Dr. Jerrold Weinberg wants to change the way we think about menopause medicine
Twenty-five years into his career as an OBGYN, a book came across Dr. Jerrold H Weinberg’s desk. It was an informational guide on menopause by television actress Suzanne Somers, titled “Ageless.”
The book claimed benefits to taking bioidentical hormones – something that Weinberg had never heard of before. He nearly disregarded it, but his wife pushed back. “Look, if you’re going to be having all of these menopausal patients who are going to ask you about this, you might as well know,” Weinberg recalled her saying.
So, loyally, he picked up Somers’ guide. What he didn’t know then was that it would change his perspective on menopause forever.
The doctor, who recently published a book of his own, called “Menopause Mended,” spent the rest of his career, and now the beginning of his retirement, devoted to being a “disruptor,” he said. He has built off of notions from Somers and doctors in her book, challenging mainstream menopausal care.
“Many of us wear glasses. We have hearing aids,” Weinberg said. “We have a lot of devices to keep us going, because various organs in the body give up and run out at certain times. If you live long enough, you’re going to experience a lot of things, and menopause is one of them.”
However, he continued, no doctor would tell a patient who is hard of hearing to simply suffer through their symptoms. They would give the patient hearing aids or attempt another treatment. “It’s exactly the same with menopause. You just need to be back on the hormones.”
Weinberg faced significant pushback to this idea, largely because research shows that hormone use can come with an increased risk of stroke, heart attack and certain types of cancer. Although Weinberg only prescribed bioidentical hormones, which he believes do not cause many side effects, some peers stopped referring patients to him. Associates refused to refill his patients’ prescriptions when he was on leave.
The Mayo Clinic is also cautious on bioidentical hormones, writing on its site in October 2024: “The hormones marketed as ‘bioidentical’ and ‘natural’ aren’t safer than hormones used in traditional hormone therapy. And there’s no proof that they work any better at easing menopause symptoms.”
Hearing these kinds of objections “was very tough,” Weinberg said. “What kept me going was that the patients were doing so well that I said [the other doctors are] wrong.”
When he retired, many of his long-term patients lost access to their prescription hormones altogether. “I decided the only way I could perpetuate my program was to write a book,” Weinberg said.
Weinberg is now retired and living in Milwaukee with his wife, where his daughter and son-in-law, Susan and Todd Richeimer, live with their four children.
“Hopefully, some physicians will see my book or my website, and will contact me and say, ‘What’s this about?’” Weinberg said.
Even now, the doctor admits surprise at taking medical advice from an actress. “Three’s Company” had cast her as a stereotypical “dumb blonde.”
But when Weinberg looked into her claims, that’s exactly what he did.
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