Sharmyn McGraw is the “Who’s Who” of hormones. With her charismatic flair and articulate delivery, she shows the audience how the power of a determined woman can help change lives. As a professional speaker, she cleverly tailors her message to fit each audience. She takes the taboo topic of hormones and empowers new thinking that can help improve everyone’s quality of healthcare.

Sharmyn knows firsthand how a hormonal imbalance can turn your life upside down. She has a gift for touching the emotions of the audience through her passionate and humorous storytelling. Her story speaks about the barriers that kept her searching for seven years for an answer to an insidious illness that nearly took her life, and the importance of persistence which led her to a correct diagnosis for Cushing’s disease, a life-threatening hormonal imbalance caused by a pituitary brain tumor. She engages her audience while she reveals the importance of education and public awareness about the critical role hormones play in our quality of life.
 
Sharing Her Adventure
In 1993 at the age of 31, Sharmyn went from a socially acceptable dress size two and full of life to an obese size 22 and barely able to function in just one year. Despite the years of dedication to maintain a shapely muscular body, she suddenly had no control over the rapid weight gain. Her hours of personal fitness training and a healthy diet did nothing to stop the pounds from piling on. Sharmyn gained as much as eleven pounds in four days, 85 pounds in six months and 100 pounds in a year. Soon the weight gain was the least of her health problems; her hair fell out by the handfuls, her stomach stuck out like she was pregnant with twins, emotionally she felt like a misfit, and much more.
 
For seven horrific years Sharmyn searched the medical community for help, but over and over doctors told her there was nothing medically wrong with her…..nothing some good old dieting and exercise couldn’t fix.
 
In spite of the many years of challenges within our healthcare system, Sharmyn ultimately diagnosed herself via the Internet and was fortunate to find a team of experts at UCLA Medical Center who confirmed her diagnosis. On April 14, 2000 Dr. Daniel Kelly, a world-renowned pituitary neurosurgeon—her angel - successfully removed the tumor and literally gave Sharmyn her life back.

Sharmyn helps her audience envision a higher quality of life by approaching life challenges as an adventure, and inspiring new strategies to motivate change in our healthcare system.