Dr. Amy Brenner’s HealthiHer Podcast – How Hormones Got a Bad Rap : Simple Hormones

Dr. Amy Brenner

Amy Brenner, MD is an OB/GYN in Mason, OH, near Cincinnati. She's been actively involved in functional medicine and hormone optimization for many years. She and I have talked a lot about optimal hormones and patient education, especially about menopause.

Dr. Brenner is very aware of the ways just right hormone levels can relieve symptoms, especially for women in menopause. Optimal hormone levels reduce or eliminate hot flashes and help with weight gain. They also decrease long-term health risks for things like osteoporosis and heart disease.

HealthiHer Podcast

I sat down with Dr. Brenner as a guest on her HealthiHer podcast. We talked about the Women's Health Initiative. The WHI studied tens of thousands of women in menopause. It was one of the largest, most ambitious randomized controlled trials in history . . . if not THE largest. The WHI tells us a lot about hormone replacement therapy. But it doesn't tell the whole story.

The Women's Health Initiative was started in the late 1990s and abruptly stopped in 2002 because of a perceived increase in the risk for breast cancer.

Podcast Topics

In this interview, Dr. Brenner and I explain the specific hormones that were used in the trial.

We talk about the thousands of women who were involved. We take a closer look at the actual words used by the WHI Writing Group in their analysis of the results. In light of their own statements, the conclusions reached by the researchers themselves don't line up with the conventional wisdom that came out of the trial.

How old were the women in the study?
Were these women "healthy" as the title of the study suggests?
What kinds of health problems did these women have before the study began?
How did hormone replacement affect the women who took hormones?
Twenty plus years after the study, how does the evidence stand up?
Should women and doctors assume that "all hormones are bad?"
What are the take home lessons from the WHI?

Click the "play" button above to listen to the podcast directly from this post.

Or, if you prefer, you can listen on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite podcast app.

Providers: Patients Fear Hormones?

Have your menopausal patients heard about the Women's Health Initiative and they're afraid of breast cancer or heart attacks? My Simple Hormones patient education programs help you relieve patient fears. For a limited time, I'm offering a 60-day free trial. Use the programs and see how your patients respond. Click the link to learn more.

TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION