Best Perimenopause Podcasts: 9 Shows Worth Your Time

Why a Podcast Might Be the Best Perimenopause Resource You Haven't Tried

You're driving to work. You're walking the dog. You're folding laundry at 10pm because sleep is complicated right now. These are exactly the moments when a podcast can do something a book or a website cannot: it meets you where you already are.

Perimenopause can feel isolating, especially if your doctor visits feel rushed and your friends aren't quite at the same stage. A good podcast gives you access to physicians, researchers, and women who've navigated this before you, on your schedule, in plain language you don't need a medical degree to follow.

The information landscape around perimenopause has expanded dramatically in the past five years. Where once there was silence, there are now dozens of shows covering hormone therapy, nutrition, fitness, mental health, relationships, and the healthcare system failures that have left so many women without real answers. Not all of it is equal. Some shows are grounded in evidence and delivered by people with genuine clinical expertise. Others lean heavily on products or claims that go well beyond current research. This list focuses on shows that earn their credibility through expertise, transparency, and practical information you can actually use in your own life.

The Menopause Society Podcast

If you want the most clinically rigorous content available in a free podcast format, The Menopause Society (formerly NAMS, the North American Menopause Society) produces episodes that go deep on the science. Topics range from hormone therapy formulations and delivery methods to cardiovascular risk, bone density, cognitive changes, and genitourinary health, presented by leading researchers and clinicians in the field.

This one is best for women who want to understand the research behind treatment options, or who want to walk into their doctor's office with enough knowledge to have a real conversation rather than just nodding along. Episodes frequently feature researchers discussing studies you've probably never heard of, which is genuinely useful when you're trying to sort through conflicting advice.

A realistic caveat: the language can be denser than other shows, and episodes are sometimes aimed at clinicians as much as patients. That's worth navigating. The payoff is access to the thinking of the people who are actually publishing the research. When you're trying to understand why two different doctors gave you completely different answers about the same question, this podcast often provides the context.

The Balance Menopause Podcast with Dr. Louise Newson

Dr. Louise Newson is a UK-based GP and menopause specialist who has become one of the most influential voices in perimenopause and menopause medicine globally. Her podcast covers hormone therapy in depth, including the distinctions between different types, formulations, and delivery methods that most general practitioners don't have time to explain. She also covers the often overlooked long-term health implications of low estrogen on bones, heart, brain, and pelvic health.

What makes this show stand out is Dr. Newson's commitment to sharing evidence while being honest about where the evidence is still developing. She interviews other specialists from around the world, shares patient stories that illustrate how symptoms actually present in real life, and covers topics like testosterone for women, a subject many doctors in the US and UK still sidestep or actively discourage discussion of.

This show pairs well with her Balance app, which offers symptom tracking and educational resources. If you're in the US, some content on prescribing norms may reflect UK standards, but the underlying science translates entirely. Many US women find her show gives them language and confidence to advocate for themselves in appointments.

Episodes are typically 30 to 45 minutes and well-organized. A good starting point is any episode covering the basics of perimenopause diagnosis, since this is an area where so many women are given incorrect or incomplete information by practitioners who haven't updated their knowledge.

The Galveston Diet Podcast with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Dr. Mary Claire Haver is an OB/GYN who became one of the most prominent advocates for perimenopausal women after experiencing the medical system's gaps firsthand and deciding to fill them herself. Her platform, initially built around the Galveston Diet (an anti-inflammatory, protein-forward approach to nutrition during perimenopause), has expanded into a full perimenopause education resource, and her podcast reflects that scope.

Coverage ranges from nutrition and inflammation to hormone therapy, fitness adaptations for midlife women, gut health, and the research she says she wishes had been taught in medical school. Her approach is direct and warm. She does not talk down to her audience, and she's willing to say when something is still uncertain rather than overstating the evidence.

Episodes range from highly practical (specific foods and why they help during this transition) to research-focused (what the Women's Health Initiative study actually found versus how it was reported and how that misreporting set women's health back by two decades). That balance makes the show useful across a wide range of where you might be in your perimenopause journey.

This is a strong starting point if you're relatively new to perimenopause education and want a physician's voice that sounds like a knowledgeable friend rather than someone reading from a clinical guideline. She brings guests in regularly, so the perspective isn't just her own.

Are You There, Midlife? with Tamsen Fadal

Tamsen Fadal is a journalist and television anchor who went public about her perimenopause experience at a point when media coverage of this transition was still relatively thin. She turned her personal research into a full media platform, including a book and this podcast, which brings in experts across medicine, mental health, relationships, culture, and lifestyle.

What works particularly well here is the range. One episode might feature a psychiatrist discussing the brain-estrogen connection and what that means for mood and memory during perimenopause. The next might cover how to talk to a partner about symptoms they don't understand, or how midlife affects financial planning and career decisions. This breadth makes the show useful even on days when you're not focused on medical questions.

Fadal's journalism background shows: she asks follow-up questions and doesn't let vague answers slide. When a guest makes a claim, she often pushes for specificity that a host without her training might accept at face value.

This is a show that works well for women who are new to perimenopause content and want an accessible entry point, as well as for women further along who want conversation that includes the broader life context around this transition, not just the hormone questions. It's also a strong recommendation for partners and family members who want to understand what perimenopause actually involves.

Morphus with Andrea Donsky

Andrea Donsky is a nutritionist and researcher who spent years carefully tracking her own perimenopause symptoms before building Morphus, a platform specifically dedicated to perimenopause research and community. Her podcast reflects the same data-driven ethos: she consistently asks 'but what does the research actually show?' rather than accepting popular wellness narratives at face value.

Episodes feature deep dives into specific symptoms, supplements, and lifestyle interventions, with a genuine focus on separating what the research supports from what is being marketed to perimenopausal women for commercial reasons. She also conducts original surveys of perimenopausal women, so some episodes are grounded in real data about what women are actually experiencing, which adds a dimension that expert-only podcasts miss.

If you want nuanced discussions about specific supplements, or you want to understand the actual state of evidence on interventions that are popular in wellness communities, Morphus is worth adding to your rotation. Donsky's background in nutrition and her commitment to intellectual honesty make her perspective on the supplement question particularly valuable, since this is an area where marketing tends to dramatically outpace evidence.

Fast Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz

Dr. Mindy Pelz works within a functional medicine framework and focuses heavily on fasting, metabolic health, and hormone cycling. Her podcast has a large following among women interested in these approaches, and some of her content is genuinely useful for understanding how estrogen and progesterone fluctuations affect hunger, energy, and metabolism across the hormonal cycle.

A note on approach: this show takes a functional medicine perspective that includes some claims that go further than current clinical evidence clearly supports. Listeners who come in aware of that context will find plenty that's useful while being able to set aside the parts that are extrapolated beyond the research. Listeners who take everything presented as settled science may overestimate the certainty of some recommendations.

The content most worth engaging with: her explanations of how hormonal shifts across the cycle affect appetite and energy, and how fasting protocols may need to be adapted (or avoided) depending on where you are in your cycle. Her work on fasting-cycle timing is one of the more accessible treatments of this topic available in podcast form.

The Flipping 50 Podcast with Debra Atkinson

Debra Atkinson is an exercise physiologist with decades of experience specializing in fitness for women over 40. Her podcast is one of the very few dedicated specifically to the exercise science relevant to perimenopause and menopause, including how hormonal shifts change muscle protein synthesis, recovery time, strength training needs, and cardio tolerance.

Episodes cover topics like why your previous workout program stopped producing results (the muscle-building signal of estrogen means its absence changes how your body responds to training), how to lift weights in a way that counters bone density loss rather than just maintaining general fitness, and why high volumes of sustained cardio can sometimes backfire during this transition by raising cortisol in a body already navigating hormonal stress.

Atkinson interviews researchers and other practitioners regularly, so the information is grounded in more than personal experience. If you're someone who exercises and wants to understand why things feel different now, or what to actually change about your approach, this show provides genuinely specific, evidence-based guidance that most general fitness podcasts completely miss.

What to Listen For and What to Watch Out For

As you explore perimenopause podcasts, a few principles will help you get the most value while avoiding the content that could mislead you.

Look for hosts who clearly distinguish between their personal opinions, their clinical experience, and peer-reviewed evidence. Good educators use language that reflects uncertainty where it exists. Phrases like 'the research suggests' or 'in my clinical experience but the studies are limited' signal intellectual honesty. Hosts who present everything with equal certainty, regardless of how strong the evidence actually is, are worth approaching with more skepticism.

Be cautious when a show consistently leads with product recommendations, especially products the host sells directly. There is nothing inherently wrong with a practitioner recommending their own products, but the financial relationship creates an incentive that can subtly shape what gets emphasized. The best shows disclose these relationships clearly and don't let them drive the content.

Treat podcasts as a starting point for questions, not a source of medical conclusions. The most valuable thing a perimenopause podcast can do is give you better questions to bring to your healthcare provider, not give you answers to implement on your own without that conversation.

Tracking your symptoms alongside your listening can help you connect what you're learning to what's actually happening in your body. PeriPlan (https://apps.apple.com/app/periplan/id6740066498) lets you log symptoms, mood, and sleep patterns over time so you can bring real data to those conversations rather than trying to reconstruct the past three months from memory.

Getting the Most From Perimenopause Podcasts

You don't need to binge-listen to every episode. The most sustainable approach is to start with two or three shows and listen during activities you already do: commuting, walking, cooking, cleaning, or exercising. Most perimenopause podcast episodes run 30 to 60 minutes, which fits naturally into a daily walk or a morning routine.

Keep a running note on your phone for things you want to follow up on. This might be a type of hormone therapy you'd never heard of before, a specific supplement that had interesting evidence discussed, a phrase that gave language to something you've been experiencing but couldn't articulate, or a question you want to bring to your next medical appointment.

If you find yourself feeling anxious or overwhelmed by the content of a podcast, that's useful information. Some content is most helpful when you're ready for it and less useful when it's adding to an already difficult period. It's okay to rotate between shows depending on what you need on a given week.

Perimenopause is a transition that plays out over years. The goal of learning about it isn't to absorb everything immediately. It's to build understanding gradually so that you feel more informed and more in control of the decisions you're navigating, whether that's a conversation with a doctor, a change in your exercise routine, or simply making sense of why your body feels different than it used to.

This content is for informational purposes only and does not replace medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider about your specific situation.