Have you ever stood in a room wondering why you walked in, burst into tears over something small, or lain awake at 3am completely exhausted? You’re not going crazy, and you’re not “just busy”. It could be perimenopause.

Dr Mary Claire Haver is one of the world’s leading voices in women’s health: a board-certified OB-GYN, menopause specialist and #1 New York Times bestselling author whose books The Galveston Diet and The New Menopause sparked a global conversation about menopause, and whose appearances on The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett and The Mel Robbins Podcast have reached tens of millions of women. Her new book, The New Perimenopause: An Evidence-Based Guide to Surviving the Zone of Chaos and Feeling Like Yourself Again, is the guidebook women have been desperately searching for.

This one gets personal. At 44, Georgie has been told by her own gynaecologist that she’s “just busy”, then handed an HRT script with no explanation of how to use it. Dr Haver explains why that dismissal is so common, what’s really happening inside the body during the hormonal “zone of chaos”, and why suffering through it is optional.

In this conversation, Dr Mary Claire Haver joins Marie Claire Editor Georgie McCourt to talk perimenopause symptoms, misdiagnosis, hormone therapy (HRT), brain fog, rage, weight gain, weight-loss drugs, osteoporosis, low libido, and the one message every woman needs to hear.

This episode covers:

• The perimenopause symptoms doctors dismiss: anxiety, rage, brain fog, insomnia, weight gain and low libido
• Why perimenopause can start in your mid-30s, 7 to 10 years before menopause
• How to tell the difference between depression, burnout, ADHD and hormone-driven changes
• Why so many women are misdiagnosed and prescribed antidepressants instead of hormone therapy
• Is HRT safe? The real benefits and risks of menopause hormone therapy
• Menopause and divorce: the viral “two camps” debate
• Why belly fat can double or triple in menopause, and why more cardio isn’t the answer
• Ozempic-style weight-loss drugs (GLP-1s), muscle loss and the “GPS” rule: GLP-1 + protein + strength training
• The osteoporosis statistic every woman needs to hear: 50% of women will have an osteoporotic fracture
• How vaginal oestrogen cuts recurrent UTIs (and sepsis) by 50%
• Low libido in perimenopause: the five causes of sexual dysfunction, and where testosterone fits in
• Dr Haver’s message: “Perimenopause is inevitable. Suffering is not.”

The New Perimenopause by Dr Mary Claire Haver is out now.

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Credits:

Host: Marie Claire Editor Georgie McCourt

Supervising Producer: Leah Porges

Head of Vodcasting: Rachel Fountain

Learn More: You’re Gonna Want to Hear This is a production of Marie Claire and Are Media.