About

About Dr. Sara GottfriedHow I Went From Frazzled, Frumpy and Fat to Enjoying the Best Years of My Life… and You Can Too!

Hi. I’m Dr. Sara Gottfried. I’m a wife, mother to two incredible girls (ages 8 and 13), friend, scholar, seeker, yoga teacher, Harvard-trained MD with 20+ years of experience, and author of the forthcoming book The Hormone Cure.

But first and foremost, I am a woman. And like you, I know what it’s like to constantly feel tired, overwhelmed, cranky, and sometimes unattractive.

In my thirties, I suffered from what I call the 4 “F’s” – frazzled, frumpy, fat, and you can imagine the fourth “F.” I was a stress case, in couple’s therapy, and premenstrual. I went to my doctor and he offered Prozac and birth control pills, but that just didn’t feel right.

I decided to apply my medical training to myself, and I discovered my cortisol level was insanely high (something my traditional doctors told me wasn’t a big deal). Within one month, I had fixed the issue and felt enormously better. I took on my low thyroid next, and then my bad estrogens. I ate differently, exercised less, and took 5 supplements. I lost 25 pounds and graduated from couple’s therapy. I was on to something!

The solution to my problems became The Gottfried Protocol, and it has worked gloriously well on the 10,000+ women I’ve seen in the past 10 years.

Now, I enjoy:

  • Plenty of healthy food (that I have to bribe my kids to eat)
  • Exercising less, and I’ve maintained the weight loss for many years
  • Running every Sunday with my girlfriend, Jo (your girlfriends are your best defense against the challenges that drag women down)
  • Spending quality time with husband (who is the founder of a very cool green building NGO – USGBC.org)
  • Hanging out with my daughters, especially when we do things that amplify happiness, such as learning and being in nature together

I have reclaimed my life. Using my own journey as a source of inspiration, I have created several online programs to help other women reclaim their lives.

I’m a gynecologist, but I don’t treat problems. I don’t even treat symptoms: I specialize in root cause analysis because I know – and evidence shows – that the greatest health transformations are triggered when you address the root cause, not the signs.

Rather than treating problems or symptoms, I treat people. I treat women. I see women – and what I see every day is that each woman is a special snowflake. Sometimes I prescribe supplements that fill nutritional gaps that you might have. Sometimes I prescribe an iPhone app that helps you connect to your heart. Sometimes I prescribe botanical therapies with a very low risk profile. Sometimes I prescribe bio-identical hormones. Many times I prescribe all of the above. With every patient I see, I consider her unique context, physiology and preferences…and then invent a treatment plan to promote maximum health and happiness. It’s not one method fits all. It’s not fix-’em-up-and-send-’em-home. It’s a mission.

My mission at The Gottfried Institute – and in life – is to help women feel sexy, vital and balanced from their cells to their souls. That means getting your weight right where you want it, getting your energy and sex drive maximized, and doing it all naturally and safely. Ultimately, you will get your hormonal Charlie’s Angels working for you, not against you. Hop on my bus and shift from feeling “OK” to living your life fully and authentically from the heart.