It's Not a Purse

About 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.

Publisher

Mr. Nice TV

Category

health & fitness · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jun 2026

Latest episode

9 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

3 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   9 Jul 2026

   #ReclaimJuly9: The Origins of HRT Fear and 2002 WHI Clickbait

   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 🔗 Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @ItsNotaPurse 📣 Follow us on Instagram: @ItsNotaPursePod

2. 

   10 Jun 2026

   Why #EqualResearchDay Exists | Closing the Women's Health Gap

   Until 1993, women were mostly excluded from federally funded clinical trials in the United States. Not overlooked. Not underfunded. Excluded. Through the relentless advocacy of women and their allies, on June 10, 1993, the U.S. government passed the NIH Revitalization Act, a law - not a suggestion - that women and minorities be included in federally funded research and clinical trials. On #EqualResearchDay — created by the co-founders of Evvy to mark that turning point — It's Not a Purse is releasing a preview of Episode One of the upcoming documentary series A Study on Trial: The Women’s Health Initiative Revisited, which takes an unflinching look at the promise of the WHI, the harmful turn it took in 2002 and how the medical community is restoring trust. In this preview, narrator, creator, and executive producer Ami Armstrong is joined by the researchers, doctors, authors, and advocates who have spent their careers doing the work to close the women’s health gap: Laine Bruzek: co-founder of Evvy and co-creator of #EqualResearchDay, https://www.Evvy.com Kathryn Schubert: President & CEO, Society for Women's Health Research, https://www.SWHR.com Dr. Sharonne Hayes: Cardiologist and women's health researcher, Mayo Clinic, https://www.womenheart.org/dr-sharonne-hayes/ Maya Dusenbery: Author, Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick, https://www.mayadusenbery.com/ Paula Bellostas Muguerza: Senior Partner and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Practice Leader at Kearney, https://www.kearney.com/about/people/bio/paula-bellostas It's Not a Purse is a new documentary program that takes a deep dive into events in modern history that have impacted the lives of women. Follow us on Instagram at: @ItsNotaPursePod Season One is for people who know that "women's health" isn't a niche; it's half the population that medicine has overwhelmingly ignored. A Study on Trial: The Women’s Health Initiative Revisited launches . Please support our work by subscribing now.

3. 

   1 Jun 2026

   A Study on Trial Preview: Political Theater, Flawed Science, and the Women’s Health Gap

   It’s Not a Purse is an anthology documentary podcast series that takes a deep dive into events from modern history that have impacted the lives of women. Season One, A Study on Trial: The Women’s Health Initiative Revisited, centers on the landmark study from the 1990s: the National Institute of Health (NIH) sponsored Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the largest and most impactful women’s health research program in U.S. history. Conceived and launched by acclaimed the first woman head of the NIH, cardiologist Dr. Bernadine Healy, the WHI aimed to improve the quality of life for women ages 50 to 79, a segment of the American population mostly left out of consideration. Then came July 9th, 2002. Aspects of the WHI involving Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) were abruptly halted by a press conference. An imbalanced interpretation of the data and overstated risk of breast cancer resulted in millions of women flushing their medication, wrongly denying them critical protection for their heart health, bone health, and cognition. After decades of fighting alarmist labeling, an expert panel of physicians and researchers finally won their appeal to the FDA to remove black box labels on some HRT in 2025. We speak with many of them, along with others who have shaped this WHI timeline. Our goal is to use storytelling to shine a light on the systems that created and maintain the women’s health gap, and explore the massive social and economic potential of closing it. A Study on Trial helps us understand our history backwards so we can build a better future together.

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

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