I'm Dr Orlena.

Physician, health coach, and guide for women navigating perimenopause and menopause.

Most doctors treat disease. I teach women how to create health.

I'm
Dr Orlena

Physician and health coach for women in menopause.

I help women in perimenopause and menopause stop starting over — and build health that actually lasts.

My story

I trained as a physician — a paediatric doctor. I spent years learning to diagnose and treat disease, and years more doing something subtler that turned out to matter just as much: teaching parents how to build healthy humans. Not with prescriptions, mostly — with habits, routines, environment and patience. I didn't know it yet, but it was the perfect apprenticeship for the work I do now.

In 2011 I moved to Spain, and somewhat by accident stepped away from clinical practice. When you've been "the doctor" your whole adult life and suddenly you're not, the question who am I now? doesn't ask politely.

Then in 2012 I had twins — four children under four and a half, in a beautiful place. And I remember the moment I saw myself clearly: I was a grumpy mum living in paradise. Exhausted, last on my own list, surrounded by sunshine and too worn down to enjoy any of it.

What I did next

I didn't overhaul my life. I started embarrassingly small — one yoga class a week. That was it. But one kept promise led to another. The classes multiplied, the swimming started, the strength work followed. Today I exercise every single day, and I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not through willpower — through small habits, kept consistently, until looking after myself stopped being something I did and became someone I am.

Meanwhile, my doctor's eyes kept seeing the same pattern. Medicine is extraordinary at treating illness and strangely quiet about creating health. A woman in her forties or fifties who is gaining weight, sleeping badly and slowly losing confidence in her own body doesn't have a disease — so the system offers her a short appointment, advice she's heard a hundred times, and the unspoken suggestion that she should try harder.

These women didn't need more information. They needed someone to help them build a healthy life that actually lasts. That's why I built Positively Healthy You.

How I work

I teach the Menopause Thrive Framework™ — four pillars that work with your changing body instead of against it.

Nourish. Protein, blood-sugar stability and food that satisfies.

Strengthen. The muscle that protects your metabolism, bones and independence.

Restore. Sleep and stress regulation, where the hormonal rules have changed most.

Rewire. The mindset and habits that turn knowing into doing — because knowledge was never the missing ingredient.

Your body isn't broken. It's changing.

Start with the podcast

Every fortnight on Fit and Fabulous I talk through what's actually happening in perimenopause and menopause — and what to do about it, in a way that fits a real, busy life. It's the easiest way to get to know how I think.

Take me to the podcast