The 3 Most Overlooked Vital Signs for Women Are Finally Getting More Focus

3 min readYou’re well aware at this point that your health involves more than exercising regularly and eating well. But despite plenty of women being dialed in to their health needs, there are three major areas of wellness that tend to go by the wayside when you get busy: sleep, sex, and skin.You know the deal: You stay up later to try to squeeze more into your day, and end up feeling so wiped that you don’t have time for your usual skincare routine or to dial into your sexual needs. You’re not the only one going through this. That’s why the team at Canyon Ranch created a brand new retreat that specifically aims to help women with their sleep, sex, and skincare. (It’s literally called Sex, Skin & Sleep.)“These three areas are critical to women's health,” says Jennifer Wagner, MD, chief health and performance officer at Canyon Ranch. “They're so interconnected and we sometimes forget to talk about that.”Why are sex, skin, and sleep considered overlooked vital signs?Your sleep, sex life, and skin can all influence each other, but they each provide something crucial to your overall health, experts say.“It’s important for women to feel confident in themselves and feel confident in their own minds and in their bodies,” says Riteesha Reddy, MD, medical director of Canyon Ranch Austin. “Sex is so intimate and so interconnected in terms of desire and feeling desire and feeling that connection and closeness.”When it comes to skin, women tend to focus on the skin on their face, while not paying as much attention to it in other areas of their body, Dr. Wagner says. “Skin is our largest organ,” she says. “It really sometimes shows the first signs of health problems in other areas.” Not only that, Dr. Wagner points out that good skin can help women to feel confident.But Dr. Wagner also notes that you have skin in your vulva and vagina, and it starts to change in midlife. “Sex can become really painful,” she says. Taking care of the skin all over—not just on your face—can support many areas of health.As for sleep, Dr. Reddy points out that this is a crucial time when your body shifts into repair mode. “We have a surge in growth hormone during sleep,” she says. “Cortisol and sympathetic activity decreases in sleep. And so we have less inflammation and our body shifts into that parasympathetic rest and restore type of mode.”Muscle repair happens during sleep, too, she says. “It's very critical for so many things, even memory processing, cognitive health, that sort of thing,” Dr. Reddy adds. “Sleep is not a reward for a hard day. It's really a prerequisite for being ready for the next day,” Dr. Wagner says.Each of these areas of health influence each other, making it important to focus on them all. “Teasing that out is critical for healthy aging,” Dr. Reddy says.Women aren’t addressing these enough—and it’s not their fault.You probably talk to your dermatologist or aesthetician about your skin—on your face, at least—but sleep and sex tend to be a different story. “Oftentimes sleep and sex are not talked about a lot in healthcare appointments or with providers because providers don't have a lot of experience,” Dr. Wagner says.The goal of the retreat at Canyon Ranch Austin (CR’s newest location opening in October, which is set to have the largest spa in Texas at 40,000 square feet and also has a specific focus on women’s wellness) is to give women a “safe space” to talk about these areas of health, Dr. Reddy says. “So many women want to know these things, but don't feel they have permission to talk about it,” she says.The Sex, Skin & Sleep is a three-night retreat at Canyon Ranch Austin from November 12 through November 15.Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.