Dr. Joana Menezes

A Journey in the Making

Joana Maria de Menezes Nunes was born in Porto (Portugal) and finished secondary school with a grade of 20/20 (Escola Secundária Carolina Michäelis), going on to enter the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto in 2001 with a grade of 19.55. During her degree she was awarded the D. Idalina de Almeida and Prof. Doutor Tiago de Almeida Prizes (best-ranked student in Medicine – 6th-year subject), finishing her Medical Degree with a grade of 16. She completed the Common Year Internship and the Complementary Internship in Endocrinology at Centro Hospitalar de São João, in Porto, where she was a volunteer lecturer in Endocrinology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto. She obtained the Specialist degree in Endocrinology and Nutrition with a grade of 19.9.

In 2015, she left the National Health Service and embraced projects in the areas of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular risk reduction. From 2016 to 2018, by invitation, she was in charge of the Endocrinology Department at Trofa Saúde Alfena, implementing protocols for action and interaction between the different specialties. In 2018 she dedicated herself solely to the Luz Saúde group, as an endocrinologist and co-investigator in clinical trials, the latest being STEP 4 by the Danish pharmaceutical company NovoNordisk®, focused on the drug semaglutide. In 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic and motherhood, she decided to dedicate herself solely to private clinics and embraced the Allure Clinic project (Leg Clinic, dedicated to the treatment of lipedema among other conditions in the field of Vascular Surgery, was born later), as well as the Uffizi Clinic project (a clinic initially focused on aesthetic health, but which grew rapidly into a clinic also focused on the mental and sexual/hormonal health of men and women).

In her years in private practice, she became aware of the lack of understanding, compassion, respect and empathy shown towards patients living with obesity, and began her journey, carving out her path in this field. In January 2018 she co-authored the guidelines on pregnancy after bariatric surgery and sought specific knowledge in the field of obesity, completing in 2019 the Obesity course at Harvard Medical School (The Blackburn Course in Obesity Medicine), as well as the Obesity Medicine Board Review (USA, 2019).

In July 2021 she published her first book, “From XL to S”, a metaphorical title alluding to the weight-loss journey (that neither focuses on nor wants to suggest ideal sizes, which do not actually exist), a book intended as an aid on this journey, with tips to help with healthy weight loss but, above all, with maintaining that same weight.

Always dedicated to keeping her scientific knowledge up to date and seeking the best knowledge for her patients, she continued her scientific training in Obesity in the following years: in 2022, with Obesity Canada, she completed the Advanced Obesity Management Program (AOMP) and in 2023 and 2024 the Canadian Advanced Learning in Bariatric Care (CALIBRE), cohort 3 and cohort 6 respectively, the EASO MasterClass in 2024 and the Lifestyle Medicine course at Harvard Medical School (2024). In the meantime, she dedicated herself to other certifications and to new projects, always focused on the same values as ever: respect, empathy, individualized treatment, education and health promotion.

And in 2025 came the new project of the Clinic that bears her name – Dr. Joana Menezes Medical Clinic, a home where everyone is treated without prejudice or stigma and always guided by the best and most recent scientific evidence. A home where she embraces medicine with respect, empathy and without judgement, focused on gains in health (physical, mental and sexual) and in quality of life. She believes that everyone should age as naturally and healthily as possible and focuses her vision on the future, on preventive medicine, on Medicine 3.0 and on Biohacking.

In 2025 she embraced new areas of expertise, completing 3 courses at Harvard Medical School:

• Women’s Health and Menopause Course
• Female Sexual Wellness: identifying concerns and treatment options
• Testosterone Therapy and Sexual Dysfunction

In order to give her patients the best treatment in the hormonal and sexual field and to dismantle taboos, always with scientific evidence and rigor.

Beyond all this academic and scientific path, she is invited for interviews in magazines and newspapers, takes part in television programmes and lends her voice to some podcasts. She is also invited to other lives on Instagram, television programmes, radio and magazines, as well as to lectures and scientific presentations by peers from other specialties. She firmly believes that the training of peers and health literacy are one of her life missions and, for that reason, she launched the first course in Portugal with the international recognition of Obesity Canada (in 2025) and in 2026 brings many more innovative projects.

She has always been dedicated to clinical research – in 2009 she completed the postgraduate course in clinical research and health services (final grade of 17, on a scale of 0 to 20), took part in national clinical trials (HIPOS-ER) and in the Generation XXI study group of the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, and belonged to international clinical trial teams (ELIXA-EFC11319; STEP4). She was also dedicated to research as a reviewer for the indexed journals Acta Médica Portuguesa and JCEM Case Reports (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism of the Endocrine Society), tasks now completed, and, by invitation, reviewed abstracts for the American congress ENDO2025 and ENDO2026.