In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Tami Rowen, an obstetrician, gynecologist, and leading gynecologic surgeon at the University of California San Francisco, and an internationally recognized expert in sexual health and sexual medicine. Together they get precise about some of the most misunderstood terrain in women's health: estrogen, progesterone, progestins, and testosterone for women, what they actually do in the body, how the confusion around them began, and what becomes possible for women when care is evidence-based and not fear-based.

Dr. Rowen opens with something most women have never been told: that contraceptive estrogen and menopausal estrogen are fundamentally different molecules with different goals, different mechanisms, and different effects on the body. She walks through why ethinyl estradiol, the synthetic estrogen in most birth control pills, binds to the estrogen receptor 300 times more strongly than natural estradiol, why that matters for everything from blood clotting to testosterone levels to bone density, and why modern contraception is still valuable and worth defending even as we get more precise about how it works.

Guest links:
Dr. Tami Rowen (UCSF Health) www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/tami-rowen
Dr. Tami Rowen (ISSWSH) www.isswsh.org/component/content/article/299-tami-…
Dr. Tami Rowen (Instagram) www.instagram.com/drtamirowen/

Recommended Books:
“The New Perimenopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver thepauselife.com/pages/the-new-perimenopause-book
“The New Menopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver www.amazon.com/New-Menopause-Mary-Claire-Haver/dp/…

For full show notes, please visit: bit.ly/unPAUSEDTamiRowen

00:00:00 – The Truth About Testosterone & Menopause (Big Myths)
00:04:00 – Hormone 101: Estrogen, Progesterone & Testosterone Explained
00:10:00 – Birth Control vs Hormone Therapy (Why They’re NOT the Same)
00:16:00 – Synthetic Estrogen: Why It Works (and Its Side Effects)
00:23:00 – Progesterone vs Progestins: What Doctors Don’t Explain
00:30:00 – How Hormones Affect Your Brain, Gut, Mood & Libido
00:38:00 – Why Birth Control Feels Different for Every Woman
00:46:00 – Hormone Risks: Breast Cancer, Clots & What’s Actually True
00:55:00 – Testosterone for Women: What It REALLY Improves
01:05:00 – Brain Fog, Mood & the Placebo Effect Explained
01:15:00 – How to Take Testosterone Safely (Dosing, Gels, Creams)
01:25:00 – Pellets, High Doses & the Future of Hormone Therapy

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