unPAUSED with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Melinda French Gates, philanthropist and founder of Pivotal, to talk about her call for a "menopause revolution" — including the $215 million in new funding for women's health she announced in her New York Times essay, bringing her total investment in women's health to more than $600 million in two years. Melinda opens with the numbers driving her urgency: nearly one in three women over forty has menopause symptoms severe enough to disrupt her life, only about one in four gets treated, fewer than a third of OB-GYN training programs teach menopause at all, and just five cents of every dollar spent on medical research goes to women's health.Melinda shares her own story — how, despite what she calls unbelievable privilege and access to the best health care in the world, it took three doctors to get the right care for her symptoms, and how chronic insomnia and brain fog left her doubting herself walking into meetings with world leaders and CEOs. She and Dr. Haver trace how the Women's Health Initiative halted research, education, and hormone therapy almost overnight, why the health care system was built for men's bodies by default, the racial disparities leaving women of color to suffer most with the least treatment, and the new research she's funding through Wellcome Leap into women-specific heart disease and microvascular diagnostics. The episode closes with Melinda's concrete advice for every woman who wants change: advocate for yourself at the doctor's office, educate your friends with credible information, contact your representatives, and vote — because midlife shouldn't be an off-ramp, but one of the most vibrant chapters of a woman's life.Guest links:Melinda French Gates (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/@melindagatesMelinda French Gates (Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/melindafrenchgates/Melinda French Gates (Facebook) https://www.facebook.com/melindagates/Melinda French Gates (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/melindagates/Melinda French Gates (X) https://x.com/melindagatesPivotal https://www.pivotal.com/founderMoment of Lift Books https://www.momentoflift.com/Melinda French Gates at the Gates Foundation https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/leadership/melinda-french-gatesBooks:"The Next Day," by Melinda French Gates https://www.melindafrenchgates.com/"The New Perimenopause," by Dr. Mary Claire Haver https://thepauselife.com/pages/the-new-perimenopause-book"The New Menopause," by Dr. Mary Claire Haver https://www.amazon.com/New-Menopause-Navigating-Through-Hormonal/dp/B0CKBZ4K1Z

This episode of unPAUSED was recorded live at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles in front of an audience gathered to talk about perimenopause, menopause, hormones, sex, brain health, and bone health. Dr. Mary Claire Haver is joined on stage by Dr. Rena Malik, a board certified urologist, pelvic medicine specialist, and sexual health expert, for a wide ranging conversation about what is actually happening in women's bodies during the menopause transition, and what every woman navigating midlife health should know.The conversation moves through the zone of chaos that is perimenopause, the hormonal unpredictability behind mood changes, sleep disruption, brain fog, and rising inflammation. Dr. Haver traces how estrogen loss drives increases in cholesterol, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular risk, and explains why the fastest rate of bone loss happens in perimenopause, two years before a woman's final period, making a bone density baseline in your forties, not your sixties, the smarter move against osteoporosis later in life.Guest links:The ‘Pause LifeDr. Mary Claire Haver (Instagram)Dr. Mary Claire Haver (Facebook)Dr. Mary Claire Haver (YouTube)Dr. Mary Claire Haver (Substack)unPAUSED (Apple Podcasts)Books“The New Perimenopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver“The New Menopause"⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver“Estrogen Matters: Why Taking Hormones in Menopause Can Improve Women's Well-Being and Lengthen Their Lives -- Without Raising the Risk of Breast Cancer,” by Dr. Avrum BlumingFor full show notes, please click here.

In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Lucy McBride, a Harvard and Johns Hopkins trained primary care physician and author of the new book Beyond the Prescription: A Doctor's Guide to Taking Charge of Your Health. Dr. McBride has spent twenty five years watching patients bounce between a rushed medical system and a wellness industry.The conversation opens with a hard truth about modern healthcare: doctors interrupt patients within eleven seconds of them speaking, and fifteen minute appointments leave almost no room to understand the whole person behind the diagnosis codes. Dr. McBride explains why this happened, how insurance incentives reward volume over conversation, and why trust and rapport, not just lab values, are the real birthplace of health. She and Dr. Haver share stories from their own practices, including patients who were given thousands of dollars in tests but never asked a single question about their actual lives.Guest links:Dr. Lucy McBrideDr. Lucy McBride (Instagram)Dr. Lucy McBride (LinkedIn)Dr. Lucy McBride (X)Dr. Lucy McBride (YouTube)Dr. Lucy McBride (Ackerly McBride Group)Beyond the Prescription (Apple Podcasts)Are You Okay? By Dr. Lucy McBride (Substack)Books“The New Perimenopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver“The New Menopause,"⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver“Beyond the Prescription: A Doctor's Guide to Taking Charge of Your Health,”by Dr. Lucy McBrideFor full show notes, please click here.

In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Kristen Holmes, Vice President of Performance Science at Whoop and author of the new book Aligned, to unpack why sleep and circadian rhythm matter as much as hormones when it comes to the symptoms women feel in perimenopause and menopause.Dr. Holmes explains the concept of circadian amplitude, the contrast between activity and rest, light and dark, and fed and fasted states that keeps every system in the body running on time, and why women with lower amplitude tend to report more frequent and more severe symptoms. She walks through why morning light exposure is one of the most powerful and underused tools available, how getting outside within the first part of the day sets the timing for melatonin release that night, and why a window is not a substitute for actual daylight.The conversation moves into meal timing, including why the body is more insulin sensitive earlier in the day and how consolidating calories into a shorter window can support better sleep and metabolic health. Dr. Holmes also covers where movement fits, including the specific role of zone two training in recovery, why late night intense exercise can work against sleep, and how alcohol affects women differently than men at the same dose.Dr. Holmes and Dr. Haver also dig into what actually drives a 3am wake up, tracing it back to progesterone, GABA signaling, and the loss of hormonal stability that comes with perimenopause, and why sedatives can mask the problem without improving sleep architecture. The conversation ends with a look at the data connecting circadian misalignment to shift work, mental health, and long term health risk, and what a woman can start doing tonight to build back that rhythm.Guest links:Dr. Kristen Holmes (Instagram)Dr. Kristen Holmes, PhD (LinkedIn)The Line with Dr. Kristen Holmes (Apple Podcasts)Books“The New Perimenopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver“The New Menopause,"⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver“Aligned: The Data-driven Guide to Performance, Recovery, and Human Potential,”by Kristen HolmesFor full show notes, please click here.

In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Sasha Hamdani, a board certified psychiatrist, ADHD clinical expert, and author of the forthcoming book Too Sensitive, for the first half of a two part conversation on why so many women are discovering ADHD for the first time during perimenopause and menopause.Dr. Hamdani reframes ADHD as a regulation issue rather than a simple attention deficit, and explains why perimenopause does not create the condition but instead unmasks it, as the estrogen scaffolding that lets women mask and compensate for a lifetime starts to fall away. She and Dr. Haver walk through how ADHD tends to present differently in women, often as the inattentive, easily overlooked type rather than the hyperactive presentation the diagnostic criteria were built around, and why that gap has left generations of high achieving women undiagnosed.The conversation moves into the biology behind the brain fog so many women describe in perimenopause, tracing the connection between declining estrogen and dopamine and what that does to memory, focus, and executive function. Dr. Hamdani and Dr. Haver also discuss where hormone therapy fits, including estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone, and how each one can help or complicate cognitive symptoms depending on the person. They also cover how a proper ADHD assessment works during perimenopause and how stimulant and nonstimulant medication options differ.Guest links:Sasha Hamdani, MD Sasha Hamdani, MD (Facebook)Sasha Hamdani, MD (YouTube)Sasha Hamdani, MD (Instagram)Sasha Hamdani, MD (TikTok)Sasha Hamdani (LinkedIn)Books“The New Perimenopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver“The New Menopause"⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver“Too Sensitive: Rejection, Resilience, and the Science of Feeling Deeply,” by Dr. Sasha Hamdani“Self Care For People With ADHD,” by Dr. Sasha HamdaniFor full show notes, please click here.