--- title: "Courage in the Crossroads: My Journey into Medicine" entity: "blog" canonical_url: "https://www.drsmithnd.com/blog/courageinthecrossroadsmyjourneyintomedicine" markdown_url: "https://www.drsmithnd.com/llms/blog/courageinthecrossroadsmyjourneyintomedicine" lastmod: "2025-10-14T00:13:00.000Z" --- My mission has been clear and pretty singular for nearly 20 years going strong: to elevate as many women as possible toward resilient, vibrant health. What most of you don’t know is that I walked away from a successful career in television at age 30. I left the set for the last time—and along with it, the would-be husband, the white-picket fence, and the more traditional path. Both were good decisions, although at the time, it all felt impossibly hard. The truth is that I knew my career—while quite interesting—was not what I was supposed to be doing with my life, I just didn’t know what I was…supposed to be doing with my life. Man I have to say that it gnawed at my heart for years until a collision of events finally brought clarity, though it was difficult to accept initially. It meant going back to school... and back to school again, and….again. I had to do some courses to qualify for premed, do premed, then the 4 year full time program. While my friends were getting married, building careers, and having children, I was staring down years of debt, complete immersion, and feeling totally behind. It was a scary thing to do in many ways, but it was a true crossroads—a climb to somewhere and to someone I had to become, even though it felt both crazy and risky. Several experiences nudged me toward this decision, catching my attention and pulling me to lean in, even when I wasn’t sure what I was leaning in...to. Volunteering for an NGO in Calcutta, my role was filming and interviewing sex trade workers retraining for new lives, but I found myself far more fascinated by the medical providers' work in caring for these women. On another job on a small ship deep up the Amazon, I spent many nights navigating winding tributaries with the ship’s Russian doctor to provide care for indigenous people who paddled out seeking help, waiting patiently for our workday to end. Through broken Portuguese, Spanish, and English, we managed to connect, and what I experienced on those nights changed me forever. The plant medicine in action I witnessed was profound - completely mind blowing. The truth is, the core reason I became a doctor is because of my mom. In her mid-fifties and during a visit to see me in South America, she contracted a tropical infection that spiraled into devastating health issues. This health crisis stole her formidable career, her sense of self and confidence, and nearly her marriage. To this day, she struggles mightily. The weight of that impact on me is hard to fully describe. Having lost my biological father to prolonged illness at age six, then witnessing my mother battle cervical cancer that had spread immediately after that, this latest chapter triggered deep, old fears. For the record, her illness resulted from an abnormal PAP smear that was lost due to human error—never communicated or followed up on. This could have cost her her life and it did shatter her ability to have another child. Get your lab results, always dear reader. A close friend recently found a napkin we’d written on years ago, before I was even actively trying to figure out how to change my career path. She asked me: If you could have one superpower, what would it be? To heal. Throughout her journey, my mother has been gaslit, dismissed, and disrespected by doctors more times than I can count. She did also have a couple of medical doctors who were complete legends, and whom we will never forget. Of note, a naturopathic doctor and traditional Chinese medicine doctor also played incredibly key roles in her health story. My mom is my hero and is the guiding light behind why I chose and continue to choose helping women heal as my north star. I didn’t realize in the beginning that my non-negotiable subconscious need to save my mother would bring me here—to the very heart of the gender and conventional medicine gap. To a place where so often women are told to tough it out—that their pain, hormones, or conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, PMDD, thyroid disease, PMS, or osteoporosis are just “natural,” “normal,” or just “aging.” We’ve been culturally conditioned to tolerate suffering and outdated options, often without even realizing it—until later. Women, you should know, were only included in medical research starting in the mid-1990s. For 18 years now, I have worked at this confluence where hundreds of women have come to me seeking ultimately, a path back to themselves. Now you know the drum that beats in my heart and why I keep growing and striving to learn more and do better. I have built my life’s work around pulling women forward swimming as hard as I can in a kind of soul contract. Keep. Going. I am here to be a part of the movement towards equality in medicine, and be a bridge integrating modern pharmaceutical science with the invaluable original medicines rooted in real, chemical-free food, botanical and energetic therapies, nature connection, movement, and nervous system healing. There are still signs showing me that I am exactly where I’m meant to be—moments with patients, strangers, nature, almost lost memories, my own health experiences and feelings beyond words, but I now know what they mean. Thank you for staying with me, dear reader. Now you know more of me. Dr. Kirsten #### Hi, I'm Dr. Kirsten Smith #### Women’s health warrior and advocate with 15+ years of experience in hormonal health My goal is to support women at all stages of their hormonal journey, through pre-perimenopause, perimenopause and post-menopause.