Background
Heather Yoshimura is a nurse practitioner specializing in endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain, with deep expertise in health optimization and longevity medicine — an approach that finally resolved her own symptoms after two surgeries failed to. She completed her graduate training at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing — one of the top-ranked nursing programs in the nation — earning her Master of Science as an Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner.
Then she developed severe endometriosis symptoms herself.
She sought care from the best specialists in the country, including evaluation at the Mayo Clinic and two excision surgeries — the second performed by Dr. Tamer Seckin, co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America and one of the world's most respected endometriosis excision surgeons. She followed every protocol. Did everything right.
She was still in pain.
Having been on birth control since her teenage years and facing persistent symptoms even after expert surgical intervention, Heather began to believe hysterectomy was her only remaining option. Instead, she applied the health optimization principles she'd been studying to her own body — addressing gut health, nervous system dysregulation, and trauma history. It took several years of systematic work. Today, endometriosis is a diagnosis she carries, not something she struggles with.
Training & Clinical Expertise
What Heather discovered healing herself — and what she has since confirmed working with patients — is that chronic pelvic pain requires an approach most conventional providers are never trained in. She has pursued advanced education across multiple disciplines to address endometriosis from every angle.
Her experience includes conducting medical research at Function Health under Dr. Mark Hyman, the fifteen-time New York Times bestselling author and founder of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, where she contributed to the development of functional medicine protocols and clinical research.
She was one of the founding clinicians at Humanaut Health, where she helped build programs for health optimization and longevity medicine alongside Dr. Amy Killen, a leading physician in hormone optimization, regenerative medicine, and sexual health.
Her functional medicine foundation includes completing the Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice (AFMCP) certification through the Institute for Functional Medicine, with additional certification in peptide therapy through A4M (American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine).
Heather is a certified provider through WorldLink Medical, having completed advanced bioidentical hormone replacement therapy training under Dr. Neal Rouzier — widely recognized as the pioneer of evidence-based BHRT who has trained thousands of physicians since the 1990s.
As a medical researcher and contributor to Rupa Health, she has authored over 300 articles on functional medicine approaches to chronic and complex conditions — writing protocols and educational content used by both clinicians and patients.
She holds advanced certification in Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), one of the most promising developments in chronic pain treatment. In an NIH-funded randomized controlled trial published in JAMA Psychiatry, 66% of patients who received PRT became pain-free or nearly pain-free after just four weeks — compared to 20% for placebo and 10% for usual care.
Because sexual health and pelvic pain are deeply interconnected, Heather has completed training at the Somatica Institute and in sexological bodywork — recognizing that for many women with endometriosis, pain during sex and loss of sexual function are among the most distressing and least-addressed symptoms.
She is also a graduate of culinary school, bringing principles of culinary medicine into her practice — because what you eat matters, and knowing how to actually prepare food that supports healing is part of making change sustainable.
The Foundation Protocol
Most providers aren't trained to see these connections. Heather has spent years learning what the standard model doesn't teach — and now helps women address the root drivers of their pain rather than cycling through the same inadequate options.
She is the author of The Endo Dilemma: Evidence-Based Options for Healing Beyond Birth Control and Surgery and the founder of Luteal Health, a telehealth practice serving women in California, Texas, and Florida.
