July 9, 2002 was the date women’s health was set back for over two decades.
On July 9, 2002, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) held a massive, high-profile press conference. They announced the abrupt halting of a hormone trial in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) due to an increased risk of breast cancer. The media rushed to print inflammatory coverage that featured terrifying relative risk statistics without context. These headlines generated complete panic, causing millions of women and physicians to abandon Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) overnight.
It is time to #ReclaimJuly9
Years later, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) walked back these findings in various medical journals. Once researchers stratified the data by age and other risk factors, they confirmed that the benefits of HRT far outweigh the risks for most women. But the correction never received the same media blitz.
Now, 24 years later, millions of women aged 40 to 65 still needlessly suffer through hot flashes, brain fog, and insomnia because of outdated fear and a massive gap in medical education. We are reclaiming July 9th to replace fear with evidence-based facts.
Individualized care based on good science is the goal. Designing treatment based on fear inducing relative risk percentages needs to go.
⏱️ Episode Timestamps:
- (00:00) - The Anatomy of Fear: How a single media press release permanently distorted public perception of hormone safety.
- (01:04) - The Erasure of Menopause Training: Dr. Stacy Wentworth on how a generation of doctors were taught to rip women off HRT.
- (01:33) - The Vision of Dr. Bernadine Healy: Remembering the first female director of the NIH and her original intent to properly study women’s health.
- (03:27) - Ambushed by the Abstract: WHI Investigator Dr. Robert Langer reveals how researchers were given only 15 minutes to review an inflammatory paper published in their names.
- (04:52) - The Media Firestorm Begins: Susan Dentzer and Dr. Sharonne Hayes recount the chaotic shift from scientific manuscripts to live television panic.
- (07:27) - The Statistical Math Trick: Deconstructing the difference between absolute risk and the terrifying relative risk percentages used by Jacques Rossouw.
- (09:52) - The Disconnect in the Data: Dr. Howard Hodis and Jim Simon expose how the abstract conclusions completely contradicted the actual data in the paper.
- (12:54) - Quiet Retractions, Lasting Trauma: Why subsequent data adjustments showing no significant breast cancer risk were completely ignored by the media.
- (14:29) - The Clinical Cost: Medical residents learn nothing about midlife care, while patients live in terror of life-saving therapeutics.
- (15:28) - Dismantling the Black Box: Reclaiming the true benefits of estrogen for heart, bone, brain, and systemic health.
🎙️ Featured Speakers (In Order of Appearance):
Dr. Kelly Casperson, MD | Board-Certified Urologist, Author, Podcaster, Women's Health Thought Leader | Instagram: @kellycaspersonmd | Website: kellycaspersonmd.com
Robert D. Langer, MD, MPH | Principal Scientist & Medical Director, Jackson Hole Center for Preventive Medicine; Professor Emeritus, UCSD; WHI Principal Investigator | Website: robertdlanger.com
Philip Sarrel, MD | Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine; Founder, Yale Menopause Program | Website: medicine.yale.edu
Carol Tavris, PhD | Social Psychologist; Author; Co-Author, Estrogen Matters | Instagram: @estrogen_matters | Website: estrogenmatters.com
Avrum Bluming, MD | Board-Certified Oncologist; Emeritus Clinical Professor of Medicine, USC; Co-Author, Estrogen Matters | Instagram: @estrogen_matters | Website: estrogenmatters.com
Mindy Goldman, MD | Chief Clinical Officer, Midi Health, Clinical Professor, OB/GYN, UCSF; Director, Gynecology Center for Cancer Survivors & At-Risk Women | Instagram: @dr.mindygoldman | Website: joinmidi.com
Stacy Wentworth, MD | Radiation Oncologist, Duke Health; Author & Cancer Survivorship Expert; Host, Less Radical Podcast | Instagram: @drstacywentworth | Website: stacywentworth.com
Sharonne N. Hayes, MD | Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic; Founder, Women’s Heart Clinic; SCAD Researcher | Website: mayoclinic.org
Maya Dusenbery | Author, Journalist | website: https://www.mayadusenbery.com/
Kathryn Schubert, MPP, CAE | President & CEO, Society for Women’s Health Research | Instagram: @swhr_official | Website: swhr.org
Susan Dentzer | healthcare and health policy analyst, commentator, and journalist | In 2002, health correspondent for the PBS News Hour
JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH | Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Website: prevmed.bwh.harvard.edu
James A. Simon, MD | Clinical Professor of OB/GYN, George Washington University School of Medicine; Founder, IntimMedicine Specialists | Instagram: @menopause.whisperer | Website: intimmedicine.com
Howard Hodis, MD | Professor of Medicine; Director, Atherosclerosis Research Unit, Keck School of Medicine, USC | Website: keck.usc.edu
Jennifer Zelovitzky, MD | Certified Menopause Practitioner; Host, Medsplaining Podcast | Instagram: @drjenzelo | Website: drjenzelo.ca
Lucy McBride, MD | Harvard-Trained Internist; Author, Beyond the Prescription | Instagram: @drlucymcbride | Website: lucymcbride.com
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What is It's Not a Purse?
It's Not a Purse is a documentary podcast series that revisits events from modern history that have impacted the lives of women.
Each season, we investigate a timeline of pivotal moments where institutions, politics and media made decisions with life altering consequences for women's health, opportunity access and autonomy.
In Season 1, A Study on Trial: The Women's Health Initiative Revisited, we go back to July 9, 2002. On that day, the NIH held a press conference where they inaccurately stated that HRT lacked benefits and caused breast cancer — claims that did not match the data from their own study. The media frenzy caused millions of women and physicians to unnecessarily abandon HRT overnight. The fallout reshaped how a generation of women and doctors approached the treatment of menopause symptoms for decades.
You'll hear the voices of many who were there, those who have contributed to the milestones of progress as they unfold, and the series host Ami Armstrong's own perspective as a curious person trying to figure out if creating awareness through storytelling can help to close the women's health and opportunity gaps.