the more I came to realize that this work didn't begin in a classroom for me.
It actually began in the middle of a snowstorm over [00:04:00] 30 years ago. You know, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and one winter night during the heavy snow storm, my sister and I heard these strange noises coming from my mom's room. And when we opened the door, we found her standing in front of an open window, drenched in sweat, and trying desperately to cool down.
Snow was blowing into the room. It was freezing cold, but none of it helped her. That was menopause. And at the time, I didn't have a language for what I was witnessing, but what I did see was a confident, creative woman struggling in silence, hot flashes, headaches, unexplained weight gain, medications that created more problems than they solved, and a growing loss of confidence.
Doctors gave her prescriptions, but not explanations. There were no open conversations. There was no education. There was just silent. And you know, my mom passed away at the young age of 52, and although I cannot prove it definitively, I do believe that many of her illnesses [00:05:00] were a byproduct of unmanaged and mismanaged menopause symptoms and side effects.
She deserved better. She deserved information. She deserved options. She deserved clarity, and although I didn't know it at the time, that night, planted a seed for the work that I do today because as my career developed, I began seeing the same patterns in my clients that I saw in my. The hot flashes, sleep disruptions, anxiety, brain fog, weight changes that made no sense, the joint pain, heart palpitations, digestive issues and more.
And almost always the same story. No one had explained what was happening to them. They were told it was stress or aging or something that they simply had to tolerate. And what decades of this work has shown me is this. Menopause is not a reproductive issue that should be dealt with in silence. It's a whole body transition.
Estrogen and progesterone [00:06:00] influence nearly every system in your body. Your brain, heart, bones, joint, guts, the nervous system. And that's why there are more than 80 recognized symptoms and side effects of menopause, not just hot flashes and mood swings. And when women lack this context, menopause can feel chaotic.
But when they have it. Patterns emerge and with understanding decision making improves. And you know, here's another important truth, because most medical professionals receive minimal education on menopause and many training programs. Menopause is briefly covered if it's covered at all. And that gap, it leaves women confused and dismissed.
It leaves providers without the tools that they need to provide comprehensive care as well. And you know, this is not about blame. It's about systems and it's about education. You know, I've seen it time and time again. Once a woman understand what's happening in her body, everything changes for [00:07:00] her. She asks better questions.
She advocates more effectively. She engages in care decisions with clarity. Instead of confusion, I've watched women who used to walk out of medical appointments feeling defeated, who now act as a partner in their own care and walk out informed simply because they finally had the language for their experience.
And this is why my work has always centered on proven. Evidence-based education. Objective, non-biased guidance, grounded in research and client results. I also provide reliable and vetted resources with thoughtful strategic support, not opinion, not anecdote, not guesswork. Education creates autonomy.
Objectivity builds trust and clarity allows women to move forward without ever feeling lost. That commitment to clarity and education is what continues to guide my work in menopause and healthy aging [00:08:00] every single day. And if what I shared about doctors has you guessing whether your provider is proficient in menopause care, and if you're not getting the answers that you need, I highly recommend watching or listening to my episode called.
Five questions every woman should ask her doctor about menopause. It's a practical next step if you're not getting clear answers about symptoms like brain fog or exhaustion, or the unexplained weight changes, just to name a few now, be sure to subscribe before you head over to that episode and I'll see you there.
Until next time, stay safe and be well.
