Plant Medicine for Menopause: What Science and Ancient Healing Say Actually Works

unPAUSED with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Mary Claire Media, LLC

Medicine, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, a board-certified OB-GYN, integrative medicine expert, and author with nearly 30 years of clinical experience, including training in Ayurvedic medicine spanning almost two decades. Dr. Gilberg-Lenz is the Chief Clinical Officer of Monarch, a membership-based healthcare practice built to restore what modern medicine has nearly eliminated: time, relationship, and trust between women and their clinicians. Dr. Haver and Dr. Gilberg-Lenz open with a question that sits at the heart of women's midlife health: why does the current healthcare system consistently fail to see women clearly? Dr. Gilberg-Lenz explains why the system is not built for humans but for shareholders, reimbursement structures, and productivity metrics that reward procedures over listening. She breaks down the difference between burnout and moral injury, why physicians are leaving traditional medicine in record numbers, and what it actually costs women when their doctors are structurally prevented from knowing them. The conversation traces how the 1910 Flexner Report reshaped American medicine, shutting down Black medical colleges, eliminating part-time schools where women trained, and marginalizing plant-based and indigenous healing traditions in ways that still define clinical practice today. Guest links: Dr. Suzanne Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz (Instagram) Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz (YouTube) Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz (LinkedIn) Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz (Facebook)Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz (X) Books: “Menopause Bootcamp: Optimize Your Health, Empower Your Self, and Flourish as You Age,” by Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz “The Myth of Aging: A Prescription for Emotional and Physical Well-Being,” by Dr. Arnold Gilberg “The New Perimenopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver “The New Menopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver For full show notes, please click here. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The system is not set up for people to experience each other and for your doctor to experience you.
0:07.1	We just don't even have time.
0:08.3	So we don't get reimbursed by insurance for the amount of time that we're spending reading about this, thinking about you, calling you back, reviewing your labs, sitting and hearing your story.
0:20.0	We get paid for how many people we saw that day.
0:24.0	That does not lend itself to dealing with these kinds of issues and talking about stuff and recognizing patterns.
0:31.4	Yeah.
0:31.6	It just doesn't. The views and opinions expressed on unpaused are those of the talent and guests alone
0:47.3	and are provided for informational and entertainment purposes only.
0:51.4	No part of this podcast or any related materials are intended to be a substitute
0:55.8	for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. One of the things I've learned
1:02.9	after years in medicine and talking to women in midlife is this. The system doesn't give them the
1:08.8	time, space, or respect to be truly known.
1:13.0	And yet, the problem is often framed is that women just don't know their bodies.
1:17.6	My guest today deeply understands this.
1:20.6	Dr. Suzanne Gilbert Lenz has spent her career caring for women across every life stage,
1:26.3	but especially in midlife, where complexity is the
1:29.5	rule, not the exception. She's a clinician, an educator, an integrative medicine expert, and now the
1:37.0	chief clinical officer of Monarch, a membership-based healthcare practice designed to restore
1:42.0	something modern medicine has almost completely stripped
1:44.6	away, time, relationship, and trust between women and their clinicians. This conversation is important
1:51.8	because the current health care system is failing on two fronts at once. It's failing women who need
1:57.1	care that is nuanced, layered, and deeply human. And it's failing clinicians who are increasingly trapped in rushed visits,
	...

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