Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone: The Science of Hormones, Sexual Function, and Menopause
5/5/20261 hr 25 min
In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Tami Rowen, an obstetrician, gynecologist, and leading gynecologic surgeon at the University of California San Francisco, and an internationally recognized expert in sexual health and sexual medicine. Together they get precise about some of the most misunderstood terrain in women's health: estrogen, progesterone, progestins, and testosterone for women, what they actually do in the body, how the confusion around them began, and what becomes possible for women when care is evidence-based and not fear-based. Dr. Rowen opens with something most women have never been told: that contraceptive estrogen and menopausal estrogen are fundamentally different molecules with different goals, different mechanisms, and different effects on the body. She walks through why ethinyl estradiol, the synthetic estrogen in most birth control pills, binds to the estrogen receptor 300 times more strongly than natural estradiol, why that matters for everything from blood clotting to testosterone levels to bone density, and why modern contraception is still valuable and worth defending even as we get more precise about how it works. Guest links: Dr. Tami Rowen (UCSF Health) Dr. Tami Rowen (ISSWSH)Dr. Tami Rowen (Instagram) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clips
Showing 10 of 12Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTami Rowen· Guest0:00
Testosterone levels don't fall off a cliff in menopause. We need to be really honest about that. They actually start to decline in your 30s. They have a slow decline in your 40s, and the year before and the year after menopause, your body isn't like, "Oh, I suddenly don't have testosterone anymore." It's been low for a while. And so I don't think it's wrong ever to give testosterone, but I don't think we say, "Well, because now we're in menopause, we're not making testosterone." That's not actually physiologic.
Mary Claire Haver· Host0:23
Yeah.
Tami Rowen· Guest0:23
You know? It's a therapy.
Mary Claire Haver· Host0:25
[upbeat music] The views and opinions expressed on Unpaused are those of the talent and guests alone, and are provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. No part of this podcast or any related materials are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. One of the most persistent problems in women's healthcare is that we've taken some of the most complex, intimate parts of women's lives, her hormones, sexuality, pleasure, pain, and identity, and either oversimplified them or avoided them altogether. Today's guest is someone who has spent her career doing the exact opposite. Dr. Tammy Rowan is an obstetrician-gynecologist and leading gynecologic surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, and an internationally recognized expert in sexual health. Her work sits at the intersection of hormones, anatomy,