

The Hotflash inc podcast
Hotflash inc
Hotflash inc is an evidence, expert and human-experience driven podcast looking for the true truth in perimenopause, menopause and beyond. In more than 100 episodes menopause and midlife journalist and host Ann Marie McQueen has spoken to a wide range of experts from around the globe, including practitioners, activists, researchers, doctors and industry leaders about this perplexing transition we still know too little about. She’s talked about her own frustrations and personal experiences. And she has connected with a perimenoposse of powerful women in the midst of a perplexing transition.Hotflash inc is among the top 1.5 percent of podcasts in the world according to Listen Notes. It was named the number one podcast in women’s health in August 2023 by GOODPODS.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 18, 2022 • 27min
19. SOLO: This is not a effing syndrome
Send us a textAnn Marie talks about perimenopause depression, "female hormone deficiency syndrome with health risks"; taking Hotflash Inc to the streets and a weird dream where her cat Ninja Jr changed colour.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Mar 12, 2022 • 29min
18. SOLO: Hang in there and follow Will Smith
Send us a textTRIGGER WARNING: Suicide and suicide ideation. If you are feeling suicidal, please tell someone, reach out to your local suicide hotline or contact a licensed therapist. This podcast talks about a story I came across in a Norwich, England paper called the Eastern Daily Press Victoria Metcalf-Smith, a solicitor and mother of three who took her own life in April 2021.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Mar 6, 2022 • 27min
17. SOLO: The ruckus
Send us a textI'm journalist and Hotflash Inc founder Ann Marie McQueen and this is my first solo episode. Think of it like MTV Unplugged (GenX, I see you)... stripped down, bell-and-whistle-less. Just me in a hotel room in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, overstaying my late checkout and wondering about the world and our perimenoposse place in it.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Feb 25, 2022 • 44min
16. Amy Schmidt thinks its better to be real
Send us a textAmy Schmidt lost herself in her 40s – as so many of us do – and if she can find her confidence again, you can too.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Feb 18, 2022 • 44min
15. MK Czerwiec wants you to draw it out
Send us a textMK Czerwiec is a nurse and graphic artist (hence her handle, Comic Nurse) who edited 2020’s Menopause: A Comic Treatment. The book went on to be named on the New York Times’ year-end list of the best graphic novels and won two Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, including one for best anthology. MK talks all about Graphic Medicine, an emerging field that uses comics to enhance medical education and patient care and help people process trauma and painful experiences. MK is also going through menopause, and she's very interested in finding ways to deal with hot flashes and some of the other symptoms we experience. And stay tuned, because near the end of the podcast she offers one of the best tips I’ve heard for creatively making a plan that we can turn to in our hardest, darkest times.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Feb 11, 2022 • 1h 7min
14. Dr Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz has no time for "either or"
Send us a textDr Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz is an obstetrician-gynecologist practicing in Beverly Hills, California who is passionate about integrative women’s health and has a book on menopause coming out in October.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Feb 4, 2022 • 56min
13. Andrea Donsky wants you to follow the research
Send us a textThis episode and all of season 1 is sponsored by Become clothing.Themes: seed oils, nutrition, hot flashes, supplements, perimenopause, menopause, processed foods, nutrition, insulin resistanceSummary: Andrea Donsky is a registered holistic nutritionist, entrepreneur and television personality based in Toronto; co-founder of naturallysavvy.com and new company called Morphus, which is all about menopause supplements. We talk about how to approach menopause via diet, lifestyle and supplements, what her menopause experience was like, and how much better life can be when you do some work on yourself through this transition. Highlights:•her own menopause experience (4.45)•how she dealt with horrid hot flashes without HRT (8.45)•why you need to be careful with menopause supplements (11.10)•why you need a trusted wellness team - even if it's online (15.30)•how exactly to switch up nutrition to lesson symptoms (17.45)•the problem with seed oils (22.00)•what foods can help and hinder during perimenopause (27.20)•insulin resistance + menopausal weight gain (28.30)•see a doctor even if it’s a known perimenopause symptom (31.25)•the weirdest perimenopause symptoms (33.00)•signs you are deficient in this important mineral (33.45)•why this is so much more than a physical transition (47.45)Where to find Andrea:TikTok: @Andrea DonskyInstagram: @wearemorphus @naturallysavvyWeb: Naturallysavvy.comPodcast: Morphus for Menopause; Naturally Savvy SPONSORS: Become anti-flush cooling clothing | Use code HOTFLASHINC to get a 20 percent discount.The Ritual by Pure | Use code HOTFLASH to get the first month free.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Jan 28, 2022 • 53min
12. Dr Jerilynn Prior wants you to think about progesterone, too
Send us a textThis episode and all of Season 1 are sponsored by Become clothing. Themes: Progesterone, perimenopause, hot flashes, anxiety, sore breasts, sleep, estrogen, HRT Summary: Dr Jerilynn Prior is a professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of British Columbia. She also runs CEMCOR, the Center For Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research. Dr Prior has been prescribing progesterone for postmenopausal women and perimenopausal women to treat hot flashes, night sweats, heavy flow, and sore breasts for over 25 years. She has conducted and published research showing that progesterone is an effective treatment for menopausal hot flashes and night sweats. She also wrote a novel to help illuminate some of her findings called Estrogen’s Storm Season. You are going to hear a completely different set of views in this interview, so buckle up. Everything she says is deeply rooted in research, clinical practice and personal experience. Highlights:•Why Google’s explanation of the menstrual cycle is wrong (7.45)•What everyone gets wrong about our menstrual cycle (11.00)•How and why she came to focus on progesterone (15.58)•Why wildly swinging estrogen is the quintessential characteristic of perimenopause (18.20)•Why the narrow focus on estrogen and not progesterone is like “looking at the world through a straw” (23.00)•The data backing progesterone for severe hot flashes and night sweats and sleep in menopause (25.00)•Estrogen is addictive; progesterone is not (29.00)•The relationship between marketing, menopause and academia (30.50)•How to talk to your doctor about progesterone (32.30)•One way to figure out if your estrogen levels are high (34.50)•Is HRT safe… and do we need it regardless of symptoms? (41.25)•Does HRT prevent osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and dementia? (43.00) •Why the resistance to progesterone isn’t scientific (45.45) Where to find Dr Prior’s work:Web: CeMCORYoutube: CeMCORFacebook: Cemcor.research SPONSORS: Become anti-flush cooling clothing | Use code HOTFLASHINC to get a 20 percent discount. The Ritual by Pure | Use code HOTFLASH to get the first month free. Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Jan 22, 2022 • 57min
11. Carmen Stansberry tires of medical turf wars
Send us a textThis episode and all of Season 1 are sponsored by Become clothing.Themes: FDA, HRT, toxins, menopause, perimenopauseSummary: Carmen Stansberry is a nurse practitioner living in San Francisco, California posting to Instagram under the handle Wits and Wellness. I wanted to speak to Carmen because she is so knowledgeable about so many things that impact our care and our health during perimenopause – and not just in the US. She talks a lot about how the for-profit, insurance-based model of health care in the US impacts everything from the FDA approval process to what clinical studies are done to the guidelines doctors use to the screening tests your insurance covers. As a nurse practitioner, Carmen prescribes HRT and she shares her expertise on using bioidentical versions and other advice she gives her patients. She’s also a huge advocate of awareness about the amount of toxins in our environment, whether it’s everyday plastics or the skincare products we use. Highlights:•How the for-profit system impacts health care and why we need to ask questions (4.30)•Why compounding pharmacies are demonized (9.30)•Why you need to pay attention to your Vitamin D (14.00)•How the turf war between conventional and functional medicine impacts women (15.30)•The underlying problems we need to watch out for in perimenopause (25.45)•Her mode of prescribing HRT (28.30)•Back to compounding pharmacies! (36.00)•How hormone-mimicking toxins in our products are making peri/menopause worse (40.00•Life changes you might need to make to ease your peri/menopause transition (43.00)Where to find Carmen:Instagram: @witsandwellnessWeb: The Advanced PracticeSPONSORS: Become anti-flush cooling clothing | Use code HOTFLASHINC to get a 20 percent discount. The Ritual by Pure | Use code HOTFLASH to get the first month free.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Jan 14, 2022 • 42min
10. Dr Neal Barnard is a soy man
Send us a textThis episode and all of season 1 is sponsored by Become clothing.Themes: soy, menopause, HRT, insulin resistance, fat, diet, hot flashesSummary: Dr Neal Barnard is an adjunct professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.He has led an array of important research into the effects of diet on diabetes, body weight, and chronic pain, including work on dietary interventions for Type 2 diabetes. He’s written 100 scientific publications as well as 20 books, including his most recent, Your Body in Balance. He also led a study that was published last year in Menopause, the Journal of the North American Medical Society, which found that eating a soy-rich, all-vegetable diet dramatically cut down on hot flashes and several other menopause symptoms. He is currently replicating that study, which is a big part of the process of scientific inquiry. Dr Barnard explains why diet plays such a major role in the peri/menopause transition, how to make the right changes to go vegan, the problem with fat, as well as provides insight into HRT, genetics, Alzheimer’s and dementia and more. Highlights:•Why we can manipulate hormones by how we eat (3.45)•How menopause is different in Japan (4.45)•The research-driven truth about soy (6.10)•The inside scoop on his “soybean salad” study (9.20)•Reaction to the findings (12.15)•Assessing HRT risks and how to mitigate them (17.30)•There’s a reason we have menopause (20.45)•Dr Barnard’s recipe for plant-based eating (24.24)•Why menopause doesn’t really cause weight gain (26.44)•Fat and insulin resistance (27.55)•Why does everyone push good fats? (31.45)•HRT, diet, genetics, Alzheimer’s + dementia (33.00)•What about vegan-ish? (35.00)•Help for other symptoms (37.00)Where to find Dr Barnard:Website: PCRM.orgInstagram: @physicianscommitteeTwitter: @PCRMSPONSORS: Become anti-flush cooling clothing | Use code HOTFLASHINC to get a 20 percent discount.The Ritual by Pure | Use code HOTFLASH to get the first month free.Join the Hotflash inc perimenoposse: Web: hotflashinc.comNewsletter: Hotflash inc. on SubstackTikTok: @hotflashincInstagram: @hotflashincX: @hotflashinc Episode website: Hotflashinc Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Substack See hotflashinc.com/privacy-policy for privacy information