Hi, I'm Mayan Bialik. And I'm Jonathan Cohen. And welcome to our breakdown. This is a very special month. It is Women's Health Month. Yay! In honor of Women's Health Month, we're revisiting one of our most informative episodes that we have done regarding Women's Health, Perry Manipaz, Menipaz. We did it last year with Dr.. Mary Claire Haver one of the most trusted names in women's health. She's a board certified OBGYN. She exposes the hidden truths about menopause and Peri menopause. The real cause of that weight you can't seem to get rid of mood swings anxiety depression sleep disruptions, how perimenopause can often be worse than menopause. And also, she tackles the myths surrounding hormone replacement therapy and what you can do to make the right decision for you. We also covered what most doctors are not telling you you need to know about your health and the scary fact that doctors only receive one hour of study on menopause education during their education. It's kind of frightening. It's very frightening considering that 50% of humans are female and will experience menopause. Dr. Haver also reveals proactive steps you can take to lessen future symptoms, including how hormone replacement therapy can help you with brain fog, fatigue, and how to avoid losing muscle mass, which is critical to aging in a healthy and safe way. She talks about the best exercises for menopause weight loss and why women's gut health is so different from men's and how that impacts your menopause journey. It's not all doom and gloom though, she also has some incredible menopause success stories. It is never too late to take control of your health today women. Just before we get to the episode, I have a quick favorite ask that will only take a second. Check to see if you're subscribed. Click that subscribe button anywhere you're listening. It helps support the show and it's totally free. And now in honor of Women's Health Month, enjoy our episode with Dr. Mary Claire Haver. Break it down. Dr. Mary Claire Haver, welcome to the breakdown. Thanks for having me. We've been waiting for you for a very long time. Some might say through all of Manipause. I wonder if you can sort of give us a little bit of an overview. How did you get here? How did you become the lady that everyone asks about menopause? I was a very well-trained but very basic OBGYN. So I was went through medical school residency, the whole traditional route and went into initially three years of private practice in Houston, which is the area that I've kind of lived for the last almost 30 years. And then I went back into academics and became a professor back at where I did my residency program starting in 2005. I ran the residency program. I had a private practice through the university. I taught, you know, kind of in... And I would have considered myself a really amazing doctor, you know. I still do, but until I went through my own menopause journey, I realized there was a humongous gap in my knowledge. So when I really think about it and I've talked to multiple people across the country, I got one hour of menopause in medical school in a four-year curriculum, one lecture. And in my OB-GYN residency of which I am insanely proud of everything I learned, I had six hours of menopause. There were no menopause clinics, there was no real clinical training. We had six one-hour lectures during reproductive and neurocognology in my second year. And that was it. We talked a little bit about osteoporosis and medications to treat that, but we didn't talk much about prevention if I really think about it. I had one professor who I ended up going into practice with when I came back who had a very special interest. So everything I kind of knew about an opal's and perimenopause I learned from him because I would run down the hall and be like, what do I do with this? You know, so when I went through my journey I got completely blindsided and realized this is, I can't survive. I cannot live like this. And I very reluctantly went on hormone replacement therapy, absolutely terrified that I would kill myself with breast cancer. Because that's what I understood. My last year of my residency, my chief year is when the Women's Health Initiative study, I'm kind of the last group of residents who even thought about prescribing hormone therapy and then our hands were slapped when the WHO came out. So I kind of moved forward with that thought process of well, it's more harmful than good and we really only want to give it if there's absolutely nothing else that's going to work for her, including any depressants and neurontin and other medications. So here I am, very menopausal, and I had been on birth control pills for a really long time to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome, and I did really well on them. Nothing bad to say about that. And when I got off, my brother passed away, all this kind of happened at once, and I was really grieving his death. And then I was having horrible hot flashes, incredible bouts of depression, incredible bouts of anxiety, like getting up at 2 in the morning and everything I've ever done, you know, every person I've ever heard, you know, all of that's just swirling and I couldn't turn it off. And I just thought, oh, I'm grieving.

This is normal for my life stage.

And then when the grief fog started to lift at about month six after his death of June of 2016, I started realizing, I'm still not okay. Like, I feel degree-flieving and I'm able to not think about him constantly and, you know, the regret, but I'm still struggling. And, and then I realized when was my last period?

Okay, I'm the expert.

Like, I'm the expert like I Guess let myself for months and I never had regular periods But I started putting two and two together and then the hot flashes were just absolutely hammering me and we pretty much know and medicine That a hot flashes almost always menopause, you know, if you're a certain age, you know, I was like, oh my God, I am in menopause. And so I went and got the blood work to confirm it. And then really struggled with what do I do about these hot flashes? I can't sleep. I can't live like this. And I went on the medication. I went on estradiol or comfy patch was my first,, I had a nurse practitioner I worked with.

And we went on Compie Patch and the hot flushes went away and I was sleeping like a baby. And then all of a sudden all these other things got better. My joint pain got better, my resilience got better, I stopped snapping at the kids as much, my relationship with my husband improved. And my kids were teenagers while all this is going on, so help us all when that's, I was like, you weren't your exact stage right now.

And so, I mean like I was like, wait a minute, okay? And then I was also dealing with new weight gain, which as a then person my whole life who had then privileged, this was not okay. You know, I had really so much of myself worth was tied into my weight. And suddenly that was taken away from me.

And it sounds very vain, but that was what all of my patients were complaining about. And I had given them all the same advice, work out more at less, just try a little harder. Come on, honey, you got this. And it wasn't working for me. It wasn't working for anyone else. So when I kind of first started looking in a menopausent, It really was from the lens of why or so many of my patients gaining weight and I didn't understand the body composition changes

It was just or anyone else. So when I kind of first started looking in a menopause, it really was from the lens of why

or so many of my patients gaining weight. And I didn't understand the body composition changes. It was just the scale, right? So I called the PhD nutrition department and half of them were my patients at the time. I was working at a big university. And I was like, what the hell is going on? And they're like, yeah, there's some new studies coming out about body composition, how it's tight and minimal.

So they're shoving articles at me.

And I'm going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole.

And I'm realizing, wait a minute.

There's a ton of data here about menopause that, you know, American College of OB-GYN, the American Board is not putting in front of me for my CME. I'm learning all kind of important stuff,

but there's nothing about menopause

and all of this stuff is important.

All of my patients are going through this.

So I start talking about it on social media.

Really start about weight gain and menopause and body fat and belly fat and all the things, and things started exploding just because I said the word menopause. I mean, I started like all of us did was zero followers, right? And your my dopamine's going off because I'm getting so many views, and they're sharing and sharing and I'm like wait all this you know so it wasn't with this grand intention that I would become tick-tock famous or whatever famous I really started on Facebook just sharing with friends and family and then it got so big I developed a business account just to separate you know pictures of my children from you know talking about medical things and started getting friendly with other people who were growing on social and using that, learning how to use it as a tool for massive education. So from Facebook, then COVID hit. And my kids were like, Mom, you should do this TikTok thing and they're showing me videos of doctors kind of dancing, but teaching and pointing to like, so that's how I started. I was literally like shaking to music and pointing to informational slot. You know, I put in the little floating words of belly fat, weight gain and you started talking about nutrition and vitamin D and that really exploded. So when the first year of me being on TikTok and again, everyone was on social because of COVID, we grew to a million followers and it just, I was letting my followers inform, you know, ask the questions. They're like, could my frozen shoulder be related to metapause? And instead of me saying, no, I would be like, I don't know. Let me check. Yeah. Actually, there's an article here. And so as I'm growing, learning myself, teaching, everything I'm learning on social, I'm making more friends in the space, finding other experts, people who are really focusing on this. So it really just grew organically. My MBA class breakdown is supported by optimizers. You know, I struggled to get good quality sleep and I just assumed it was stress. But as I learned, during paramanopause and menopause, your hormones shift in a way that affect your magnesium levels. And low magnesium, it makes everything harder, not just sleep, focus, mood, your tolerance for stress. That's why I have added magnesium breakthrough by by optimizers to my nightly routine. It's a blend of seven different forms of magnesium designed to support relaxation and overall sleep quality. Try it, see if you wake up more rest and refreshed. You've got nothing to lose and a lot to gain. By optimizersizers offers a 365 day, no questions asked, money back guarantee. Magnesium breakthrough is a huge breakthrough to improve hormonal balance, to help with focus, decrease brain fog, improve sleep hygiene overall, bioptimizers makes it very easy. Jonathan, what do they get when they go to bioptimizers.com slash breaker and use the code breaker breaker? You get 50% off your entire order and a free bottle of massimes. Bioptimizers best selling digestive enzyme. That'll be added to your order automatically when you use our exclusive code. That's a $20 product free on top of your discount already. This is a limited time offer and while supplies last, you can't get it on Amazon, you can't get it in stores. This offer exists in one place.

Our link, our code, that's it. So maybe you were already thinking about it. This is the sign. Go to buyoptimizers.com slashbreaker. Use the code breaker, grab it before it's gone. Make 2026 the year, you finally start sleeping again. This episode is sponsored by Wondering Jews and Open Door Media Brand. If you've ever found yourself feeling like you have more questions than answers, you're

in good company.

The Jewish people have been like that for thousands of years. Wondering Jews with Michal and Noam is a podcast where two of today's most dynamic Jewish voices, Michal Beton and Noam Weissmann dig into the biggest questions about life through a Jewish lens. It's the kind of conversation where you'll laugh, learn something new, and probably shout and disagreement at least once.

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