Rewriting Midlife: Hormones, Menopause & Sexual Health with Dr. Kelly Casperson | HFYH #131

**Kelly Casperson** (0:00)
People think, like, we should not replace our hormones. We get glasses, we get hearing aids, we replace teeth, we replace heart valves, you replace hips. So it is absolutely insanity to tell women to do this one piece of living naturally. I am not here to tell you to go on hormones. That's your life. But I care deeply that you are educated, you are informed, and you know how to advocate when you make the decision that hormones are for you.

**Vonda Wright** (0:23)
Hi, I'm Dr. Vonda Wright, and this is HOT For Your Health. Join us for conversations on the bleeding edge of science, health, and culture as we bring you tech innovators, thought leaders, and the movers and shakers who are transforming science fiction into your new health reality.
All right, everybody out listening to HOT For Your Health. I'm really excited about today because I'm joined again by colleague, but more importantly, deep friend, whom, believe it or not, people, I talk to Dr. Kelly Casperson every single day. And it's one of the- Ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha.

**Kelly Casperson** (1:09)
Ha-ha.

**Vonda Wright** (1:10)
I get to talk to Dr. Casperson. And today we're gonna talk about something I am very proud of. It is her second book, The Menopause Moment, because I have previously spoken to you about her previous book, which is all about human and female sexuality. You are not broken. Every stage I'm on, I'm like, and here are your resources. Estrogen Matters, The New Menopause, you are not broken. It's a standard, Dr. Kelly Casperson. But just for those of you who have not listened to me before, Dr. Kelly Casperson is a board-certified urologist, a leader in the national conversation on women's health, women's sexuality, and in particular, in the lane of testosterone, where we both went to the FDA last month to try to change the way women age in this country by including a conversation that is meaningful around hormones. So Dr. Casperson, thank you for coming back.

**Kelly Casperson** (2:19)
Thanks for having me. Pleasure to always, always a pleasure to hang out, man.

**Vonda Wright** (2:23)
It is. It is. And we're doing a lot of it lately, which I'm very happy about, by the way. Well, I want to know, well, number one, this is out this week. The week this podcast drops, this will be live, although it's available for presale.
Why this book? Why this time? Yeah.

**Kelly Casperson** (2:44)
Well, the publishers of You Are Not Broken, You Are Not Broken did really well and people love it. And it's like, as you know, somebody who's written books, it's my first baby. And the publishers were like, will you write another book about sex? And I'm like, I've kind of said everything I kind of want to say about sex right now. Like, we got to just get that out to the people. But I'm like, you know what?
We aren't moving the conversation fast enough on hormones and menopause and midlife, and I want to write a menopause book. And they're like, great, write that. And then these people are like, can I talk to you about how to write a book? And I'm like, no, because my journey is probably not normal. I'm just like, hey, publisher, I want to write a book about menopause. And they're like, okay. So I'm like, that's not, yeah, individual results may vary on your own individual publisher. But I really wanted to write the 2 book, because I think the 101 books are out there and they're fantastic. And I wanted to write a book that wasn't ask your doctor if this is right for you, right? Because I think where we are nationally now, the women have more knowledge. They know the WI is bunk, WHI was bunk. They know that hormones are preventative medicine when you started early. And so it's like you can't tell them to go to the doctor and ask if it's right for you anymore, like all the pharma commercials do, right? So I'm like, I want to give you the data so that you understand the receipts of why we're out here, saying, oh my God, why is nobody paying attention to the hormones our bodies naturally make and just giving you back what our body naturally made. So that's the book. And I also wanted to include like, hormones aren't everything. Bricks build a house, but they don't make a home.

**Vonda Wright** (4:17)
Oh my goodness, yes.

**Kelly Casperson** (4:19)
So I put in a chapter about stop drinking alcohol. I put in a chapter about mindset. I put in a chapter about protein and weights. I put in a chapter about how to talk to men. It's a very short chapter. Just tell them, it's like the testicles fell off. And then they're like, okay, got it. So that's a short chapter, a chapter about how to talk to your doctor. So it's really like a kind of a toolkit more than just like estrogen, testosterone, progesterone is good.