Women's wellness guide

Resilience, resources, and expert advice on living a happier, healthier life

Owning Her Story

Last year, Joanna Haydon thought she would celebrate surviving cancer, but the pandemic’s isolation inspired another journey.

Joanna Haydon knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. Neither could doctors. For two years, she had excruciating stomach pains and food intolerance. She cut out dairy and then gluten. Eventually, a colonoscopy revealed the cause: a tumor.

“Not one time did I think I had cancer,” says Haydon, an attorney and instructor with indoor cycling gym CycleBar. “It didn’t even cross my mind.”

In May 2019, at age 31, she was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer. The first week was a flood of fear. She remembers thinking, Everything I’ve worked for I am going to have to give up.

Raised in Chicago, Haydon was one of five children in an athletic family. She played basketball with her brothers and ran alongside her sister in marathons. At the time of her diagnosis, the longtime fitness buff was training for another race, teaching three to four indoor cycling classes a week, and sticking to a vegan diet. Why me?, she wondered, How did I get here? People told her, You’re too young, too fit. This doesn’t happen to people like you.

“We have no control over anything—that’s so hard to actually understand,” she says now. “But I realized uncontrollable events are going to inevitably continue to happen. I think I’ve gained confidence in myself that if I go through a dark period, if I fall,  that I have confidence that I will rise. I will get out of it.”

She was determined to live as close to normal as possible during treatment. She continued to work full-time and taught two cycling sessions each week. “Everyone I told thought I was crazy,” she says with a laugh. “My husband told me, ‘If you want to, you will.’ And he was right.”

She not only wanted to try living an active lifestyle but found that she needed to continue pushing forward. There were days when she needed to reduce the resistance on her stationary bike, but she continued the cycling classes, even while receiving treatment at Siteman Cancer Center and taking multiple vitamins a day.

By December 2019, Haydon was finished with chemotherapy and thought she was entering a new era of her life. “I was given this new status that we all want following a cancer diagnosis: survivorship,” she says. “But I was just not prepared for this phase at all—and then, all of a sudden, I was in quarantine.”

Haydon, who describes herself as an “extremely social person,” says she found herself battling loneliness, in addition to chemotherapy-induced hormonal issues. For the first six or seven months, just as the COVID-19 pandemic reached the St. Louis area, Haydon was also considered immunocompromised.

“That just took such a toll, not only on me but also on my husband,” she recalls. “We didn’t see family or friends. I was in such a vulnerable spot; it was just so difficult.”

Her husband of five years, Caleb Haydon, is a corporate attorney and at one time frequently traveled for work. Last year, however, the couple found being able to spend time together while they were both working remotely was a silver lining.

Over time, certain aspects of normalcy returned. Haydon, a judicial appellate law clerk during the day, also leads CycleBar classes some evenings, instructing and encouraging the 40 to 50 attendees to keep pace.

It’s this pace that is so awe-inspiring. Since her diagnosis, Haydon has been determined to share her story with others. She’s on the board of directors for patient-empowerment and advocacy organization Fight Colorectal Cancer and devotes time to fundraising for Pedal the Cause, the annual cycling event that raises money for cancer research at Siteman Cancer Center. Haydon rides every year on a team called Powered by Hope.

“Siteman saved my life, so I will do anything for the doctors,” she says. “That’s a huge reason I’m also very open about my story with colorectal cancer, because it is affecting so many other people. We need to figure out why this is happening; cancer research is needed.”

Haydon says she’s spoken with myriad women facing stage 4 colorectal cancer during the past eight months. She sometimes explains that prior to her cancer diagnosis she was wearing “a mask” of sorts—that she felt everything had to be perfect. Then her cancer diagnosis changed all of that; she felt compelled to be more open about the obstacles she was facing. As she tells other survivors, “Compare your story less, and own your story more.”

Haydon’s own story continues to evolve. She’s training for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon in December and hosts events at Lululemon in the Central West End as an ambassador for the fitness apparel brand. Haydon also soon will stop leading CycleBar classes while she prepares to take night classes to study clinical social work. She hopes to work with women who’ve endured cancer treatment and are experiencing infertility or medically induced menopause after receiving radiation in the pelvis. She’d also like to find ways to provide mental health support for patients.

“The minute you’re told that you need to have a surrogate [or adopt], you can’t even understand it,” she says, adding that it was difficult for her to accept for a long time. She and her husband are currently experiencing highs and lows while exploring the option of surrogacy; another person carrying your child is the most intimate relationship you can have with someone, she says, so searching for the perfect one can be taxing. Still, they’re looking forward to what the future holds while living in the present.

“Something that has never been lost on me is that I can have a recurrence and be back to square one on chemotherapy,” Haydon says. “I just have to remind myself, ‘This is where I’m at. I have to be here.’”

Beyond Birth

Expert advice on postpartum care

Abigail Wozniak sees a glaring need in this country for postpartum care. A registered dietitian nutritionist and certified lactation consultant, Wozniak says that rates of depression and anxiety are “skyrocketing.” So she founded Smooth Transitions Support, a business designed to provide consultations and guidance to mothers. She also shares helpful insights on Instagram.

What role can social media play in providing support? Overall, I think social media is doing wonders for moms. It feels like the majority of women have some sort of birth or new-mother-related trauma. Whatever they struggle with, they can find a mom on social media being vocal about something similar enough. This helps them feel less alone and validated… Postpartum information is almost completely absent from our health care model; social media is helping fill in the huge gaps.

What mental health challenges do new moms face? We tend to not pay attention to moms’ physical or mental needs postpartum. We don’t think anything is a big deal until it’s such a big deal that it can’t be ignored. We go from telling mom it’s “just part of being a new mom” or it’s “just baby blues” to “Oh, no! She has a postpartum mood disorder.” There are disorders like postpartum thyroid problems—many women have problems, and they’re often brushed off as anxiety before a later diagnosis. It is estimated that more than half of women go into pregnancy depleted. Many of us never even hear about our extra needs, and a lot of them have to do with mental health. When mental health does get “bad enough,” moms are often prescribed medication—which I am not against—but it would be nice if we also had someone explaining nutrient depletion, prevention, and looking for other root causes.

How can mothers care for their mental well-being? Find support. Women aren’t meant to go through postpartum alone; humans are tribal. In every other society we have history of, the aunts, the sisters, and the mother take care of the baby—support from multiple people is necessary. Preparation ahead of time is key as well, but even with that extra preparedness, support after the baby arrives is essential.

How has the pandemic affected postpartum practices? For many, it is a really isolating time, and the pandemic has made the isolation even worse. The six-week checkup has also gotten worse; so many report having the checkup on the phone now or not at all. Many first-world countries have pelvic-floor physical therapy automatically. It was pretty hard to get a referral for a pelvic floor issue before, but without physical checkups, it’s even harder.

What else are you hearing from moms? Anxiety is increasing, and many don’t have sufficient time for themselves. Even if they were to get a break from the baby, they usually don’t get to leave, so it doesn’t feel like a real break… Many are going back to work at home but with the baby, and their emotions are high. Many feel like they are expected to mother and work at the same time. It’s causing rifts in families, too. There is so much more family pressure, conflict, and stress than I have ever seen.

What advice would you share with new mothers? Advocate for yourself. Be mindful of where you’re getting your information, make sure [who you’re listening to] is actually educated in this area, but then use [that information], save it, and advocate for yourself.

A Menu for Moms

Wozniak on postpartum power foods

“‘Mom brain,’ a phrase often used to describe the forgetfulness and brain fog that can sometimes come over women during motherhood, comes from lack of fat,” explains Wozniak, “especially if you’re breastfeeding, because you’re using more fat to breastfeed than you actually used to grow the baby.”

Wozniak’s advice: “Double your protein for the first six weeks. Eat a ton of protein and a ton of fat.” At every meal, eat a fat and a protein, as well as a fiber or carb, plus minerals or electrolytes and smoothies or drinks two times a day. In terms of protein, aim for a minimum of 100 grams per day, with a focus on animal foods and powders. For fats, plan on about 20–35 grams per meal. EPA/DHA fats needs are especially high. Consider quality dairy, fatty fish (with low mercury), grass-fed butter, olive oil, avocado, and coconut. Try to stay away from vegetable oils, as they contribute to inflammation.

Look for these postpartum power foods: eggs, oysters, liver, broth, soups, mineral smoothies, protein shakes, fatty fish, quality full-fat dairy, fatty animal cuts, meat, seafood, seaweed, coconut water or milk, fruits, veggies, quality fruit juice, saffron, and turmeric. And focus on such minerals as magnesium, sodium, potassium, iodine, copper, and zinc.

Fresh-Pressed

Eager to add some pop and nutritional heft to your diet? Take notes from this fruit-filled dish.

It’s hard to find a more colorful (or Instagrammable) dish than the Ocean Bowl at Hello Juice & Smoothie. A veritable rainbow of brilliant shades signal a bright burst of fruit-forward flavor—and provide a study in the makeup of a nutritious dish.

Coconut milk and coconut flakes: The coconut milk is house-made and only includes water and coconut. The milk and coconut flakes are also full of healthy fats.

Dragon fruit chip: Hello Juice & Smoothie team manager Kayla Brown admits this ingredient was added to the top of the bowl to heighten its alluring aesthetic. But it does offer other benefits: The dragon fruit provides a concentrated dose of vitamin C.

Pineapple and mango: These sweet, tropical fruits contain high amounts of vitamin C. Pineapple is also packed with naturally occurring digestive enzymes that are good for the gut.

Blue spirulina: A powdered form of spirulina algae, this ingredient not only provides the bowl’s signature color but it’s also “extremely high in antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins,” says Brown, adding that any bright and colorful fruit dish is likely packed with minerals.

Thinking for Two

Before the CDC’s recommendation that pregnant and breastfeeding people get vaccinated, mothers and physicians navigated a tough decision.

Dr. Jeannie Kelly, a high-risk obstetrician at the Washington University School of Medicine, knows that for new mothers, any uncertainty about the health of their babies can be scary. So to address the concerns recently voiced by pregnant and breastfeeding patients, Kelly and her colleagues set out to learn more about the effects of breastfeeding after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

Based on data from other vaccines, Kelly and her colleagues believed it was safe for breastfeeding patients to receive the vaccine and that it might even provide babies with protection through antibodies. But because pregnant and breastfeeding patients were excluded from the original vaccine trials—a practice that is fairly common—there wasn’t much concrete data to give to patients.

To conduct a clinical trial earlier this year, at a time when vaccinations were only available to health care workers, Kelly and her team recruited a small group of breastfeeding health care professionals “who desperately wanted to help us prove the concept that antibodies are transmitted into their breast milk.”

Dr. Kathy Bligard, an OB-GYN, was among the caregivers eager to help out. For Bligard, the trial began after her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and before the second. She collected her breast milk four times before receiving the second dose and then once every week for around 12 weeks. She stored the samples in her freezer and set up drop-offs with Kelly’s research assistants.

The researchers eventually concluded “there was a nice, robust antibody response that resulted from vaccination,” says Kelly, “and then was sustained for the entire duration of the time that we were having Mom express breast milk.”

In August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its recommendation for pregnant or breastfeeding women to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, noting that the benefits of vaccination against the novel coronavirus outweigh any possible risks of the immunization.

While Kelly and Bligard continue to see vaccine hesitancy among some patients, they encourage pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to get vaccinated. “Not only does it protect them,” says Kelly, “but it also confers protection to their babies.”

Real-time research

A Washington University scholar is studying short-term menstrual changes following vaccination.

Certain side effects are to be expected after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Some patients, however, reported other unexpected changes.

Katharine Lee, a Washington University postdoctoral researcher, is among the authors of a University of Illinois study that asked respondents about menstrual changes after receiving the vaccine. “Thousands upon thousands” of the survey’s 130,000 respondents indicated a change in the first two months, says Lee, who adds it’s not necessarily a reason to be concerned.

The changes reported have been mild, often consisting of heavier periods or spotting for those who don’t usually have periods, whether due to birth control, menopause, or hormone-replacement therapy.

“Hearing about these changes should come with messages that menstrual cycles are supposed to be dynamic and change in response to things happening in your life,” says Lee. Those changes aren’t permanent and can result not only from a vaccine but also from variables such as stress, strep throat, or other challenges to the immune system. “A lot of times, worries about menstrual cycles get really tied up in concerns about future fertility, and there’s just no reason to suspect that that’s what’s going on here.”

Because the survey involved a voluntary questionnaire and not a lab study, Lee and her coworkers cannot speak to the overall prevalence of the changes in the population or whether a vaccine is the cause of the changes, as opposed to other factors. Future studies could help determine the prevalence or biological cause of the changes, but for now Lee stresses that getting vaccinated is essential.

“Even if a couple of cycles are less comfortable for a number of folks, the long-term protection from COVID is really important.”

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