Ms. Amanda Dierking Bliss
| Gender | Female |
| Designation | MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC |
| Short biography | I'm a double board-certified family and psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner with a patient-centered, trauma-informed approach. I'm among the ver large group of healthcare providers who were taught nothing about hormone management (aside from hormonal birth control) during my clinical education. Over 17 years of experience as a nurse practitioner has helped me curate the type of care I offer my patients: always leading with curiosity and compassion, providing validation and education, and always, always presenting patients with options for what their care will look like. My first job out of my nurse practitioner program was at a non-profit clinic that provided reproductive and sexual health care for all ages, sexes, and gender identities. For 17 years, I've been comfortable prescribing testosterone to trans men for gender-affirming care, and to cisgendered men for hypogonadism and all it entails. And for all of my 17 years of practice, my female patients/patients with ovaries have had menopausal hormone needs. Until recently, I didn't know how to help, nor did many other providers in our community. I’m a perpetual learner; I follow emerging evidence and patients’ needs when determining what my next ‘deep dive’ will be. Most recently, this meant recognizing the percentage of my clients whose mental health was directly tied to their age, stage of life, and hormonal status. I've completed an extensive course on prescribing and managing hormones in perimenopause and menopause (led by Dr. Heather Hirsch) and am looking forward to the upcoming ISSWSH Fall Course and/or Annual Meeting. Simply prescribing vaginal estrogen cream to many of my clients has, by their report, significantly improved their quality of life, while others are sleeping better with progesterone...and still others are using Veozah for night sweats and VSM. It's rare in mental health (and even in primary care) to see such dramatic improvements with simple, evidence-based treatments. Perhaps more than anything, I'm excited to keep educating women about the options for protecting bone health and cognitive health - I see so much anxiety in my clients about falls, loss of function, dementia as part of aging. Even though I work primarily in mental health these days, I'm honored to help women who want to do so get off their antidepressants, off their anxiety medications, and get back to feeling like themselves and enjoying their lives. |
| Work address |
Bliss Progressive Psychiatry 159 St Matthews Avenue Suite 8 Louisville, KY 40207 United States ( USA ) |
