What the Healthcare System Won't Tell You: Donna Figueroa on Hormones, Healing, and Functional Medicine After 60
Donna Figueroa spent her entire career in women's healthcare — as a board-certified nurse midwife and nurse practitioner — and still didn't know how to help herself when perimenopause hit. Aching joints, failing eyesight, pending hip surgery, and a medical system that told her to simply buckle up. Instead, she discovered functional medicine, uncovered food sensitivities, a gut infection, and heavy metal toxicity — and healed without going under the knife. At 60, she went surfing to celebrate. Now the founder of Midlife Midwife Functional Health in Leesburg, VA, Donna helps midlife women find their optimal wellness by addressing root causes rather than masking symptoms with medication. Her story is a blueprint for anyone who has been told to simply accept how they feel.
Key Takeaways
- Traditional medicine treats symptoms; functional medicine investigates root causes — they are fundamentally different approaches.
- Perimenopause is frequently dismissed. Declining hormones affect joints, sleep, cognition, vision, skin, and more.
- Food sensitivities, gut infections, and heavy metal toxicity are silent drivers of chronic illness that standard bloodwork often misses.
- You don't have to accept 'this is just what happens.' Healing is possible at any age with the right approach.
- Entrepreneurship in healthcare is slower, harder, and more regulated than any business course will tell you — and worth every obstacle.
- Starting over at 60 isn't too late — it's a second chapter with decades of clinical wisdom behind it.
Show Notes
Guest: Donna Figueroa, NP, founder of Midlife Midwife Functional Health, Leesburg, VA. Licensed nurse practitioner, board-certified nurse midwife, certified in functional medicine, specializing in hormonal health.
In this episode, Toye and Donna cover: why traditional medicine treats symptoms instead of root causes; what functional medicine actually investigates and how it works; the perimenopause symptoms most doctors dismiss (joints, sleep, eyes, skin, nails); her own health transformation — food sensitivities, gut infection, heavy metal toxicity, stem cell therapy instead of surgery; healing 40 pounds, joint pain, and insomnia without medication or surgery; starting a medical practice at 60; navigating telehealth vs. brick-and-mortar medical billing requirements in Virginia; hormonal health for women over 40; and why there is profit in treating symptoms but not in healing.
Connect: Midlife Midwife Functional Health, Leesburg, VA