Ladies: Do not miss this conversation with Meghan Rabbit—journalist and author of The New Rules Of Women’s Health—for breaking news that can save your life.

We start the conversation with how historical neglect of women’s bodies in medical research has lasting impacts, ranging from screening equipment poorly suited to our anatomy to healthcare systems that don’t understand or support our needs.

Meghan lays out the gaps, challenges, and overlooked truths in women’s healthcare, and explains why we find ourselves misdiagnosed, dismissed, or left without real answers.

From chronic pain, osteoporosis, and autoimmune disease to depression and Alzheimer’s, women make up 70 to 80% of patients yet wait longer to be evaluated and taken seriously.

We explore why heart disease is the number-one cause of death in women, how female hearts and signs of heart attack differ from those of men, and what to say at the emergency room so you get seen by a doctor now, not shoved into some corridor.

We then dive into how hormone health impacts everything from brain function to immune responses to bone health, why pain should never be ignored, and how to assess your breast health beyond mammograms. Meghan targets menopause as our strategic window of opportunity for preventing disease over 50.

She covers how to find good doctors and prepare for appointments, and the most effective ways to communicate with practitioners for the best healthcare experience.

The key takeaway: Get to know your body so you can advocate for yourself and fast-track your way to solutions.

TESS’S TAKEAWAYS:

Women make up 80% of people with autoimmune disease and osteoporosis.

Women mount stronger immune responses than men which can lead to autoimmune disease.

Women make up 70% of chronic pain patients, and 2/3 of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

To prevent chronic pain, don’t push through—listen to pain signals, and seek treatment.

Only about 30% of participants in drug trials are women.

Participating in studies increases data on women’s health and helps you access medical care.

Only 4% of women take hormone therapy. But often, the benefits outweigh the risks.

Many women don’t do mammograms because of radiation. You get more exposure on a plane.

ABOUT MEGHAN RABBITT

Author of The New Rules Of Women's Health, Meghan Rabbitt is an award-winning journalist who specializes in writing about women’s health and wellness.

Her work has appeared in numerous media outlets, including Women’s Health, Prevention, Oprah Daily, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, NPR, and others.

She’s known for translating complex medical and scientific topics into clear, actionable information—and for telling stories that help women better understand their bodies, their health, and themselves.

CONNECT WITH MEGHAN

The New Rules Of Women's Health: https://newrulesofwomenshealth.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghanrabbitt

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-rabbitt-04b80116/

MEET TESS MASTERS:

Tess Masters is an actor, presenter, health coach, cook, and author of The Blender Girl, The Blender Girl Smoothies, and The Perfect Blend, published by Penguin Random House. She is also the creator of the Skinny60® health programs.

Health tips and recipes by Tess have been featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Prevention, Shape, Glamour, Real Simple, Yoga Journal, Yahoo Health, Hallmark Channel, The Today Show, and many others.

Tess’s magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and down-to-earth approach have made her a go-to personality for people of all dietary stripes who share her conviction that healthy living can be easy and fun. Get delicious recipes at TheBlenderGirl.com.

CONNECT WITH TESS:

Website: https://tessmasters.com/

Podcast: https://ithastobeme.com/

Health Programs: https://www.skinny60.com/

Delicious Recipes: https://www.theblendergirl.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theblendergirl/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblendergirl/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/theblendergirl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessmasters/

Thanks for listening!

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Oh, Meghan, I am so excited to have this conversation with you, because I love your book so much, and I want every single woman to get a copy, because it is such a beautiful invitation to be informed and engaged and up level your knowledge and your empowerment, your advocacy,

because we need to demand better health care. So I love that you included Michelle Obama's quote, and I'll share it with you listener so we can lay the stage here, the communities and countries and ultimately, the world are only as strong as the health of their women. And I know that you wrote this book

for your nieces, Maeve McKenna and Sydney. So tell me about how this book came about and why you why it has to be me. Why did you go? I have to write this book?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, what a beautiful question. I have been a health journalist for my entire career, so when I was little, I wanted to be a doctor, and then I got into some serious science classes in high school and then college, and was like, Oh, I'm gonna walk that one back. And simultaneously, I

always loved reading. I always processed the world and how my feelings about everything through writing. And so I ended up as an English major, and then took a journalism class beautifully my first semester of my freshman year of college, and there was no turning back. But I find it interesting and maybe

not so surprising that I became a health journalist. So from my very first job, I always gravitated towards health. I loved talking to doctors and scientists and researchers and all kinds of clinicians about what they were studying and what they were seeing, and then really translating that

information, which can sometimes feel a little filled with jargon and hard to understand because it's not always explained very well, I love translating that into language that not only is understandable, but also feels actionable, because if we if we understand how our bodies work and How different treatments and

interventions work, then we actually feel inspired to do something about it, you know? And so, so that is, that is my career. So I wrote a feature for Prevention magazine on women's brain health and why. Before I worked on this feature, this was years ago. Now, I had no idea that women are two thirds the

cases of Alzheimer's disease. It's astounding. I was a health journalist, and I was like, geez, this is information I should have known, right? And I didn't. So I interviewed all of these leading experts on what we know, what research we still needed about why women are disproportionately impacted, and

I know it's something that we're going to talk about in this conversation, but I finished the piece, and then my editor asked if I would do an interview with Maria Shriver.

Yeah, that is a very, very big point of interest for her, and she's a huge advocate for women. Specifically, yeah, Alzheimer's

Meghan Rabbit RD: specifically, yeah, what I learned is that her father suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Sergeant Shriver, who was arguably the most brilliant man in the room, right? I mean, this is a man who who founded the Peace Corps. And she told me, when I interviewed her, it was so sad and remarkable that

the smartest man in the room, who she experienced as like people, wanted to be around him. He couldn't even, he didn't even know what his nose was toward. And it was just so devastating. And so she said, Okay, she was first lady of California. She said, We got to do something about this. But she said, Who,

everyone who was coming up to her about Alzheimer's disease were women, and they were saying, My sister has it, my mother had it, my grandmother had it, my aunt has it. And so she said, I am just hearing too many disproportionate, you know stories here, it's impacting women. And when she went to

researchers, they said it's just because women live longer. It turns out, that is not the reason. It was just because we hadn't studied the female brain. So she funded a lot of that research. She founded the women's Alzheimer's movement. Became such a fierce advocate for women's brain health, and I

interviewed her for to to basically do a profile of Maria and her advocacy work to go along with that feature story. And once the piece came out, she called me, and my heart sank, because when her assistant said, Can you please hold for Maria Shriver, and I knew the piece was out, I just thought, Oh God,

I got something wrong. Fact checking, missed something. I was like, sweating it, and she called to compliment me on the piece, and our conversation led to her asking me to work for her at her weekly digital news magazine. It's called the Sunday paper. It's amazing. Yeah, we have readers around the world.

And it's, I love doing content for that newsletter. It's just, it's a, it's a newsletter with heart, you know, and it's antibiotic service.

Is what that newsletter is. It's extraordinary. I read

Meghan Rabbit RD: it, yeah, amazing. And so Maria then, about a year into working for her there, knew my experience as a health journalist, and she said, I want you to write a book. I want it to be a manifesto. Of because she's got

her own imprint.

Meghan Rabbit RD: She does, yeah, Maria has an imprint at Penguin Random House called open field. And so I said, okay, like, yeah, and we had, we were eating a salad. And I said, you know, what's really interesting is that we have a women's health Bible. You know, we have many women's health books, but the

women's health book that we all turn to is our bodies ourselves, which is an incredible resource, and it is filled with information that we now refer to as bikini medicine. It's our sexual health, our gynecologic health, our reproductive health, these are all incredibly important aspects of women's

health, but it doesn't tell the whole story, because, thankfully, we now have research on women's brains, women's hearts, our immune systems, and we we have a better understanding, though we need more research, of all the ways outside of just our, you know, breast health and gynecologic

health and reproductive organs, that we are different than our male counterparts. And what I said to Maria is that I want to do a book and interview hundreds of experts to understand what we know now, to give women that information so that we can then advocate for ourselves and feel empowered when we go to the

doctor saying, wait a second. I know that heart attack symptoms show up differently in women than men. You know now that I know this and I'm experiencing these symptoms, what kind of testing can we do for me? How can we what preventive steps do I need to take? Because I have a history of gynecologic

conditions, and we now know that pregnancy complications can impact my future heart health, like when you go to a doctor saying sentences like that, yeah. Oh, it feels so I just got the chills. It feels so good. They're gonna take

you seriously and they're gonna step up.

Yeah. And the good ones, their eyes start to sparkle. They look at you and they're like, Damn. What a what an engaged patient. Let's have that conversation. So it's just, it's Win, win all around.

Oh, look, I seriously, I read your book in two days because I couldn't put it down. Because it was it, I would consider it the Bible of women's health now, from birth to puberty to, you know, preconception to pregnancy to postpartum to pre perimenopause, menopause, beyond old age. I

mean, it was, it's just everything you need to know about your health and the most up to date information, because as good as some previous resources have been, as we've noted, they're now outdated. We know so much more, even about the subjects that have been covered. So you talked about the

statistic about Alzheimer's? Can we talk about some of the other statistics about women's health that I found incredibly alarming, and you lay out really well in your book about the only one in four people has a primary care provider. That blew my mind.

Meghan Rabbit RD: That statistic, yeah, so sad, and it's understandable, right? It's so hard to find one when you do find a primary care physician you love, oftentimes, you might see her or him for two years, and then they move to a concierge model, and then suddenly this doctor has fallen

in love with you. Don't Have you can't see anymore because it's cost prohibitive. Yeah, that was a sad one, a striking one to me too. Yeah, and

80% of people with auto immune disease are women.

Meghan Rabbit RD: That one is just Oh, that one's frustrating. That was one of the statistics that really made me sad, but also frustrated me, because while we have some good theories as to why that is, and we are starting to learn about the differences in the female immune system versus our male

counterparts, immune systems, we don't have as many concrete answers as we need, and so we don't have all the explicit explanations as to why that is, and it frustrates clinicians and researchers and patients alike.

And 70% This blew my mind. In your book, 70% of chronic pain patients are women, headaches and migraines. 70% of people experiencing pain are women.

Meghan Rabbit RD: And what's even more sad, I would say, is that oftentimes women's pain is not taken seriously. It is certainly not taken as seriously as men's pain. Yeah, you're,

you're a hysterical, emotional woman, totally.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Or you just need a glass of wine and to chill out, you know? And they

describe you an antidepressant or something, yeah.

Meghan Rabbit RD: And how's this first statistic? I wrote this one down from my book. When women go to the emergency room with symptoms of heart attack, we typically wait 10 to 15 minutes longer than our male counterparts to be evaluated.

Oh, listen, I had to go and get a glass of wine. Excuse me, when I read that in your book, because it is just as you were saying before the disproportional amount of attention and resource. That had got that has gone into the research into women's health. This was another thing that blew

my mind about your book, The the gaps in the knowledge and care that women only make up about 30% of participants in drug trials. Here's what blew my mind. I just if dear listener, I just want to read this to you. This is unbelievable to me, that it was not until 1993 that the NIH required women and

minorities to be included in funding for research 1993 and then it was 2012 when they finally started a gynecological branch. And then 2024 was the first White House Initiative on women's health research. Again, I would, I would buy the book, just for this information, by the way, because it was like,

what? So I want to ask you, you know, how did you decide you interviewed what, almost 200 experts for this book, people working at the highest levels of health. How did you decide who those people were going to be, that you were going to tackle this, the enormity of this subject?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, it was a job and a half. You should have seen. One entire wall of my office was covered in sticky notes, and just trying to move the sticky notes and and organize, you know, I mean, it was a fun puzzle, because you're just like, Okay, what needs to be included? Who would be my

dream experts to talk to in these areas? And it was a mix of, as I've mentioned, scientists, people researching these topics, but also clinicians, right? People who are taking care of women, also experts who are really well versed in health education. There's a lot of health experts

who have our published authors, and they also love talking to journalists like myself to help spread the information that they're studying. Right? And so it was a lot of trying to make my dream list, reach out to people, see who got back to me, keep getting after other experts that I really wanted to talk to

who weren't getting back to me right away, and yeah, really trying to make sure it was well rounded. Also, I want a diversity of expert sources to make sure we weren't just talking to all white women, like for years we had talked to just all white men in the space. It also felt really important that

it was all female experts, so there are all females or those identifying as women experts in this book. Because not that's not to say that men experts, male experts are not wonderful. It's just they have had their time with the mic, and now it is time. And what's interesting is when you know, you brought up

women being understudied for so long, and a number of experts told me, you know, think about who was sitting at the table deciding what got researched, if a if it was all men who've never dealt with the crippling pelvic pain that comes along with endometriosis, is it No wonder we're so far behind an

endometriosis research it wasn't, you know, prioritized in the research lineup?

Yeah, well, that is changing, thankfully, which is so wonderful. More women have a microphone, and thank you for shining a light on some of these doctors that I had not heard of before. Many of them, yes, I'd read about I'd read their books, you know, but there were so many where I went. Whoa, I'm looking

up this person, because there were just so many incredible quotes and nuggets of knowledge. And it was just, I mean, if I was taking notes during that book, I pretty much would have just written, rewritten the whole book in my own handwriting. I mean, it was, it was just, and I kept calling

friends, going, you have to get this book. You have to read this section. Let me read you this paragraph. You know people, you know someone had heart disease. Let's talk about heart disease, because it is the number one cause of death and it kills more women. Let's talk about some of these statistics from your book.

Let's educate us about heart disease because and heart health because we are physiologically different than men and our hearts are different. That section of your book, again, just was so educational. So thank you so much.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, thank you. I feel like, you know what? I start with, just a picture of the heart, right? Because we talk about the heart, but we sort of have no idea what it looks like or where it is and what the different chambers and vessels are called, right? And so there's a little bit of

anatomy. And then I really felt like it was important to talk about the differences, the anatomical differences in the in the female heart versus the male heart, and just a few things, we have smaller arteries and thinner artery walls. This makes logical sense, right? As women, we tend to be smaller humans,

and so our hearts might be a little bit smaller, but here's why that matters, is that a lot of the diagnostic testing, the imaging that cardiologists do to understand heart disease is based on a male heart and is based on a male heart's larger arteries and artery walls and so so you know, what one expert

told me is that it can actually be more difficult. To visualize clearly the female heart during some of this testing, which obviously has implications for us when it comes to diagnosing heart disease, right? So that is one example about why these differences matter. You know, it's not, it's not just same,

same, but different. You know, we also have a faster resting heart rate, which can be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We are finally, thankfully, starting to talk about all the estrogen receptors that are on our heart, yeah, which obviously, when we go through menopause, and estrogen,

you know, walks out the door as Dr Vonda, right? That is a quote from Dr right, when estrogen walks out the door, right? Because you can feel that that is going to impact all of our body systems that have estrogen receptors, which is the heart, the brain, all our muscles, our musculoskeletal system, and so,

you know, yeah, it's important to know these things, right? It's, it can be a little bit disappointing that you're like, Okay, well, now that I know this, why has the diagnostic testing not changed? That's the next step. Hopefully it's coming.

Yeah, you spoke earlier about the symptoms of a heart attack presenting very differently in women to men. So can you talk us through that? Yeah, so what to look out for with that, seeing as we're going to be waiting 15 minutes you know, right? Exactly, anybody Exactly.

Meghan Rabbit RD: And actually, what a cardiologist told me, which I think is crucial advice every woman needs to know, is that if you're experiencing any of the symptoms of heart attack, and some of the more subtle symptoms women go through, which I'll talk about, what you should do when you go into the

emergency department, to not wait, is you need to say, I think I'm having a heart attack. And you say that outright, you don't just say I've been feeling a little bit off. I have, you know, a little bit of pain. I feel a little nauseated. I just don't feel like myself. I haven't felt like myself for the

last few days. These are some of the more subtle symptoms of heart attack in women. Now it's important to note it can still be crushing, heart pain, arm pain, you know that elephant sitting on on the chest that can still happen in women. But it's important to know that in addition to that, it can also be

nausea, this sense of just not feeling like yourself, along with a gut feeling that something is drastically wrong. Oh, what are some of the other ones? You know, heart palpitations, right? Where your heart is, like, you know, shortness of breath, so, like, again, there's some overlap. But

what's important to know is that those symptoms can be more subtle in women, and as such, they can be ignored.

And so yeah, my friend, my friends and I always say, if we're going to go to the hospital, we are going to bring our Shirley MacLaine from Terms of Endearment with us, if you love it. Listener, if you have not seen that movie, it's when she is advocating for Deborah winger, who's, you know,

terminal, and she's got to have her pain shot, and they're not giving it to her. And she comes out, she goes and she just advocates and she gets it done. And I have never forgotten that scene my entire life. To just go, I am going to be a fierce advocate, and I'm going to get seen by a doctor now.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, absolutely. And I think you say those keywords like I'm worried I'm having a heart attack right now, and here's why, you're going to get seen right away, right? They don't want that on their their tails, ignoring someone who thinks she's having a heart attack.

Yeah. And it's, you know, I was talking to Dr Abraham hananet About fatty liver disease, and how the highest risk category are women over 40, and how that impacts our heart health, that they're not dying of fatty liver they're dying of heart disease or stroke, if it doesn't get

addressed. And so how everything's connected. And another thing that is so fantastic about the book is how you connect hormone health with brain health. So obviously, as women we are, and particularly women over 40, we're hyper focused on our hormone health. And the way that you talk about

hormone health in the book is refreshing because it opens up a whole other perspective about it. So can I just start earlier on? Why is puberty happening earlier than ever before now, in terms of girls hormone health?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, I mean, I think what's interesting is that it's happening earlier. And I think it's important to note that it's not happening like years earlier, right? It's happening months earlier. But what I also learned is that the on ramp to puberty is lasting longer, is a little bit longer,

and so what you're getting is these kids with those like fluctuating core, not fluctuating, but the hormones coming on board, they're a little bit like what is happening. And unlike those of us in perimenopause or the menopause transition, they don't they don't have words to say, I

think I'm a little hormonal right now, and that's why I feel ragey. They just feel ragey and act out right and there are a few different reasons for this. Some of the most compelling research so far shows that weight kids weight has gone up. So what we know is that fat is metabolically active. Active,

right? It spits out hormones, and so that may be one reason for earlier puberty, our exposure to chemicals. Unfortunately, these are these chemicals in our environment. We're talking a lot more about them, thankfully, but they are endocrine disruptors, right? These are endocrine disrupting

chemicals. Interestingly, they're also immune disrupting chemicals, so they don't just impact our hormones, they're also impacting our immune system, which I found fascinating. But when it comes to puberty, that's really important. And also stress, you know, trauma can actually impact

onset of puberty and so, and the timing of that, and so, yeah, I think it's really important to keep these things in mind. It's important that we have awareness of it, so that, if we have kids around that age, or nieces, you know, you want to be aware of it, so you can be talking to your doctor. And also, something

that was, you know, interesting to me, is that as a parent or a caregiver, you should be never you should not be diagnosing puberty. You should be talking to your child's pediatrician about this, you know, this is not there's that is their job, right? You know, but, but knowing these different factors

that could impact puberty timing can help you, again, have that better conversation with your child's pediatrician and say, look, I think my child might be a little bit overweight for her age. Might this be impacting puberty? What do you think? It just launches you into a more informed, productive

conversation.

And when we're talking about being more informed, there is just not enough data about perimenopause. So we've spoken about the lack of funding, the lack of interest in it, you know, and so forth. But still, there still isn't enough data about this really important transition phase of a

woman's life, and you talk about this in the book. So what did you learn from interviewing some of these experts about perimenopause? Specifically?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, I think first and foremost, it's really important to say, when we say perimenopause, we are talking about that transition leading up to menopause, right? It's important to to know what we're talking about. And this is a period of time that can last upwards of 10 years, anywhere

from four to six to upwards of 10 years. And that, in and of itself, is just like, my goodness, like this is can be a very long period of time where you are dealing with the hormonal ups and downs, and it really can be this wild ride where your ovaries are are getting tired, and they're just

like, I don't want to work anymore. I want to retire. And your brain, that's a great way to put it. Your brain is selling your ovaries. Keep working. Let's get it together, ladies, like, you got to keep spitting out eggs. And your ovaries are like, No, f you I'm done. Is like, let's go and so. So

sometimes you ovulate, sometimes you don't, it leads to all these hormonal changes which lead to symptoms. For us, it shows up as symptoms, right? One of the most important things I learned is, is that you we need to track our symptoms during perimenopause in lieu of that data that we don't have, in lieu of of a real,

solid road map, you know, that's given to us by our clinicians. We need to create the road map for ourselves, which starts with tracking symptoms, because that is how we are going to give the our clinicians the information they need to say, okay, yeah, let I think you're in perimenopause based on X, Y and

Z, and we can talk about treatment now, because thankfully, we are starting to talk about hormone therapy, you know, menopause, hormone therapy. And we can go into that right for years and years that was like, nobody wanted to take it, no, no doctors wanted to prescribe it because

of that study, that was wrong,

Meghan Rabbit RD: exactly, fallout from the Women's Health Initiative, which, which was one arm of the Women's Health Initiative, right? And so I think it's also important to note that that that research turned out really great results and studied women over the course of many years. This arm

of it, this is proof that our scientists studying us want our have our best interests at heart. They want what's best for us. And they stopped it because they saw some alarming data that showed, uh oh, women in this arm that were taking a specific type of estrogen and progesterone that isn't regularly prescribed

anymore. We're having increased heart events. And I believe, also I have to go back to be check me on this. But also, yeah, it just was starting. It was showing out risk was outweighing benefit. And so they stopped it. But what happened was the media came in and then said, this causes breast cancer.

And everyone freaked everybody out. Freaked everyone out. Now, once you ring a bell, it

takes years to unring it, if you can even unring it, you know, I mean, I still speak to, you know, hundreds of women a week in our program who are still afraid to take it because. Because of that information, and they're speaking to their friends who are all you know. And it's just

it has permeated the consciousness, the collective consciousness, of women

Meghan Rabbit RD: over 40. And I think only 4% of women who are eligible for menopause hormone therapy are taking it right now, which shocked me that a doctor just told me that. So again, I'd want to check the source, but it's like, I think you're right. Many of us are still the Yeah, really afraid of it, you know.

And I think, I think what we now know, what's also important to know about that arm of the Women's Health Initiative, is that it helps doctors understand that timing really matters when it comes to when you take it right. So the women who are taking it, who are showing the risks of taking it, we're

outweighing the benefits. Were older. So they were they were 10 years past menopause. Such an important distinction.

Yes, bingo. And

Meghan Rabbit RD: now what we know as well, if you're within 10 years of menopause and start taking it, the benefits likely would outweigh the risks. And again, it is a case by case basis, and you really want to go into not only a detailed symptom list with your clinician, but also really talk about your

personal health history and your family health history to make sure that that decision is right for you. But that was a big change for me personally. When I went into reporting this book, I think I was probably one of those women who'd be like, Nah, I'm not gonna take it. I don't want exogenous hormones. I'll

deal. And now I'm like, bring it on for what we know and the data we do have actually about the prevention of osteoporosis, the treatment of hot flashes,

100% so I recently started taking it, and I have an incredible endocrinologist. It took me nine months to get the appointment, and she was worth every day of the weight, because she was so extraordinary. And really took the time. I was with her for an hour and a half, she really went through everything,

and I don't have any menopause symptoms. But she said, Oh, so you would want to be experimenting with this for as a preventative measure, for bone health, for brain health, for and I said exactly. And she said, Okay, so she talked me through it, and here's something that just fascinated me. She

said, Okay, so here's something I want to explain to you. It's been years since you've had a period, but technically, per the levels in your hormone panel, you are still in perimenopause. This blew my mind, right? Yeah. And so it was, it was just, it was an education, you know, and some really high level

information. It was fascinating. So just the renaming of hormone therapy, too, you go through that in your book,

Meghan Rabbit RD: yeah, I, and you'll notice I'm calling it menopause hormone therapy, not hormone replacement therapy. And, and I really, I interviewed experts on this, and I am in the camp of, let's call it menopause hormone therapy, or simply hormone therapy. And here's why. When women hear hormone

replacement therapy, they think, Oh, well, replacement right? I'm going to take enough estrogen to replace my levels. That is not even remotely what menopause hormone therapy is doing. Hormone therapy is meant to give you a supplement of estrogen, a supplement of progesterone, maybe testosterone, and it's not

replacing you your levels to what they were in your reproductive years. And I think this is really important, because a lot of times that's why we're afraid of it. We're like, I don't want that big dose of estrogen. I don't need it. Well, you're not getting it. And in fact, if you ever took

hormonal birth control, like the birth control pill, you got more estrogen in that than you get in menopause. That blows women's minds, you know? And so, yeah, when friends talk about HRT, I'm like, I take it as an opportunity to be like, you know, it's not actually replacing hormones. And there's

a group of really bad ass clinicians who are trying to get on a mission to call it menopause hormone therapy. And I think we let them be

successful, yeah,

Meghan Rabbit RD: it opens their eyes, and I think it's if it takes away a barrier of entry for women who are afraid of it. I mean, that's great, you know?

Yeah, I just and but as to your point, it is an individual decision on a case by case basis, taking into account your whole story in consultation with an excellent practitioner. So that's a huge piece of this, the information in your book about breast health and this that the tests that are

available to us and thinking about breast screening differently. Again, that chapter, in and of itself, is reason enough to get this book. So what surprised you, and what did you learn about breast screening and breast health, and how we can manage our breast health differently, and how that

changed for you personally as well.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, so I think that is the key in your question. It's breast health. I think a lot of times when we as women, certainly in midlife, think about our breasts, we just immediately worry that we're going to get breast cancer. We immediately go to cancer. Versus thinking of breast health right,

and what I can do to improve my breast health, and what I can do when it comes to an accurate and great screening plan for me for breast cancer, because breast cancer should be on our radar. It is something, it is unfortunately common, and the Yeah, and there were so many pieces of the reporting of this

that blew my mind. So for starters, I grew up in a time like I think most of us did, where remember those cards that you hung in the shower that was like, how to do a self Yes, a breast self exam. They went away all of a sudden, and then people, medical institutions were saying you don't need that.

You just need your annual mammogram. That is not true. If you have been told you don't need to do self exams, ignore that information and do your your self exam. My friend Kylie

just found a lump herself because she was doing her regular check herself, and she found it herself, and she's just been diagnosed with

Meghan Rabbit RD: breast cancer, yes, and this is crucial, right? And we you know, and if I'm honest, I don't even do it as every month, like I should, even though I have this information, it could just be something that feels a little scary. And also, for those of us with dense breasts and lumpy breasts,

you're going to feel lumps, but that's even more reason to do it, and here's why, when you know the landscape of your breast tissue, you you are more likely to pick out something that's new or different, call your doctor and then get diagnosed with breast cancer on the earlier side, when that

cancer is more treatable and let and treatment will be less invasive and less disfiguring. And so this is really important, and I'm on a mission to make sure women are are getting the message. We do need to do those self exams. Another thing that blew my mind, and as I am out in the world talking about my book,

I asked for a show of hands. How many of you have been have had a conversation with your doctor about your lifetime risk of breast cancer? Nobody raises their hand. Have you ever had a clinician say to you, let's go over your lifetime risk of breast cancer based on these calculators we have. Okay, so it

is something everybody listening can do right now, like hit pause and search for a calculator. There's one called the tyre Cusick risk assessment calculator, and what that does is, you go through you answer a series of questions, you'll have to, you know, have a little bit sense of your own personal

medical history as well as your family history. It's not that big of a deal if you're not able to answer every single question, just do the best you can and then bring that will spit out a score anything over 20% is considered high risk. If it's lower than 20% it's not but it's still, no matter what your score

is, bring that score to your next doctor's visit. So whether it's your annual gynecology visit or your primary care physician visit, bring that score and say, Hey, doctor, I did this risk assessment calculator online. Can we do it together again so that you can see how I'm answering, because

they've got all the access to these calculators as well. And then can we talk and and make sure my breast cancer screening plan is right for me and my personal risk. This is the Olivia Munn story. So she has she was just diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts after a clean mammogram, after

her mammogram showed no cancer, and then her doctor did this lifetime risk assessment with her. Sure enough, it was high. It prompted a breast MRI, and that's what found the cancer. So Tess, I'll tell you personally, I did this myself. Just this past year. I went to my gynecologist annual visit, and I

said, I just did the Tyro Cusick risk assessment. Here's my score. And he said, Oh, that's great. Let's do it again. We did it again. My score, which was just under 20% combined with my extremely dense breast tissue and history of cysts that I've always had an ultrasound for. He said, You know what? I think it

was, 17% was my lifetime risk. He said, That's not low. And that combined with your breast density, I'm ordering an MRI. Sure enough, I had the breast MRI. And so that is really important information that I think feels revelatory to a lot of women. It's something we can all do. And man, I left that

appointment not exactly psyched about having to have a breast MRI, but feeling really empowered that I'm the one to take the reins like that. You know,

absolutely, I have dense breasts too. I'm Category D, here

Meghan Rabbit RD: d, Category D, yep, but most women don't know there's four categories. Yeah, there's that's also revelatory, you know, let's talk about that. Because, if so, talk about that, there is category A, B, C and D, Category A, mostly fatty tissue. And then it goes, you know, heterogeneously fat, fatty

tissue, heterogeneously dense, and extremely dense. And so you need to know what category you're in, and it your mammogram report should have that information, because that also, you know, even if your lifetime risk is lower, I think it's worth the conversation. Saying, Look, I. Know that in Category

D, extremely dense breast tissue, mammograms don't always pick up breast cancer at age 40 I'm 47 at age 47 Do you think one mammogram a year is enough for me? You know, at getting get curious with your doctors, and a good doctor is going to look at you and be like, damn. Thank you for asking, let's have this

conversation. You know,

I mean, the amount of women that I meet over 50 who have never had a mammogram, astounds me.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Well, that is shocking and not good, and I do think there's a lot of misinformation circulating online right now about how much radiation you get.

Thank you for saying that. I was going to say the same thing. And if you're afraid of it again, people

Meghan Rabbit RD: are afraid of it, and if you're seeing that information, I just interviewed one of the preeminent breast health specialists. She's not in my book, but I interviewed her first story because she has a book coming out, and she said, You get less radiation in a mammogram than you do flying on

an airplane, exactly.

Thank you, exactly. And I just, there's so much fear mongering out there, and people have fear on their own about just even knowing that they've got a diagnosis, so they'd rather just not go and get the information. They'd rather just pretend it's not happening. And that's where we

get to, you know, end stage disease, because people are afraid of getting the information, so, oh, I can't wait to read your article and and read that book.

Meghan Rabbit RD: And I also think too it's important to know. And there's a big section in the breast health chapter of my book that is about, all about what lumps and bumps are that aren't cancer. Because you talk about that, yes, we go to the dark place. I have felt lumps in my breast, and then I have gone

into a spiral of tears, and I am definitely dying of breast cancer, and my life is over. And, you know, it feels terrifying and paralyzing, and all of that is a normal response to feeling a lump, right? But what I aim to do in this section, and I did talk to these incredible experts who say,

look, most of the time a lump is not cancer. Now, that is not reason to not make an appointment and get it checked, but it is reason to say, until I get that bad news, I'm not going to go to the total dark place, and I certainly am not going to let the fear prevent me from making an appointment, you know.

And so just know, lumps can be a lot of different things, but it is always a good idea to have a follow up appointment about them. Now, the one caveat is that if you are still cycling, if you just still have a period, experts often say you can wait a cycle or two if you feel a lump to go to make an appointment,

you don't have to make an appointment right away, because hormones it can impact those lumps, right? So if you have a cyst, it can be driven by estrogen going up and then down, and so you might feel that cyst get big and freak out, but then keep track of it. Keep Feeling that cyst, and it might go down,

and then it might come back. And you can say, Okay, I'm going to note that. I'm going to talk about it in my next health care visit, but I don't have to freak out about it. It It comes and goes. Cancer doesn't play peekaboo. Experts have told me it comes in after menopause. You feel a lump, you make an

appointment immediately, because we're not cycling anymore. We don't have those hormones that are driving the growth, and you know, the growth and then the disappearance of those lumps, right? And so you want to make an appointment right away.

Are we talking about making appointments? They're recommending now that women get DEXA scans to measure their bone density, much earlier, much, much earlier. So let's talk about bone health, and what you learned about the new research and the new information, the new

recommendations about caring for our bones.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, I mean, here in the States, 80% of the 10 million Americans who have osteoporosis are women, so that, in and of itself, is another statistic that is truly remarkable, and as a woman, we need to be focused on our bones. So first and foremost, for women in midlife, for those of us in

midlife, we need to be thinking of our bone health now. It is not something osteoporosis is not something in the future that maybe won't happen to us if we're fit and eat. Well, my mom is a prime example of this. She's 73 now has been fit all her life, has exercised, eaten well, and she has osteoporosis,

and now she's on bone medication. Now she was of the generation that was totally deprived hormones that menopause, hormone therapy, and I suspect that had something to do with it. Menopause is a real turning point for our bone health. Our bones rely on estrogen. Estrogen is a

signaling molecule in our bones, and so when that goes down again, as Dr Vonda Wright says, When estrogen walks out the door, bone health just depreciates so much. And so we have to take active steps in trying to counter that right. Some of the most important things exercise and exercise

that actually. Builds bone, which is jumping and which is lifting heavy enough weight so that those muscles are pulling on the bone to spark bone growth. Right? Diet is still hugely important, not smoking, but also staying open and having a conversation about hormone therapy. Really, really

important, because that is one of the green light indications we have for the use of menopause. Hormone therapy is a prevention of osteoporosis.

Oh, that's why I went, as I said, because my mother has osteoporosis, and so my sister and I went, you know what? It's time we're going to be preventative. And we both went and had our DEXA scans. I had had one previously, but yeah, it was, yeah, it's a wake up call for sure.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Dax is scans. What's interesting here? And I, you know, I again, I'm 47 and I don't qualify for one, so if I want to get one, I'll have to pay out of pocket. My insurance won't cover it. Is a

consideration, and I just want to recognize that, you know, that obviously I am happy to pay out of pocket, and I'm going to do that no matter what, and I'm getting whatever test I want. But not everybody has that choice, so I do not recognize that, but it but they're recommending now that at

40, you know, you get one, and that that's a recommendation that's coming out in Australia specifically, but, yeah, that we do it earlier so that we can get on a plan, so that we do not get osteoporosis.

Meghan Rabbit RD: And it doesn't surprise me that in Australia, you are more progressive than we are here.

I'm very grateful. Yeah,

Meghan Rabbit RD: yeah. I mean, and my hope is that we're going to feel the impacts in the healthcare system of osteoporosis happening and so similar. It's reminding me of like, you know, how it used to be, you get a colonoscopy at age 50, and now they've dropped it to age 45 because there were so

many cases of colorectal cancer in younger people. And so I suspect what we're going to see is the same thing happen, you know, when they finally the system finally says, Okay, we need to start these excess scans earlier, and we'll cover them as preventive care, you know, but I think I'm in the same boat, you

know, I'm at 47 I'm not experiencing any of the real symptoms, like the hallmark symptoms of perimenopause. Knock on wood, although I will say my mood goes in some ups and downs. It's sort of like PMs on steroids. It kind of feels like sometimes. So that, in fairness, that is a symptom. I'm tracking

that, but I have already had a proactive conversation with my physician about hormone therapy, for the same reason, my mom has osteoporosis. Like I want you to know that this is on my radar, so that we can have a really, you know, we can have a plan. And I think that's really important for everyone to know,

yeah, making a plan in consultation with a really great practitioner again, and not using Dr Google or Dr chat, GPT, which the statistics about that are very alarming as well, people turning to non human sources, which may be spitting out information that's inaccurate, you know. And

obviously we're seeing government bodies, you know, in the United States, you know, putting out information that is just not science based. So it's you do need to be very careful about about who you're consulting. I want to go back to immune health. We touched on it earlier in the conversation. Oh,

wow. And your conversation with Dr Heather, that you cite in the book, about just the differences and in the chromosomes, you know, in men and women. So can you take us inside of that conversation? Because it was fascinating.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, Dr moda is amazing. And what she really walked me through, and that what I then walk readers through in this book, is that we have, actually, you know, two different types of immunity. There's our innate immune system, which we're born with right in which we can kind of

think as those immune soldiers that just do their good work. But then we have an adaptive immune system, which is our learned immune system, which we can think of like the special ops army. You know, come in for very specific and specialized attacks on foreign invaders. But what we are finally starting to

learn and study is that the women's immune systems. As women, our immune systems are different. We mount stronger immune responses, which means we also have more antibodies, but also more auto antibodies, right? And so that could be one another reason why auto immune conditions happen more

frequently in us, we mount stronger immune responses, which bodes well for us when we get a vaccine, which is interesting. You know, as a female, that actually gives us a little bit of a benefit, because we, our immune system says, Okay, I'm going to remember that and stash it for future use and so, yeah,

the immune system is just this. It keeps us alive. Quite simply, it is this remarkable, complicated, multi faceted aspect of our health that is important to understand. So that we can, you know, I get really frustrated when I see a lot of like, how do we boost our immune system when actually, like, we

don't want to boost our immune system. We want our immune system to be working healthy, like, we want to optimize it, bingo. Because if you boost your immune system, that's like, No, you don't want your immune system working harder and turning on itself, because that is the definition of

autoimmunity, right? And so, yeah, I really love that chapter. I also interviewed Dr Ailey Cohen. I mentioned before that these environmental toxins that we are exposed to increasingly exposed to, they don't just impact our hormones, they impact our immune system. And I think that is really

important to know too, which is like, gosh, when we our bodies see these as foreign invaders and mount an immune response against them, which can lead to chronic inflammation, which leads to disease, et cetera. So that part of this chapter was super fascinating to me as well.

Yeah, when I read some of the stats again in that chapter where you said women are seeing doctors over years and over, 45% of people are labeled as chronic complainers, women, that blew my mind. You know that that when women present and auto immune conditions, as we know, there's so many crossover

symptoms, and it can take years to get a proper diagnosis, and there's so much frustration. And, you know, people feel like they're a failure, and all the stuff that we know can lead to mental health issues and and all of that stuff. And just when I read that, my heart sank in your book, you know, just these

stories of, just, oh, well, it's in your head again. The gaslighting, the gas lighting lead to, you know, misdiagnosis or no diagnosis or getting ignored,

Meghan Rabbit RD: or whatever. Yeah, and you know, what's interesting is, it's why I put, you know, a section in that chapter on just a basic explanation of some of the most common autoimmune conditions, so that it can just be on our radar, right? Because I think what happens is, when we have

these vague symptoms and our doctors aren't doing testing or don't know what's going on with us, That's often why we get gas lit, because doctors and clinicians love having answers, right? And interestingly, I interviewed an expert in medical gaslighting who says it's not as nefarious as we often, as it

often feels. It's actually not our doctors saying, like, gosh, how am I going to not listen to this woman right now or brush her off? It's actually more if they don't know how to treat us

well, only 30% of people get menopause training,

Meghan Rabbit RD: isn't it? Even less. I feel like I cited a stat in my book where it's actually like only 7% of medical school residents in one survey said they felt adequately trained to treat women, and yes, indeed say that. That is shocking, and so shocking, I interviewed a urologist for my book who said

most gynecologists don't actually get adequate training in vulvar anatomy. Take that in for a second, and you talk about

vulva diversity in your book.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yes, yes. That is so important, you know, the and also, I think it's it bears, you know, unpacking here what most of us refer to as our vagina is actually our vulva? Yes, see our vagina. The vagina is an internal structure. It's actually our vulva, like, let's call it that, right? What we see

is the vulva, and unfortunately, what we see in medical textbooks, in images we might see online, is a lack of vulvar diversity. As one anonymous put it, just like you have a different face than my face? Yes, then every human's face, your vulva looks different than my vulva looks different than

every other woman's vulva. And to not represent that vulvar diversity is really a shame, because then it also leads to us thinking that we're weird, or that our, you know, whatever part of our vulva, is different than some image we see, and that we're wrong and that our bodies need changing. And so

that's I did appreciate that part of your book, and I also did sidebar appreciate the notes about how all the anatomy is named after men. I mean, it makes sense, considering our patriarchal history, but it's just it did make me laugh and cry at the same time, just going, this has

to

Meghan Rabbit RD: change totally. Actually, an Australian anatomist who I loved interviewing, she wrote a paper, and actually it was a tweet that she said, and I Oh, gosh, it cracked me up. But she was like, gosh, don't I won't say her name. Because she was like, Don't spread this too far. Why?

But at one point she called it, you know, the the male, pale and stale people who are naming our body parts after themselves, you know. And I was just

like, oh, that's kegels. Kegels, however you want to pronounce it, Dr Cagle. He was an old white guy. It's like now

Meghan Rabbit RD: fallopian tubes. Fallopian tubes, you know? Why we call them the fallopian tubes, because of fallopia, Mr. Fallopio, this old Italian priest who basically laid claim to them, you know? And so I think that is, again, sort of similar to the menopause, hormone therapy

instead of hormone replacement therapy. Words matter now that we have more information and we know the sexist history, let's, let's make a change, right? I refer to them as my uterine tubes now, and it does raise eyebrows, and then it enters into, you know, leads to this really cool conversation about

why I call them my uterine tubes, even though I don't have my uterine tubes anymore because I had a hysterectomy. So that's, that's something else I I joke that I want a t shirt that says, ask me about my hysterectomy,

but to your point, taking ownership and celebrating the uniqueness of your anatomy and your physiology and that you are not like any other woman on earth, even though We share the basic anatomy, you're not crazy. If something feels a little off, it's off. And if your doctor's not acknowledging that, it

doesn't want to have an a transparent conversation with you, find a different doctor totally.

Meghan Rabbit RD: And you know, I think what it's such an important point. A doctor recently said to me, you know, we as doctors know bodies, but you as patients, know your body, and I think it is really important to really grok that and remember it, because you're just like, wow, right? If I've

got this niggling sense that something is wrong, I'm worth saying something about that, you know. And I think as women too, we also drop the comparisons. We are each unique looking, and that goes for our anatomy as well, but also we have to really embrace, like, talking about the things that are bothering us,

listening to our gut feeling about that and not not trying to like, I think it can look a lot of different ways for a lot of different women. For me, I have been I'm an oldest child, I'm an overachiever. I'm an Enneagram three. For any of you, Enneagram,

Enneagram seven.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Oh, cool. The achiever is the three. I am a human design manifester.

I am manifesting generator.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Oh, see, I'm a manifester. So not even so I am like I am. Just when I showed up at doctor's appointments, I wanted a gold star, which is ridiculous. So when I showed up for years and years at the gynecologist, I'd be like, my period comes every 28 days. Like, look at me. But what I was

leaving out was the fact that I was hemorrhaging on day one and day two. You know, also, I didn't know that was abnormal. I didn't know to bring that up. And so I think that's another reason why we need to educate ourselves about our body so we even know what red flags are that we should talk about. But,

you know, but? And then I think also we need to drop this whole like, oh, I shouldn't ask for the test, because what if it's normal, and then I'll feel bad for asking for the test, we have to claim. And I've heard that from so many women, we have to claim our worth. You know, first and foremost, know it ourselves,

but then also say, This is my body. This is my one life I am worth talking about my symptoms and getting the care that I need and deserve.

Oh, yes, to that. Within the context of this, let's talk. Let's let's go back to pain for a minute, because pain is an indication that there is an imbalance. Something's not right. It's your body speaking to you. So again, some of these stats that you brought up, I loved your your analogy of treat

headaches and migraines, treating it like a drone and a mosquito. The constant it's constantly annoying, but this sort of inevitability part of it, but the that we're one and a half times more likely to get tension headaches, but we're conditioned to push through the pain, and I loved the note in

your book where you said pain means stop, yeah, and listen. And common doesn't mean normal. So what did you learn about this aspect of our health and how we can be listening to pain and those pain signals, our signaling system, our messaging system, and then be communicating this to our

medical team in a way that's going to help them listen.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, oh my gosh. So I learned so much about pain reporting this book, I think to break it down, let's start with how so many women push through our pain and actually brag about our high pain tolerance. As one doctor put it, it's like as women, we wear our high pain tolerance

like a badge of honor, and that is majorly problematic for. One big important reason, which is pain signaling works right in terms where, as what? Another pain specialist described it, think of it like a volume dial. And so if you're getting your pain treated, you keep that volume dial at a normal level.

You experience pain, but you can treat that pain. Goes away, right? Acute Pain is like this. You have pain, it goes away. Chronic pain that's not treated because you're pushing through it's like the pain signaling gets more sensitized, so that less stimulus turns up that volume dial and makes you feel

more pain. So if you're ignoring your pain, and I'm not, and we both burn ourselves touching a hot, you know, toaster, I'm going to feel pain, but it's going to turn down right away. You're going to feel more pain, and it stays higher. You know that pain dial stays stays in a higher volume. And so that's a

really important reason to get treated for pain and not push through right it's going to help us not only feel better right now, but also keep our pain sensitization in a normal range. I think another thing I learned that was really important for me personally is when I'm experiencing pain and I'm

talking to a doctor, I need to put it in terms that make sense to that clinician. So instead of saying My pain is a seven out of 10, that doesn't really tell that doctor anything, right? Because my seven out of 10 could be really different than your seven out of 10. Yeah, it's likely very different than the

doctor seven out of 10. So what, what an expert told me, she wants all patients to say, is this pain I'm feeling in my stomach, the cramping I'm feeling reminds me of the pain I experienced during childbirth, contractions, or my knee pain thanks to that pickleball injury is is like a similar kind of

level as when I tore my ACL skiing. That's going to get them to say, okay, like, let's talk about treatment here, you know. But being able to say that also takes us being willing to say, I'm in a lot of pain. And this is what it feels like, you know. And for too many women, we just brush it off. We're like, I'm

fine, I'm fine. It's okay.

We see crying as weak, which is, it's modeled all the time. Don't be a little girl. Don't be a cry baby, you know, that's weak. And we want to, we want to be as strong as men. You know, this is sort of the idea, yeah. And we've

Meghan Rabbit RD: been taught that from a very young age, to buck up buttercup, you know, suck it up. Keep going, push through the pain, you know. And it's no more. It's 2026 it is time for that to change. It is time for us to say, No, I'm experiencing pain and I need treatment, you know. And again,

my hysterectomy, after working on this chapter, I think I was more open to pain medication post op than I would have been otherwise, because I just realized, and my doctor told me, Look, you need to set an alarm and take pain medication in the middle of the night, because what you don't want is that pain

to get real bad and then for you to have to try to come down from that, you know? And, and so I think it's really, really important, like there is no need to push through, you know, it's just yeah and, and know that women's pain is often treated and looked at and considered differently than men's. And so

you might even have to be pushed even harder for the right bring out your Shirley. MacLaine, bingo. Well said,

as you know, I am particularly interested in gut health, and our 60 day reset is a gut health reset. So we talk a lot with our dietitians about gut health, your chapter on gut health and digestive health, and the section about colon cancer, not that that's the only aspect of of digestive health and gut

health. But can you share with everybody what you learned about the difference in our physio, physiology and our small and large intestines being longer? Yeah. I mean, most, most women don't know this.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Nope. And actually, what one gastroenterologist, multiple, who I've, you know, interviewed over the course of my career, say that actually, colonoscopies can be a little bit more difficult to do in women than in men, because our colons are longer and windier, and that

makes it a little bit more challenging for that scope to go through, you know? And so, yeah, the C section,

and they've pulled them all out and then put them

Meghan Rabbit RD: back in, bingo. And women are more likely to have scar tissue, right, due to surgeries like hysterectomy and C section, which are uncommon, and so then there's scar tissue in there, which can complicate things as well, right? So I think what really blew my mind and what every

woman needs to know about gut health, especially as it relates to the prevention and staying on top of the signs of colorectal cancer, which is happening in younger people, which is something that really should be on all of our radars, is that, and

it's the third most common cancer you say in your book, yeah,

Meghan Rabbit RD: it's and, yeah. And so what we need to know as women is that oftentimes our. Symptoms that should be looked at further can get brushed off, as you know, that's just pelvic pain because you're dealing you're a woman, is it? Is it period cramps or blood in your stool? Can be like, Oh,

well, you've got hemorrhoids, you know, due to your your pregnancies, and so it's that. And so as women, we especially need to know the signs of colorectal cancer, pain in our lower abdominal, abdominal area, even just like that, but consistent, and that's sort of vague, bring it up to your

doctor. Changes in stool. We need to be looking at our poop. That was another stage.

Can we look at our poop? Women, please look in the bowl at your poop. It is such an amazing indicator of what is going on

Meghan Rabbit RD: as as one gastroenterologist I interviewed for the book said it is a diagnostic tool that you are flushing down the toilet, hopefully today, without looking at and you, you can learn so much from it. When it comes to colorectal cancer, what you are looking for is really thin

stool, which could be a sign that there's a blockage. So what should be like a nice, normal sized poop is getting really thin, and also color. You want to look for blood in your stool, which could be maroon or like dark and tarry, looking any changes to your stool. You know. You know what's normal for you,

and then any changes to that is absolutely something you should bring up immediately to your doctor. Because, unfortunately, if you're not getting your colonoscopy, starting at age 45 and even I've heard of more cases, it's happening to to people in their 30s. And so this is even more reason to be

looking at our stool to be able to say, Okay, wait a second. I need to. We need to explore this, you know, but also young girls think, remember your school days, did you ever want to take a poo in the public restroom? I know I didn't.

People hold on to it. Thank you. This is something you bring up in your book, and I was so grateful that you did. It's okay to poo in public, please.

Meghan Rabbit RD: And it is, it is essential that we talk to our young girls about pooing in public, in school, and not holding it, because when we hold it, we are just ignoring signals from our body that it's time to go. And when that happens, it can lead to problems. That's what can lead to things like

constipation, you know, and so hugely important for us to say, Yeah, I'm human. I need to poo. And that sometimes needs to happen in school, you know, and so easier said than done. Oh, exactly.

I mean, the statistics about constipation, over 70% of women have experienced constipation or are constipated on a regular basis. I mean, if you are not pooing, at least once a day. If that doesn't move, nothing else is moving. I mean, it's just so incredibly important.

Meghan Rabbit RD: And I will say, oftentimes, gastroenterologists say that's actually a myth. You don't I like pooing every day. I'll be honest about

poo every day I'm going to the doctor. I mean, literally. I mean, that's how important it is to me, and that's normal for you, which is great, but what

Meghan Rabbit RD: gastroenterologists will say is that what's normal for everyone, again, we're all different, and so what's normal for you could be one poo every three days. Again, for me, that would work, because it's really far from for me, but it's important again, to just, you know, I want everyone to know

that, like, get you, you know, keep a poop diary. You know, sounds weird, but open a new note on your phone and just say, Okay, what's normal for me? What do my poops look like? So that when you go to that primary care physician appointment, you can say, I want to talk about poop. And here's what's happening for

me. Here are my symptoms. Is this in the range of normal? Do I need to see a gastroenterologist? You know, I think it's really important.

And to your point, it is, again, this bio individual piece of it that what is normal for you is different to what is normal for somebody else. Just like if we're looking at the Bristol stool chart, you know, and they're giving, you know, these ranges of what a good size, you know, stool is.

And you're looking at your threes and your fours and all this kind of thing that, again, yes, I'm used to pooing three times a day. That's normal for me, but that's not a yardstick for everybody, for sure. Yeah, the speaking about the frustration and the shame and the embarrassment and all the

things around women's health and our bodies, your chapter on mental health, and then the stuff about stress, and what Jessica Caldwell was talking about in terms of assessing your mental load was such a fantastic perspective and way of holding stress and mental health. So can you take us inside that

conversation and what you learned about stress?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, we are thankfully starting to talk about estrogens role in our brain health and how midlife in menopause, when estrogen, you know, precipitously drops. How that can impact our brain health. Thank This is a great conversation to be having. Dr Lisa Moscone, who I interviewed

for the book, is doing remarkable research on tracking the estrogen receptors. And what we now know is that actually, the female brain grows more estrogen receptors after menopause, just to sop up any bit of estrogen where our bodies are still making That's how important estrogen is in the

brain. In the female brain, yeah, and I think what we are not talking enough about is the role of stress and cortisol can also play in brain health. And that is where Dr Jessica Caldwell comes in, and her research is fascinating, which is all about how the female brain responds to stress and

stress hormones differently than the male brain. How we actually mount a bigger stress response, which can be really helpful when we need to, like, dive into the deep end to save a child who is drowning. You know what I mean? Like that, that immediate stress response can be remarkable. It's, it's life saving,

literally. But what's the downside is that it can actually take our bodies as women longer to tamp down that stress response than men, and I think that is really fascinating. And what what she her research has shown, is that as women, we tend to carry a higher cognitive load, a mental load, right? It's

like all the to do's for the entire family. It is all the summer camps that need to get books. Where are we going on family vacation, aging parents, young kids, big work. It's just so much that we're holding and that can impact our brain health. And I think it's interesting, because I think a

lot of times we think of stress as just who isn't stressed, right? Who isn't dealing with a mile long to do list and feels overwhelmed all the time, but when we think about it as impacting our risk of dementia later on, I think a lot of us then say, oh geez, like, I need to look at this in a more

serious way, to really assess where I'm at on the stress level and what I can put down to lighten my cognitive load.

Do load it is. We do just discount it a lot, though, don't we? I'm just stressed. I'm just stressed, you know. And then to your point about the pain before that, if you get used to being in a state of elevated stress all the time, that becomes your new normal, and then you can tolerate more

if you don't address it. And then you know, we know that stress manifests inflammation, and that is the root of all disease. So managing this is it's just so important to be noticing and being aware of when we're experiencing elevated stress. What did you learn about sleep?

Meghan Rabbit RD: It is so, so crucial, right? I mean, we know this, and again, I think it's something else we sort of brag about we wear as a as a badge of honor, like, oh, sleep when you're dead, I don't need a lot of sleep, you know? And there is a reason why we hear sleep as one of those crucial pillars

when it comes to not only making us feel good now, but also protecting our long term health, right? You know, I think some of the bigger surprises when it came to sleep, I interviewed a sleep psychologist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. I think a lot of women deal with

insomnia, and that is a remarkable treatment option that tends to work pretty quickly, like six to eight sessions. So I think when we're dealing with sleep issues, it can often feel like a lost cause or medication is our only option. And that's not actually true. You know? I think it's important for us to

know that sleeps, the basics of sleep stages, but also that a lot of these sleep trackers that we're increasingly using aren't really accurate, and they certainly aren't accurate for female physiology. But one sleep specialist said to me, Look, if wearing your oura ring or your band or whatever, you know,

sleep tracking device inspires you to get into bed a little bit earlier, go through your sleep hygiene, wind down phase, fantastic. But when it tells you you only got 15 minutes of deep sleep, don't believe it. It's not. I did appreciate that,

that bit. Yeah, important, right? Every second person I know has one of these things, literally looking at the data religiously, thinking, that's, that's, that's gospel,

Meghan Rabbit RD: yeah, and that. And then it like, I know myself, I actually stopped tracking my sleep while I was reporting this book, because I was like, oh gosh, stress was impacting my sleep, and I didn't. And then I was freaking out about the data, when, if I just didn't have the data, I

felt a lot better, you know. So I think, I think it's really important to, yeah, have that give yourself a reality check. You know, another tip I loved in the sleep health section is a lot of women particularly, do What? What? This one sleep special? List calls revenge, bedtime, procrastination. So our

days are so jam, jam packed, right? They're totally full. We're doing everything for everybody. We know we should be winding down with a book at 930 10pm but you know what we do? We turn on Netflix and we say, No, you know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna binge watch, you know, fill in the blank show for two

hours, right? And so she said, look, at least know that it's happening, and maybe try to set some boundaries for yourself, right? And so say, don't, you know, turn off the automatic play the next episode. So watch one show, but don't watch three of them, right? So I thought that was kind of interesting.

I did chuckle when I read that some of the terms and the phrases, as we've touched on, some of them, they were just gold, like, I almost feel like you could release, you know, a follow up of just the quotes of some of these phrases and ways about women's health. They were just they're just

fantastic. I want to ask you about skin because and vitamin D and getting out in the sun, and what we need to know about that as we age. Because there was some really, there's some really great information

Meghan Rabbit RD: about that. Yeah, so I am super fair. I was a beach lifeguard for years. I go to the dermatologist twice a year for skin checks, I felt really passionate about including in this chapter just some really basic skin cancer prevention tips, like, what does skin cancer look like? What

should we be on the lookout for things that we you know, a dear friend of mine was just diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, and she had a spot on her lip that just kind of looked like a birthmark. It didn't look like a zit. It wasn't really bothering her, and she was really busy raising little kids,

and so she never got it checked out. Turns out it was skin cancer. So it's important for us to know what to look for, a dry, flaky patch of skin that just kind of annoys you, that can be a pre cancer, right? A zit that either comes and goes or sticks around and just won't go away, even though you're trying to

treat it, it can be skin cancer. So really, really important to just like we should know our breast do those self exams? Take a look at your moles. Are they changing? You know? Know what you should be looking for, so you can make that appointment. I think also when it comes to skin health, as women, we are just

bombarded with what we should be doing for perfect skin, right? And this anti aging rhetoric that's still out there, and so I do go into cosmetic treatments that are just all around us, and know what they are before you just shoot your face up with whatever you're going to put in. Your face up. Sorry, that's

probably too, you know, blunt.

It's just honest, right? And again, I appreciate, I just appreciate the directness, because we do need to know what we're dealing with, and because we're bombarded with influencer content. And this is what I did. And I look younger, and I mean, we can really fall into this, particularly when

we're not feeling good, we're not feeling our best, we can fall prey to some of these things and not be truly informed about what they actually are and what the ramifications

Meghan Rabbit RD: are exactly. And so, yeah, I felt like it was really important to go into to talk to a dermatologist about, what are these, these substances, you know, what is a filler? What is Botox? So that we know, you know, when we have that appointment. And I'm not saying, I don't mean for it to

sound judgmental, right? We you have to do you. You have to, but, but again, you should do you informed, rather than as exactly as you say, because some influencer you follow, says she does whatever regimen, then you just follow it as well, you know? Yeah. And then finally, on the skin health front, I learned

a lot about sunscreen when I reported on that. And I think it's important to talk about how sunscreen works, right? Because there's a lot of talk lately about how you have to use a physical block, right? A sun block, a mineral sunblock, actually physical or mineral sunscreen works very similarly

to chemical sunscreen, so they're different, right? Chemical sunscreen absorbs the sun's rays and then changes them to protect your skin. And yeah, mineral works similarly, but then it also there's no such thing as just a block that just blocks all the rays. And so I thought that was interesting. I

changed my sunscreen habits a little bit. Here in the States, we don't have nearly the same kind of excellent UVA protection. It just doesn't cover us as much. And so whenever I'm traveling, I buy sunscreen in Europe or Asia, Australia, New Zealand, way better blocks than we have here.

And I actually use a chemical sunscreen first, followed by a mineral sunscreen, a tinted mineral sunscreen, to just get extra benefit. And I interviewed a dermatologist who recommends that. And it's great.

Yeah, there was some great there's some great information about that in the book. And also. Are thinking about our skin as the largest organ in our body and our frontline defense system, you know, in terms of immune health and and we, you know, we often think about our heart as like

this romantic thing in our bodies, and our skin is like this beautification thing in our bodies, but they're actual functional things that help our body you know, operate better, and we want to optimize the function of it. So I appreciated all of that information about how we can take care of our skin

in that physiological sense. I have to ask you about how your attitude to alcohol has changed after all of the research that you've done as a service journalist, because that's what you are. The decades of service journalism and bringing some of these public health issues to the fore in a really accessible

way, as you pointed out, but this book, and I mean the labor of love that this book was and is, and how many people you interviewed, I know you must be looking at the same research I'm looking at. And my god, do we need to know about what alcohol does in the body? So what? How is your attitude to that

changed.

Meghan Rabbit RD: It completely changed. And I have pretty much broken

up with alcohol. Same,

Meghan Rabbit RD: same. Yeah, I will say it's not a never, but it is a rare occasion. So I have a glass of wine, whereas in my past it would be, you know, I'd have a cocktail and then a glass of wine with dinner, maybe two, I'd be getting together with friends, and the socializing happened around alcohol. It was

one of the biggest shifts. And I have to say, I feel so much better, and I feel like it is a step I am taking to protect my long term health period. At a story, I think what a lot of women don't realize is that if you are having more than I believe, it's three drinks a week that is considered heavy

drinking, not moderate heavy drinking. For a woman, this whole notion of French women drink a glass of wine a day, and they have the best health IT. We just know better. Now. We just know that alcohol increases our risk of breast cancer, like to the tune of something like 20%

Exactly.

Meghan Rabbit RD: It's unbelievable. Yeah. So if breast cancer is something you're worried about, reducing your alcohol intake to next to none is one very simple way you can try to, you know, take the reins and do something that is modifiable, right? We were just talking about sleeps. Alcohol

will wreck your sleep, period. End of story. It does not it will help you. May help you fall asleep, but then it wakes you up in the middle of the night. It messes with your sleep. Architecture, really, really not good for sleep and pretty it's not good for your skin, it's not good for your heart, it's not

good for your brain. I mean, pretty much every your

mental health.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, and I don't know about you, Tess, but when I even if I have, like, a large glass of wine, right? So it's like, probably two, Let's call a spade a spade when it comes to normal, normal serving, Let's call

a spade a shovel, as my

Meghan Rabbit RD: friend says, that's amazing. That's amazing. You know, I wake up in the middle of the night with like heart palpitations, like my heart is racing, and so it's just not worth it. But I think that's also an important point, because when we listen to our bodies, when we feel like we are

actually clued in. That's when we can understand, like, Oh, I'm having, I think I'm having menopause symptoms right now that I need to talk about, or, Oh, that glass of wine is not doing the same things it used to do 10 years ago, right in my 20s and my 30s. It didn't impact me the same way it impacts me now.

But we have to be willing to listen to that and acknowledge yes happens. And I think that's really important. Don't just power through and say, Oh, that's weird. And we have less

water in our bodies than men, and the enzymes that we that we use to metabolize alcohol, we produce less of them as we age. I mean, I just feel like drinking regularly over the age of 40 is like playing Russian roulette with your health and trying to be healthy with two hands tied

behind your back. I mean, I just all the reading, all the studies now that have come out, and the fact that the liver just stops every other function it's supposed to do while it gets rid of the alcohol in your body, it treats it like a threat to existence. I mean, I just It's delicious, it's wonderful. But

that peer pressure that you can't socialize and have fun if everybody else is drinking and you're not, it's just simply not true. And yet, I hear this every single day. You know, there's that question well, and it's what's so interesting, too. And I was discussing this with some women in my program on a

previous podcast episode where they said, you know, no one says anything when you want to drink to excess and you want to drink Coke every day and eat fried foods and all this processed foods and all these tons of sugar, but the minute you want to stop doing it, everyone's got some serious judgment about it.

Well, what are you doing? Why would you do that? That's no fun. Why do we do that to ourselves?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Why. Do we do it to ourselves? And honestly, this day and age, like there are so many young people who are just giving it up, there are so many great mocktail menus now, like I find that, you know, and the other thing, I mean, it ties to mental health. For me, personally, I feel like what's

become clear is that I used to go after that buzz of that glass of wine on on, sort of an empty stomach, right? Not having enough food, you feel that buzz a little bit faster, because I didn't want to feel my feelings. I didn't want to feel what was actually going on, and the alcohol just masked that. And I

think that sometimes, perhaps some of the people who are the most judgmental around that, I suspect oftentimes, that they just want company in not feeling what they're actually feeling. And and you don't have to join that parade, you know, like it's just order the mocktail and just and just stand in your own

truth, which is just like, You do you, as my sister says with her young girls, you do you boo, you know, like and my drinking does not need to impact you.

Do you know, what gets me off too is clarity, sharpness, being able to be present, being able to be clear, being able to listen and focus. That's what I enjoy doing. So, you know, I again, but you know, you come into this when, when you feel clear about who you are. And to your point, you

know, I'm in Al Anon, so I will openly say I've been in a marriage with an alcoholic, you know, I've seen alcohol abuse. I've been part of it, you know. And I think that there are a lot of people who are social alcoholics, to your point about wanting to mask it. And it is a disease of denial, you know, and

a disease of disconnection. So, conversation for another day, but I also want to ask you about exercise. How do you exercise differently? Yeah, I very menopause from all this information that you have now, I got really

Meghan Rabbit RD: serious about lifting weights. Test. I used to, you know, I've always been quite active, but I grew up in the, you know, 90s, and I was in college and the two, you know, the aughts, where we were sweating it out on the elliptical machine, doing our fasted workouts right to burn

more fat while our male counterparts were in the weight room doing great things for their muscle health and their bone health, you know? And so I really have changed that. I lift weights. I love kettlebells. I have found a workout where I do a 45 minute kettlebell workout. I try to do that three times a

week. It's a progressive overload program. So I'm lifting heavier and heavier weights as the six weeks of each set of the program progress. And I feel great, you know, I just I love it. I feel more in my body. I feel stronger. I feel like I'm protecting my body in new ways. And I feel like it's one thing

that I can be doing to protect my bone health later on, and my muscle health. Muscle sarcopenia is the loss of muscle, and that happens to women once we hit midlife and we have control over doing something about that. And so lifting weights really important. I love Pilates. I do a certain style of Pilates that

I just I love because it's fun, and I also think it's just good for all those small muscle groups, you know that, like, keep your core really tight. It helps me prevent back pain. But I also think it's really important that in this conversation we are all having now about the importance of

lifting weights, that we don't forget cardio, our walks and our you know, I live in Colorado, where I hike oftentimes and with friends, and I just that is really important, because as women, when we are pumping our heart, it is keeping The vessels in our hearts pliable, right? And when estrogen goes down,

those vessels can get stiff, and exercise pumping your heart muscle can keep them more pliable. So I think that's a big myth right now, is that it's weight training or bust. No cardio.

You gotta work that hard and you're really into HIIT training.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yes, that is something, admittedly, I can do better on, but I am starting to see even more research in terms of what sprint intervals can do for brain health and heart health, and also some body recomposition, because you can be doing the same workout you've been doing for, like, the last

five years, and once you hit perimenopause, man, body starts changing fat, and there's actually science behind why, because fat cells spit out some estrogen. And so we hold on to fat more in our midsection, say, or in other spots, because it's our body's genius way of trying to, let's keep that estrogen

train going, you know, because it's not good for us. And so hit can really help with some of those body recomp you know, that aspect of working out,

yeah, and there's so much data about it now, and thankfully, so many of the higher level menopause doctors are talking about the benefits of. Of high intensity interval training, which is amazing. I really appreciated the part of your book about lateral reading and fact checking and cutting

through the crap of the infobesity all of the information and the conflicting information. So tell us about your philosophy about that and what you learned. Yeah, so

Meghan Rabbit RD: I am really passionate about helping every woman. I think everyone listening to this podcast right now needs to understand that she can become a health journalist in her own world, and that it is crucial that you do so, because we are bombarded with information, much of which we

cannot trust. And as health journalists, what we do is we say, All right, we got to look at the source here. We got to vet the source. Who is this person? Are they qualified to be sharing the information they're they're sharing, and is there an ulterior motive here, you know, like maybe it is a doctor who is

wonderful. But are you telling me, and I'm totally making this up, but are you telling me that I need to be supplementing with vitamin C to look 10 years younger because you sell a vitamin C supplement Exactly. That's not to say

sales funnel here.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yes. It's not to say that there's not potentially some validity. But, man, I'm going to raise an eyebrow if the person telling me the advice is trying to sell me something that's going to help me with the advice she's sharing or he's sharing. So that's that's vetting sources, right?

But then we need to understand, just like when research comes out, what doctors do is they understand, is there a medical consensus, right? Or is this just one interesting study? But we need more studies like this to prove it out across larger populations and age groups, etc. And so you can do that with a

skill called lateral reading, which is exactly what you said. You open up a tab, you put it into a Google search, you know what information you're trying to find, and then you open up 10 more tabs and search that same thing, but from different sources and with different, slightly different search

question, right? So that you get a sense of what the consensus is. Is this information verified by major medical institutions? Can you find research yourself? Do you see multiple doctors who aren't trying to sell you something sharing the same sound advice? It's probably advice you could trust though, what most

experts will say is like, before you take this on as like gold, talk to your doctor about it. This advice seems legit. What do you think? And what do you think about how it applies to my health?

Is it appropriate for me?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yes, yes. Because you know, when you're not trained as a clinician, you might not know you need help. You need to know what you don't know, right? And so I think it is really hard to do, because we are just bombarded with information. As you say, we have this info BCD epidemic, we are

now bombarded with misinformation, in addition to just information overload, and that can be really tricky to suss out. And I think, yeah, it really is incumbent upon us to put on that journalistic hat and say I'm smart. I can do this, but I need a healthy sense of skepticism here before I take

this information as you know,

gold and please stop using chat GPT to diagnose and support your health. It's spitting out information that's just inaccurate, and unfortunately, the American government right now does not believe in science, right? They're denying everything. So it's really, really alarming,

and then we're getting a lot of misinformation that's very politicized. So we can, there's a podcast on that.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Unfortunately, we could, but there is a whole section too on in my book about how, how AI models are also sexist.

Oh, good. Can we talk about that? Because that was a red section and

Meghan Rabbit RD: racist, right? Because when you think about it, these, these llms, are pulling from information from the Internet, which is based on years of biased, racist, sexist information. And so I think it's a great point you bring up Tess, it's like, it's not that you shouldn't use these, chat,

these, you know, chat, GPT and these AI models. But really keep, keep the information that you receive, like, take it with a grain of salt, and fact check the information you cannot, you know, because these these models, actually hallucinate information sometimes. So if you say, Show me the evidence, show

me the peer reviewed research studies that prove what you're saying is right, they will send you a link that that isn't accurate, that doesn't even actually take you to the advice or the research study. They say it's saying that you're getting and so healthy doses skepticism really important. And actually,

a doctor I interviewed, not for the book, but recently said, use chat, GPT and other AI models to help you generate

questions versus Thank you. That is such a great piece of advice. I thought that was a

Meghan Rabbit RD: great tip. It's like that is a fantastic tip. Ship. And be really specific, I am a 47 year old woman, and here's what I'm experiencing, and I have my primary care physician appointment coming up when I'm this

ethnicity, and I have this medical Absolutely, but you know, let's actually, let's talk about assembling a good medical team. Because I loved your phrase, you get to hire and fire doctors,

Meghan Rabbit RD: yes, and it is, it is crucial that we do right. We need, we need our healthcare posse, and this becomes even more important in midlife, when we've got stuff that goes on right, we've got to be on top of our preventive healthcare screenings. We might have something on our skin that

we need a dermatologist for. We might if we know that our gynecologic history and history of hot flashes and menopause impacts our heart, then we might need a preventive cardiologist. So we need to take the reins and say, Okay, here's here's what I heard from doctors and multiple experts. Ask your girlfriends

who they see. Start there, pull 510, of your girlfriends, and say, who's your menopause specialist, who's your gynecologist, who's your cardiologist? Do you have a dermatologist you love? And start getting those appointments on the books. Start establishing with these doctors so that if an

issue comes up, you're already a patient.

Yes, this proactive approach is so key, and you've got to see, you've got to do your annual checkup. And I think over the age of, you know, 6570, it should be twice a year. What are your thoughts about that? So we catch things early?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, I mean, women in midlife are often at this really crucial window of opportunity that we don't take advantage of. I interviewed many doctors who have said we unfortunately in our healthcare system, neglect a woman in midlife, because once we're done baby making in our reproductive

years, and before we hit some of the years where those specialist appointments are needed, women just don't go to the doctor. And the sad and scary part about that is that if we're not going to the doctor in those crucial midlife years. That's when we're going to desperately need all the specialists later on,

because in midlife, a doctor can intervene in a way that prevents disease from happening later on. And so really take that in and say, okay, am I in midlife? Have I been neglecting my health? In what ways have I been neglecting my health? And don't judge yourself, but just say, All right, what are the preventive

screening tests I need? And am I on top of that? What are the doctor's visits like? When was the last time I had a skin exam for skin cancer? Yes, within a few years, which is super common, make that appointment. Get on the books. Get on the books for the fall. You know, for six months out from now,

just you'll feel better knowing it's on there.

But also any of the really top people, it takes that long to get an appointment, because they're very, very good. Like I said with my endocrinologist, it took nine months to get the appointment, and she was worth the wait, and then she took her time with me. It was extraordinary. One of the

best doctors I have ever seen in my life, but you got to get ahead of it, as you say, and get organized, and that's how you get in to see these amazing people. And I mean, I'm always looking for the best person in town, and I'm not settling for anything less, and I'm going to do my research, and I asked

around, you know, and so, you know, we've got to take our health in our own hands, which is what your book teaches so beautifully. One of the best parts about your book is how you teach us to show up for our doctor's visits and to be prepared. So talk us through that I loved when you said you

can't just dump symptoms on the doctor, organize things in order of priority and building a bridge between you and your doctor. So talk us through what your recommendations are with that after all the interviews you do, because it's such great information.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah, we used to live in a time when we could show up to our doctor's visit and trust that they had our backs. They had everything covered. We had continuity of care. My mother saw the same primary care physician for 30 years, her doctor knew her at her health I will not have that

same path, which makes it really important for me to come very prepared to every doctor visit. So what that means is, I think of it like you wouldn't show up to your accountant visit for tax time without your without the receipts. The receipts, the folder of you know, the information, all the tax

returns, all of it exactly. You come prepared because you want to make sure you make the most of that appointment. You have to do the same thing with your doctors, right? So one doctor said she's a primary care physician. She said, exactly as you say, come with that list of symptoms, organize them in order

of priority when it comes to how they are impacting your life, and then show the doctor the entire list and say something like this, I understand that we don't have two hours to talk, you know, for this appointment right now, my sense is we probably have 20 or 30 minutes. Here's everything I'm dealing

with. Here's what feels most important. What do you think? What can we cover today? And that just saying that builds a bridge between you and your clinician. It helps them know that you realize they don't have all the time in the world for this appointment, even if they want to spend two hours with

you, they can't, and it helps them take better care of you because you've come prepared. I would also add that another thing you you can very easily do is some prep before the appointment. Know what diseases run in your family, know your family medical history. I go into the questions to ask in

this book, because you need to be asking your living relatives what what runs in the family. So that you can answer these questions. You also need to know your own personal medical history. Luckily, with health portals, sometimes this, this is digitally available to us, but if it's not take some time,

write it down in a note app in your phone, in a notebook, like a physical notebook, when, when? If you're asked, like, did you have any major surgeries? Be able to say what those surgeries were and the year that it happened. You know, we have to come with this. Medications were on oftentimes, and supplements

were supplements. Thank you, people. Forget the supplements.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Just take a picture of your medicine cabinet or your supplement stack and just say, this is everything I'm taking. The doctor will look at that and be like, okay, thankfully, you know, it's not that is what can help you have the most productive conversation and an appointment, but you've

got to take some ownership and show up prepared.

I mean, we see this all the time where women are taking in way too much calcium. They've got it in their multi they're taking a calcium supplement, then their nutrition. I mean, and there's like, Whoa, hang on a second, it's out of balance with magnesium. And then, okay,

that's what's going on here. And then, you know, it's such a great example, because we're brainwashed into calcium, and it's very important. But if we take in more than we need, and it's not balanced with magnesium, it starts depositing in places it does not belong.

Meghan Rabbit RD: So you want to know you're fascinating? Yes. And a tip from my book, which I have used since, which too many people don't know, when it comes to supplements and supplements and drug interactions, our pharmacists at our local pharmacy are a wealth of knowledge. They have so much

training, and we are not using them. We oftentimes that they're just counting pills back there, and then we signed the No, thanks. I don't need any you know counseling about this drug, but you can show up to your local pharmacist and say, Hey, can you take a look at all these supplements I'm taking, as well

as the prescriptions I'm taking, and also, here's the food that I'm eating. Can you make sure everything looks okay? You don't need to wait for your primary care physician appointment to get that kind of, oftentimes life changing and even life saving information.

Thank really, it is such a great tip. My niece has an epi pen, and she, you know, can have an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts, and it was such a great reminder last week where she has never done this before, but she didn't ask for the first time ever, she was with a friend, and got sloppy,

and she ate something with peanuts, and, you know, we just said, straight away, go to the pharmacy right up the road, and then their first aid train, they'll be able to, you know, give you an antihistamine while we wait for the doctor, right? And we're just not utilizing our pharmacists enough, and they are

such an extraordinary wealth of information. So thank you so much for including that in the book. How can we be part of this movement of making sure that there is more data about women's health?

Meghan Rabbit RD: We can join research studies. Thank you that part of your book. I love talking about this because I am. I'm a health journalist and a women's health journalist who has said for years, it is so messed up that we have been understudied, and that research on US has been underfunded. And

as you started this with one of those statistics, it wasn't until 1993 that women were required to be in government funded research here in this country. And so it is absolutely shocking and horrifying, and we can each take part in trying to right the wrongs of the past. If we want what's better for our

nieces, for our daughters, for our granddaughters, we need to take part in the research. And so I have joined studies. I am always on the lookout for studies that I can join that work. For me, you know, I joined a study called The Wisdom study out of Northern California, which just looks at breast

health and who develops breast cancer over time. And so I upload my annual mammogram, I will upload my breast MRI results to the portal. And I think what a lot of women need to know is that oftentimes joining these studies comes along with some perks. So as part of that study, I got a

whole genetic panel. Yeah, this would have cost me like $1,500 to understand what my what my gene variants were and so, yeah, it's. Be remarkable. I just interviewed a researcher here in Colorado who is doing a study on adverse childhood events and how that can impact menopause symptoms. Super fascinating.

Wow. But what comes along with that research is not only you providing information about the childhood trauma you might have experienced and what your menopause symptoms are like, but it comes along with like mind. Body therapy, so you get all of this free care and new tools to help you deal with some of that

trauma that might have might be unresolved, you know, absolutely and

access to practitioners that are on the forefront of the next thing in health. I mean, I think it's exciting to be able to get access to this high level, world class practitioner. I've been involved in studies, and I'm telling you,

Meghan Rabbit RD: it is good. It's cool, right? And the other thing is that oftentimes, to qualify for studies, researchers will say, Oh, well, we've got to get your, you know, cholesterol numbers in check. And so you get free care. You get free help when it comes to health markers that then make you eligible for

certain studies. And so it's just this way that you can think about helping yourself and helping future generations of women. And it is something you know, keep it on your radar. I'm telling you, once it's on your radar, you're going to start to hear about studies that you may qualify for and sign up if you

can.

Oh, it's such a great tip. And then you know that the call to action in your book is, as I said, being engaged, being informed. But I really loved the section about talking to other women, talking to the women in your family, talking to your daughters and granddaughters. How are you

talking to your nieces and the other women in your life differently after, after writing this book, yeah,

Meghan Rabbit RD: I feel newly like an open book. You know, I say the word vulva and clitoris when my nieces are I want to be aunt Maggie, who they can call and talk to about their bodies and what's going on. And I, and they know I'm not a doctor, and they know that I know as a journalist, where to find the

information they need so that they can ask their doctors better questions, right? This is particularly relevant to my older niece, who is in grad school right now. You know, she's 23 years old and, and it's like, gosh, you know, calls me wondering about, like, what questions she should ask about

if she needs her birth control to change, right? And it's like, I I really feel like we need to talk about what's going on with ourselves in ways that are specific. My mother, God, bless her. She I asked her about her menopause experience, and she said, You know, I feel like I felt a little blue every so

often, and I had 15 other questions. What does that mean? Were you depressed? Were you anxious? How did that look for you? You said you had a couple night sweats. But what does a couple mean? And like, let's get more granular here, because that is what my doctor is going to need when, when she asks me what

my mother's menopause was like. And so I think, I think when we talk in honest and open terms about what we're going through, it helps take away all the stigma. It helps us have these just really, real conversations that are going to help us collectively,

and also the recognition that discomfort and symptoms does not mean failure. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you, doesn't mean that you need to be fixed. Yeah, I actually think of it as being opened in new ways.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Oh, yeah, and clued into ourselves, a new

clued in is a phrase you use a lot. I love it.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Yeah. It's like we are worth clueing in. Can you take a moment, take a deep breath and just say, What do? What am I feeling in this moment? You know, what? What are my aches and pains trying to tell me? Do I need to take a break? Am I stressed? Is my back feeling cranky? Because I'm not.

I need a good cry. You know, it might sound a little woo, woo when I say this, but, but, yeah, all of our systems are so interconnected. And if we are just powering through and trying to be the straight A student, the, you know, the good girl who doesn't complain, we are really not doing ourselves a service.

Oh, I could talk to you about this all day long. I hope the follow up book that you write is a compendium of all the extraordinary articles of service that you have written over the years for some of the biggest publications in the world. I have read many of them, and I will continue to be a

super fan of yours as you continue to be a service journalist, and it is so needed to demystify women's health and bring some of these new things to the fore. So thank you so much for this time. I always close every episode with the same question, which is, and I'll ask it within the context

of this conversation, for a woman who. Dear listener who has health issues knows that there's a better a better you inside, a better her inside, and doesn't feel like she has the information and resources to achieve better health and feel better. What would you say?

Meghan Rabbit RD: Listen to your body. Listen to what's happening, get curious about what's happening, and know that you are worth talking to someone, talking to an expert, about those symptoms, about whatever you're going through. Because when you can put, put a name to it, when you can drop

the shame, when you can drop, oh gosh, all of the all of the things that have told us not to speak up, and when we actually speak up, it opens up new worlds, you know, and and if you don't feel respected and seen and heard, when you do speak up, find someone else who who listens and who sees you and who

cares to at least listen, even if they don't have all the answers. Who can listen to you with an open mind, an open heart and say, Okay, I don't know, but let's work on this together. Bring you're worth it.

Billy McLean, yes,

Meghan Rabbit RD: you are worth it. It is your life. This is your one precious life and your one body, and if you are doing what you can to take care of yourself, you deserve, you know, speaking up to the people who are charged with taking care of you to to help us, right? We're worth it.

Ah, isn't that a great place to end this conversation for today, and there will be others. Thank you so much for the way that you show up in the world and for this glorious offering with this incredible book. What a service.

Meghan Rabbit RD: Tess, thank you so much. I could talk to you for so many more hours about this. I love talking about health, and I really do feel like it was you said, it was this book was a labor of love, and that is what it felt like to me. It was definitely a labor but, but I love, I love the

thought that women are going to have the education we need and the language we need to talk about our bodies and our health and our symptoms in new and more specific ways. And so if I help one woman in working on this project, I will feel happy.

Oh, well, you've already helped more than one woman, and one woman's going to tell the next woman and the next one and the next one. So it really is the gift that keeps on giving. So again, thank you. Thanks. Tess.