The Hotflash inc podcast

🌿 We start The Peri/Menopause Game Plan Monday, November 16. Six live sessions over four weeks. Get clear on what's happening and what you want to do. Save your spot →
🔥 The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy is a clear and comprehensive guide to the entire landscape of options, so you can make your best decision without FOMO or fear. Get The Hot Truth →
Or grab my free Fix It Fast Perimenopause List for quick, practical non-hormonal relief options. Or cover all your bases and get both!
Recently we found out Martha Stewart has been on hormone therapy since she was 42. She’s 85 now, and within days social media had turned her existence into evidence: Look at her. What are you waiting for? In this mini episode I explain why that message bothered me so much. Partly it’s the copy-paste sameness of the posts. Mostly it’s what they leave out, like the healthy user bias. That bias muddies so much of the observational research on hormone therapy.
Then I tell the other half of the story. British host and presenter Davina McCall, the UK’s menopause queen and the face of “The Davina Effect”, has been on hormone therapy since her early 40s, and in her 2022 book she wrote that she was taking it for the health benefits too. Since then she’s been through brain surgery, breast cancer treatment and, this month, a cardiovascular disease diagnosis. Nobody is holding her up and saying “look at her”.
This isn’t an episode for or against hormone therapy. It’s about how much any one woman’s story can really tell you, and finishing a few of the unfinished sentences in the menopause conversation. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or comment “STORY” and I’ll send you the link.
Highlights
00:03 – Martha Stewart: 40+ years on estrogen
01:59 – The suspiciously similar “what are you waiting for?” posts
04:21 – Healthy user bias, explained
06:22 – The Davina Effect and her 2022 book
08:44 – Davina on breast cancer as “Mrs. Hormone Therapy”
09:09 – Her cardiovascular disease announcement
10:43 – Why “look at her” tells you so little
Quotable
“No way would you say that hormone therapy caused any of Davina McCall’s problems. She’s 59 years old, she’s on hormone therapy, but one thing we can say for sure is that it didn’t prevent any of them.”
– Ann Marie McQueen, journalist and founder of Hotflash inc
Mentioned in this episode
Martha Stewart’s interview with the New York Post
Menopausing by Davina McCall with Dr. Naomi Potter (2022)
Davina McCall on Paloma Faith’s podcast
Jane Hardwicke Collings, Hotflash inc Summit 2025
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 Peri/Menopause Game Plan starts November 16
Everything I’ve learned about perimenopause in one live, four-week experience. It’s practical and balanced, it doesn’t take sides, and it’s designed so you leave with your own plan. There are six sessions on Zoom, Mondays and Thursdays at noon ET, from November 16 to December 7, with no session on American Thanksgiving. You also get resource sheets, a WhatsApp community, a member portal with replays the day after each session, and special guests. It’s a small group, so spots are limited.
👉 Details at https://go.hotflashinc.com/-perimenopausegameplan
This is six things I wish someone had told me in perimenopause. Any of them can really mess up this stage of life, and honestly, a few of them are still messing with mine. I talk about the phone you reach for before your feet hit the floor, and the fun thing everyone’s going to be mad at me for bringing up.
This is a big-sister conversation for women before, during and after menopause, and for anyone who cares for them. Let me know in the comments how this landed – and if you have any additions.
Quotable
“Hormones aren’t the root cause of this, even though they prompt it. The recession of hormones reveals what’s going on.”
– Ann Marie McQueen, journalist and founder of Hotflash inc
Mentioned in this episode
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski (2019)
Dr. Annice Mukherjee, endocrinologist and past Hotflash inc guest
The Hot Truth About Hormone Therapy: Substack
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.

🌿 Be first to find out about the Peri/Menopause Game Plan. My new live experience is coming very soon. Get on the list and you’ll hear about it before anyone else. Join the list →
🔥 Missed the Hotflash inc Summit 2026? Catch up on all 22 sessions with the All Access Pass. Get your All Access Pass →
📘 Want the condensed version? The Hotflash inc Summit 2026 Book of Knowledge has every tool, tip and takeaway from each session, plus all the studies referenced and the best quotes. Order the Book of Knowledge →
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.