Bonus Episode: A Calm Menopause with Dr. Pauline Maki

Dr. Pauline Maki, Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Obstetrics & Gynecology, joins this season’s final bonus episode with host Dr. Mary Jane Minkin to talk about managing the emotional symptoms related to menopause, how to reduce stress and help have a “calm” menopause. The experts unpack how estrogen can affect brain function and mood. The conversation covers how common menopausal symptoms and experiences, including brain fog, stress, hot flashes and disturbed sleep, are related to overall mental health. Dr. Maki and Dr. Minkin also discuss disparities in women’s health and how socioeconomic status and race can affect women’s brain health in midlife. Methods to help reduce stress are detailed to give listeners actionable ways to improve their mental health.

About Dr. Pauline Maki:

Dr. Pauline Maki is Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Obstetrics & Gynecology and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Dr. Maki received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging. For the past 25 years, she has led a program of NIH-funded research on women, cognition, mood and dementia, with a particular focus on the menopause. Dr. Maki is Past President of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), Current Trustee of the International Menopause Society, Chair of the Society for Women's Health Research Interdisciplinary Network on Alzheimer's Disease, and Immediate Past Head of the Neurocognitive Working Group of the Women's Interagency HIV Study. She won the 2018 Woman in Science Award from the American Medical Women's Association and the Thomas B. Clarkson Outstanding Clinical and Basic Science Research Award from the NAMS (Healthywomen.org).

menopause: unmuted is designed to raise awareness, encourage communication, and share information. It is not designed to provide medical advice or promote or recommend any treatment option.