Dr. Mary Claire Haver

our listeners, especially younger listeners who are like, is this, you know, oh my God, I don't want to get older.

This sounds terrible.

But I think if you know, then you can prepare yourself and you're not so blindsided when you start having symptoms.

So women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or depression.

And so when I looked at the data on SSRI prescription

you know, use.

So that's a marker for how many women have depression or anxiety because these are the medications we use to treat.

We have about a 10% use before perimenopause.

And then we double that.

Now, part of that is because a lot of practitioners are not comfortable prescribing hormone therapy and will default to giving a patient an SSRI to treat a hot flash and to treat vasomotor symptoms.

But we do see a doubling.

So we go from 10 to 20%.

after age 40, and then we go to 25% at age 65.

And then women are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's, three times more likely to develop an autoimmune disorder, including those that attack the brain.

And multiple sclerosis.

Including multiple sclerosis.

Four times more likely to suffer from migraines or headaches.

Yes.

And then more likely to actually be killed by a stroke after menopause.

And that's a ratio that's two to one or even higher.