unPAUSED with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

The Truth About Estrogen: What the Women's Health Initiative Got Wrong with Dr. Avrum Bluming & Dr. Carol Tavris

21 Oct 2025

Audio

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What if the biggest health study in history got it wrong and millions of women paid the price? In this premiere episode of “unPAUSED," Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Avrum Bluming, medical oncologist and former senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, and Dr. Carol Tavris, social psychologist and co-authors of the life-changing book: Estrogen Matters. In this conversation, they dismantle the 2002 Women's Health Initiative study that terrified an entire generation of women away from hormone therapy and reveal why the fear was based on misinterpreted data, flawed conclusions, and a refusal to correct the record. You'll learn why estrogen actually decreases breast cancer risk, how heart disease kills seven times more women than breast cancer, and why the "lowest dose of estrogen for the shortest time" advice has no scientific backing. This conversation will inform you and empower you to demand better from your own healthcare provider. If you've ever been told hormone therapy is too dangerous, that your symptoms are "just aging," or that you need to accept suffering in silence, this episode of “unPAUSED” is for you. Dr. Haver, Dr. Bluming, and Dr. Tavris give you the science, the tools, and the truth you need to hear including a free informed consent form and quality of life questionnaire you can bring to your doctor's office today. Guest links: Estrogen Matters Estrogen Matters (Instagram) Articles Long-Term (≥5-Year) Remission and Survival After Treatment With Ciltacabtagene Autoleucel in CARTITUDE-1 Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma (Journal of Clinical Oncology) Early Exposure to Medicine Inspired Committed Careers in Cancer Care (Yale School of Medicine) Estrogen and cognitive functioning in women: lessons we have learned (Behavioral Neuroscience) Uncertainty about Postmenopausal Estrogen — Time for Action, Not Debate (New England Journal of Medicine) Estrogens for Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease: Putting the Brakes on the Bandwagon (Circulation) Effects of estrogen plus progestin on health-related quality of life (New England Journal of Medicine) Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer: What is the Evidence from Randomized Trials? (Climacteric) Breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy: collaborative reanalysis of data from 51 epidemiological studies of 52,705 women with breast cancer and 108,411 women without breast cancer. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer (Lancet) Lung Cancer Mortality Higher in Women Who Used Combination Hormone Therapy (JAMA) Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate and Risk of Meningioma in the US (JAMA Neurology) The Mortality Toll of Estrogen Avoidance: An Analysis of Excess Deaths Among Hysterectomized Women Aged 50 to 59 Years (American Journal of Public Health) Other Resources Survival Rates for Breast Cancer (American Cancer Society) Eric P. Winer elected ASCO President for term starting in June 2022 (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) ASCO Past Presidents (American Society of Clinical Oncology) ASCO Overview (American Society of Clinical Oncology) Eric Winer, MD (Yale School of Medicine) About WHI (Women’s Health Initiative) The Facts about Women and Heart Disease (American Heart Association) The Million Women Study (Oxford Population Health) The Million Women Study: design and characteristics of the study population (Breast Cancer Research) Philip Sarrel (LinkedIn) QofL Questionnaire Informed Consent Form. No Prior Breast Cancer. How Do you Feel Books “Estrogen Matters,” by Dr. Carol Tavris and Dr. Avrum Bluming“Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me),” by Dr. Carol Tavris and Dr. Elliot Aronson 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

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