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/@melindagates
Melinda 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/melindagates
Pivotal https://www.pivotal.com/founder
Moment of Lift Books https://www.momentoflift.com/
Melinda French Gates at the Gates Foundation https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/leadership/melinda-french-gates
Books:
"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

In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Mohit Khera, board-certified urologist and Professor of Urology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he holds the F. Brantley Scott Chair in Urology, to tell women the truth about testosterone — the hormone women actually make more of than estrogen, yet still cannot access in a single FDA-approved formulation.
Dr. Khera explains why testosterone is one of the most biologically active hormones in the female body, with receptors in the brain, heart, bone, muscle, and genitalia, and why the research to prove its full benefits for women has simply never been funded. He walks through what low testosterone really looks like, how to get tested properly, why women with low libido are so often handed an SSRI that makes things worse, the truth about pellets, creams, and injections, which side effects are reversible and which are not, and the red flags to watch for when looking for a prescriber. He also shares why sexual dysfunction is a couple's disease, what he calls the "hormonally dangerous decade," and the one intervention he's found that makes women feel even better than hormones.
Guest links:
Dr. Mohit Khera (Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/drmohitkhera/
Dr. Mohit Khera (X) https://twitter.com/DrMohitKhera
Dr. Mohit Khera (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmohitkhera/
Dr. Mohit Khera (Website) https://drmohitkhera.com/
Dr. Mohit Khera at Baylor College of Medicine https://www.bcm.edu/people-search/mohit-khera-24469
Books:
"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 Life
Dr. 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 Bluming
For full show notes, please click here.

What if weak bones and muscle loss aren't just "normal aging" but the result of decades of misinformation? In this episode double board-certified orthopedic surgeon Dr. Vonda Wright joins Dr. Mary Claire Haver to shatter the myth that frailty, fractures, and decline are inevitable for women in midlife.
Dr. Wright explains why women can lose up to 20% of their bone mass in just five years after menopause—and more importantly, what we can do to prevent it. She reveals how stress, inadequate nutrition, and neglecting strength training and hormonal health create the very outcomes we've been taught to accept as unavoidable.
From the "musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause" that affects 70-80% of women (yet most doctors never discuss) to the science of building bones through strategic lifting, Dr. Wright provides the blueprint for aging with power instead of resignation.
Guest links:
Dr. Vonda Wright
Dr. Vonda Wright (Instagram)
Books
Unbreakable: A Women's Guide To Aging With Power, by Dr. Vonda Wright
Younger in 8 Weeks, by Dr. Vonda Wright
Fitness After 40: Your Strong Body at 40, 50, 60, and Beyond, by Dr. Vonda Wright
Guide to THRIVE: 4 Steps to Body, Brains and Bliss, by Dr. Vonda Wright
Masterful Care of the Aging Athlete: A Clinical Guide, by Dr. Vonda Wright
Raising a Healthy Youth Athlete, by Dr. Vonda Wright
For 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 McBride
Dr. 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 McBride
For full show notes, please click here.