Plant Medicine for Menopause: What Science and Ancient Healing Say Actually Works

In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Dr. Suzanne Gilberg, a board-certified OB-GYN, integrative medicine expert, and author with nearly 30 years of clinical experience, including training in Ayurvedic medicine spanning almost two decades. Dr. Gilberg is the Chief Clinical Officer of Monarch, a membership-based healthcare practice built to restore what modern medicine has nearly eliminated: time, relationship, and trust between women and their clinicians.

Dr. Haver and Dr. Gilberg open with a question that sits at the heart of women's midlife health: why does the current healthcare system consistently fail to see women clearly? Dr. Gilberg explains why the system is not built for humans but for shareholders, reimbursement structures, and productivity metrics that reward procedures over listening. She breaks down the difference between burnout and moral injury, why physicians are leaving traditional medicine in record numbers, and what it actually costs women when their doctors are structurally prevented from knowing them. The conversation traces how the 1910 Flexner Report reshaped American medicine, shutting down Black medical colleges, eliminating part-time schools where women trained, and marginalizing plant-based and indigenous healing traditions in ways that still define clinical practice today.

The episode goes deep on perimenopause as a distinct and frequently missed phase of hormonal transition, why women in perimenopause are being handed antidepressants, sleeping pills, and fibromyalgia diagnoses instead of hormonal evaluations, and what happens when postpartum and perimenopause overlap in women having babies after 40. Dr. Gilberg also speaks candidly about her own breast cancer diagnosis at 47 and her decision, as a survivor, to go on hormone therapy, reframing what it means to build health span rather than simply extend lifespan.

The conversation turns to plant medicine, where Dr. Gilberg draws on Ayurvedic training and the emerging science of botanical treatments to walk through what actually works for perimenopause and menopause symptoms. She discusses chasteberry and its role in supporting progesterone production during perimenopause, Siberian rhubarb as a potential selective estrogen receptor modulator for hot flashes, and the evidence behind black cohosh, including why its bad reputation is largely undeserved. She offers concrete guidance on how to evaluate supplement quality, why third-party testing is non-negotiable, and how to integrate botanical medicine responsibly alongside conventional care. She also previews her forthcoming book on plant medicine, covering both the science and the history of how humans have always turned to plants to heal.

This episode is equal parts systems critique and practical toolkit, a conversation about why women deserve more time and a much wider lens on what medicine can be.

Guest links:

• Dr. Suzanne
  
• Dr. Suzanne Gilberg (Instagram)
  
• Dr. Suzanne Gilberg (YouTube)
  
• Dr. Suzanne Gilberg (LinkedIn)
  
• Dr. Suzanne Gilberg (Facebook)
  
• Dr. Suzanne Gilberg (X)

Books:

• “Menopause Bootcamp: Optimize Your Health, Empower Your Self, and Flourish as You Age,” by Dr. Suzanne Gilberg
  
• “The Myth of Aging: A Prescription for Emotional and Physical Well-Being,” by Dr. Arnold Gilberg
  
• “The New Perimenopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver
  
• “The New Menopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Articles:

• Reimbursement for Female-Specific Compared With Male-Specific Procedures Over Time (Obstetrics & Gynecology)
  
• Vitex agnus castus effects on hyperprolactinaemia (Frontiers in Endocrinology)
  
• Efficacy evaluation of standardized Rheum rhaponticum root extract (ERr 731®) on symptoms of menopause: A systematic review and meta-analysis study (Journal of Biomedical Research)
  
• Natural Products as Sources of New Drugs over the Nearly Four Decades from 01/1981 to 09/2019 (Journal of Natural Products)
  
• Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Properties of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis, L.): A Review (Medicines)
  
• Honey in wound healing: An updated review (Open Life Science)
  

Other Resources:

• Births in the United States, 2024 (CDC)
  
• Black Cohosh (National Institutes of Health)
  
• Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation 2023 (HHS)