Vanessa Ross ’91: Raising Her Voice to Empower Women to Live Their Best Lives

By Conchita Ruiz-Topinka
If you have ovaries, you can learn a lot from spending time with Vanessa Ross, CNM, MSCP, Class of 1991. Let’s say hormones are wreaking havoc with your life and your doctor dismisses the symptoms with “it’s all in your head.” According to Ross, you should respond with: “Yes. You’re right. My brain is literally changing, and my body is reacting. My symptoms are real.”
Ross, a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner (MSCP), has made it her mission to arm women with facts and confidence to embark on their midlife journeys.

“When we flip the script on the negative cultural narrative about menopause and midlife, we empower ourselves to make the second half of our lives even better than the first,” she said. “We can’t change things until we feel empowered to speak up about what’s actually happening with us and have our experiences validated.”

Cognitive and mood changes are inevitable as the brain transitions from being focused on reproduction to the menopause life stage, explained Ross. “We have MRI imaging to actually see what that looks like in the brain and it’s similar in a lot of ways to what happens during puberty and pregnancy,” she added.

“I feel compelled to spread the word. I see so many people feeling like they’re just falling apart and there’s no solution, but there are solutions,” said Ross. “We unfortunately have a very youth-obsessed society, but I think that’s beginning to shift. I see my generation embracing and being very open about aging and staying healthy.”

Early in her career, as a freshly minted nurse midwife with a degree from the University of California San Francisco, she tackled pregnancy and childbirth with the same zeal. “What I found in midwifery was a very female-centric, empowering model of listening to women and supporting them in their choices, seeing pregnancy and birth and all of our life cycles as normal unless proven to be otherwise,” said Ross, who has delivered over 1,000 babies and currently serves as a faculty advisor to midwifery students.

Ross is an instructor of obstetrics and gynecology at UMass Chan Medical School - Baystate in Springfield, Massachusetts. With a colleague, she also runs clinics specialized in chronic pelvic pain, sexual wellness, and menopause care at the Baystate Midwifery and Women’s Health Group. She teaches midwifery students, nurse practitioners, OB-GYN medical residents, and practicing physicians in the community about menopause. According to Ross, provider education is important because there’s a 20-year gap of knowledge about menopause care due to the Women’s Health Initiative study from 2002 that questioned the safety of hormone replacement therapy. Many providers are not as well versed as they would like to be on the subsequent research indicating that the benefits outweigh the risks for the majority of women. Studies indicate that on average, healthcare providers receive one hour of formal medical education on menopause. That’s one hour for a life stage that affects half the population and can last from 7 to 10 years. Ross and other women’s health advocates point to these discrepancies as symptomatic—no pun intended—of a broader ailment.

Sparking an Interest in Healthcare

“There has been a dearth of women’s health research. Most medical studies have either not included women or included very small numbers of women,” said Ross. “Historically, there’s been more emphasis on this idea that women’s hormonal changes would complicate the results of studies, rather than actually wanting to make sure that these medications work for women. That they’re safe for us.” 

Her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis when Ross was 15 years old sparked Ross’ initial interest in healthcare. Through her mother, Ross saw the system at work, warts and all. 

“Her experience was eye-opening for me. She shared a little bit with me about surgeons who weren’t really listening to her about symptoms and problems she was having after the surgery,” said Ross, who went to Rhodes College as a sociology and anthropology major soon after.


“When we flip the script on the negative cultural narrative about menopause and midlife, we empower ourselves to make the second half of our lives even better than the first.”

With her interest in equal opportunities for women and a desire to improve the Spanish-speaking skills she had developed at Hutchison, Ross jumped at the chance to participate in a service learning trip to Honduras, sponsored by the anthropology and religious studies departments at Rhodes. She worked with women in rural areas as part of Heifer International’s program to provide women sustainable wages and independence through farming and livestock development. It was a transformative experience, leading to a Fulbright Scholarship and cementing Ross’ interest in midwifery and women’s health.

Following her graduation from Rhodes in 1995, she returned to Honduras for nine months as a Fulbright Scholar. She continues to serve many Spanish-speaking patients today in her clinics at Baystate Health.

Empowering women and giving them a voice have been the motivating factors throughout Ross’ life. As editor of the Signpost student publication at Hutchison, she used her voice to advocate for change and build awareness about “new” issues like recycling. An anti-May Day editorial did not gain traction, she recalled laughing, but she had success on other fronts.

In 1991, Martin Luther King Jr. Day had been an official national holiday for nine years, but Hutchison and other private schools had the option to opt out of the observance. Ross penned a convincing editorial, and the school changed its policy. “Yes, I would say I was always speaking my mind,” she said.

Apparently, her classmates were listening! Ross was selected by the Class of ’91 to represent them as the Meg Thomas Student Speaker at commencement. “Vanessa always had a wise voice. She was elected to be our Meg Thomas speaker and did a brilliant job at that,” said Megan Wellford Grinder ’91. “I can still remember feeling that it was written in a way that all of us could relate to. It was a speech that appealed to the whole class.”

Grinder and other members of her graduating class once again turned to Ross when they recently responded to her invitation to a special webinar called Navigating the Menopause Transition. “We experienced puberty together. I thought, ‘Why not share menopause?’ ” explained Ross.

“Puberty’s Older Sister” 

Comparisons between puberty and menopause are made because they are both rooted in hormonal shifts. In a recent presentation, Ross included a cartoon naming menopause “puberty’s evil older sister.” 

In Ross’ life and health coaching practice for midlife women—the newest iteration of her quest for empowerment— the puberty reference fits because she challenges women to take stock in their lives and reevaluate choices, with the benefit of maturity and life experiences. It is a theme embraced by the classmates who attended Ross’ talk.

“When a woman reaches midlife, I believe she starts reflecting more on those experiences, and from those reflections she can then gain a clearer picture about who she was, who she actually is, and who she wants to become,” said Tiffani Hughes Gross ’91, a participant in Ross’ webinar. “So yes, in a way, midlife is the beginning of the rest of our lives.” That’s Ross’s mantra, and of course, she has facts to back it up.

“We will live 40 to 50 percent of our lives after menopause, depending on our life expectancy. Someone who goes through menopause at 45 and lives to 90—that’s 50 percent of her life. If someone goes through menopause at 51 and lives to 90, it’s almost 40 percent of her life. That’s a significant chunk of time,” said Ross. “So instead of the older approach of ‘it’s all downhill from here,’ I think this generation doesn’t want it to go downhill. We want to be healthy and active … we have to learn how to take care of ourselves in a different way.”

For her part, Ross practices what she preaches to her coaching clients and patients. A lifelong yoga enthusiast and an instructor for more than 10 years, she also does strength training for bone health.


“We will live 40 to 50 percent of our lives after menopause, depending on our life expectancy … It’s a significant chunk of time … We want to be healthy and active … We have to learn how to take care of ourselves in a different way.”

Menopause and Younger Generations

Ross believes menopause awareness among younger women will destigmatize the process and be less emotionally burdensome in the long run. It also empowers (there’s that word again) younger women to advocate for their own health.

“If you are going to end up being menopausal at 45, you could easily start having symptoms at 35,” said Ross. “That’s super important for people to know, because they may come in and see a provider who’s not that well-educated about menopause and be told, ‘No, no, you’re too young.’ That’s not right.”

With so many ways to consume information today, young women have many more resources. Ross said she’s confident that future generations will be better equipped to ask the right questions. “I think Hutchison girls today are definitely better equipped to advocate for themselves, certainly more than we were when graduating in 1991,” noted Grinder. “We’re teaching girls to hear and obey authority figures, but to speak up when something doesn’t ring true—to investigate further on their own. We’re teaching them to discern what’s coming from a valid source.”

Ross is glad to know that Hutchison encourages each girl to find her unique voice. In her personal growth journey and in her life coach practice, she sees how women have to unlearn self-imposed limitations and perceptions prescribed by society. “We need to take charge of how we view ourselves,” said Marian Kelly ’91, who attended the webinar with her classmates and agrees midlife is a good time for introspection. “Many of the circumstances we have inflicted on ourselves by trying to adhere to the cultural narratives about women. One huge piece of that narrative, which Vanessa is doing a great job of disrupting, is the absurd idea that we shouldn’t talk about things like menopause. Vanessa not only talks about it, she normalizes it, and this is hugely important in helping women to view themselves in less limiting ways.”

“I want to support women at midlife because I think midlife women are what the world needs to make the world a better place—powerful, energized, midlife women. It’s just such a potent time in our lives. We have decades of experience to share. We need to leverage that for the benefit of the world,” said Ross. “This is a very powerful time in our lives as women,” she said.
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