The Dr. Hyman Show - Halle Berry: Why Women Are Being Failed at Menopause

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

For decades, midlife has been framed as a time of decline for women — medically, culturally, and personally. Halle Berry is on a mission to change that. On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, she shares how her own menopause journey exposed how little real support exists for the 60 million women navigating this transition. That experience ultimately led her to create ReSpin, the community she couldn’t find when she needed it. Watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. We discuss: • Why menopause is often missed — and how to take back control of your energy, mood, and metabolism • What changes in your brain, bones, and muscle and how to protect them in midlife • How comprehensive testing gives you a personalized roadmap for this phase of life • Why fatigue, low libido, and brain fog aren’t “just aging” — and what improves when you address the root cause Your second act can be your strongest. It’s a chance to reclaim your strength, your energy, and your future on your own terms. This conversation was recorded live at the Eudēmonia Summit. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detoxJoin the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Results https://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by Seed, BIOptimizers, PerfectAmino, BON CHARGE, Made In Cookware and Maui Nui. Go to seed.com/hyman and use code 20HYMAN to get 20% off your first month. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use promo code HYMAN at checkout to save 15%. Go to bodyhealth.com and use code HYMAN20 to get 20% off your first order. Upgrade your routine. Head to boncharge.com/hyman and use code HYMAN for 15% off. Head to madeincookware.com and use the code DRHYMAN for 10% off your order. Learn more about the health benefits of venison and how to get yours, head over to mauinuivenison.com/hyman. (0:00) Halle Berry's health journey and the overlooked issue of menopause (1:21) Introduction to the Eudaimonia Summit (3:27) Women's health problems: Causes and personal stories (7:12) Misdiagnosis, confusion, and the mission to educate (10:01) Women's Health Initiative study and FDA updates (12:48) Hormone therapy and perimenopause symptoms (17:22) Lifestyle's role in hormonal health and disease prevention (22:12) Alcohol, nicotine, and long-term health risks like Alzheimer's (25:26) Early hormone replacement therapy and personalized care (28:15) Sexual health discussions and Halle Berry's ReSpin initiative (32:22) Cultural change, low-tox living, and structural health in menopause (37:01) Menopause symptoms variability and addressing health disparities (39:52) The need for medical education reform and JoyLux's contribution (41:12) Psychedelics in mental health treatment (43:43) Closing remarks and listener engagement (44:00) Disclaimer about podcast content

I wake up in the morning and I cannot go to the bathroom. I'm sitting there and I just can't go. It's like, it's the most excruciating pain I've ever felt. So the first thing, of course, you do, you go to the doctor. He said, well, this is the worst case of herpes I think I've seen. So my guy, Van, is downstairs in the car because he had driven me to the doctor's office. I get in the car and I'm looking at him and I'm like, hey, so you got herpes? So then an hour later, my doctor calls me and says,

no, you do not have herpes. I said, then what is it? And he said, I don't know. And he hung up the phone. I realized that what I was suffering from was dry vagina syndrome, because in perimenopause, over 50% of women get dry everything, dry eyes, dry mouth, and dry vagina. And all of those were dry on me.

Nobody had ever mentioned the word menopause. I was so ignorant, Mark, I thought I would skip it. As a physician, I learned almost nothing about menopause in medical school except that it happens. There's 60 million women in America who are in menopause, and they're not being well taken care of by the healthcare system. I had to be loud. I had to be unafraid to tell this very kind of embarrassing story

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Use promo code Hyman at checkout to save 15%. Welcome to a special episode of the Dr. Hyman Show, recorded live at the Eudamonia Summit. Eudomonia is a three-day gathering designed to elevate human health and potential. Here, over 100 leading scientists, clinicians, and wellness innovators come together to share the most advanced evidence-based strategies for longevity and well-being. And I'm thrilled to bring you a conversation from the heart of this transformative event. I'm thrilled to be here. Filled up Halle here.

feel to talk about something that is kind of a taboo subject and mostly ignored by medicine, menopause. As a doctor, I've come to learn that most of women's health problems and most of women's problems in general start with men. Menopause, menstrual cramps, mental anxiety. So... Why is that? Men in general. I don't know. But, you know, the truth is that, you know, as a physician, I learn almost nothing about menopause in medical school except that it happens and that we should give Prem and Provera, which unfortunately have a lot of side effects and are not the best hormone

replacement therapy. And as a physician, I had the privilege of working in a place called Canyon Ranch where for almost 10 years, I treated a population of women between, you know, late 30s and late 50s. So I really got to see what was going on in the whole continuum from reproductive life to perimenopause through menopause and after, and I just realized how much suffering there was, how much unnecessary suffering there was, and how neglected it was. There's 60 million women in America who are in menopause,

and they're not being well taken care of by the healthcare system. And I also realized that it's sort of accepted that women have to suffer, that they have to have PMS. You know what that stands for? Punish my spouse. And the, you know, PMS, 75% of women have some degree of it. Some have a severe form called PMDD, which is pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, bad menstrual cramps or dysmenorrhea, heavy bleeding, irregular cycles, infertility, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, endometriosis, so many different problems that have come to be seen as just a

a normal part of being a woman. They're not. There are a result of things that are eminently treatable if you understand how to get to the root cause. And, you know, why I'm thrilled to be here with Hallie is because she's had an epiphany that this was an area of health and health care and medicine that was neglected that she was a victim of, I would say, and has made her life and her second act in life about addressing this on a cultural level, on a health care level, on an empowerment level, which I think is amazing. So let's give it up for Hallie. Thank you.

So with that prelude, you know, tell us about your origin story with this because you're America's sex symbol, right? And menopause is not thought of something. It's not sexy. Sexy, right. So, you know,

you were going through a lot of health care changes, and you got misdiagnosed. You were told you had a very embarrassing condition that ended up being not actually true, and it was something else. and you begin to realize how much you were failed by medicine. So tell us about that story and how you all got started in this. But when I was 54, thank you.

How did she look great? But when I was 54, nobody had ever mentioned the word menopause. I was so ignorant, Mark. I thought I would skip it. I thought whatever that thing is, I'm going to skip it, right? I got myself off insulin. I knew that food was medicine. And I thought, well, I'm going to sail through, whatever the hell that is.

Well, no, we all are going to face it if we're lucky enough to get there. But finally, I met, you know, I've been like you, married and divorced a few times. I'm a relationship of expert. I've been married three times. Me too, two times and divorced three times. There you go. So I finally met my man, right? And I knew that this was my man.

After three divorces, you kind of know when you meet your person. I met my person. And we were having the best sex. two people could have. Everything was functioning the way it should. We were on fire and I thought, wow, this is the best time of my life. We have a year of great sex, all of a sudden and at the end of that year, we're having great sex. I wake up in the morning and I cannot go to the bathroom. I'm sitting there and I just can't go. It's like, it's the most excruciating pain I've ever felt. And I thought, what the heck is going on? I look down there. It's blown up. It looks like something it's never

looked like before. And I thought, my God, what has happened to me? So the first thing, of course, you do, you go to the doctor, go to the doctor that I've known a long time. And I say, what is happening here? And he's like, well, he looks up there and he says, well, I know what this is. And I'm like, you do? What is it? He said, well, this is the worst case of herpes I think I've seen. And I'm like, herpes? What do you mean, herpes? And not that herpes is a bad thing, but you think that's something you want to tell a girl. You got herpes.

I said, oh, my God. He said, yeah, it's herpes. I'll do the test. It'll come back in 72 hours. But, yeah, I'm pretty sure this is herpes. So my guy, Van, is downstairs in the car because he had driven me to the doctor's office. He's down there in the car. I get in the car and I'm looking at him.

And I'm like, hey, so you got herpes? Oh, God. And he's like, I don't have herpes. I'm like, no, you do have herpes. Because I have herpes now, and I didn't have herpes before I knew you. So you have herpes. And he's like, no. That's a fun conversation.

It's a fun, a very fun conversation with the love of your life of a year. And I said, no, you do. And he said, nobody's ever told me that. So I'm like, well, let me be the first to tell you, man. You have herpes. And now you've given it to me. And so we're in the car and we're driving and we're just mad and we don't know what to say to each other. So I say to him, look, you need to go get a test. We need to see what's going on here. So he runs right to the doctor. He gets a test. So for 72 hours, as a new couple, we are just, not that herpes is the end of the world, because it's not, but you should tell each other that. So we had issues with trust. We didn't know who had the herpes, who gave the herpes. So 72 hours, he gets his results back first. He doesn't have herpes. So he's looking at me like, well, looks like you gave me herpes. And I'm like, damn.

Damn, I think I gave him herpes, but how did that happen? So then an hour later, my doctor calls me and says, I said, I know, I know I got herpes. He said, no, you do not have herpes. And I said, I don't. He's like, no. And this was my aha moment that changed the second act of my life because he's, I said, then what is it? And he said, I don't know. And I thought, how can you not know?

You're the doctor. you don't know what this is and he said I truly don't and that's all he said and he hung up the phone and I sat there with myself and with my new man and I thought this is not okay I have to go on my own mission to figure out what this is and educate myself and that's when I realized that what I was suffering from was dry vagina syndrome because in perimenopause over 50% of women get dry everything dry eyes dry mouth and dry vagina and all of those were dry on me. And that's when I realized if I had this little information, and I argue I've had one of the best doctors, and he is one of the best doctors in California, but it's not his fault.

He wasn't educated. He had a chapter of studying the metapausal body in medical school, one chapter, half a day, right? So he didn't know, not his fault, really, at the time. But that's when I realized I had to use my platform, use my voice. I had to not only educate myself, but I had to sort of start to be able to help other women understand. And I had to break open this conversation. I had to start talking about it. I had to be loud, right? I had to be unafraid to tell this very kind of embarrassing story

because we had to start the conversation. And I had to make women okay to talk about it as well. Yeah. Thank you, Halley, but sharing that. And by the way, when I said I was going to have this conversation, all the people in my life that, you know, help me manage my career, they all were like, oh, I don't know if you want to go talking about menopause, that's going to like just end your whole shit. And I thought, well, then I, my whole shit will end.

But I'm going to talk about what's important to me as a woman, and I'm going to talk about this time of my life. And if my movie career ends, I've had a good one. It's okay. It's okay. I think people always appreciate people who are authentic and tell the truth. And that's what matters. One of the things that happened to during my career as a doctor is that there was a big study called the nurse's health study, which was an observational study that showed that women who took hormones did better.

And it was not proving cause and effect, but correlation. It turned out the women who were doing better were just healthier in general. They went to their doctor. They exercised. They ate better. They took their vitamins. They didn't smoke. And that's why they had better health outcomes, not necessarily because they took the hormones.

when they did a big study, it was a billion-dollar study commissioned by Bernard & Healy was the first head of the NIH as a woman, called the Women's Health Initiative, and that study showed, and there was problems with it,

but that study showed that there were some adverse outcomes from women who took hormones, like heart attacks and strokes and increased cancer risk. And all of a sudden, boom, overnight, it was, I remember, I was like it was 2002,

the study came out, and overnight, there were 50 million women that stopped hormones, which was, a disaster. Single worst thing, I think, to happen for women's health. Yeah, it was a disaster.

Just last week, there was a big change. You want to share about it? The FDA lifted that black box warning, and I think that's one of the best things to happen in women's health. But the truth is, there's still going to be those women that are still going to be afraid, because that stigma is still alive and well, and women are holding on to that. It's still, I feel going to be very hard to get women to have faith that these bioidentical hormones will not cause them cancer. Yeah. Really.

I think it is. And I know this because since that happened, I still talk to women and they still say, oh, but I don't know. So my question is, what will it take for us to really start doing our own investigation and advocating for ourselves and deciding for ourselves what's right for. for us that do understand the menopausal body that can give us real information so that we can make those educated decisions, right? Not just, you know, what our friends tell us that their mothers have told them, but how do we come into 2025 and really start investigating for ourselves? That's what we have to start. It's really important. And I think the thing that has to happen and probably won't happen at

scale is because the way drug companies make money is they modify a substance and make it proprietary and then they can patent it and then they can make money from it. But what you said was bioidentical. I mean, it's what nature made. You can't patent what nature made like a vitamin or a hormone. And so it's cheap and it's not going to make the money and so they're not going to do big studies on this. And that's a fundamental problem unless the government takes a hold of this and does this. And they have very different effects on the women's body than these other hormones. Permanent increases the risk of inflammation, it causes hydroglystriads, it increased cancer risk. It's pregnant, mares urine. That's what it stands for pregnant, mares urine, Primer, and that's how they get it.

And Provera is the other hormone they use, which is a form of synthetic progesterone that actually makes women gain weight, have facial hair, and be depressed. So it's not a lot of fun. But the bioidentical ones don't do that. So can you talk about the kinds of symptoms that women suffer from? You mentioned vaginald dryness, you mentioned dry eyes, dry mouth, but there's a whole host of things that happen or can happen, not not everybody, but what did you experience and what are you seeing in your company, Respin, which is really designed to help women through this process. It's a whole platform of education and support and coaching and hormone access to hormone therapy and doctors that provides a pathway where there's been none for women.

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cellular level. It's lightweight, comfortable, and fits into your routine, pop it on while reading, relaxing, or even folding laundry. Think of it as a mini spa session that compliments everything else you're doing for your skin from the inside out. Try it today at bondcharge.com slash hymen and use code D-R-Mark for 15% off. That's B-O-N-C-H-A-R-G-E.com slash hymen, code D-R-Mark. Exactly. What blew my mind when I started to do my research, there are over 100 symptoms that are now attributed to perimenopause and menopause. And I think the most common ones, and many of you in this room are probably experiencing them. The worst ones I have, of course,

is dry everything. I have dry mouth and dry eyes. Doctors don't know. My rheumatologist tried to me that my dry mouth was Shogran's disease. Why? Because he had only really studied the research that came back to him from men. And if I were a man and I was complaining about the things that I was complaining about, probably would be Shogren's disease. And he would put me on steroids for probably the rest of my life. I said, no. Right? And I said, no, I don't, I do not accept this. I do not have Shogren's disease. I just didn't believe it. Another one of my doctors, because I have dry eyes, which I suffer from, he has been my doctor for a while. My glands in my eyes almost dried up because he could not say the word menopause to me. He said, I can't tell Hallie Berry, she's in

menopause. And I thought, then who's going to tell me? You're my doctor. We have to talk about this. So you see, doctors can't even talk about it. So those are my major symptoms. I also had brain fog. You know, nothing's worse than sitting at a meeting or on a phone call or on the set. And I can't remember, I can't have word recall. Right in the middle of a sentence, I just lose my whole train of thought. Night sweats, up all night, you know, sleep deprivation is a form of torture. And we know this ladies, we wake up at three in the morning. We try to solve all the world's problems. We can't go back to sleep. When we finally get to sleep, it's morning. We have to get our kids off to school. Then we go into work and we're like a bear and we're so angry. And everybody's like, well, what the fuck is

is wrong with you? I've been up all night. You'd be this way too. You know, it just never stops. And I felt like I was all alone. I felt afraid. And I thought, I'm just getting old. And now I'm going to just shrivel up and I'm going to go off to pasture and nobody's going to care. That's how I felt very depressed. I felt that alone and like that nobody heard my feelings. And when I tried to talk to health care professionals, I was just told, you know what, this is a part of getting old.

That's all it is. You're in your late 50s and this is what this is. is and you just have to suck it up and deal with it. And that was not okay. And that's why at Reespin, we have doctors there and coaches there that, no, no, we don't have to just suck it up. We deserve support. We deserve scientific information about what's happening with our body. We deserve a community of like-minded women because I've learned most of the things about what I'm going through through other women. Through the things that they've tried and what has worked for them and what hasn't worked for them. I've learned about all the symptoms based on what other women tell me

they're experiencing. I'm not experiencing these things, but I learned about frozen shoulder and all these other itchy feet and itchy legs and ears and ringing in your head. Like I learned about these. And low libido. And low libido, well, yeah, had that too. But now I'm better. I got on some testosterone when I got found my libido. We don't have to, you know, sort of trail off into pasture. Like there are ways, like we know that if you know the right things to do, when you know better, you do better, when you know the right foods to eat because food is medicine, when you know, you know, if hormones are right for you, if you feel comfortable doing that, that can be a game changer. Like, we have the right to figure out what works for us. I think that's really important

because what you're hitting on is it's not just about hormone replacement therapy. And at re-spin, you do a comprehensive, holistic approach, which includes lifestyle, diet, exercise, stress management, sleep, relationships, all the things that matter, nutritional support. And, you know, we don't really pay attention to that. And, you know, at function of health, we do deep diagnostics that help them and understand where they are hormonally, where they are metabolically, where they are nutritionally, and you can start to see the patterns. And one of the things that I think, you know, I don't know if you focus on this much, but what I noticed when women go through this late 40s, early 50s transition, is there's basically a whole set of hormones that go right. It's not just

sex hormones like estrogen progesterone or testosterone. It's insulin. And women get increased belly fat, it's cortisol, which also... I got the menel belly. Menlo belly. The menel belly. Who's got the mental belly? The mental belly? It's crazy.

Yeah, and it's cortisol goes up, and the stress goes up. And you're often in the sandwich generation, your career is peaking. Your kids are in teenagers. Your parents are older. It's like a whole pressure cooker. And then you get thyroid dysfunction is very common too. So you've got insulin, cortisol, thyroid, sex hormones, four different hormones that go awry and are all interacting to cause a lot of chaos.

And they're all treatable. And women don't have to suffer if you understand what to look at and what to test for and what to diagnose. And that's really why we created function health to empower women and everybody to be able to access their data and figure out what's going on. And that's the beauty of function. I just did my function test. You guys sent someone in my house. I swear they took every ounce of blood out of my body. She said, I'm going to take 17 vials of blood.

I said, excuse me? What? You want to know everything. She said, yeah, that's what I'm doing. But you know what? Thank God she did because I learned so much. I got back such a comprehensive report. And some things I think I already knew and some things I learned. And it was really eye-opening. And what women can do, if they can get their function report, they can bring it over to us at Re-SPAN. And we can help them, function can help them make sense of what that means too. But we at Respin can hold their hand to make sure they follow through with all of these protocols that can actually change their life and help them understand it. Because some of us need to ask the same question like, 10 times before we get it. And we understand that at re-spin. You know, some of it can be very confusing and it can be daunting and you really need someone to sit with you and break it down until you finally understand it. You know, can you talk, Kelly, about what are those lifestyle

factors and things that women experience that cause hormones to go wacky? It often feels like it's happening randomly to you. But it's not. It's the effect of everything washing over your biology, everything you eat, all those things. Can you kind of break that down for us in what you're learning about, the things that are actually causing hormonal dysregulation? It's not just about giving hormone replacement therapy. It's about addressing the whole package. Yeah, you need so much. I mean, I've been on hormones now for almost four years, and I can say that took me about 50 or 60 percent of the way. It's certainly in the beginning, you know, it helped me sleep a little bit better. I was a little less moody. I could remember things a little bit more, but it didn't just do the

trick either. I had to realize that, like you said, the hormones only were as effective as my body was healthy, right? So I had to change the way I ate. Being a type 2 diabetic, I used to be very much in the ketogenic diet, and I learned that at this time of my life, that was no longer working for me. I needed a little carbs. I needed to eat more fiber. I needed to have more protein. I used to, I've worked out my whole life. I was a gymnast as a kid. I couldn't do as much cardio. I didn't need as much cardio as I used to need to do. I now needed to lift heavy, heavy weights. And I never did that before. That was not something that I felt I needed. And now I had to change all that about how I was operating my everyday life. So I realized that this new body was the better version of myself. We

often think, oh, we're getting older and we're sort of downgrading. But we're not downgrading. When we know the things to do, we're upgrading. We're spiraling into the best version of ourselves, right? We just have to know how to support this new body, this new place we find ourselves. And it's not a sickness. It's a natural life transition that just has to be supported by evidence-based therapies and information. Yeah. And it's also things like alcohol and nicotine.

Yeah. Bring it up. You know, it's also things like alcohol and nicotine and caffeine and caffeine. caffeine, it also can cause problems. So you've got to pay to stop drinking alcohol. Yeah. That was a really hard one. Well, alcohol really screws up estrogen. In fact, one glass of wine or alcohol a day increases the one of the risk of breast cancer by 40%. Why? Because it interrupts estrogen metabolism in the liver. It increases estrogen levels. You literally can see rising estrogen levels and high estrogen can cause all these problems. So. And your sleep. Yeah. It can really mess with your

sleep. We often think, I'll have a nice glass of wine and go to sleep. It'll be a nice glass of wine and go to sleep. It'll put you to sleep, but it's going to wake you up at 3 a.m. Yeah, exactly. So it's not worth it. Yeah. And so there's so many things that are involved in sort of understanding how to optimize your health. And there's also, you know, the risk of diseases. And I think, you know, the things like, short-term symptoms are important. But when we're talking about longevity and we're talking about having a healthy lifespan and living to 100 healthy years, it's more than just, you know, getting rid of hot flashes or improving your sleep or bachelor's arthritis. It's those things

that include your risk of Alzheimer's and osteoporosis, which are, and Alzheimer's, you know, affects women far greater rate than men. So can you talk a little about the benefits there? And here's, yes, and here's something I learned, too, that also blew my mind. We have hot flashes, that's part of it. And so many people have said, well, it's just hot flash. Just deal with it. Like, get a fan and carry it around with you. Like, what's the problem? Well, it's more than a hot flash, first of all, because every time you have a hot flash, they're ramifications to your brain, right? And what I learned with Dr. Mackey, who's also one of our doctors over at Reespin, is that every time you have a hot flash, you don't actually know you have a hot flash. Sometimes you feel the hot flashes, but sometimes we don't. And Dr. Mackey was doing a study out of Chicago, and she would hook women women up to a machine, and she's able to measure how many hot flashes they have. This one woman that she was studying while I was there with her, this woman thought she had high. five hot flashes, but in fact she had 50 hot flashes in a 24-hour period. And every time you have a

hot flash, there's adverse effects to your brain, right? And so it's not just getting rid of hot flashes so we're, we don't feel physical discomfort. It's really trying to minimize the hot flashes to protect our brain. And when I realized that it was hot flashes are not just hot flashes, then I really started to realize, oh, this is really serious. And I never let, and I never let, anybody tell me anymore. It's just a hot flash. Like, you know, just deal with it. No, it's, it's, it's not as simple as that. And, you know, one of the things that we now understand is that there's a therapeutic window right after menopause that's important to start hormone replacement therapy, or you can call it hormone optimization therapy if you want to prevent Alzheimer's. So if you start

when you're 65, it may not actually have the benefit. And the same thing with your bones. Your bones, you start to lose your bones, you know, even in your 40s and, you know, and earlier, and that needs also a long-term support with hormone therapy. And if you don't protect your bones, we all know, and you have an accident, you break a bone in your 50s and 60s, it can be lights out. Many women within a year of that are no longer here. Yeah, 50% of women or anyone who breaks their hip are dead in a year. Yeah. It's worse than getting a terminal cancer diagnosis. So, and that's 100% preventable through strength training, through the proper diet, through support with hormones. And, you know,

Let's talk a little bit about testosterone because that's a male hormone. So what are women doing taking testosterone? Are they going to grow mustaches? Well, that's what I thought. What's the deal? When I first heard, you should take a little bit of testosterone. I'm like, I don't need hair on my chest. No, I'm not going to do that.

But, you know, that's the ignorance talking, right? I didn't know. I did my research and now I'm on a little bit of testosterone. And I'm telling you, it changed everything. I got my libido back and I also got my drive back. There was a certain period of time when I felt very, depressed and I didn't even want to get out of bed and I thought, oh, I don't want to go to work. I'm done with all of this. But when I started taking a little bit of testosterone with my

estrogen and my progesterone, I got my drive back. I got my there there back. Right? And it's really been transformative. Yeah. And the only way to know what's going on is you've got to test. You've got to measure what's going on because some women are fine. Someone are not. And, you know, I found as a doctor practicing in this whole age group, you know, you want to be careful not to overload women with too much testosterone because it can't have a lot. adverse effects. And so you have to be careful. And there's dozens of preparations for men out there that are, you know, FDA approved, that are prescriptions that are formulated, that are regulated, there's almost none for women. And so, you know, as a doctor, I had to kind of figure out how to

use compounding pharmacies and create the right formulas. And, you know, one of the things I came upon was using clitoral testosterone drops that you apply to drops every night. And it has profound benefits. And I know this because women keep calling for refills. Wait, now what is this? Okay, we can talk after. I don't know about these literal drops. Yeah, it's amazing. So, like, you don't have to have the full systemic effect. The key to hormone replacement therapy is it's got to be personalized. It's not like a one-size-fits-all. There's, there's creams, there's drops, there's, there's lozenges, there's all sorts of ways to deliver this. But it should be in the lowest dose possible to get the benefit. It should be topically, ideally, not orally,

and it should be, you know, for the right amount of time for what a woman needs. And sometimes it's long term, but it's really something that has to be personalized. And again, most physicians have no clue how to do this. And it's not like you can just look up in your drug prescription book and see how to prescribe this because it doesn't exist in there. So you can look how to prescribe Premon or Primera, but not these formulation. So it's a really interesting learning curve as a physician to try to understand this. And you know what else I think is important to talk about when we think about our sexual health, not only things like these clitoral drops, but I think as women, we have to start talking to our

partners about it. That's how we destigmatize it and we make it less taboo. We can take all the drops and take all the vaginal estrogen we want and we can use all the lube's we want, but we have to start talking because 50% of marriages end at this time of life, right? Because women, our vaginas just dry up and men go get a, young, hot 25-year-old, get a red car, and they go on with their life. And we're stuck there just, you know, getting old. So we have to talk about it. We have to have the courage to say to our partner, I'm in menopause or perimenopause, and this is what is happening to my body.

And I found that when we talk to our partners, talk to men about it, they're very receptive. You know, they're embarrassed at first. They don't want to talk about it. But when we force them to, I think men are right there. They're right there and they feel relieved that you're talking with them. They feel relieved. They're understanding that there's not a breakdown in their marriage, but that you are just going through something that will pass, and you can go through it together. You don't have to go through this all by yourself, ladies. We have to start the conversation with them. So, you know, because of, you know, your personal experience, and this is usually how great things start in the world is, somebody has a problem and they want to solve it. And this is what happened

to you, and you start to re-spin. So can you give us the readers, judges, just version of what is re-spin? and how members of the audience can actually join. It is hands down my second life passion. I am determined before I leave this planet to do everything I can to change the life for women, especially in midlife. And why? Because we deserve it. And at Reespin, we've got, like he said earlier,

we've got expert doctors that are experts in our menopausal bodies. We've got access to the latest in science. We've got coaches that will hold your hand, walk you through your function studies that you get, help you be accountable to your optimal good health. We've got a beautiful community of women that are there to also laugh with you, cry with you, hold you up, hold you down. It's a 360 approach to wellness because we know, and if you want hormones, we have a clinic that can also get you on hormones, help you dose those hormones, help you regulate. it's if we get this right for me before I leave this planet,

it will be a menopause one-stop shop where women can come to a trusted place where they know that we've got you. And I'm learning every day. That's why I'm at this conference. I mean, I'm learning every day. I've been shot up with so many peptides here since I've been here. Ozone's up my nose and like all these things.

And I'm all about trying to figure out how I can live my longest and healthiest life. But thank you for creating re-spend, which really gives women hope in a time that often can be very hopeless and very discouraging and very depressing. I mean, you know, sure you were having suicidal thoughts. So what's a moment of hope or a word of hope you can give to women listening who are in this position in your life? And how do they have agency and take control? Well, I'll tell you one good way we can have agency. Besides all the things you've heard us say today, I have this belief that in order for us as women to really start taking care of our health,

and feeling good about that. We have to change culture. We have to change the way we feel about ourselves at this time, and we have to do this, ladies. You know, so many of us have, we've had the Kool-Aid, too. We have to change our ticker tape. We have to have agency over this time of our life, and we have to force, and I do say this, force our family to celebrate us, just like we have now understand that we celebrate our children with their bar mitzvahs and their bat mitzvahs. We have sweet 16 birthdays, we have baby showers and wedding showers, like, you know, bachelorette parties. We celebrate these milestone times in our life. I think as women, we have to start being celebrated when we are in the menopause with a chiesta. A chiesta.

Chiesta, because we deserve it, right? We are deserving of being celebrated, right? We are the matriarchs of our family. We are the wisest ones in our family. I'm going to have to tell you. And in other cultures, we are revered at this time of life. In our country, not so much anymore. And we have to change that. And I think a good way to change that as we make our families give us a siesta and celebrate us and all that we are. It's one good thing we can start doing. Amazing. So it's siesta time in America. Let's go. Shiesta. So now we have a little bit of time for Q&A. Oh, go ahead over here. What do you think about adding into the matrix? is low toxin, the food in your home, the air quality,

the products that you're using to add extra support on top of that as another layer. Yeah. You want to take it? You want me too? I think this is such an important question. And we didn't have time to touch on it, but it's a huge issue, which is industrial petrochemicals, which are in everything from makeup to household cleaners to skincare products.

to our food, to pesticides are what we call xenoestrogens. They're foreign estrogens, and they're highly bioactive. And they're not just additive. They're synergistic. So one plus one doesn't equal two, it equals a thousand. And this is why we're seeing such increasing rates of breast cancer and uterine cancer and ovarian cancer. And I think it's not really well appreciated, but it's a huge issue.

And I think learning how to detox your life is so important. That's why I'm in the board of the environmental working group, and it's a great resource, eWG.org. It's a nonprofit that actually investigates all the products that are used in our household products and our skincare products and our cleaning products and our food and everything. And how do we reduce that burden? And it can be by, you know, just simple things like I'm watching

which food you eat organically and filtering your water and having an air filter in your house and using skincare products that are non-toxic and using household cleaning products are non-toxic, you don't have to be doing everything overnight, but it's important to start to do that and just start to shift the products you're using so that you're not adding to the load

because they're really a big factor. And then there's a whole process of biological detoxification, which is a big part of functional medicine. So I could talk about that for hours, but we've only got a few minutes, so I encourage you able to check that out. But it's a very important question. Thank you for bringing that up.

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venison, check out Maui-Nui-Nui-Venison.com slash hymen. is limited by the nature of their work. So head over now. Again, that's M-A-U-I-N-U-I-V-N-U-I-Venisin.com slash Hyman to learn more. I was wondering if you considered a part of us women going through life, which is energetic and it has to do with dissociation, whether this is something that is being included in the consideration of taking women back to...

You mean like psychospiritual integration? Is that what you're talking about? To me, it's energetic structural. It's not the psychospiritual. It's kind of... Yeah, I mean, sure. I mean, it's all part of it. Energy medicine and all of that is part of realigning yourself with, you know,

nature and your life in a way that helps align your biology. And I think there's a lot of data on that. But it's a little woo-woo, but I think there's a lot of reality to it. My question, very simply. How common is it? to miss, to not have the symptoms, to miss the premenopause, the, the, everything we're talking about here. Is it genetic? Is there a lot of people that miss it a percentage? I think that's a good question. That's why we need more research and more studies to really find that out.

But I know that there are people that have said to me, I have had no symptoms of menopause. But that's when I go back and I say to them, you might be having hot flashes that are causing adverse effects to your brain. but you just don't feel it. And I think there are many symptoms of menopause that people don't associate yet with menopause because we're still uncovering what those symptoms actually are, right? So some women do say they don't suffer very much and they say they sail through it, but I'm not so sure that they haven't had some symptoms that have caused them some adverse effects. So that's why more research is, I think, very, very necessary to keep understanding what our symptoms and, you know, what we are suffering from that we don't even know.

That's true. And I also think you're right. I mean, there's a wide variety of experience that the women have. Some women have very minimal symptoms or no symptoms. Some women have a lot of symptoms. And it can be partly genetic and be more mental, but also it's lifestyle. It's one of the biggest drivers.

And Japan, they don't even have a word for hot flashes. Right. And it's because, you know, diet's full of soy and fermented foods and other things that change hormones. So your hormones, just food is medicine. So your hormones are regulated by what you're eating, by stress, by environmental toxins, by your gut microbiome, by the level of activity you have, by your sleep patterns, by your circadian rhythms, and I could go on and on. So we know how to modify those systems in the body and create optimal health. There is a transition, and things do happen, and there are symptoms that can happen over time.

But they can be minimal for many women. Yeah. And also, black and brown women suffer exponentially more. A lot more, yeah. And I would wonder, I'm curious to know why that is. We need more reasons. I think your question is important because, you know, in America in the 1960s, African-American populations were far healthier than white populations. And I remember watching this documentary about Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace, and you look in the church in Oakland, there wasn't a single overweight African-American in that movie.

And then what happened was that they got targeted by the food industry in a very malicious and deliberate way. And they then consumed far more soda, far more junk food. for more processed food. And that's why they have now far heart rates of diabetes, kidney failure, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, early death, mortality, morbidity, why there were 30% of the population in New Orleans in Chicago, where we're 70% of the COVID deaths. That's why.

Because it's not some genetic abnormality is because of our embedded, I call it kind of food racism. Where do you see medical schools in America updating curriculum to include menopause and other things that we have seen here this weekend. Well, I know that I've been to Washington several times now to pass a bill, a $265 million bill that will do just that. It will arm schools with the funding so that doctors can go back and be retooled and that more programs can be implemented in schools. And I think we are starting that slowly as we keep having this conversation and we keep talking about menopause and bringing it to the forefront. I think it's putting a lot of pressure on institutions to, you know, further education.

Yeah, I think that's really important. And I'm also involved in medical education reform in Washington right now, which is finding ways to use our existing laws to mandate medical schools and postgraduate medical education programs, residences, and fellowships to include mandatory nutrition and education, change our licensing exams. Because unless those change, nothing will change. Can you also speak about sexual health and how Joy Lux came to be? Joy Lux, yes. Because that was my entry into realizing that I was in perimenopause. And I was trying to, you know, fix my own problem.

And I came across Joy Lux and their red light therapy device, which is a vaginal device that sort of helps build collagen, moisture, and, you know, and that worked for me. So I reached out to the head of the company and I said, hey, what is this company? This actually moved my needle. What is this? And so she allowed me to get involved. And the next product I needed was some sort of lubrication products. So I teamed up with them and we came up with this, I think, a beautiful product called Let's Spin. It's clean. It's clean. It's clean. It's clean. It's clean. So that's been a beautiful partnership. And we're working on other products. Thank you so much. Yeah. Hi, Mark. Talia from beyond Ibegang, he just came from us.

Just want to talk about psychedelics and the mind-body connection, where this is heading in wellness in general. I've spoken about this a few times in the conference, but I think we're in a twin psychiatric revolution. Mental health is a massive crisis. Diabetes, you know, causes more hospitalizations and deaths, but, Mental health causes far more loss of what we call quality of life years and more disability and more dysfunction and more disruption in families and work and social life. And it's incredibly poorly dealt with in America and across the globe. And the twin psychiatric revolutions are metabolic and nutritional psychiatry,

functional medicine psychiatry and psychedelic psychiatry. And Rick Doblin was here. There was a talk today on Ibogaine. And I think these are going to unlock a lot of things that deal with both the biology of what causes mental health issues, which is often from the body, right? I mean, you were depressed, Halley, not because you were inherently depressed because your hormones were out of whack. It was biological. You have to treat the body in order to treat the brain. and I wrote a book about this 15 years ago called The Ultra Mind Solution,

How to Fix Your Broken Brain by Fixing Your Body First. So that's really important, and that's what's happening right now across the science and science world. At Stanford and Harvard, there's departments of metabolic nutritional psychiatry. In terms of psychedelic psychiatry, that's also advancing, which deals with a lot of our deep wounds and traumas and then operating systems that get installed when we're kids that drive our life and cause us to be, you know, seven-year-olds or 10-year-olds in relationships

that really disrupt our life, whether it's relationships with ourself or with our partners or with work or with friends or our families, those are really hard things to change. And I think psychedelic medicine is a powerful tool to help unlock that source code that drives a lot of our lives

and can free us from the burden of those things we carry around from us with us for our lifetime. So I think those twin revolutions are really emerging rapidly and I think hopefully with the next five to 10 years are going to become more mainstream and more accessible and more paid for by health care and insurance.

Thanks to Hallie for sitting down with me for this conversation. And thanks to you, our listeners, for continuing to take charge of your health. And I'll see you in the next episode. If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the Dr. Hyman show wherever you get your podcasts.

And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health, where I am chief medical officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guest's opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical. professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute

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