157: The Controversial History of Hormone Therapy: How Fear Shaped Women's Health

About this episode

Dr. Shawn Tassone explores the controversial history of hormone replacement therapy and its impact on women's health.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has become one of the most misunderstood, and controversial, topics in women's health. In this episode, Dr. Shawn Tassone takes a deep dive into how we got here and why so much of what women have been told about hormones simply doesn't hold up. Dr. Tassone unpacks the complicated history of HRT, including the lasting fallout from the Women's Health Initiative study and how its misinterpretation shaped decades of fear-based medical decision-making. He addresses persistent myths linking estrogen to breast cancer, challenges outdated assumptions, and explains why hormones were never the villain they were made out to be. This conversation goes beyond the science. Dr. Tassone also critiques the modern hormone industry, calling out profit-driven practices, poor education, and the ongoing failure of the medical system to prioritize women's long-term health. At its core, this episode is a call for clarity, context, and compassion — because women deserve better than fear, confusion, and half-truths when it comes to their bodies. Episode Highlights: Why hormones remain one of the most misunderstood topics in medicine How the Women's Health Initiative study…

People in this episode

Host: Shawn Tassone

Topics covered

• hormone therapy
• women's health
• medical history
• estrogen
• HRT misconceptions
• healthcare practices

Keywords

• hormone replacement therapy
• HRT
• women's health
• estrogen
• Women's Health Initiative
• medical decision-making
• breast cancer
• healthcare
• myths

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Women's Health Initiative

Products: hormone replacement therapy, HRT, estrogen

Places: women

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