Podcast Summary: unPAUSED with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Episode: Menopause, Misogyny and the Medical System: Dr. Sharon Malone Sets the Record Straight
Date: December 9, 2025
Host: Dr. Mary Claire Haver
Guest: Dr. Sharon Malone

Overview

This episode features a candid, insightful conversation between Dr. Mary Claire Haver and Dr. Sharon Malone—renowned OB/GYN, menopause advocate, and author of "Grown Woman Talk"—about menopause, persistent misogyny in medicine, healthcare disparities, and the urgent need for systemic change. They trace Dr. Malone’s personal and professional journey, delve into myths and historic blunders in menopause research, unpack why women’s health is still so commonly misunderstood, and offer wisdom for women aiming to thrive in midlife and beyond.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dr. Malone’s Personal & Professional Journey

Early Influences & Resilience

• Dr. Malone grew up in Mobile, Alabama, as the youngest of eight children in a family with modest education but a deep drive for achievement.
• She lost her mother to undiagnosed colon cancer at age 12, an experience that shaped her lifelong pursuit of health equity.
  • “Classic example of not having access to healthcare, not knowing what the signs and symptoms were…It gets back to what I talk about all the time, and that is the acceptance of suffering.” (06:28)

Family Legacy & Civil Rights

• Moved in with her older sister, Vivian, who integrated the University of Alabama in a pivotal moment of American history.
  • “Those iconic photos of George Wallace…that was my sister that he was trying to keep out.” (07:36)

Education & Early Career Choices

• Took a non-linear path through college (Emory and then Harvard) and worked at IBM before committing to medicine.
  • “Take a moment and decide if this is really what you want to do…When I decided to go back to med school, it was very clear it was my decision.” (10:50)

OBGYN Specialty

• Chose OBGYN for its problem-solving nature and positive culture.
  • “I like things that have solvable solutions. A lot of what we do in obgyn…it’s very clear what the next thing is.” (14:28)

2. Systemic Racism, Misogyny, and Gaps in Medicine

Institutional Gaps and Diversity

• Dr. Malone describes how diversity (or lack thereof) shaped her academic experience, contrasting Emory’s isolation with Harvard’s cosmopolitan environment.
  • “Even being from Mobile, Alabama, I had never been more isolated than when I was at Emory.” (16:14)

Flawed Medical Training and Bias

• Challenges the reductionist, racialized approach of medical training, emphasizing the need to dismantle stereotypes and recognize shared humanity.
  • “So many of these things have become racialized because of stereotypes…Breaking down some of those myths…and addressing them is really our work to do today.” (18:01)

3. Navigating Work, Family & Age

Balancing Demanding Careers and Motherhood

• Reflects on raising children while both partners worked high-stress jobs.
  • “It was a very hard 12 years…he was gone a lot and…that was just the demands of the job.” (22:04)
• Unlike Dr. Haver’s partner’s able support, Dr. Malone often had to “learn to deal with it” given her husband’s (Eric Holder) major responsibilities. (23:51)

Aging Without Models

• Both Malone and Haver lacked healthy aging models among family due to early losses.
  • “I didn’t really have a model for that…I left with no plan, no future…and look at us now.” (24:25)

4. Reinventing Midlife and the New Role at Alloy

Career Pivot & Telemedicine

• COVID-19 served as an inflection point, leading Dr. Malone to join Alloy, a telehealth company for menopausal women, after appearing on Michelle Obama’s podcast.
  • “Imagine…they heard me on Michelle Obama podcast, said, find her. They tracked me down…that’s how I came to be in Alloy World.” (27:36)

Message to Midlife Women

• Encourages women to embrace this stage as the most empowered.
  • “Once you get to be 50, 60 years old, you have never been more experienced, you have never had more wisdom…there is a path forward that doesn’t just lead to decrepitude and death.” (28:40)
• “Happier and as productive as you had been, say, 30 years ago.” (29:29)
• “I am way happier at 66 than I was at 46 because I was in the middle of things. I was overwhelmed at that stage.” (29:39)

5. The Menopause Misinformation Crisis

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Fallout

• Dr. Malone provides a concise, passionate summary of how the 2002 WHI study—poorly designed and badly messaged—derailed menopause care for decades.
  • “They took…the information from much older women, on average 12 years after menopause, and applied it to all women. It matters when you start in terms of how much benefit you’re going to get.” (45:22)
  • “That fear [of breast cancer] was so firmly entrenched that they stopped taking their hormones. Doctors stopped prescribing hormones.” (41:39)
• Both physicians note how the fallout from this study still echoes in medical training, leaving residents ill-equipped.
  • “They’re just now getting questions and articles into our recertification process despite 51% of the population going through menopause.” (36:56)

Ongoing Knowledge Gaps and Overcautious Medical Culture

• "If our OB/GYNs don't know, it's less when you get to primary care... Even cardiologists, endocrinologists... they are subject to the same misinformation. And these are our colleagues." (49:02)

6. Misogyny, Dismissal, and Advocacy in Medicine

Women’s Health Research Underfunded

• “$45 billion in medical research. Less than 11% of that went to conditions that affect women. And that’s migraines, that’s autoimmune diseases, it’s depression, it’s anxiety… because the assumption is, well, that’s just women.” (66:16)

Medical System’s Disregard for Menopause

• “They said, oh, we just don’t have enough information. And that person is no longer sitting…But at the time…the prevailing thought [in medical curriculum] was: we don’t know enough about menopause to really give it much time in medical school. And we know better.” (65:41)

Advice for Dismissed Women

• “You are the expert of you…If someone tells you something or denies you something…this is where I think access is so important. We’ve got to use technology, we’ve got to use innovation.” (61:44)

7. Disparities, Suffering, and Big Picture Changes Needed

Healthcare Disparities

• Black women face even steeper declines in health as they age: “If you think that women live 20% of their lives in poor health…it’s probably twice that for black women in this country.” (52:04)
• “Where you live, what your zip code is, is more determinative of your health outcomes than what your genetic code is.” (79:37)

Cultural Acceptance of Suffering

• “For women, we have accepted suffering as our lot in life…We suffer through migraines and depression and anxiety and pelvic pain…We don’t even think to complain about it.” (54:44)
• “There’s no suffering Olympics. You don’t get a medal at the end because you suffered 20 years and someone else has only suffered 10. How about let’s not?” (54:50)

Need for Advocacy

• “There’s little a, advocacy—which is us—as individuals, and big A advocacy, which is the stuff that we do to push for policy changes." (55:39)

8. Practical Prevention & How to Thrive

Anticipatory Guidance

• “Between 40 and 50, you will gain on average 10 to 15 pounds if you do exactly what you’re doing right now…It’s easier to not gain a pound a year than to lose ten pounds ten years later.” (72:13)
• “Make sure you know what your family history is…make sure you have the conversation about hormone therapy so you know what things to expect." (73:18)

On Second Opinions

• “If your doctor’s offended because you get a second opinion, then they’re clearly not confident in what they said. So, go do it.” (83:51)

9. Menopause as Unpausing—not Stopping

Freedom and Self-Confidence in Later Life

• “I wear what I want…I’m comfortable, I’m not saying this to say from a sexist point of view, but you’re free from not only the male gaze, but you’re free from society’s gaze. It’s like, I don’t really care.” (85:40)
• “I want to do the things that feel true and good to me…if I can be in service to others, I think I’ve done a good job.” (87:19)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Opening Reflection on Wisdom:
  • "Once you get to be 50, 60 years old, you have never been more experienced. You have never had more wisdom…" — Dr. Sharon Malone (01:26)
• On the WHI Fallout:
  • "Doctors stopped prescribing hormones. Residency programs stopped teaching anything really clinically relevant about the nuances of hormone therapy." — Dr. Mary Claire Haver (42:25)
• On Suffering in Women’s Health:
  • "We have accepted suffering as our lot in life…We suffer through migraines and depression and anxiety and pelvic pain…and we don’t even think to complain about it."
    — Dr. Sharon Malone (54:44)
• On Changing Careers Later in Life:
  • "Never been smarter. Never had more wisdom and judgment than I have right at this moment." — Dr. Sharon Malone (84:07)
• On the Importance of Second Opinions:
  • "If your doctor’s offended because you get a second opinion, then they’re clearly not confident in what they said. So I’m like, go do it.”
    — Dr. Sharon Malone (83:51)
• On Midlife Empowerment:
  • “Menopause isn't the end of strength. It's the beginning of a stronger you."
    — Dr. Mary Claire Haver (Midi Pause, 76:50)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Dr. Malone’s Early Life and Path to Medicine – [04:27]–[13:19]
• Choosing OBGYN and Experiences with Diversity – [13:54]–[17:38]
• Misogyny in Medicine, Racial Bias & Training Gaps – [17:38]–[18:57], [52:04]
• The Women's Health Initiative Fallout – [36:24]–[46:42]
• Grown Woman Talk: Writing the Book – [34:27]–[36:24]
• Advice on Advocacy, Prevention, and Second Opinions – [61:44]–[83:51]
• Menopause as Unpausing & Embracing Later Life – [85:29]–[87:19]
• Closing Thoughts, Recommendations, Dr. Malone’s Podcast – [88:45]

Conclusion

In this wide-ranging episode, Dr. Sharon Malone draws from personal, clinical, and policy experience to illuminate the obstacles, missteps, and future directions in women’s midlife health. With warmth, authority, and honesty, both Dr. Malone and Dr. Haver offer empowering advice for listeners to question, advocate, and embrace the full empowerment of later life—and to reject both the invisibility and unnecessary suffering historically imposed upon women.

Find Dr. Malone: Instagram @malonemd, podcast "The Second Opinion."
Find Dr. Haver: Instagram @doctormaryclaire, thepauselife.com

“Do not think that your life is over professionally. The key is to be able to feel well enough and have the energy and stamina to do it…We have to get society to catch up with us.”
— Dr. Sharon Malone (84:07)