Sistah Pause

Black women 35+ dealing with fatigue, mood changes, bloating, 3AM wake-ups & weight gain—told you’re “fine” but your labs say otherwise. That ends here. Pause.

I connect the dots 🧬 with root-cause, lab-driven care. Telehealth: NY, CT, MA, FL. Start with the Discovery Lab. Welcome to Sistah Pause, the first virtual perimenopause and midlife wellness platform created exclusively for Black women. We’re here to empower, educate, and support you through one of life’s most transformative seasons with expert guidance, compassion, and culturally centered care. A

t Sistah Pause, we know every woman’s journey is unique — and too often, Black women’s symptoms and stories are dismissed or misunderstood in traditional healthcare. We’ve built a safe, inclusive space where your health, wellness, and confidence are prioritized and protected. Your lived experiences matter, your voice is heard, and your journey is honored every step of the way. Our practice offers root-cause lab testing, hormone and peptide therapy, metabolic reset programs, and support for sleep, mood, skin, and sexual wellness — addressing the whole woman, not just her symptoms. We believe menopause isn’t an ending — it’s a powerful new beginning. Through culturally competent care, evidence-based treatments, nutrition and lifestyle guidance, mindset support, and sisterhood, we help you thrive — not just survive — through midlife and beyond. Sistah Pause was founded by Mariama-Seray Barrie, FNP-BC, MSCP, a certified menopause practitioner, mother, and advocate. Born from her own personal and professional experiences as a Black woman and provider, Mariama created Sistah Pause™ to fill a critical gap in healthcare — a space where Black women are seen, supported, and celebrated through every stage of midlife and not dismissed. Listen. Power Up.™

✨ Because your pause is powerful — and you’re never alone. ✨

📍 Based in New York, NY
📞 +1 201-350-7892
📧 [email protected]
🌐 Visit: sistahpause.com

Follow for daily tips, expert insights, and real conversations about Black women’s hormone health and wellness. Your journey to balance, confidence, and care starts here.

05/12/2026

These are things Black women tell me. 🤎

Not in surveys. Not in polls.

In my exam room. In DMs. In messages at 2am when they cannot sleep.

If any of these felt like you — you are not alone. You never were.

The dismissal is not your imagination. The fatigue is not just stress. The weight is not your willpower. The mood shifts are not your character.

These are the patterns I see every single day in Black women between 35-55. And they all share one thing in common — none of them had been given a complete picture of what was happening in their bodies.

That changes here.

Comment PAUSE 🤎 if any of these landed — and I will send you something that might finally name what you have been feeling.

Educational purposes only. Not medical advice.

05/06/2026

Sis, the exhaustion is real. 🤎

And in midlife, it is not “just stress” or a lack of willpower.

Here is what is happening in the body during perimenopause:

As estrogen declines, the body becomes less sensitive to insulin. Your cells do not use glucose as efficiently, which can lead to energy crashes, increased cravings, brain fog, and weight changes — even when your labs are called “normal.”

Now add chronic stress on top — and Black women disproportionately carry higher stress burdens — and cortisol remains elevated for longer periods. Over time, that can worsen insulin resistance, disrupt sleep, increase inflammation, and make fatigue feel constant.

3 evidence-based things that truly help:

➡ Aim for 30–40g of protein at each meal, starting with breakfast
➡ Walk 10 minutes after meals to support blood sugar regulation
➡ Prioritize 7+ hours of sleep whenever possible — poor sleep itself increases insulin resistance risk

Your body is not failing you.
Your metabolism and hormones are changing — and your body now requires different support than it did in your 20s and 30s.

Comment CLARITY 🤎 and I’ll send you my Midlife Energy Guide, including key labs to discuss with your provider.

Educational purposes only. Not medical advice.

04/24/2026

Sis, here is exactly how we walk this out together — from your first lab to feeling like yourself again. 🤎

Every transformation begins with one step.

🌿 The Pause, Sis™ Discovery Lab Clarity Session 🌿

This is where every Sistah Pause™ journey begins.

➡ Over 100 biomarkers — specific to midlife Black women’s health
➡ Personalized lab requisition completed at a location near you
➡ A 60-minute one-on-one results review with me
➡ A clinical roadmap built around your body
➡ My direct recommendation for which program fits you

Most women tell me this is the first appointment where everything finally made sense.
This is the gateway. Nobody skips this step — because your labs are the map.

From there — based on what your labs show — I recommend the program built for your body. You do not have to figure out which one you need. That is my job.

➡ Pause to Power, Sis™ — Hormone Optimization
For estrogen and progesterone decline driving sleep, mood, and cycle changes.

➡ Shift, Sis™ — Metabolic Reset + Weight Loss
For insulin resistance, cortisol dysregulation, and hormonal weight gain.

➡ Restore, Sis™ — PCOS Total Reset
For women navigating PCOS alongside perimenopausal change.

➡ Thrive On, Sis™ — Longevity + Ongoing Care
For women continuing care after a 12-week program.

Every 12-week program includes follow-up lab reviews, a personalized nutrition plan, supplement guidance built on your deficiencies, hormone support where clinically indicated, and weekly education modules.

By week 12 — sleeping through the night, less bloated, real energy, an average of 15-20 lbs lost through hormonal correction, and feeling like yourself again.

That is not a wellness trend, sis.
That is a clinical transformation.
You just need to start.

Comment READY 🤎 and I will send you the booking link directly.

Educational purposes only. Not medical advice.

04/22/2026

Sis, let’s talk about the three words that have kept too many Black women sick for too long — “your labs are normal.” 🤎

Normal is not the same as optimal.

And for Black women in midlife — who already carry disproportionate risk for metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity-related conditions — that gap between normal and optimal is where everything is quietly building.

The fatigue. The weight that will not move. The brain fog. The anxiety. The hair. The sleep.
None of it is random. None of it is aging. None of it is in your head.
It is data that has not been fully explored.

Standard lab ranges were built to catch disease — not to tell you where your body functions best. They were not built on Black women’s bodies. They were not built on perimenopausal bodies.

That is why so many of us are told everything looks fine while our bodies tell a completely different story.

A root-cause panel is different.

100+ biomarkers. Read through the right lens. Interpreted for where your body actually is — not where the population average says it should be.
When the fatigue, the weight, the anxiety, the hair, the sleep, and the mood all get connected to what is actually happening underneath —
Everything finally makes sense.

You deserve that kind of clarity, sis. You deserve optimal.

Comment LABS 🤎 and I will send you exactly what to ask for at your next appointment.

📲 Link in bio to book your Pause, Sis Discovery Lab Clarity Session.

Educational purposes only. Not medical advice.

04/20/2026

Before I was the provider — I was the patient. And I searched for answers for a very long time. 🤎

My hormone struggles started when I was a teenager. Irregular cycles. Pain. Fatigue. Doctor after doctor with no clear answers. I was told nothing was seriously wrong.

I learned early what too many Black women learn early — that our pain has to reach a breaking point before anyone takes it seriously.
So I kept pushing through.

I built a career in healthcare. I became a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner. I pursued advanced education in functional and hormone health. I became a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner.

And I was still being dismissed as a patient.
After motherhood the symptoms worsened. Eventually I was given an unclassified autoimmune label, placed on high-dose steroids that affected my vision, and later diagnosed with adenomyosis — with a hysterectomy presented as the main option.

I knew there had to be more. So I went looking.
For the first time someone ran the right labs. Ferritin severely low. Thyroid and hormone levels off. Inflammation markers elevated.
It was never stress. It was never in my head. It was data that simply had not been fully explored.

That is why Sistah Pause exists.
Because I saw the same story playing out in my mom, my sisters, my friends, my patients.
Black women are the most dismissed population in healthcare — and our hormonal health is no exception.

You should not have to fight this hard to be believed in your own body.

Swipe through my full story.

And if this resonates — you are in the right place. My free Midlife Guide is a gentle place to begin. It walks you through common hormonal shifts, symptoms to notice, and questions you can bring to your next appointment — so you feel informed, not overwhelmed.

📲 Download it through the link in my bio.

Sistah Pause · Perimenopause + Metabolic Health Telehealth for Black Women 35+
Serving New York · Connecticut · Massachusetts · Florida

Educational purposes only. Not medical advice.

04/16/2026

Sis, if your doctor ran a TSH and told you your thyroid is “fine” — that wasn’t a workup. That was a checkbox. 🤎

A real thyroid evaluation includes:
➡️ TSH
➡️ Free T4 & Free T3
➡️ Reverse T3
➡️ Thyroid antibodies (TPO & TgAb)
➡️ Thyroid-binding globulin

And here’s what most providers skip: your thyroid doesn’t work alone. Converting T4 into active T3 depends on gut health, liver function, balanced cortisol, iron, low inflammation, and key nutrients like selenium and zinc. In perimenopause, shifting estrogen also changes how much thyroid hormone your cells can actually use.

Black women are too often underdiagnosed with thyroid dysfunction — especially Hashimoto’s. Add perimenopause, and our symptoms get waved away as “stress” or “just hormones.”

We’re not doing that anymore.

If you’re medicated but still exhausted, foggy, losing your edges, and freezing in a warm room — the problem isn’t you. It’s the incomplete picture.

Comment CLARITY for what a root-cause thyroid evaluation actually looks like — built for Black women in perimenopause. 🤎

Educational purposes only. Not medical advice.

04/13/2026

If you’ve ever said any of these…
and still walked away without real answers—

this is exactly why.

Comment “CLARITY” below and let’s start connecting the dots 💛

“I’m just so tired all the time.”
“I can’t lose weight no matter what I do.”
“My mood is all over the place.”
“My brain just doesn’t work the way it used to.”
“I wake up at 3am and I’m wide awake.”

These are not random complaints.

And they’re not a sign that you’re failing your body.

These are patterns.

Signals.

Clues.

But too often, they get dismissed.

“Your labs are normal.”
“Try to relax.”
“Eat less, move more.”
“Maybe it’s anxiety.”
“That’s just aging.”

So you start questioning yourself.

Am I doing something wrong?
Am I overreacting?
Why does this feel so different?

Let me be clear:

You were never the problem.

Your body has been communicating with you this entire time.

But you were in systems that weren’t built to fully see you…
especially as a Black woman navigating midlife changes.

Because when you connect the dots:

Low iron isn’t just fatigue.
Insulin resistance isn’t just weight gain.
Hormone shifts aren’t just mood swings.
Cortisol dysregulation isn’t just “stress.”

It’s all connected.

And when no one is trained to look at the full picture…

you get pieces of answers that never bring relief.

You are not broken.
You are under-investigated.

And once you understand what your body is actually asking for…
everything starts to make sense.

Comment “CLARITY”
and let’s start connecting the dots 💛

Save this for later
or share it with someone who needs to feel seen.

Educational only. Not medical advice.

04/11/2026

There are things Black women are experiencing in perimenopause…
that are still not being fully explained in the exam room.

So instead, you’re told:
“it’s just stress”
“that’s normal”
“just push through”

Meanwhile your body feels completely different.

Mood swings.
Brain fog.
Weight changes.
Low libido.

And you’re left trying to figure it out on your own.

I see this every single day.

You’re not crazy.
You’re under-investigated.

If you’re ready to actually understand what’s happening in your body…

I created a Perimenopause Starter Guide to help you connect the dots.

👉 Comment GUIDE and I’ll send it to you 💌
👉 Or check the link in my bio to download

Save this for later 🤍
Follow for more

Educational only. Not medical advice.

Address

New York, NY

Telephone

+12013507892

Website

https://www.sistahpause.com/pause

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Sistah Pause posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Sistah Pause:

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Health & Beauty Business in New York?