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Dr. Mary Claire Haver on the New Menopause

59 min episode · 2 min read
·
Mary Claire Haver

Episode

59 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Health & Wellness, Product & Tech Trends, Psychology & Behavior

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Medical gender gap: Women live 20% of their lives in poorer health than men, are three times more likely to require nursing home care, and face higher dementia rates because medical studies exclude females and assume women are small men with different anatomy.
  • Menopause metabolic changes: Visceral fat increases from 7% to 23% of total body fat during menopause transition with no diet or exercise changes, while insulin resistance rises and cardiovascular disease risk increases independent of weight or BMI measurements.
  • Osteoporosis prevention: Fifty percent of women experience osteoporotic fractures before death versus 25% of men. Hip fracture mortality reaches 79% within one year without surgery and 29% with surgical repair, yet these outcomes are largely preventable through early intervention.
  • Hormone therapy timing: Starting HRT within the first ten years of menopause provides primary prevention against heart attacks in women, unlike statins, baby aspirin, and ACE inhibitors which have never been shown effective for primary cardiac prevention in females.

What It Covers

Dr. Mary Claire Haver discusses menopause healthcare gaps, the medical establishment's failure to address women's health post-reproduction, hormone replacement therapy benefits, and how biological changes are misattributed to psychological causes in female patients.

Key Questions Answered

  • Medical gender gap: Women live 20% of their lives in poorer health than men, are three times more likely to require nursing home care, and face higher dementia rates because medical studies exclude females and assume women are small men with different anatomy.
  • Menopause metabolic changes: Visceral fat increases from 7% to 23% of total body fat during menopause transition with no diet or exercise changes, while insulin resistance rises and cardiovascular disease risk increases independent of weight or BMI measurements.
  • Osteoporosis prevention: Fifty percent of women experience osteoporotic fractures before death versus 25% of men. Hip fracture mortality reaches 79% within one year without surgery and 29% with surgical repair, yet these outcomes are largely preventable through early intervention.
  • Hormone therapy timing: Starting HRT within the first ten years of menopause provides primary prevention against heart attacks in women, unlike statins, baby aspirin, and ACE inhibitors which have never been shown effective for primary cardiac prevention in females.

Notable Moment

Haver describes how she failed to recognize her own menopause at age 48 while grieving her brother's death, attributing hot flashes, body aches, and cognitive decline to grief until realizing six months later she was fully menopausal and terrified to start treatment.

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Episode Transcript

Hi, everyone. I'm Brene Brown, and this is Unlocking Us. Welcome back to our new eight part series that I am calling On My Heart and Mind. We started the series with my conversation with Valerie Kaur on the power of revolutionary love and being a sage warrior. I have talked to doctor Sarah Lewis on her stunning new book, The Unseen Truth. And my friend and Unlocking Ness alum, Roxanne Gay, and I had a, wow, just a really eye opening and provocative conversation about her essay on black gun ownership. Before the series is done, you'll also hear from me and my sisters on grief, love, and unexpected joy. And this episode is all about the pause, about the menopause. I'm talking to my friend, also my doctor, one of them, Doctor. Mary Claire Haver, who is on the kind of zero bullshit policy with menopause and helping so many of us understand what's going on, what's not going on, and how the American medical establishment has a lot of catch up work to do. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers, a network of 130,000,000 of them, in fact. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title? See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at linkedin.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. With Apple Card, there are no points to calculate or rewards to claim, just daily cashback on every purchase. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. Before we jump in, let me tell you a little bit about Mary Claire Haber. Doctor. Haber is a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist. She graduated from LSU Medical Center. She completed her residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She is a certified medical specialist and menopause society certified menopause practitioner. In 2021, she established Marie Claire Wellness, a clinic dedicated to providing comprehensive care for menopausal patients. In 2023, she published her first book, The Galveston Diet. I discovered her before I saw her, actually. She's in my neck of the woods, so it made it easier to see her. I discovered her on social media. She has, I think, 4,000,000 followers across platforms. And she's so good at demystifying information, backing up claims with really solid research. I just am a huge fan. If you do know her, this is a fun conversation. If you have not met her, I'm so excited that you get to meet her. We're gonna talk about her new book, The Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change with Purpose, Power, and …

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