One of the reasons I believe that I am waist-deep in menopause these days, professionally I mean, is because of Oprah Winfrey.
Before The Oprah Winfrey Show went off the air in 2011, Oprah spent a lot of time talking about menopause. She had her doctor, American ob-gyn and best-selling author Dr Christiane Northrup on her show (and also on Super Soul Sunday) a total of 10 times. I was watching one of those times, and I thought to my 30-something self, I want to interview both of these women when I’m going through menopause.
Of course back then that seemed like it would never happen. And seeing as it took more more than five years to realize I was in perimenopause in my 40s, I clearly filed that one deep in my brain. Flash-forward to launching Hotflash inc and I did interview Dr Northrup, in 2021 when she launched a new edition of The Wisdom of Menopause, and it was very informative. (Dr Northrup of course had been cancelled by then for her unique post-retirement views, but I don’t rewrite history – even though I’m sure to hear about it in the comments at this mention her – and I was going to be damned if I didn’t get to speak to her just like I vowed I would.) She was really awesome by the way, and we stuck to menopause; it’s still up on podcasts; I got a warning and a removal on YouTube though.
An Oprah interview? I’m going to need a little more time on that one.
My point is, everyone is acting like Oprah just started talking about menopause. And because of that, menopause has somehow suddenly hit the big time. It makes me giggle, because no one has any memory in this world. (Take this Prevention headline: Oprah Winfrey, 69, Opens Up About Scary First Menopause Symptom) She’s literally never stopped talking about it!
Ten times, at least, on national television. (As Dr Northrup told me, in a story she’s clearly told 1,000 times, it all started like this: “Literally, I get a call from Oprah. She says, ‘Your book fell off the shelf in front of me. I opened to the page of somebody's story and it was exactly what is going on with my heart palpitations’.”)
If you bought O The Oprah Magazine every month when it was in circulation, like I did, you know that she talked about menopause in there all the time too. And you know that even though people love to make menopause a physical problem that only exogenous hormones can solve, Oprah took bioidentical HRT and considers menopause much more than a bunch of physical symptoms that need to be mitigated with HRT. She understands it’s an essential heroine’s journey, famously once saying “so many women I’ve talked to see menopause as a blessing”.
She’s a woman who is living her best life now, at 69, and knows where we are is going somewhere good, if we let it.
I’m glad Oprah has amassed a crew of people and this week launched a menopause curriculum on Oprah Daily, kicking it off with a 47-minute one-off show The Menopause Talk. Although there was a lot of griping about a US$35 price, from what I could see the show was or is now free and the producers have simply pulled all the past menopause-related content into one vertical called The Menopause Class. (Am I missing something?) Anyway, I’m not quite sure if people understand how much it costs to produce content, fly everyone in, make sure they have semi-permanent lashes, etc, or think that anyone would do something like that for free. When I mentioned that I was covering something on my Substack paid newletter on Instagram, a lady commented “we have to pay to see it?”, like me needing to get some sort of remuneration for my research and not just toil for free until I am a homeless old lady was some sort of affront.
I’m glad she talked about her heart palpitations again – they are one of the very scariest things that happen in perimenopause. (I see Dr Northrup has been scrubbed from existence, she only mentions “a book”; not surprising). Everyone looked very glossy and beautiful, just they way people do in the US when they’ve hit the big time.
The bottom line, even if people are memory-challenged squirrels, is that we need this talked about, more, now. Drew Barrymore, one of Oprah’s #perimenoposse who let the cameras roll last week and shared a clip on social media having her first perimenopause hot flash in the middle of an interview with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler, is an amazing ambassador. I loved how she described feeling the ick at the thought of talking about perimenopause to a romantic interest; I also thought when I launched Hotflash inc it would be the kiss of death for my hopes of finding love. I can tell you confidently that I dated a lot in the first two years and no one skipped a beat when I mentioned it. Men are more, a lot of the times, than we give them credit for.
And while for me, talking about it publicly gave me courage to speak about it privately, for Barrymore, it was the reverse. As she said on the show, the next step was thinking: "If Mark Zuckerberg could rebrand Facebook to Meta, maybe we can do this for menopause.”
(BTWFYI: Gwyneth Paltrow said “menopause could use a bit of a rebranding” in 2018).
Another huge benefit of Barrymore’s involvement is that with the dating talk, I saw perimenopause headlines from Cosmopolitan to InStyle. Getting the word out.
Newswoman Maria Shriver has done great work in dementia awareness and prevention – responsibly repeating the message that it takes a lot more than HRT (aka nutrition, exercise, sleep, connection, community, challenging yourself) – and it’s worth it to feature HRT-focused know-how from American ob-gyns Doctor Menopause Gurus Dr Sharon Malone and Dr Heather Hirsh (even if both of them have menopause-dependent business ventures – because really, who doesn’t?)
Who knows where it will go from here? All I know is that I still feel the same way I did whenever someone tried to bait me into a ‘you don’t actually like Oprah do you?’ discussion back in the day (for as I remember, it was not fashionable to admit to liking her, especially after she turned 40 and got woo-woo).
And what I said then most definitely stands the test of time, and is applicable here too, and that is: “She uses her power for good, not evil”.
Sciencey-science stuff
• DEMENTIA & BLOOD PRESSURE: A new study published in JAMA Network Open has found an association between high blood pressure in your 30s and poor brain health at 75. Researchers at UC Davis in the US compared MRIs from older adults who had high blood pressure between 30 and 40 with those who didn’t, and found factors associated with dementia: namely significantly lower grey matter and frontal cortex volumes and reduced white matter integrity. The study found the impact was stronger in men, and researchers pointed out the differences there could have been related to the demonstrated pre-menopausal protective benefits of estrogen. The data was drawn from 427 participants via from the Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences study and the Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans. Senior author Rachel Whitmer, a public health sciences and neurology professor and associate director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center said: “This study truly demonstrates the importance of early life risk factors and that to age well, you need to take care of yourself throughout life — heart health is brain health.”
• The most mind-blowing article I read all week was by GreenMedInfo founder Sayer Ji, printed in Epoch Times. Look, it shouldn’t surprise you that I read a wide range of sources to keep my brain supple, open and curious about new ideas and concepts. I started to do that in 2016, when I realized that I was becoming a very annoying person who was consistently confirming my own biases. It may have been an ex-military Republican that I dated who helped me to this conclusion, but I’ll never admit it and I’m definitely not grateful to him. (wink) I find Epoch Times one of the only balanced news sources now, in that it is not completely captured by the pharmaceutical industry and it’s the only place you are likely to find a thought-provoking article with a controversial, narrative-busting headline like The Manufacturing of Bone Diseases: The Story of Osteoporosis and Osteopenia. I’d love to know what you think, if you dared to click.
• FATTY LIVER: A new study published in Science Translational Medicine found that a new glycine-based treatment works to reverse the most severe form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), called NASH, or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Researchers at Michigan Medicine, working with two teams in China, found that a glycine-based tripeptide called DT-109, reversed fat buildup and prevented liver scarring. Up to one in three people have been estimated to have NAFLD, with an estimated 6.5 percent to have NASH. One of the study authors invented the drug and Michigan Medicine has patented it. This builds on previous research looking into the impact of glycine on improving NAFLD. Can you just take glycine? Good question.
Day raver, cold swimmer, rabble-rouser, educator, author, podcaster, academic and publisher of scientific papers: Joyce Harper is a professor of reproductive science at the Institute for Women's Health, University College London.
She’s also author of the 2021 book Your Fertile Years and hosts the podcast Why didn’t anyone tell me this?
Harper is uncompromised and unflappable. She is all about the evidence. She’s not opposed to HRT but isn’t a breathless enthusiast either. It has to be about the evidence, she argues, otherwise it’s just stories and anecdotes that don’t add up to anything.
NB: We are both members of a balanced-approach group called MenoClarity, and we recorded this podcast before Joyce was quoted in a controversial Daily Mail article alleging excessive and unsafe HRT prescribing practices at a chain of private clinics in the UK.
When I followed up with her about it, she said: "We need to give women accurate information about the menopause and treatments. In the UK we've created huge negativity – some suggesting menopause is a disorder. It's not fair to women and I really worry for the next generations who are now nearing menopause. Menopause can be difficult for some. But for most it's a transition and life post menopause can be the most exciting and liberating stage of our lives."
(As always, I’m not a medical professional and this podcast is not medical advice. Expert opinion varies widely. Please listen to the disclaimer at the end of the podcast as well.)
Highlights:
• Almost 30 years after she completed her PhD, women still don’t understand their bodies
• Why we need to teach people what’s “normal” so they know when to seek help
• How she approaches research – and how we need to as well
• Her top myths in women’s health and menopause
• When you should go on HRT and why dosing matters
• How overall health sets you up for perimenopause
• Issues with the push for testosterone
• Why anecdotes are not research
• Her research-based conclusions the claims that can prevent dementia
• Why being post-menopause is so great
• Her homework assignment for every perimenopausal woman
Where to find Joyce:
Web: Joyceharper.com; Globalwomenconnected.com
Twitter: @profjoyceharper
Instagram @profjoyceharper
Where Hotflash inc is at
• GOING ON VACATION: So number one, Hotflash inc is going on vacation. Hotflash inc is burned out and will be switching off in Thailand from April 17 for a week, returning rejuvenated and refreshed. Indeed this newsletter was written on fumes, so if you are new to Hotflash inc, please grant me some grace.
• THE JEN MARPLES SHOW: I loved this interview, Busting Narratives and Finding Truth in Perimenopause, with the one and only Jen Marples, a San Francisco-based midlife champion, coach, activist and more. I got to talk about my own rocky perimenopause, how I feel about it now, as I seem to be in my last year, and how I started looking at menopause as a hero’s journey (which I became obsessed with during a screenwriting course I took at the UK’s National Film and Television School in 2016 and started applying to way too many things at the time). It’s something I’m going to do more of because it’s becoming apparent to me that’s exactly what what menopause and midlife is, and I want people to answer the call, and it seems to resonate.
• WILD + (FINALLY FCKING) FREE: I was also talked to Kylie Patchett, a Queensland, Australia-based Self Care Coach for Midlife Mavens in an episode called This is not for your Enterpainment (which is brilliant). We went deep on this one: how I only realized at 47 that the trials I’d been experiencing for at least five years were at least in part due to perimenopause; how perimenopause has brought up a lot of pain, and how I’ve been processing that; how I feel I am in the final stretch of perimenopause and what that’s been like (if I had a cave, I’d use it), and why I compare this entire thing to cleaning out my kitchen from top to bottom.
Click, read, listen, watch + follow
• This needs my pal and relentless researcher Andrea Donsky on it to make 6: 5 genuinely helpful accounts to follow on Menopause TikTok Chatelaine
• If you are as confused about this issue as I am from all the yelling in either direction on social media, this article is very thorough. I do intermittent fast sometimes because it makes me feel good; if I do it too much or for too long, it does not make me feel good. And I pay attention to that; and adjust accordingly. Intermittent Fasting for Women over 50: Meal plan + Safety tips Mindbodygreen
• Life after menopause: 5 surprising silver linings Oprah Daily via Yahoo
• The craziest thing I saw on social media this week? A nutritionist saying that food doesn’t cause brain fog. Then I saw a piece on how Traditional Chinese Medicine can help brain fog by holistic health coach and practitioner Clarissa Kristjansson and felt a little less crazy. Substack (paywall)
• While I was poking around the Internets this week, I found a jackpot of an article from 2014, on a topic I just spoke to British television presenter Cherry Healey about in an interview that will be going up on her IG account, and also spoke to British GP, Dr Quentin Oury about, in an interview that will be on my podcast coming up: Manopause?! Aging, Insecurity and the $2 Billion Testosterone Industry Time (free if you sign up or read very quickly)
Editor’s note
That’s it. I’m done. Done-done-done-done-done. See you after Thailand.
Take care of yourselves and don’t let anyone FUD you. Ever. EVER. As I’m learning, it doesn’t make anything better to be scared, but it does make it harder. And that’s just silly.
As usual, a great and informative article; thank you!! If this was written on fumes I can’t wait till the next installment, after your well deserved break. Take care!
Thank you for all of this goodness. And enjoy Thailand!