What did @heathercrock actually say?
She made two core claims: that family practice providers receive only "two days" of hormone training, and that this is insufficient to manage hormones properly. She's speaking from personal experience, having had a hysterectomy young and spending years with what she describes as poorly managed hormone replacement. Her recommendation is direct: leave your family practice and see a hormone specialist instead.
To her credit, she's not selling anything in this clip. She's not pitching a product or a clinic. She's a nurse practitioner with 20 years of clinical experience sharing something that affected her personally. That context matters when evaluating how much weight to give her claims.
Does the science back this up?
Mostly, yes. The training gap she's describing is real and documented. Studies show that most medical and nursing programs spend very little formal time on menopause and hormone management specifically.
A 2019 survey published in Menopause (Kaunitz et al., 2019) found that a majority of ob-gyn residents felt unprepared to counsel patients on menopause management. If ob-gyns report this gap, it's reasonable to assume family practice and nurse practitioner programs are in similar or worse shape. The Menopause Society (formerly NAMS) has publicly stated that menopause education in medical training is inadequate across specialties.
Hormone physiology is genuinely complex. Optimizing estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone for surgical menopause, which is what a hysterectomy can cause depending on whether the ovaries were removed, involves different protocols than natural menopause. The two-day figure she cites is plausible and consistent with what curriculum surveys have found in NP programs.
What did they get wrong (or right)?
She got the core argument right, but she overgeneralizes in a way that could send people to worse care.
The blanket statement that family practice providers "don't know what they are doing" is an overreach. Some family practice physicians and NPs do pursue advanced training in hormone optimization through organizations like NAMS, A4M, or BHRT-specific fellowships. Specialization is not limited to endocrinology or dedicated hormone clinics. A well-trained family medicine physician who has pursued continuing education in menopause care may outperform a self-titled "hormone specialist" with no formal credentials.
The term "hormone specialist" also has no regulatory definition in most U.S. states. Anyone can call themselves one. A clinic advertising hormone optimization is not automatically better than a careful, evidence-reading family practice provider. This is a real problem she doesn't address, and it matters because patients following her advice could end up at a cash-pay pellet clinic with aggressive dosing protocols and no lab monitoring.
Her personal experience is valid. Her sweeping clinical recommendation needs more nuance than a 60-second video can provide.
What should you actually know?
If you have surgical menopause, as @heathercrock does, your hormone needs are genuinely more complex than someone in natural perimenopause. Surgical menopause is abrupt, often occurs younger, and can involve testosterone deficiency in addition to estrogen and progesterone loss. Research by Davis et al. (2015, The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology) confirmed that testosterone deficiency is underrecognized and undertreated in women post-oophorectomy.
The practical advice here is to look for providers with verifiable menopause-specific training. The Menopause Society maintains a certified menopause practitioner directory. Board certification in endocrinology is another option for complex cases. For hormone optimization outside of disease management, ask any prospective provider what training they have specifically in hormone therapy, how they monitor labs, and what guidelines they follow. If they can't answer those questions, that's a signal.
The instinct to seek specialized care is correct. The execution of finding it requires more due diligence than "go to a hormone specialist."
Bottom line: should you act on this advice?
Partially. The underlying point, that hormone management is a specialized skill and general training is often insufficient, is supported by evidence. The specific recommendation to leave family practice entirely is too broad. A more useful frame is to evaluate your current provider's actual knowledge and outcomes, not their practice setting. If your symptoms are unresolved after a reasonable trial, seeking a second opinion from a provider with documented menopause or hormone therapy training is a reasonable next step.