The Hotflash inc podcast

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Your heart health starts BEFORE your first period! An exciting new framework for women's health changes the game.
I wasn’t planning to come back to the podcast just yet, but this news was too big to sit on. Four major US medical organizations have just published three coordinated papers in Circulation: the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, ACOG and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Together they lay out a new framework for cardiovascular health in girls and women. Right in the middle of it are puberty, periods and perimenopause, now formally named as cardiovascular life stages.
In this solo episode, I walk through the four stages of the framework and why pregnancy is treated as a “cardiovascular stress test”. I explain why your menstrual cycle is now being called a vital sign. Then I get to the part everyone wants to know about: what this means for hormone therapy. Short answer: it’s not all about the estrogen.
This is joined-up, life-course thinking in women’s health, and it’s about damn time. I’m also kicking off a new run of shorter solo episodes, where I pull together what I’ve learned from more than 300 expert interviews, the research, and all of you. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Highlights
02:44 – Periods and perimenopause as cardiovascular stages
03:37 – The four stages of the new framework
04:09 – Pregnancy as a cardiovascular stress test
04:30 – How medicine splits us into parts
05:30 – The clues have been there for decades
05:57 – Your period is a vital sign
06:35 – Anovulatory cycles and missing progesterone
07:09 – Heavy bleeding, iron and long-term health
07:39 – Preeclampsia, early menopause and risk
08:09 – Hormone therapy is not a magic pill
09:10 – What cardiologist Dr. Kathryn Lindley told me
09:41 – My own cardiologist’s surprising answer
10:51 – Treating symptoms versus preventing heart disease
13:52 – Why it’s almost never just one thing
Keywords: women's cardiovascular health, perimenopause, menopause, menstrual cycles, hormone therapy, cardiovascular disease, pregnancy complications, life course medicine

Connect with Hotflash inc
TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause
Instagram: @hotflashinc
X: @hotflashinc
YOUTUBE @hotflashinc
Facebook: @hotflashinc
LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen
Disclaimer
This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

🌿 THE HOTFLASH INC SUMMIT IS COMING BACK IN SEPTEMBER! Get on the newsletter to be the first to hear, so you can sign up the moment doors open. You do not want to miss this year. Get on the newsletter → here.

This was one of my favourite talks from last year's inaugural Hotflash Inc Summit, recorded back in mid-2025. My guest is Dr. Roxanne Prichard, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of St. Thomas, where she's built a career studying the science of sleep and mental health. She's designed popular courses on sleep and dreaming, led workshops for college professionals on sleep, and served on the NCAA Taskforce for Sleep and Well-being. Her TEDx talk, Addressing Our Children's Sleep Debt, was featured in the lecture series Transforming Education, and her research has been covered by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue, and USA Today, among others. What makes this conversation so special is that Roxanne is a true scholar of sleep.

Highlights
02:57 – Why women sacrifice sleep more than men
04:44 – The biopsychosocial model behind perimenopause sleep loss 05:52 – The three most common sleep changes in menopause
08:18 – Sleep apnea isn't just a "men's disease" — and it's underdiagnosed in women
09:02 – How to test for sleep apnea from home
11:13 – What parasomnias are and why they happen
12:30 – The dementia risk of untreated sleep apnea
13:25 – The history (and risk) of sleep medications, from barbiturates to benzos
16:14 – The melatonin problem
19:04 – The science of morning light and your circadian rhythm
20:36 – How your circadian rhythm controls half your genes
20:54 – Roxanne's number one sleep tip for perimenopause
21:58 – The truth about sleep trackers, wearables, and "orthosomnia" 25:21 – What the research says about hormone therapy and sleep
30:27 – Reframing sleep as resistance
32:15 – Roxanne's parting wish for every woman listening

For more from Dr. Roxanne Prichard:
TEDx Talk, Addressing Our Children's Sleep Debt
Ms. Magazine, Sleep Is a Feminist Issue: Why Women's Rest Is Political LinkedIn: Roxanne Prichard

Connect with Hotflash inc TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause
Instagram: @hotflashinc
X: @hotflashinc
YOUTUBE @hotflashinc
Facebook: @hotflashinc
LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen

Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

THE HOTFLASH INC SUMMIT IS COMING BACK IN SEPTEMBER! Watch this space, get on the newsletter, or follow us on socials to find out more. This is one of our most popular talks from last year's inaugural event, recorded in mid-2025.

Dr. Aviva Romm is a Yale-trained MD, board-certified family physician, and world-renowned midwife and herbalist who's spent four decades studying women's health from every angle – obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, and integrative medicine. She's a longtime home birth pioneer and birth activist, and the bestselling author of Hormone Intelligence (2021), who has never been afraid to challenge the status quo in medicine. In this conversation, recorded for the very first Hotflash inc Summit in September/October 2025, she brings all of it – the decades of clinical experience and the humility of living through this transition herself.

It's easy to see why people who attended the summit online loved this interview so much: Dr. Romm doesn't do fear-based menopause content, and she doesn't do "just take the hormones and move on" either. She does nuance – which is exactly what this moment needs.

Highlights
03:54 – Why nature gets left out of the menopause conversation
05:11 – The historical roots of dismissing women's bodies (and nature) 09:41 – Is hormone therapy the icing, or the cake?
10:36 – The three questions every woman should be asking herself
13:26 – Why so many of us never learned to ask them
14:31 – Should you take hormones to prevent future disease?
19:21 – The most overlooked fix: vaginal estrogen for recurrent UTIs
21:11 – The good, the bad, and the unregulated: herbalism and botanicals 25:04 – Yes, herbs can have side effects too
30:44 – "This is the third way"
30:57 – What the research actually says on pine bark extract
31:42 – Her go-to herbs for sleep and hot flashes
38:13 – Where are the midwives and nurse practitioners in this conversation?
40:24 – The"alarming" entry of GLP-1s into menopause care
48:53 – It's not just pharma – the whole wellness industry sells fear
50:16 – Why checking your hormone labs in perimenopause is often pointless
57:57 – Fear as a marketing tactic

Connect with Dr. Aviva Romm
Website: avivaromm.com
Instagram: @dr.avivaromm
Facebook: @AvivaRommMD
X: @avivaromm

Connect with Hotflash inc
TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause
Instagram: @hotflashinc
X: @hotflashinc
YOUTUBE @hotflashinc
Facebook: @hotflashinc
LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen

Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

🌿 The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy — I mapped what's actually happening in our bodies, the 12 different (and often conflicting) approaches to prescribing hormone therapy that are on offer – YES 12 – answered the tough questions, pointed out the gaps and so much more so YOU can feel good about what you decide and how you choose – or whether you even choose hormone therapy at all. Know why you are doing what you are doing – and get regular updates as things change. Find out more 👉 here
🔥 Free: The Fix-It-Fast Perimenopause List — And if hormone therapy definitely isn't for you, 👉 here is a really good list that will help you find some relief.

This week Ann Marie is going solo – and getting straight to the point. If you're going through perimenopause or menopause, she says, you have exactly one job. It's not losing the weight, fixing your hormones, saving your marriage, or finding the perfect supplement.

Ann Marie talks candidly about the health crisis that sent her looking for deeper answers and why she's suspicious of anyone – however well-meaning – who's selling a single fix for a complicated transition. It's a call to stop outsourcing the question of who you are, and start trusting what you already know.

Highlights
The blame-game buffet: hormones, gut, patriarchy, cortisol 
What if this decade is for questioning everything? 
Breaking down fear, shame, and expectations 
The real job (and it’s not fixing yourself) 
Wishing someone had told me THIS in my 40s 
Everyone’s selling their solution as THE solution 
The heroine’s journey: the descent, the meat hook, the dark night 
Your one job today 
Why it’s worth the trip to find out

Connect with Hotflash inc
TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause
Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc
YouTube: @hotflashinc
Facebook: @hotflashinc
LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen

Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.

🔥 The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy – get the guide that cuts through the noise on HRT

Simon Salt spent four years watching his wife get dismissed by doctors – told it was UTIs, bad diet, lack of sleep, anything but perimenopause — before she finally got a diagnosis. He spent another year and a half after that figuring out it wasn't happening to her, it was happening to both of them. Now he's a certified menopause coach and the writer behind The Quiet Transition, a publication helping men in midlife support their partners through peri- and post-menopause with actual empathy instead of good intentions and bad timing.

Highlights
8:29 – The slow erosion: loss of intimacy, and filling the silence with stories
18:20 – The yogurt tub story – and what those irritations really mean
22:46 – Renegotiating intimacy when what used to work stops working 29:00 – Simon's framework: sit, listen, believe
34:12 – Why releasing control is so hard — and so necessary
40:22 – The new wave of men writing about menopause, and what Simon makes of it
42:58 – "There is no man who doesn't know a woman going through this"

Quotable
"Perimenopause doesn't usually cause cracks in a relationship. It reveals them." – Simon Salt, certified menopause coach, The Quiet Transition

Connect with Simon Salt The Quiet Transition:
Substack: https://www.thequiettransition.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonsalt

Connect with Hotflash inc
TikTok: @hotflashinc.menopause Instagram: @hotflashinc X: @hotflashinc YOUTUBE @hotflashinc Facebook: @hotflashinc LinkedIn: Ann Marie McQueen

Disclaimer This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your treatment, supplements, or lifestyle.