My Master List of Menopause Expert Must-Follows

For months I thought I was falling apart. Random symptoms with no clear connection and no real answers. Then one afternoon, I was listening to the Marie Forleo podcast interview with Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a menopause specialist and OBGYN who has become one of the most trusted voices in this space. In the span of that one conversation, my entire body made sense for the first time.

Dr. Haver said something that stopped me cold: perimenopause has over 100 symptoms.¹ One hundred. I sat straight up. Everything I had been experiencing had a name. And I was just getting started.

An Instagram post changed everything

I immediately went to her Instagram page and found a post that showed a graph of what your hormones actually look like during perimenopause. I was flabbergasted. The erratic peaks and valleys explained everything at once. The itchy ears. The dizziness. The frozen shoulder. The tingling legs. The heart palpitations. It was ALL connected. One conversation and one Instagram post reframed everything I thought I knew about what was happening to my body.

Then I found this podcast

A few days later, I was listening to the Mel Robbins podcast featuring Dr. Vonda Wright, a longevity and orthopedic surgeon who made a connection I had never considered. She explained that many older women who become fall risks, or who end up needing hip and knee replacements, are living the long-term consequences of bone density loss that began during the menopause transition.

She also shared that HRT can help restore lost bone density, not just slow the decline. Again, my flabber was ghasted. Because nobody tells you that the woman who fell and broke her hip at 74 may have started losing bone density in her 40s. That episode gave me a completely different understanding of what this transition means for my future body. ³

And then I watched a streaming special

What sealed the deal for me was the Oprah Winfrey Special called "The Menopause Revolution," which aired on ABC in March 2025 and is now streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus. Oprah brought together real women from all walks of life, including celebrities, who had experienced varying degrees of perimenopause and menopause symptoms. Hearing those stories out loud, in a mainstream primetime setting, gave me the validation I was I didn’t even know I needed.

Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, a neurologist at UCLA, spoke about what estrogen decline does to the brain and it was eye opening. She explained that estrogen is neuro-protective, and that its decline causes real, measurable cognitive changes including forgetting why you walked into a room, losing verbal memory, and struggling to hold a train of thought. There are actual structural changes in the brain during this transition. Not imagined. Actual. ⁹

And since both of my parents died from heart related issues, I also paid close attention to the research showing that estrogen decline raises LDL cholesterol while lowering HDL, which can contribute to cardiovascular risk over time.¹⁰ This was not abstract for me. It was personal. I made an appointment immediately.

None of these resources replaced my care team. What they did was make me a better, more informed patient. And here is where social media can genuinely help. Following the right voices can help you identify your symptoms, understand your options, and know what questions to bring to your provider.

Doctors worth following:

• Dr. Mary Claire Haver (@drmaryclaire): menopause specialist and OBGYN.
• Dr. Sharon Malone (@smalonemd): board-certified OB-GYN and NYT bestselling author of Grown Woman Talk. One of the most important voices addressing the gap in menopause care for Black women.
• Dr. Vonda Wright (@drvondawright): longevity and orthopedic surgeon. Find her on the Mel Robbins podcast. Your future bones (and knees) will thank you.
• Dr. Lisa Mosconi (@dr_mosconi): neurologist, Women's Brain Initiative at Weill Cornell. Her Diary of a CEO episode is remarkable.
• Dr. Stacy Sims (@drstacysims): female physiology researcher covering fitness and nutrition during perimenopause.
• Dr. Sara Szal (@treatedwithdrsara): hormones and autoimmune health. Also on Diary of a CEO.

Women sharing their real journeys:

• Melani Sanders (@justbeingmelani): founder of the We Do Not Care Club. Hilarious, honest, deeply validating. Thank me later.
• Tamsen Fadal (@tamsenfadal): journalist, NYT author of How to Menopause, producer of The M Factor documentary.

And finally, a must watch is An Oprah Winfrey Special: The Menopause Revolution, streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus.

Find your tribe

Whether it is a doctor who finally makes sense of your symptoms, a podcast that makes you feel seen, or a woman on the internet who says exactly what you have been feeling at 3am, you are not alone. The information exists. The community exists. Get into it, take what you learn to your provider, and demand the care you deserve.