{"id":69399,"date":"2023-11-17T09:14:15","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T14:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=69399"},"modified":"2025-02-03T08:32:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T13:32:19","slug":"known-for-her-tiktok-videos-a-menopause-expert-launches-a-new-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/known-for-her-tiktok-videos-a-menopause-expert-launches-a-new-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Known for Her TikTok Videos, a Menopause Expert Launches a New Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mary Claire Haver, a board-certified OB-GYN, has written a book on best foods for menopause. Her new site, ThePauseLife.com, provides advice and products related to menopause. (Credit: Courtesy of Mary Claire Haver)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

“I want to be the Goop of menopause<\/a>,” says Dr. Mary Claire Haver during a recent Zoom interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haver, a board-certified OB-GYN from Galveston, Texas, claims to be feeling under the weather, but her black hair looks shiny and resplendent; her skin appears dewy. In a few short months, she will be leading a group of devotees and other midlife experts on a five-night menopause cruise<\/a>, “just doing donuts in the Gulf of Mexico and coming back” \u2013 a tongue-in-cheek play on the brand-sponsored, envy-inducing trips that (younger) beauty influencers often flex<\/a> on Instagram. It’s fully booked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anyone could be the Gwyneth Paltrow of wellness sites for aging women  \u2013 a chronically under-served and woefully ignored demographic \u2013 it might just be Haver. Many know her from her punchy-yet-scientifically-accurate videos on TikTok<\/a>, where she has amassed over 2 million followers. She’s also the author of “The Galveston Diet,” a Wall Street Journal bestseller<\/a> on the best foods to tame hormonal symptoms.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n Why Investor-Backed Startups Are (Finally) Tackling the $600 Billion Menopause Market\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

But this month, Haver, 55, is further testing her entrepreneurial chops by launching ThePauseLife.com<\/a>, with long-term plans to offer a mix of curated products, nutritional supplements and science-backed information for menopausal women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 1 million women<\/a> enter menopause each year, but many quietly suffer as a result of stigma, embarrassment and a flat-out lack of adequate care from the medical community. “Menopause just gets shoved into this narrow, narrow, narrow box, and we need to open that box,” says Haver, who speaks \u2013 as she does in her social media videos \u2013 with an unusual combination of enthusiasm and straightforward medical talk. “Forty percent of us are in menopause in this country right now \u2026 and we’re getting just maybe 5% of the education and research dollars.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And women are pretty damn sick of it, which is where the Goop-inspired platform comes in. Haver, who received her medical degree from Louisiana State University and trained at the University of Texas, wants ThePauseLife.com to be a central place for women to turn to \u2013 especially if they’re confused about menopause and need advice on everything from hormone replacement therapy to belly-fat-burning foods to exercise recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she talks about ThePauseLife, Haver \u2013 who says she’s always been described as “driven” \u2013 excitedly adds that she wants to tackle sexual health for mid-life women, too. The field generally gets scant attention. “So many people reach out to me like, ‘I need a vibrator. I can’t see anymore without my glasses. I don’t want to put on my glasses if I want to have an orgasm. Give me a tool that has buttons big enough. Give me lubricants that are very specific to menopausal women.’ I’m like, ‘I’m working on it!'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the exception of some menopause startups like Womaness, Kindra and Naomi Watts’ Stripes, there are few entrepreneurs focused on older women’s needs. “I just feel like there’s so much opportunity for us, and I want to be that person,” Haver says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How She Got Here<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After years of delivering babies, counseling patients and teaching medical students, Haver began experiencing perimenopause in her 40s. Weight became harder to keep off, despite regular workouts. Brain fog descended. She began researching medical journals on nutrition for women at the end of their reproductive years \u2013 and found shockingly little information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she did find a handful of studies on nutrition to lower inflammation, which in turn could lead to weight loss. She also found research on the health benefits of intermittent fasting. Armed with that data, Haver developed a program in 2015 that she eventually dubbed The Galveston Diet, and recruited about 1,500 volunteers via Facebook to try the regimen, which focuses on healthy fats, lean meats, fruits, vegetables and whole grains. They had similar results, with some also noticing a decrease in hot flashes and other menopause symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Then finally, some of my entrepreneur friends reached out and were like, \u2018Hey, you should do something with this, because it’s got legs,'” she says. Initially, she protested, saying “No, no, no. I’m a doctor. No one’s going to want to buy a program.” She eventually tried an e-book \u2013 “it was a disaster” \u2013 but when she packaged the diet information into an online course via Teachable, “several thousand” paying customers signed up.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, the Covid pandemic hit. But far from derailing her side business, lockdowns led to an unexpected payoff. “My kids were home, of course, as all of us were. They’re like, ‘Mom, you got to do this TikTok thing.'” She demurred. Her two daughters persisted. “They showed me a few other physicians who were kind of sharing informational things, pointing at phrases to music. I was like, ‘I can do this.'” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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@drmaryclaire<\/a>

#menopause<\/a> #perimenopause<\/a> #womenover50<\/a> #womenover40<\/a> #WidenTheScreen<\/a><\/p> \u266c Levitating (feat. DaBaby) – Dua Lipa<\/a> <\/section> <\/blockquote>