I watched this documentary with a group of middle-age friends. We lost our collective shit over the tooth soundbite, had to pause it and replay because we were all freaking out about this bomb-drop of a statement. We also felt skepticism about the stat, so I'm glad you're looking into it!
Thank you for doing the digging and research to contextualize this documentary!
Thanks again Dr. Gunter! I agree 100%! I watched with the CME web discussion and also found myself scratching my head after thinking “what did I actually learn?” I get that women’s health needs attention and I fully support science backed research as well as those trying to give a voice to the health effects of menopause and how we can utilize what we know to age better, feel best and further longevity and quality of life simultaneously. These are important newsworthy things. However, I didn’t feel like I watched an accredited scientific documentary at all. I felt like I watched a prolonged tik tok video with all the sensationalized headlines of the “menopause moment” on social media. Just seems like a money grab to me. At least don’t advertise is as medical science and label it what it is. A menopause documentary by someone with influence who went through menopause, had a hard time, and has access to important people in the menopauseuniverse (menoverse?) to validate her experience navigating the health challenges women face at this stage of life. I mean, I still would have watched it. I did not submit my CME credit. Felt a little dirty.
I submitted the CME stuff to see what came up, and the documentary was listed as zero credits, it was the webinar that counted. So I did it to really see what was up.
Just didn’t seem like anything new except the dental stuff, which I agree, would love to see some science that excludes for cormorbid diseases to understand the impact on overall dental care past mid life. Causation and correlation to just menopause alone seems loose to me.
Thank you so much! Your summary 100% reflects my thoughts after watching the documentary. I was so frustrated by the erroneous numbers being thrown around about estrogen levels without any context. Also, thank you for checking into the tooth thing because that freaked me out and I look forward to seeing any additional research you might come across. I noticed that I had a ton of anxiety after watching the movie which is very odd since I think I'm a pretty informed menopause provider. But, I think the MHT and Testosterone messaging was so implicit and strong that it left the listener thinking you are doing something wrong if you're not taking it. Even though Dr. Faubion's message tried to assure women that there's individual decision making, how I felt really surprised me, so I can't imagine how other women might have felt without having the reference to scientific information available. Thanks again!
I’ve heard a lot about this documentary but have not seen this. Thx for the (as always) detailed write up. I really liked dr. Kelly c podcast early on then notice everything was coming back to testosterone as a cure all (IMO) and i’ve been scratching my head on that, knowing the side effects are nothing I’d want to mess around with. Why, why would an MD promote this?!? Sigh. So appreciate your voice of reason.
I’m so sick of the supplement/compounded hormone money grab from SO MANY of these “experts”. It makes everything they say suspect whether or not it’s legitimate.
Great review, thanks. Two comments: 1) I think there is room for debate regarding hormone testing. We should absolutely treat on symptoms and not levels but there are ways in which well designed testing could be informative. I would not dismiss it out of hand; 2) The argument made by Dr. Casperson that "because it's made by our body so therefore it can't be harmful" is one of the dumbest things that a doctor can say. It's actually shocking that she would use this line.
Thank you!! So well timed. I just got questions about this documentary yesterday and was planning to watch it to determine how credible. My patient felt that PBS is a very reliable source of information
I think you can confidently tell patients that PBS is not a credible source for information. Not for health care or anything else. They have an agenda and are not at all diverse or inclusive of thought. This has been the case for over a decade now.
I always wonder if the studies on estrogen-only or Premarin having little or no risk of breast cancer is BECAUSE the women on that regime generally have hysterectomies which itself may change risk factors OR because the med Premarin is not cancer promoting and may be cancer protective. I guess we'll have to wait on studies on Duavee, which may be a long time coming.
That is a good question. I wonder if there is long-term data on hysterectomies and the rate of breast cancer. I am going to look into it and report back I suspect for Premarin, it's because Premarin is a unique molecule that also has SERMS. We don't have large-scale randomized trials with estradiol alone, so we don't really know. In the lab, estrogen can be carcinogenic for the breast, so the question is, does the small amount of appropriately dosed MHT pose a risk?
Back in the early days of the herbal suppl. craze, I remember talking to a patient about something or other, & she said, 'but it's natural!' I said, 'so is arsenic.' She got it...
I was so happy to see that you had written a review of the M Factor and felt as skeptical as you, mostly because of all I have learned from you. Also, I am always wary of most health related documentaries - there is always a catch and/or someone who has funded it and are benefiting from the claims and scare tactics. I agree with everything you said, from the bold claims of hormones, especially testosterone to the supplement rants from doctors peddling supplements, to the crazy scare tactic of tooth loss. I am glad I watched it but there was nothing new I learned and so appreciate the fact that I am looking at menopause from all angles. Although I am a huge proponent of MHT and also take testosterone I know that it is no magic cure for everything (I wish!). Women desperately need to get educated about their menopause experience but I wish that the snake oil salesmen would leave us alone!
There were several points that I had to listen to more than once. I wish CBT was available to all women, unfortunately the cost (if women do not have benefits through a workplace) may be too high for the majority.
PBS continued to run Christianne Northrop’s program on menopause for years, even after she was named a top source of COVID misinformation and a QAnon follower. They only stopped temporarily when Jen called them out in a blog post and even then, the local affiliates still run them because they are popular during pledge week. If they get viewers, they won’t care. And most women don’t read the Vajenda so they won’t know the issues with what they watched so won’t know to complain.
I haven’t seen the documentary yet either, but truly appreciate your insight and critique because as someone who is doing her best to stay informed of the latest information on women’s health, I’m finding that I’m also gullible and naive—it’s easy to believe the “experts” in a documentary…it’s a DOCUMENTARY!! Thank you Dr. Jen for calling out the bullshit and for applauding the good—I’m learning so much from you!!
On a side note that is not related to the documentary itself, I’ve wanted to ask you if you’ve seen or read anything recently about peri & menopausal women getting sudden onsets of vertigo? I got it in May and it lasted nearly a month, but since then I’ve heard of 7or 8 other women who attend my gym who are also suffering from sudden onsets and none of them have been lucky enough to only have it for a month. Just wondering if you’ve seen anything from your patients or heard anything…and if you can provide any information on ways to help. I was told to see an ENT, and he said he couldn’t really find a reason other than the “crystals” in my ear were not where they should be OR it might be as simple as allergies. He suggested Sudafed and trying the Eppley maneuver—this was not helpful for me. I just had to wait it out as it slowly went away.
I also had hearing loss, onset of tinnitus, vertigo and imbalance a few weeks after I turned 41. No ENT could figure it out. Most of it resolved within a few months except for the tinnitus. I think now it was one of my first signs of perimenopause.
Not sure how this one got past me and I’m just seeing it now. Wish I’d read this before I included the documentary in a list of resources for a panel I moderated with Dr. Lisa Larkin. I would still want to share it because as you said, a lot of good info and also loved the coverage of racial differences in menopausal symptoms, but had I read your post before sharing the resource list, I would have included a caveat with the issues you point out. I’m so tired of the conflict of interest in supplements and other products. I wish there were stronger laws around that. And I’m dying to read what you find out about the teeth. That tooth loss thing did scare me. I really enjoyed this post! I’d love to read reviews from you of other books and such. “Estrogen Matters”, “The New Menopause”, the Davina MacCall documentary, “The Hormone Decision”, “The Slow Moon Rises”.
I watched this documentary with a group of middle-age friends. We lost our collective shit over the tooth soundbite, had to pause it and replay because we were all freaking out about this bomb-drop of a statement. We also felt skepticism about the stat, so I'm glad you're looking into it!
Thank you for doing the digging and research to contextualize this documentary!
Thanks again Dr. Gunter! I agree 100%! I watched with the CME web discussion and also found myself scratching my head after thinking “what did I actually learn?” I get that women’s health needs attention and I fully support science backed research as well as those trying to give a voice to the health effects of menopause and how we can utilize what we know to age better, feel best and further longevity and quality of life simultaneously. These are important newsworthy things. However, I didn’t feel like I watched an accredited scientific documentary at all. I felt like I watched a prolonged tik tok video with all the sensationalized headlines of the “menopause moment” on social media. Just seems like a money grab to me. At least don’t advertise is as medical science and label it what it is. A menopause documentary by someone with influence who went through menopause, had a hard time, and has access to important people in the menopauseuniverse (menoverse?) to validate her experience navigating the health challenges women face at this stage of life. I mean, I still would have watched it. I did not submit my CME credit. Felt a little dirty.
I submitted the CME stuff to see what came up, and the documentary was listed as zero credits, it was the webinar that counted. So I did it to really see what was up.
Just didn’t seem like anything new except the dental stuff, which I agree, would love to see some science that excludes for cormorbid diseases to understand the impact on overall dental care past mid life. Causation and correlation to just menopause alone seems loose to me.
Thank you so much! Your summary 100% reflects my thoughts after watching the documentary. I was so frustrated by the erroneous numbers being thrown around about estrogen levels without any context. Also, thank you for checking into the tooth thing because that freaked me out and I look forward to seeing any additional research you might come across. I noticed that I had a ton of anxiety after watching the movie which is very odd since I think I'm a pretty informed menopause provider. But, I think the MHT and Testosterone messaging was so implicit and strong that it left the listener thinking you are doing something wrong if you're not taking it. Even though Dr. Faubion's message tried to assure women that there's individual decision making, how I felt really surprised me, so I can't imagine how other women might have felt without having the reference to scientific information available. Thanks again!
I think it’s crazy they didn’t interview you for it.
I’ve heard a lot about this documentary but have not seen this. Thx for the (as always) detailed write up. I really liked dr. Kelly c podcast early on then notice everything was coming back to testosterone as a cure all (IMO) and i’ve been scratching my head on that, knowing the side effects are nothing I’d want to mess around with. Why, why would an MD promote this?!? Sigh. So appreciate your voice of reason.
She used to be great. Evidence based, factual, against supps but the last 18 months I think she has got lost in the fame.
I’m so sick of the supplement/compounded hormone money grab from SO MANY of these “experts”. It makes everything they say suspect whether or not it’s legitimate.
Great review, thanks. Two comments: 1) I think there is room for debate regarding hormone testing. We should absolutely treat on symptoms and not levels but there are ways in which well designed testing could be informative. I would not dismiss it out of hand; 2) The argument made by Dr. Casperson that "because it's made by our body so therefore it can't be harmful" is one of the dumbest things that a doctor can say. It's actually shocking that she would use this line.
Exactly. Cortisol is made by our body but look what happens when people use cortisone medications over long periods of time.
Thank you!! So well timed. I just got questions about this documentary yesterday and was planning to watch it to determine how credible. My patient felt that PBS is a very reliable source of information
I think you can confidently tell patients that PBS is not a credible source for information. Not for health care or anything else. They have an agenda and are not at all diverse or inclusive of thought. This has been the case for over a decade now.
I always wonder if the studies on estrogen-only or Premarin having little or no risk of breast cancer is BECAUSE the women on that regime generally have hysterectomies which itself may change risk factors OR because the med Premarin is not cancer promoting and may be cancer protective. I guess we'll have to wait on studies on Duavee, which may be a long time coming.
That is a good question. I wonder if there is long-term data on hysterectomies and the rate of breast cancer. I am going to look into it and report back I suspect for Premarin, it's because Premarin is a unique molecule that also has SERMS. We don't have large-scale randomized trials with estradiol alone, so we don't really know. In the lab, estrogen can be carcinogenic for the breast, so the question is, does the small amount of appropriately dosed MHT pose a risk?
Back in the early days of the herbal suppl. craze, I remember talking to a patient about something or other, & she said, 'but it's natural!' I said, 'so is arsenic.' She got it...
I was so happy to see that you had written a review of the M Factor and felt as skeptical as you, mostly because of all I have learned from you. Also, I am always wary of most health related documentaries - there is always a catch and/or someone who has funded it and are benefiting from the claims and scare tactics. I agree with everything you said, from the bold claims of hormones, especially testosterone to the supplement rants from doctors peddling supplements, to the crazy scare tactic of tooth loss. I am glad I watched it but there was nothing new I learned and so appreciate the fact that I am looking at menopause from all angles. Although I am a huge proponent of MHT and also take testosterone I know that it is no magic cure for everything (I wish!). Women desperately need to get educated about their menopause experience but I wish that the snake oil salesmen would leave us alone!
There were several points that I had to listen to more than once. I wish CBT was available to all women, unfortunately the cost (if women do not have benefits through a workplace) may be too high for the majority.
I've never heard of this documentary and am grateful you parsed it so clearly; it is much appreciated.
I'm interested in hearing about the comments PBS gets and what they say in response.
PBS continued to run Christianne Northrop’s program on menopause for years, even after she was named a top source of COVID misinformation and a QAnon follower. They only stopped temporarily when Jen called them out in a blog post and even then, the local affiliates still run them because they are popular during pledge week. If they get viewers, they won’t care. And most women don’t read the Vajenda so they won’t know the issues with what they watched so won’t know to complain.
I haven’t seen the documentary yet either, but truly appreciate your insight and critique because as someone who is doing her best to stay informed of the latest information on women’s health, I’m finding that I’m also gullible and naive—it’s easy to believe the “experts” in a documentary…it’s a DOCUMENTARY!! Thank you Dr. Jen for calling out the bullshit and for applauding the good—I’m learning so much from you!!
On a side note that is not related to the documentary itself, I’ve wanted to ask you if you’ve seen or read anything recently about peri & menopausal women getting sudden onsets of vertigo? I got it in May and it lasted nearly a month, but since then I’ve heard of 7or 8 other women who attend my gym who are also suffering from sudden onsets and none of them have been lucky enough to only have it for a month. Just wondering if you’ve seen anything from your patients or heard anything…and if you can provide any information on ways to help. I was told to see an ENT, and he said he couldn’t really find a reason other than the “crystals” in my ear were not where they should be OR it might be as simple as allergies. He suggested Sudafed and trying the Eppley maneuver—this was not helpful for me. I just had to wait it out as it slowly went away.
I find myself getting pulled at times by the “experts” too! If you hear something 1000x you start to believe it as truth.
I also had hearing loss, onset of tinnitus, vertigo and imbalance a few weeks after I turned 41. No ENT could figure it out. Most of it resolved within a few months except for the tinnitus. I think now it was one of my first signs of perimenopause.
Not sure how this one got past me and I’m just seeing it now. Wish I’d read this before I included the documentary in a list of resources for a panel I moderated with Dr. Lisa Larkin. I would still want to share it because as you said, a lot of good info and also loved the coverage of racial differences in menopausal symptoms, but had I read your post before sharing the resource list, I would have included a caveat with the issues you point out. I’m so tired of the conflict of interest in supplements and other products. I wish there were stronger laws around that. And I’m dying to read what you find out about the teeth. That tooth loss thing did scare me. I really enjoyed this post! I’d love to read reviews from you of other books and such. “Estrogen Matters”, “The New Menopause”, the Davina MacCall documentary, “The Hormone Decision”, “The Slow Moon Rises”.