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Oprah Winfrey (0:00)

Hi, there. Great to be with you here on the Oprah Podcast. Whether you are in perimenopause or menopause or postmenopause, so that means millions of you, I have the book for you. It's called The Book of Menopause. Real talk, real science, real strategies for your next chapter. And believe me, it's the next chapter. The editors at Oprah Daily have curated the most crucial information that we've all learned over the years about menopause from doctors and from psychologists and from all of the health experts.

Joining me in the tea house is the editorial director of Oprah Daily, Pilar Guzmán. Hello, Pilar.

Lisa Mosconi (0:47)

Hello.

Oprah Winfrey (0:48)

You and I know that any time we've talked about menopause on Oprah Daily, I mean, we were one of the first to start this conversation several years ago. I think the New York Times had done an article and then we did a whole conversation about it in the Hearst building in New York. And any time we talk about it, it actually becomes the most read content. Women are in real need of, I think, reliable information and also what we've seen from Oprah Daily in need of community. So what have you been hearing from women?

Pilar Guzmán (1:23)

I think the storytelling, the sharing of people's experiences has been this incredible accelerator. You know, there is the research, there is the journalism, there is the storytelling that we do as a brand, but then the women themselves talking to each other and talking to us and sharing their symptoms and sharing their experiences has been this incredible groundswell.

Oprah Winfrey (1:48)

Did you notice that there has been a moment of breakthrough when, like, there was before and now there's this moment where it seems that more women are open to talking about it?

Pilar Guzmán (2:04)

Absolutely, and I think it is not unlike the Me Too movement, where it takes a few brave souls to kind of break the ice and break the silence and normalize the conversation. I think part of it is that it's still, you know, very, felt very shameful for a really long time until recently. I mean, you're, you, 20 years ago when you went through menopause and tried to get people to come on the show, they wouldn't do it. And now.

Oprah Winfrey (2:27)

Nobody, particularly anybody famous, wanted to say they were going through it. Yeah.

Pilar Guzmán (2:31)

And so it's like a Naomi Watts who kind of, you know, broke the ice and then...

Oprah Winfrey (2:36)

Halle Berry.

Pilar Guzmán (2:37)

Halle Berry, exactly. Drew.

Oprah Winfrey (2:39)

Drew.

Pilar Guzmán (2:39)

Yeah.

Oprah Winfrey (2:40)

Yeah.

Pilar Guzmán (2:41)

And Maria Shriver and you and, you know, and then it gives people, it emboldens others to share their stories and to normalize it and to feel okay about it and not feel so alone.

Oprah Winfrey (2:52)

Yeah. Well, I share my own story in the book. I was around, so you can find my story in this book, Menopause, real talk, real science. And I was around 48 when I started experiencing heart palpitations and I went to, as I say in this book, I went to five different doctors, I mean, one after the other after the other, and none of them had answers. And it wasn't until I picked up a book at the office that I learned that what I was experiencing, I'd been having these heart palpitations and sleeplessness were indications of menopause. So, what was it like for you?

Pilar Guzmán (3:32)

Well, I didn't have heart palpitations, but I had sleepless nights. I was, my mind was racing. I had more than usual anxiety. I'm a little prone to anxiety, but it was more than normal.

And I went to the doctor, and I have a wonderful OBGYN, who I really trust, delivered both my children, and she said, oh, let's do, let's, you know, your levels are fine. We did the bloods and the levels were fine, but I said, no, I pushed back, and I got hormones, but I think a lot of women don't feel brave enough to sort of push back against the, you know, the advice of their doctors. And I think she has even changed her tune in the last few years since that first visit, when I first came to her about that. But I think about all the women who don't feel emboldened to say, wait a minute.

Oprah Winfrey (4:22)

Yeah, the moment their doctors say, no, you shouldn't, which I've had doctors who said, no, you shouldn't do hormones, the moment you hear that, you're just like, oh, OK, OK. Well, women spend 41%, that's nearly half of their lives, in the post-reproductive state, you all. And even though, I have to say, I've been talking and talking and talking about this for a few years now, there's still so much that you all don't know, that a lot of people don't know. And why do you think that is?