BONUS: Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Summary

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Work in Progress with Sophia Bush

BONUS Episode: Dr. Mary Claire Haver – “The New Perimenopause”
iHeartPodcasts | April 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this special bonus episode, Sophia Bush welcomes Dr. Mary Claire Haver—renowned OB-GYN, women’s health advocate, and author—to discuss her new book, The New Perimenopause. Their frank conversation confronts the longstanding gaps in research, funding, and medical acknowledgment of women’s midlife hormonal transitions—specifically perimenopause and menopause. They tackle the biological, psychological, and systemic aspects, and Dr. Haver offers practical health strategies women can use to advocate for themselves.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Perimenopause Remains a Medical Blind Spot

(04:00–07:00)

• Systemic Neglect in Research Funding

  • Dr. Haver explains, “Women's health is just not prioritized. In 2023, the NIH had a $43 billion budget. Only 15% of that went to women’s health, and the vast majority of that went to pregnancy and breast/ovarian cancer. Less than 1% went to menopause.” (05:44–06:11)
  • The imbalance is illustrated: searching PubMed yields 1.2 million articles for “pregnancy,” but only about 99,000 for “menopause”—a 12:1 ratio, despite more women experiencing menopause than childbirth. Perimenopause only gets about 9,000 articles, and it wasn’t even defined as a medical transition until 1977.

• Hope for Change Through Philanthropy

  • Sophia highlights the role of influential women investing in women’s health (e.g., Melinda Gates, MacKenzie Scott), to which Dr. Haver adds, “My husband and I just started a foundation to fund women’s health—clinically relevant menopause research.” (05:14–05:44)

• Quote (Sophia, on the absurdity of funding disparity):

  “We're 51% of the population. 1% of 15% was dedicated to menopause, even though 100% of 51% of the population will go through it. Like, it just so ... it’s so stupid.” (07:00)

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2. Mental Health Symptoms in Perimenopause

(08:05–11:12)

• Mental Health as Early Indicator

  • Sophia references Dr. Haver’s fifth chapter, about how mental health shifts—including depression and anxiety—often precede physical symptoms.
  • Dr. Haver underscores the importance of context: “When did you last feel this way? Were there major stressors? ... If it’s new-onset anxiety or depression, starting menopause hormone therapy in perimenopause has better outcomes than an SSRI. If she’s well-managed on an SSRI but starts having breakthrough symptoms, try hormone therapy first.” (09:47–10:57)

• Quote (Dr. Haver, on treatment approaches):

  “For new-onset anxiety or depression where she was totally fine before, starting her on menopause hormone therapy in perimenopause has better outcomes than starting her on an SSRI.” (10:48–11:04)

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3. What Women Should Know at 35 (and Beyond)

(11:12–12:38)

• Self-Education and Advocacy

  • Dr. Haver’s key advice: “Educate yourself as much as possible about this process and all the organ systems that could be affected. Not everything is menopause, but we’re missing so much of what is... You’re going to need to find a menopause-educated clinician and they’re not easy to find. You do not have to suffer.” (11:39–12:12)

• Quote (Dr. Haver):

  “It’s gonna take some hustle, some reading, some self-evaluation. But we’ve got tools for you, and you do not have to suffer. You can live your best life.” (12:09–12:12)

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4. Practical Health Tips: Supplements & Nutrition

(12:12–14:35)

• Commonly Overlooked Deficiencies

  • Sophia shares other clinicians’ advice about Vitamin D and magnesium—Dr. Haver fully endorses both:

    • Mag bisglycinate “is great at relaxing the body,” and L-theanine “helps to stop the racing thoughts.”
    • “80% of our patients are vitamin D low or deficient... Optimal is not the same as deficient.” (12:40–13:30)

  • Testing and tracking:

    • Vitamin D: Aim for serum levels between 60–100 (units not stated—presumed ng/mL).
    • Magnesium: “You want red blood cell magnesium—that’s more what your stores are rather than what’s floating around in the blood.”
    • Ferritin: Provides insight into iron stores; “First thing to go when we’re dealing with iron deficiency.” (13:30–14:01)

• Food as Medicine

  • Fiber is especially critical: “Average American woman gets 10–12 grams per day. For gut health, you want a minimum of 25; for cardiovascular health, it’s 35.” Suggests nuts, seeds, legumes, or supplements to increase intake. (14:01–14:25)

• Quote (Sophia):

  “Little things like that, that would probably change the way we all feel in our bodies every day that we don't even know to start with.” (14:25–14:35)

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5. The Need for Accessible, Holistic Support

(14:35–15:18)

• Sophia thanks Dr. Haver for “writing us a book,” noting that while Haver’s clinic can’t see everyone, the book can prepare or support women worldwide.
• Dr. Haver reiterates the importance of resources, concluding: “You do not have to suffer. You can live your best life.” (11:40, 15:18)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sophia, on systemic neglect:

  “The gaps, the chasms in the funding mean there are chasms in how we're taken care of.” (08:22)

• Dr. Haver, on how women invest:

  “Women don’t build rockets or buy yachts... They invest in health and other women.” (05:10–05:14)

• Dr. Haver, referencing RBG:

  “I feel like RBG—when there are nine. Until we get all the funding for 20 years and then we’ll dose them out to men when we feel like it’s time to catch up.” (08:05–08:14)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 04:00–07:00 — State of women’s health funding; why perimenopause is ignored
• 08:05–11:12 — Mental health in perimenopause and evidence-based treatments
• 11:12–12:38 — What to know (and do) at 35 to prepare for perimenopause
• 12:38–14:35 — Quick wins with supplements, nutrition, and tracking health
• 14:35–15:18 — Empowerment through information and holistic support

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Tone & Takeaways

This conversation is sharp, energetic, and deeply empathetic—balancing scientific clarity with personal warmth. Both Sophia and Dr. Haver stress that women must educate themselves, seek out informed care, and know they deserve better than the underfunded status quo. Perimenopause and menopause aren’t obscure or rare—they’re universal, and women shouldn't suffer in silence when practical solutions and advocacy can change lives.

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Resource:
The New Perimenopause by Dr. Mary Claire Haver – available now.

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Transcript

[Podcast Host]

This is an I Heart podcast.

[Sophia]

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[Sophia]

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[Lingokids Narrator]

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[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

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[Lingokids Narrator]

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[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

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[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

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[Lingokids Narrator]

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[Sophia]

Hey, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in progress.

[Podcast Host]

Foreign

[Sophia]

welcome back to Work in Progress. Whip Smarties. We are back with Dr. Mary Claire Haver for a special dive into her new book. The new perimenopause is officially out in the world. We're thrilled you're here. You're one of the preeminent authorities on women's health and you really are making sure women's health stops being a brown paper bag, bottom shelf conversation in the American medical system. So thank you. We, we know that women experience real biological changes, all of us, at some point that medicine has been really slow to recognize or properly treat. And you talk about this in the second chapter of the book Zone of Chaos. What, why? For our friends at home, why has perimenopause remained this blind spot for so long?

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

I. Well, when we look at women's health funding in General of in 2023, the NIH. So when we look at who funds research, right, it's the National Institutes of Health, pharma that get their medications through and private companies. Okay. So right now, nih, you know, things are changing rapidly and I don't know what's going to happen there. It's not prioritized. So, you know, so now. But we're also seeing the greatest transfer of wealth to women in the history of the world. And women don't build rockets or buy yachts.

[Sophia]

They invest health and other women, shocker.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

Melinda Gates, huge $100 million. You know, we look at the Care foundation, we look at Mackenzie Scott, you know, like Mrs. Walton, Alice, I think just built a medical school for the underserved. So, you know, that's what women do. So, like, I'm very, very, very hopeful in that sector. And, like, my husband and I just started a foundation to fund women's health, you know, like, clinically relevant menopause research. So that's what we want to do. We're not by, you know, building a rocket.

[Sophia]

So.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

So that's exciting. Nih, I don't know what's going to happen. It's not looking that great right now, so. But in 2023, we had a $43 billion budget, right. 15% of that went to women's health. The vast majority of that went to pregnancy, which is important, but it's not the only thing. And breast and ovarian cancer. Okay. Less than 1% of that budget, not of the total budget went to menopause.

[Sophia]

Okay.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

So now I'm going to, like, go to PubMed and put in the word pregnancy. Give me every article ever written of, like, great medical journals that mention the word pregnancy. And it's about 1.2 million.

[Sophia]

Great.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

That represents brain power, money, funding, studies, back office staff, you know, all the things, patient recruitment. Okay, now I'm going to type in the word menopause. And right now it's about 99,000. So 12 to 1.

[Sophia]

Wow.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

More women will go through menopause than have children.

[Sophia]

Right?

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

Okay. Perimenopause has 9,000.

[Sophia]

Stop.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

Not one word mentioned about perimenopause until 1977. Yeah, it was not a thing. It wasn't even recognized as a transition until 1977.

[Sophia]

Wow. And so when we spoke last time about how women are often dismissed. Oh, she's emotional. Oh, she's a little crazy. Oh, she has a short fuse. Whatever. The idea that this thing that literally happens to all of us. And when I think about the math. Okay, hold on. Yes, we got 15 of the NIH budget, but we're 51 of the population. 1% of 15% was dedicated to menopause, even though 100 of 51% of the population will go through it. Like, it just so. It's so stupid.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

Like, it's all performative. Right? So the last administration said, oh, we're going to do a hundred million dollars of new funding for women's health. Okay. Of 43 billion. Do the math. 100 million. Everyone comes to the table. Endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, all the autoimmune diseases that primarily affect women, Rheumatoid arthritis, you know, and everyone's like, give me a. Give me a kernel, you know, and it's not enough.

[Sophia]

It's not enough.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

I feel like RBG when they're nine, like, until we get all the funding for 20 years and then we'll dose them out to men when we feel like it's.

[Sophia]

Yeah, to catch up. Because, by the way, they're doing just fine.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

I mean, there are issues there too. But I only take care of women, so I only focus on that.

[Sophia]

I guess I'm. I mean, in the balance of the scales, you're correct. Sometimes I say things very hyperbolically and then people get mad at me and I'm like, isn't it obvious what I think I realized? No, you have to be very specific all the time. You know this, you're a doctor. I, I just am so fascinated by this because the gaps, the chasms in the funding mean there are chasms in how we're taken care of. And I really appreciated. In the fifth chapter in the book, you talk about how the mental health shifts can come first. And when you consider system overwhelm, like if your computer's doing too many things at once, it'll crash. Our brains are not dissimilar. And you talk in the fifth chapter about. Of the new perimenopause about how perimenopause can actually trigger these mental health experiences like depression, anxiety. So many women will say, I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't feel like myself. All the things I do, I just can't. I can't do them anymore. How, how do you help people identify mood changes and rather than feel like it's some sort of personal failure, understand it's part of their biological evolution, we

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

talk about, when's the last time you didn't feel this way? Tell me about that, Mary Claire. You know, tell me about that, Sophia. When did you have all this managed? So, like, walk me through the transition for where you are today to where you were. And we try to look for triggers like, you know, did your dad die? Did you lose your job? Are you fighting with your spouse? Are you, you know, with your part, Are the kids going through, you know, their hormone changes at the same time? Which is so unfair, so unfair. So, you know, are you in a big sandwich generation? And oftentimes it's, let's do a trial of hormone therapy and see if you get better. The data out of Australia is clear. If it is new onset anxiety or depression, where she was totally fine before starting her on menopause, hormone therapy in perimenopause has better outcomes than starting her on an ssri. If she was on an SSRI and doing great. Like she's had a years long history, well managed with her medications. All of a sudden she's breaking through, the symptoms are back. Start her, don't add a dose or increase yet. Try, do a trial of hormone therapy first.

[Sophia]

Wow.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

For these women. And it's going to make a huge difference. Wow.

[Sophia]

You know, you talk about what you wish you'd known at 35 and so when you talk about this, that shift because to your point, someone might have been on an SSRI since college and been crushing and then suddenly feel like she's drowning. And I imagine that might happen around 35 or 40. So, so what, what would you put on that list for any women in that age range, you know, who are around 35 who are listening to us talk today or what do you want them to know now so they don't have to learn what they wish they'd known at 35?

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

At 45, listen, educate yourself as much as possible about this process and all the organ systems that could be affected. Not everything is menopause or perimenopause, but we're missing so much of what is. And women are suffering needlessly when we have multiple ways to support you through this. But you're going to need to find a menopause educated clinician and they're not easy to find. And so, you know, it's gonna take some hustle, you know, it's gonna take some reading, it's gonna take some self evaluation. But we've got tools for you and you do not have to suffer. You can live your best life.

[Sophia]

Yeah. Now you mentioned in our, in our last chat that you analyze everything from, you know, your ferritin levels to vitamin D to how active you're being. Are, are there things that you think just universally track for women? Like I've, I've, I've spoken to some other medical professionals who say supplementing vitamin D and magnesium before bed can be two of the quickest things you can do that'll change your life.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

I agree.

[Sophia]

Okay.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

From a, you know, mag, bisglycinate is great at relaxing the body. So that's why it works so well before bed. And like full disclosure, I have a supplement company. We sell a sleep product that contains mag. So take it with a grain of salt. You can get this stuff anywhere. But we also have L Theanine, which is a natural anti, anti anxiety. Kind of stops those, helps to stop the racing thoughts, you know, mixed together. But 80% of our patients are vitamin D low or deficient. And you know, optimal is not the same as deficient. And so for a healthy patient, you really want her to be above 60 to 100 ish. And her vitamin D, her serum vitamin D level, Mag, if you're gonna do a magnesium level, you want red intracellular, like intra red blood cell magnesium. That's more of what your stores are rather than what's floating around the blood because that blood that can fluctuate the serum level if you like. Ferritin is such a great way to see what your iron stores are doing. It's the first thing to go when we're dealing with iron deficiency. So you really want a ferritin level. So but if you're just, I'm going to say, okay, take one thing. You can safely take up to 4,000 IUs of vitamin D a day without worries of toxicities. So start there, Track your nutrition just for a week. Don't be crazy about it.

[Sophia]

How much fiber are you getting?

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

How much vitamin D are you getting? How much magnesium are you getting? So many of us, the average American woman is getting 10 to 12 grams of fiber in her diet per day. For gut health it's a minimum of 25. For cardiovascular it's 35. So that is an easy thing up that fiber in your diet. It's nuts, seeds, legumes, a fiber supplement, you know, to get you over the hump if you need it. Wow.

[Sophia]

See, little things like that, that would probably change the way we all feel in our bodies every day that we don't even know to start with.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

So thank you.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

You're welcome.

[Sophia]

I, I'm excited about the fact that your approach is so holistic and frankly that, that you wrote us a book because you know, you do have a clinic, but you can't see every woman in the world.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

I can't.

[Sophia]

But, but every one of us can. Can read the book to be better prepared or to cope with current symptoms of peri or menopause. I, I'm just thrilled to have been able to have this conversation with you and to get to see your face even though we're not together personally. Friends. The new perimenopause by Dr. Marie Clair Haver is out now. Congratulations on another fantastic book and, and thank you for writing this for us.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[Sophia]

When I'm choosing a Mother's Day gift, I always ask myself, will this still matter a year from now? And that is why I love the Lenox Spice Village. It is a charming set of 24 hand painted spice jars, each one shaped like a little house. It is beautiful, it's actually useful, and it brings a little joy into the everyday, which honestly is where the best moments live. Buying a meaningful gift can be a challenge sometimes, but the Spice Village feels practical and thoughtful and enduring plus unique. Just like Mom. Explore the full Lenox Spice village [e-mail]

[Commercial Announcer]

SpiceVillage Xolair Omalizumab is proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens. Xolair, 150 milligrams is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people 1 year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Xolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Xolair. Xolair may cause a severe life threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you have ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Xolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. Xolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see xolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Xolair this is an advertisement for Xolair, paid for by Genentech and Novartis.

[Sophia]

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[Podcast Host]

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[Sophia]

Guaranteed human.