Leanne Morgan on Menopause, Success at 60, and Why She's Just Getting Started

From selling jewelry in Tennessee living rooms to headlining arenas across America, Leanne Morgan's path to success took 25 years, and it's a story every woman in midlife needs to hear. The comedian and actress sits down with Dr. Mary Claire Haver for a funny and deeply honest conversation about what it really takes to thrive after 50. Leanne shares how severe perimenopause symptoms nearly derailed everything, why one nurse practitioner became her lifesaver, and how going viral in her fifties changed the trajectory of her entire career. She also shares her sleep hacks for touring, why she refuses to stop talking about menopause and testosterone on stage, what she tells her daughters about taking care of their bodies, and why relationships, not retirement, are the secret to a vibrant, joyful healthspan. From her Netflix sitcom to her sold-out tours to presenting at the Emmys, Leanne's journey is proof that your best work, your biggest breakthroughs, and your most joyful years can happen in your fifties and beyond. If you've ever felt invisible, exhausted, or like you've missed your window, this conversation will remind you it's never too late. Guest links: Leanne Morgan https://www.leannemorgan.com/ Leanne Morgan https://www.facebook.com/leannemorgancomedy/ (Facebook) Leanne Morgan https://x.com/leannecomedy (Twitter/X) Leanne Morgan https://www.instagram.com/leannemorgancomedy/?hl=en (Instagram) Leanne Morgan https://www.youtube.com/c/LeanneMorganComedy/videos (YouTube) Leanne Morgan https://www.tiktok.com/@leannemorgancomedy?lang=en (TikTok) Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman https://www.netflix.com/title/81636889 (Netflix) Leanne https://www.netflix.com/title/81752004?source=imdb&fromWatch=true (Netflix) Books “What in the World?!: A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings, https://www.amazon.com/What-World-Unexpected-Curveballs-Beautiful/dp/0593594398” By Leanne Morgan “The New Perimenopause,”⁠ https://thepauselife.com/pages/the-new-perimenopause-book by Dr. Mary Claire Haver ⁠"The New Menopause"⁠ https://www.amazon.com/New-Menopause-Navigating-Through-Hormonal/dp/059379625X/ref=sr_1_2?adgrpid=190238689390&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.djG88jtefTqLpTg36Li8QMNmXkpzLIfbFdY438Vro2vit_rKymy65UpF10hk_VTrxmazFUemwk7ywlmqHYY80j-V3LaeSD824-02PCtdlS8Fzp1XPcZs68nYHCL4V_ZdZBTJya---9Ng5PtKdOf-U3ENtuDXbDw68ULSk2wNk6Lt6mEhIPkuLM7FhztUzBJZ0wNBUQCSs6Pk1ZhoV2JDlzRapnMjnZgOq7PBA7Wy2KM._ZZSn21KJ43AyMvvSvI9_Hs3q74tpMBoCJ2zwi9enkc&dib_tag=se&hvadid=779626799212&hvdev=c&hvexpln=0&hvlocphy=9004331&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=16430100151400627515--&hvqmt=e&hvrand=16430100151400627515&hvtargid=kwd-2465259580440&hydadcr=15551_13558570_10211&keywords=perimenopause+book+mary+claire&mcid=ab159bad5384301d948e659e4b52f68d&qid=1774909744&sr=8-2 by Dr. Mary Claire Haver For full show notes, please click here https://thepauselife.com/blogs/the-unpaused-podcast/leanne-morgan-on-menopause-success-at-60-and-why-shes-just-getting-started.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Do you worry at all about being pigeonholed as the menopause comedian?

• 0:06Speaker 01

  No, I feel like a queen. I feel like that made me stand out above. Nobody was talking about menopause on Netflix. I didn't know it. I just, you know, tell what's going on in my life. And I was talking about perimenopause and I've had more people come up to me and go, oh, my husband finally gets it when you said that. You know, and men have said that to me. I feel very good about.

• 0:38Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  The views and opinions expressed on UnPaused are those of the talent and the guests alone and are provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. No part of this podcast or any related materials are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Today on UnPaused, I have the absolute joy of welcoming my dear friend, the one and only LeAnn Morgan. Many of you know her as a brilliant comedian whose career is exploding in her 50s, but to me, she's also an idol, a late night texter, and one of the funniest, most genuine women I've ever known. LeAnn and I first met last year in Las Vegas, where we were both honored by QVC as two of the most 50 influential women

• 1:20Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  over 50. I had already been sharing her hilarious videos about menopause on my social media, but spending time with her in Vegas was when we bonded. And yes, she sure is funny, but the heart on this woman is huge. Our paths crossed again at a gathering of some of the most influential women in the world, where we ended up as housemates for the weekend. I'll never forget sitting there with LeAnn, laughing and looking at each other with this "how did we get here" moment. It was humbling and surreal, and it reminds me of that even in rooms full of power and influence, what matters most is the connection and joy you share with another woman. Since then, we've cheered each other on, even sharing the spotlight on Oprah's Menopause Revolution TV special. I've watched with joy as her success just

• 2:03Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  keeps growing with a hit Netflix special, I'm Every Woman, and another one on the way, a sitcom that just got picked up for a second season, and hilarious book, What in the World? that captures all of her wit and wisdom. What can't this wife, mother, and grandmother do? To me, Leann embodies the very best of this part of our lives. Proof that your 50s and 60s and beyond can be a time when dreams take flight, careers blossom, and laughter keeps us going. I'm thrilled to welcome her to UnPaused today. I'm Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist and menopause practitioner. I'm also an adjunct professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Welcome to UnPaused, the podcast where we cut through the silence and talk about what

• 2:48Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  it really takes for women to thrive in the second half of life.

• 2:54Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Hi, Leann.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Hey, you little smart thing. Lord, you could not have sat by me in school because I would have not let you study.

• 3:04Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I think in high school, we would have had fun.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  We would have had too much fun, honey.

• 3:07Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I was not focused on academics. I did okay, but I was more focused on cheerleading, my little acting classes, and boys.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  Boys, honey, I've loved them since kindergarten. I did the same thing. I played ball, though, but yeah, I didn't pay attention in school. I'm so glad you did.

• 3:27Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I had a big turnaround when I was in college. My mom and dad's business, which I'd always taken for granted, I had everything I wanted. All the bills were paid. We weren't struggling for anything. They owned a restaurant. There was a huge economic downturn in our hometown. It was a big oil and gas town in Louisiana, and the oil business went belly up. So people going out on expense accounts stopped, and my mom and dad basically went bankrupt. And all of a sudden, I had this wake-up call of, well, what else are you going to do? So I was enrolled in school, and I said, let me just really apply myself and just focus and see what happens. And now I'm a doctor.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  Oh, my darling. Well, I'm glad you did.

• 4:09Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Well, I have a confession to make. I was in an MLM, too.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  You were a what?

• 4:14Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I was in an MLM, a multi-level marketing

• 4:17Speaker 01

  Oh!

• 4:18Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  company. I'll set it up for you.

• 4:20Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 4:20Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So it was not jewelry. It was skincare and makeup. And it wasn't Avon, it was a different company. But you know, I was working as an OB GYN. I had two little girls. My husband was traveling overseas all the time. I was working 100 plus hour weeks. I was out of my bed, three nights a week on call delivering babies. You know, just busy, busy, busy. And I was struggling to pay off my student loans and you know, make ends meet. And I thought, these hours are killing me. Is there a way I can go part time? So I enrolled my friend, Tish. Our kids met at the swimming pool. And I said, oh, is that your little girl? Yes, nice to meet you. We just moved here. What do you do? What do you do? I'm a doctor. Okay. She says, I sell jewelry. I said, oh, nice.

• 5:05Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  You know, we've become friendly. I ended up hosting a jewelry party for her. But what I realized about her was she set her schedule around her kids' lives. She never missed a birthday party. She never missed a school function. She slept in her own bed every night. No one was calling her in the middle of the night. Some of those things I signed up for, but I thought, wow, I don't want to sell jewelry, but this is a really nice way to have a life and make decent money. I was intrigued by her lifestyle and by this whole like MLM concept, right? And building teams and how she fed her family. And she said, you know, the company is going to open a new skincare line. Do you want to try it? And I thought, oh, I'll go get the discount. I'll sign up on the ground floor and get a discount.

• 5:50Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  And I ended up becoming their number one salesperson within like a year of starting.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  While you were delivering people's babies?

• 6:01Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah. Well, what I did was I leveraged social media. So like, no regrets. Would I do it again today? No. But I did love the product. I still use some of the products. Their concealer is my favorite. I learned how to build teams. I learned how to manage people. I learned a lot about social media. So I was just basically kind of built my business on social media. So I wasn't having to like drag the suitcase around. I mean, I had it and do all these parties. But when I read in your book, and I've heard you on other interviews, talking about getting your start in stand up with these jewelry parties, I'm like, I actually understand why you did that.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  That makes sense to me.

• 6:37Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  How you did it. And like, the lessons I learned from that experience have gotten me, you know, helped to where I am today.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  Oh, my darling, what is that concealer?

• 6:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's how I got started in comedy. And I look back on it and I think I was in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. And I knew from the time I was little, I was gonna be in show business, which is crazy. Because I, and I, you know, my parents wanted me to go to college, and I wanted to go too. But I had no, I didn't know what I thought. I don't know what I'm even doing here. I'm gonna be a movie star. And my high school boyfriend went to the university to say, and I followed him and nagged him to death until he broke up with me. But all the while, I kept thinking, I'm gonna be in show business. Marry Chuck Morgan, get pregnant with my first baby Charlie, I want to stay home and nurse him. I had a degree in crisis intervention counseling. I wanted to be a child and family

• 7:30Speaker 01

  therapist if I didn't make it in Hollywood. And my friend, Leanne Allison, said, I'm selling this jewelry, and you could meet people, because I was alone and isolated up there. And she said, you can have fun, you can make a few hundred dollars a night. Chuck can take care of the baby at night. And it worked perfect for me. And I didn't even care about jewelry. And we all looked like Mr. T, because they would say, wear as many chains as you can, wear it to the grocery store, so somebody will see you and ask you about it. They went out of business during COVID, but it was a really sweet company. But I started having these jewelry parties every night. And I was supposed to be talking about jewelry. And I talked about breastfeeding and hemorrhoids and things that I love to talk about, you

• 8:11Speaker 01

  know, with little babies. I loved being pregnant. I loved all that. And women thought I was funny. And I started booking about a year in advance. And the company noticed, and started getting me to speak at their big things. But I look back now, that I've worked clubs and theaters and everything I've done. And I had my own little comedy club with my demographic in those living rooms. And I developed some of the first material I ever used in clubs. And it was God's plan, because, I mean, I was in the middle of nowhere. There were no comedy clubs. There might have been one in Knoxville, which was about an hour away from me. But with little babies, and then I had Maggie. I kept doing it while I had Maggie. By the time I had Tia's, that third one, I was like, I can't schlepe this jewelry

• 8:54Speaker 01

  around anymore. And by then Chuck had really gotten established, and I didn't have to have the money. I mean, it would have been nice, but I didn't have to have it. And by then, I was really calling myself a comedian, and doing gags around.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  Morristown, Tennessee. Then we moved, he sold his business and went to work for a big company that he's still with. And we moved to San Antonio and that's the first time I had a club. And then Austin was right down the road, about 45 minutes away. And I would drive back and forth and Margie Cole that ran that club, believed in me and moved me from opener to headliner the first time in their history. And that was one of the best clubs in the United States. And so, yeah, it was all, you know, it worked out wonderful.

• 9:38Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So when you were a little girl, like baby land, how many siblings do you have? Where'd you grow up? Were you putting on little comedy shows for your family?

• 9:44Speaker 01

  Yes. And I was trying to tap. Didn't have tap shoes. I wanted so bad to take lessons, like all that kind of stuff. But we were in a town of 500 people. It's in between Nashville and Clarksville, Tennessee, on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. And my little mama owned a business. She and my dad ran a meat processing business together. She did all accounting and all this stuff. So she was busy all the time. So I didn't go anywhere and take lessons. So I would just tap and do, and do my own thing. But yeah, I always was a ham. In my high school, my teachers saw it and they would say, Haley, and do you want to emcee this? Or, you know, and you want to be in the choir, we know you can't sing, but just open your mouth and dazzle. So I would be in the front, you

• 10:28Speaker 01

  know, trying to. So I was all, yeah, I always did that. And then we had a speech and drama class where we did improv. And it felt like my whole world opened up.

• 10:37Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Like high school?

• 10:38Speaker 01

  And we did it. Oh, yeah. And even this little farming community where all the boys, this was so old timey. Our people around there grew alfalfa corn and soybeans and dark fire tobacco. They're known for dark fire tobacco for Skull in Copenhagen. These boys would get out of school at 1:30 to go work in the fields. That's how old timey it was. But in my little class, I had very talented people. One ended up at Juilliard and became an actor and has done wonderful. Four of them had a country music band that got a record deal. And they ended up, they all went to college and didn't do that. But we had very talented people in that class. And I think I graduated 42 people.

• 11:18Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Wow.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  And so, yeah, I had all that. And I was in a play, I was in one play in high school, but I didn't have any lines. I played the sex symbol. Little abnormal, I was stepifying Jones. I wore a bikini suit with pantyhose underneath them. I gyrated. I had a gyration moment and I, in my mind, in my little country mind, I thought, this is my first step to Hollywood.

• 11:41Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  This is it?

• 11:41Speaker 01

  This is it. Somebody's gonna see me gyrate in this school gym.

• 11:46Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  They're just gonna find you're gonna get discovered.

• 11:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:49Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So, you're in San Antonio, driving up to club, to the club in Austin, like, doing your thing. When, how did you transition from part-time to, or have you ever transitioned to full-time yet? Are you full-time?

• 12:02Speaker 01

  Um, oh, Lord. Um, now, I mean, that's all I do is work, but I'm so tickled for it. I feel so blessed. So then, I had little bitty children and Brian Dorfman, who is now my concert promoter at Outback Concerts and does all my tour, tours. He owns clubs all over the United States. My baby child was 18 months old. I opened for Billy Gardell in, at Zany's in Nashville. And he said, Lynn, I think you got something, but you cannot do this with three babies in these clubs. You can't do the club circuit, because back then, you would work Tuesday or Wednesday through Sunday. And Chuck was an executive by then, was moving up, corporate, the corporate ladder was gone all the time. And I was the main caregiver for these children, and I wanted to be the main caregiver for these babies.

• 12:46Speaker 01

  But he said to me, you cannot do it. And I remember it made me so mad, but he was right. I look back on it and I couldn't have raised my own children and done this that way. So, God just put his hand on me. So I, and when they were little bitty, I got on a tour with the Southern Fried Chicks, and that was two other female comedians coming off of the blue collar. Do you remember when Larry the Cable Guy, Jeff Foxworthy, they all blew up?

• 13:09Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yep.

• 13:10Speaker 01

  And we're on this huge tour. We were kind of like a female version of that. We didn't get as big as that, didn't make that kind of money. But I was able to work on the weekends and Chuck Morgan took care of these babies during the week. I always got to pick them up at school, drop them off. And then, after that tour ended, there was always television deals coming from Hollywood. I had like four before this sitcom made it. And so, even if I wasn't working a lot, and I was your breast cancer fundraiser girl, like, people hired me to do that, ovarian cancer, or the heart disease, or whatever, because I'm a clean comedian, so I did a lot of private corporate things that didn't take me away from my children much.

• 13:48Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Clean meaning, you don't drop ex.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  I don't, yeah, I'm a clean comedian that I can work pretty much anywhere.

• 13:54Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Okay.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  And I think somebody gave me that advice a long time ago, even though I don't think in my heart I would have ever used the language. Somebody gave me advice a long time ago and said, if you can work clean, you can work anywhere and you can make money while you're trying to make it in corporate or whatever. You can't clean up dirty.

• 14:11Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Like, you know, if I start out dirty, you'd, and I've seen people try to do it openly for me and we go, we need clean people. And they go, yeah, I can be clean. They usually can't. That was the best advice I ever gotten. But also, I'm a mother. I didn't ever want to say anything in front of them that I didn't want them to say.

• 14:27Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Right.

• 14:28Speaker 01

  Anyway, I started just doing what I could to stay on stage. And there were years that there was nothing. I mean, I would always have bookings, you know, one or two a month. But it's nothing like it is now. But it kept me on stage while I was raising these children. And then later, when I did that movie with Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell, every day she looked at me and said, you got to raise your own children, Lynn. And, and what a blessing it was. So even there were times when I was down and thought, nobody cares. I would audition for Aspen Comedy Festival, Just for Laughs in Montreal, all these things that are big in the comedy world, never get them. Comedy Central didn't want me. I wasn't edgy enough, all that stuff. But I look back on it and I feel like that was God's protection

• 15:12Speaker 01

  over me because I, I did get to raise them. I was with them. And then, honey, I was moving that baby child into makeup school. She's a professional makeup artist. She went to school in New York, in Manhattan.

• 15:24Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Your daughter, Tess.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  My baby Tess. And he says now she's my caregiver. She's with me all the time. Said, I did not sign up for that. But anyway, I felt very desperate. I cried to Chuck Morgan a few months before that and I said, nothing's happening. I had done a special for Dry Bar. I'd got millions of views. It was not selling tickets. It did not transfer to ticket sales. I was doing horrible gigs where I'd have to ride in and over with a boy high on marijuana and then stay in a country and on the side of the interstate.

• 15:57Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Interstate.

• 15:58Speaker 01

  And thought, what am I doing? I mean, you know, by then I was like 51 or something. And I thought, I don't want to live like this. This is not going well. And I cried to him and said, I'm going to open up a hardware store. And, because I can dazzle in a hardware store and I can get a cheese wheel. And he said, you've lost your mind, Leanne. And so I'd always admired Jim Gaffigan, Nate Morgans. Nate Morgans is a good friend of mine. He's about a year and a half ahead of me in this career we have. And I saw they had social media people. And this was years ago, when a lot of comedians didn't have it. And I thought, what are they doing? I want to be like them. I want to be in those theaters. And so I hired these social media guys. They

• 16:39Speaker 01

  put out a couple of videos. One was about taking Chuck Morgan to go see Def Leppard, and how everybody had plantar fasciitis and looked sick. And that went viral. And I knew something was happening. I could see it being shared thousands of times. And I thought, something is happening. And I said it to my family. I said, I think something is happening. And they all said, shut up. The Uber's here. Everybody was stressed out. And we gotta move her into apartment in New York. You know, we were like the Beverly Hillbillies up there. And yeah, I started selling out all over the United States. And I, it's just like somebody turned a light on in a room. And it was crazy.

• 17:14Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I mean, that's how I found you. What seems like overnight success, it really is 25 years of you putting in time and being able to raise your kids. Has anybody been really kind to you on this journey?

• 17:27Speaker 01

  Oh, honey, I've had several. I look back, there were people out in LA that gave me television deals that believed in me. Nick at Night, TV Land, Warner Brothers, ABC. I mean, there were several, you know, people that thought I had something, but you know, it just wasn't in the cards for that to pan out at the time. And then Little Reese Witherspoon, I met her, she doesn't remember meeting me, at a CMA after party at Ronnie, Brooks and Dunn, Ronnie's house. My friend Hugh Howser invited me to go. I was nobody. Nobody knew who I was. I tried to dress up and look like I was a country music star. I go to this party, Little Reese Witherspoon's there. I look into her eyes. And I said, my

• 18:12Speaker 01

  mama had a stroke at Vanderbilt. I just said it because she had just been sick. I'd been going back and forth and taking care of my little mama. It was a bad stroke. And she went, what? And held on to me and looked into my eyes. What do you mean, your mama's sick? And we held on to each other. And then COVID hit right after that. And she started watching my stuff and sending it to her friends. And that little thing gave me a part in a movie. I played her big sister, Gwyneth. She did that for me. I mean, so yeah, Reese Witherspoon, but all these people, and now I've got this unbelievable manager that, I mean, she's my age and she, I'm the first client, she's managed everybody big in the comedy industry, but I'm the first one that's her age, that we can sit and talk

• 18:55Speaker 01

  about menopause, we sit and talk about our hormones, we talk about, you know, everything, having a comfortable shoe, and we're having a ride of our life with each other. But yeah, I've had a lot of people invest in me over the years.

• 19:09Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

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• 19:50Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

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• 20:23Speaker 01

  No, I feel like a queen. I feel like that made me...

• 20:31Speaker 01

  Stand out above. Nobody was talking about menopause on Netflix. I didn't know it. I just, you know, tell what's going on in my life. And I was talking about perimenopause and I've had more people come up to me and go, oh, my husband finally gets it. When you said that, you know, and men have said that to me, I feel very good about. But I've always loved that. And I told you, I had a nurse practitioner who saved my life. I was in a horrible perimenopause. Then we did a little podcast together. I've always been interested in women's health. Cause I love being pregnant. You know, when you're with your girlfriends and you're all talking about, well, I had a C-section and all that. I love talking about that. And then menopause was like another thing that you could bond with people over. And, and we all just talk about it all the time.

• 21:16Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Did you ever get pushed back? Like you can't talk about that. This is off limits. Women, you know, did anyone say, this is gonna flop. You're not, this is not gonna be a good gig.

• 21:26Speaker 01

  No, no, they've all told me to lean into it. Good Lord, the people that are running Netflix, they're in menopause. Their wives are in menopause. You know, I went to a party with Amy Griffin, beautiful Amy Griffin and come out with her book.

• 21:43Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 21:43Speaker 01

  And went to this beautiful party in Beverly Hills. Everybody was showing each other their estrogen patch. I saw people's private parts.

• 21:53Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I feel like it's an occupational hazard when I go to a party and, you know, can I just ask you one question?

• 21:58Speaker 01

  You end up doctoring.

• 21:59Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So I'm so glad that somebody else, you know, realizes, cause I feel like, well, it's just me. They're only gonna talk about it cause I'm here and they feel comfortable, but I'm so glad I'm not the only one.

• 22:09Speaker 01

  Everybody wants to know. That's why this podcast is gonna blow up. Everybody wants to know and nobody knows and everybody's trying to figure it out. And you're the nail, the goat. You're like Mike Tyson of menopause.

• 22:25Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Well, I think we have this in common. My superpower is talking about things women weren't allowed to talk about or were scared to talk about and just being open and honest about it. I came at it from a medical standpoint, but you come at it from a real life, cause so much of what we go through is funny. You know, you have to laugh at it and I feel like you validate women's experiences by sharing your own.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  Oh, well, thank you, my darling. I just talked to little Kelly Ripa and she said, Leon, I felt seen. When I hear you, I feel seen. When you talk about all these things that everybody wants to talk about and they feel like they can or whatever, which she's very open, she talks about it. But she said, you make me feel seen. And I thought that was so sweet. And I'm just over here talking out of my head, but I mean it though, you know, but I do, I'm very interested in that. And when we met at G9 and I saw you on that panel and everything you said, I started telling everybody, you need to be listening to her. You need to get this book. Because you know, really, nobody knows what in the world to do. And you do.

• 23:28Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I didn't learn about it in school. In medical school where we get just your general M.D. training, you know, here, you're a new doctor. Now go specialize. I had one one hour lecture and that's pretty standard across the U.S. My daughter's in med school right now. So she said they get a touch more, a little whisper of it here and there. So it's not as bad. But then I went into women's health. OBGYN, like I am in charge of breasts, pelvis, all the things. And we got about six hours in a four year curriculum. And I thought I was fine. Like I graduated, I've got everything I need to know. I have my little toolkit, off we go. And let me tell you, I walked into that office to sit down with real patients, you know, very different than the patients we practice on in the hospital

• 24:12Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  setting. I mean, surgery is different, but like in the clinic. So I go in with these fancy Houston mamas. Pregnancy, I got. I can deliver a baby upside down, backwards, inside out, C-section, blindfolded, one hand tight, no big deal. But the minute those women came in and started talking about their sex lives, I was a deer in the headlights. We had never covered libido, loss of libido. And so I'd run out in the hall and I, my two bosses were two older gentlemen. And I'd say, oh, I have Ms. Smith. She doesn't want to have sex and she's really worried. And her husband's threatening to leave her or it hurts or whatever. And he's like, tell her to have some wine. That was it. And so I start, but this is before Google, you know, I start looking for resources and I find Venus and Mars in the bedroom.

• 24:57Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I read it. I'm like, okay, so I start copying, she'd handwrite notes out of it and I would Xerox them. That's how old I am. We Xeroxed. And hand make little pamphlets for my patients because I didn't know what to do. No one had taught me anything about that. And then as the patients are aging, menopause is coming. And again, after that damn women's health initiative, and we were all terrified of hormone therapy, myself included. I'm a really good doctor. Like, we have really let down a whole generation, our generation of women. And it really took me going through it to realize, we gotta do better.

• 25:33Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:33Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  We gotta do better.

• 25:34Speaker 01

  And honey, I've been out here telling it, but nobody listens to a comedian. Because my nurse practitioner said to me-

• 25:40Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  No, you're giving women permission to go and talk.

• 25:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:43Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  To share their stories, to laugh about it. You know, as those videos are getting shared by the millions, even though you're telling jokes and it's funny, you're giving women permission to say, hey, wait a minute. This is funny, but it's okay. And we can talk about it and we can go talk to our doctors about it. Did your mama ever talk about this?

• 26:01Speaker 01

  She was on estrogen for a while.

• 26:04Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Mine too.

• 26:05Speaker 01

  And they took her off of it because they were worried about that breast cancer study. And I remember my little precious mama, Ceele, who's 81, who is the light, if you want to talk and be with somebody fun, it's her. But she came home from working in that meat house and would be in that cold weather and did manual labor and did the counting and all that. She's brilliant. She would come home, me and my sister would be sitting up with a towel on her head, deep conditioning it. Maybe dusting because she didn't like a dirty house. My mama, I would be just sitting there, didn't help do a thing. And I remember mama taking out the garbage and saying, this smells like S H I T. There was never a language in our house.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  And we all got scared to death and ran in our own rooms and slammed the door. And my daddy got that garbage and took it out. She was in menopause. She had never said anything. God love her. I remember her being moody. I remember her crying. She had lost her daddy around that time, but they took her off of that estrogen. And you know, now she's had a stroke and I know that HRT helps with cardiovascular risk as well as bone health, dementia.

• 27:17Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  And cardiovascular, yeah. We wonder had our mothers had different options counseling, you know, did your mother ever lift weights? Did she think about her bone health? Did she, you know, think about all the cardiovascular risk reduction things she could have done outside of, you know, hormone therapy? They just weren't, you know, little old ladies just got old.

• 27:38Speaker 01

  Now, my mama was lifting big baskets of meat and they told her when she had her stroke, the physical therapist, they said, because you did manual labor, that will help you. And she, she almost recovered, was walking on a walker, almost running after she had her stroke. And then there was another complication they had to operate her on again, and that affected her balance and her eyesight. So now she can't walk. But she was recovering and they said it's from a life of manual labor, lifting, squatting, doing, and she always had a garden. She worked like a mule. And then she loved yoga and zumba, honey, up at the civic center. And she would dance and everybody loved her and wanted to be with her. She'd be dancing with all these young girls and loved to exercise.

• 28:23Speaker 01

  I've told everybody in the United States of America, they have ruined that study. And when I went on hormone therapy, everybody called me and said, you're going to get cancer and you can't take this. And I go, but no, there's, that was study was right. But nobody listens to me. I don't have credibility.

• 28:39Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So your nurse practitioner was an early adopter. That's pretty lucky.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  She was. And I was in my mid 40s. I had done CrossFit and gotten real competitive and was doing jerking cleans and crazy mess. I think it, my cortisol levels went up. It was in the middle of the economic downturn. So things affected Chuck's job with, because he's in the housing market or a housing company. We had a tragic death in our family. I had one of my very best friends, it's in the book, dumped me. And I had never had that kind of heartbreak before. And I hear that women in perimenopause and menopause will go through breakups.

• 29:18Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yep.

• 29:19Speaker 01

  And it's so painful. It's like being middle school girls and somebody's got to be a butthole. And so I was going through all that and I used to walk every day with her. I was going to fitness classes at my gym. I love fitness. And I just quit going and I was so tired. I know that must have been stress. I would fall asleep in the pickup line at school around three o'clock. Somebody'd have to honk a horn, scare the living daylights out of me to move. I would be awake all night and I just couldn't put one foot in front of the other. And I really started thinking, do I have cancer or something bad wrong with me? And I was so fatigued. I had heart palpitations. I kept saying to my precious doctor who I loved, and he was good for a sinus infection, but I said,

• 30:05Speaker 01

  I don't feel right. And he had a poster that had thyroid symptoms of hypothyroid or Hashimoto's or whatever, and it was hair loss, constipated, all this. And I go, I'm constipated. I've lost my hair. I don't feel good. And he goes, I've done your panel. You're fine. I think it ended up being an antiquated panel. He goes, you're depressed. I'm going to put you on antidepressant. And he did. It did not change anything. And then I had a child go off to college. I mean, all these life things happened in the same time. And then we were all had braces. We had braces in my 40s with my kids in middle school and high school. I could barely even keep awake and I told them I don't feel good.

• 30:46Speaker 01

  And the girl that worked front desk, she said, there is a nurse practitioner that is saving people's lives. I mean, these 40 something year old mamas are in there getting their kids braces. Turns out the doctor that she worked under was my next door neighbor. His wife, who I love, my neighbor, I said, I would love to get into her. And she goes, well, let me see what I can do because she had 4,000 patients. Nobody wanted to see the doctors. Everybody wanted to see her. And she could not take new patients. My neighbor got me in. And she said, I'm gonna do some stuff out of the box. It's probably gonna come out of your own pocket and I'll probably get fined for it. But she said, let's do it. And she, you know, did a gluten intolerant test. She checked my adrenal fatigue. I was in adrenal

• 31:30Speaker 01

  fatigue. My thyroid had bottomed down. She said, you're in perimenopause. Your estrogen is up and down.

• 31:37Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Fluctuating.

• 31:38Speaker 01

  Yeah. And she started getting me on everything. Took her a while to get me situated, but I felt like a different person. I say she saved me.

• 31:45Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I hear that all the time from patients that, you know, their stresses don't go away. You still have the sick mamas and the, you know, marital whatever and, and you carpool and drop off and work and, but you've, you got it again. Like you get your life back. My patients don't come in asking, rock a bikini at 45 or to, you know, they're like, I just, I built this life and I had it managed. You know, we had normal stresses, kids. I had it all covered. I could do it. And now I can't do it. When we address all those issues and get them taken care of, suddenly they can, they can manage their life again.

• 32:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. Cause you're up all night. You can't sleep. You're broken out in a sweat.

• 32:23Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 32:24Speaker 01

  I was having heart palpitations when we did the Oprah thing and she said she had to wear a heart monitor. I wore a heart monitor. One time I thought, I've got a heart problem. Something is bad wrong with me. And they put me on a heart monitor and I was okay. It was just heart palpitations from, I guess.

• 32:38Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Perimenopause. Yeah.

• 32:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:40Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So there's estrogen receptors on the, there's a little node in our heart muscle that controls our heart rate. And just like the hot flash center goes cattywampus, the same thing can happen about. It's really shocking because it's like 45% of women will have palpitations in perimenopause and menopause. And it's usually almost always managed. Doesn't mean you don't need to go see cardiology and get the appropriate work up because it's not always menopause, but we're not training the clinicians to say, this might be menopause. Let's get you worked up, but you know, let's try some hormones and see if it gets better.

• 33:09Speaker 01

  And I think, I look back on it now and when I quit exercising, that was the worst thing I could have done. You know, we had, had that blow up and I didn't have anybody to walk with and I should have walked on my own. But if I, I tell young girls all the time, keep exercising. All that wine and all that rigmarole, I started. Craving wine. I'd never been a drinker, never been in my house. And I just like started thinking, oh, red wine at night. And then I'd be up all night from that. It would disrupt my sleep and I would eat white flour. You know, and that just makes it all worse. Sugar and all that.

• 33:43Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 33:43Speaker 01

  And I wish that I could have, you know, I would have known better and I would have taken better care of myself. So I try to tell these young girls that.

• 33:50Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  That's almost universal with my patients. All right. You're, you're literally everywhere right now. You're all over my social media. I turn on the TV. There you are at the Emmys, looking absolutely fabulous.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  Thank you, my darling.

• 34:01Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I mean, I was sitting on the couch with my popcorn and my husband. And I was like, oh, my God, there, I didn't know you were presenting. And then I was like, huh. Huh, Leanne, Leanne, Leanne. And you looked so beautiful and you were so funny.

• 34:12Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 34:13Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Did you get to smell Pedro Pascal?

• 34:14Speaker 01

  I did not get to smell little Pedro. I didn't really even get to meet him. I don't know where they whisk that little thing out somewhere. And I went to all these parties and I didn't get to see him and I bet he was there. Lorne Michaels at Saturday Night Live. And he said, my wife is your biggest fan. It took me to meet her and she was precious. I've been raised on Saturday Night Live and that is my thing. And I've heard from more.

• 34:34Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Are you manifesting this right now?

• 34:36Speaker 01

  I am. I want to host.

• 34:38Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  On Saturday Night Live, just saying.

• 34:40Speaker 01

  I would love to host. And I have had, you know, I worked with Will Ferrell. Fred Armisen reached out to me. I was on John Mulaney's show, Amy Poehler's podcast. And then I heard from Molly Shannon the other day. So when these SNL people reach out to me, that means the world to me. And they all say, Leanne, you write like us. Like we, all the writers send your stuff around. And I'm like, what? But I have loved it all of my life and it never dawned on me to get in the car at 18 and drive to Chicago for Second City or the Groundlings in LA. I was just from the country. I didn't know. But that thrills me. And then we went to a Warner Brothers party and I met all of Abbott Elementary, that little Quinta Brunson, that little doll that's as big as this cup. I could have held her like a baby. Brilliant. It's got one of the top shows on.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  I met Brett Goldstein and Ted Lasso.

• 35:29Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Oh, my God.

• 35:30Speaker 01

  And Darlin, he's another stand up. I met Drew Tarver, who was on the other two. But every part. I mean, there were people that I saw that I was like, oh, my Lord, look Chuck Morgan. He was with me and we just, and I lost five pounds that weekend because he'd say, do you want a slider? And I was like, no, I don't want a slider. I'm trying to meet people and I don't want to smell bad. So he ate and I just would be weak and think, oh, I haven't eaten because I'm at these Hollywood parties, but everybody's tiny.

• 35:59Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Here's what I see. Like I looked at Catherine Lannasa's win, you know, from the pit. I that women of a certain age now are winning things, being recognized or playing like real tangible people. And I can remember Goldie Hawn said a line, and I think it was the First Wives Club.

• 36:20Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  There's three ages for women in Hollywood. Babe, District Attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy. I'll never forget that line for as long as I live. And I'm like, where are we?

• 36:32Speaker 02

  There are only three ages for women in Hollywood. Babe, District Attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy.

• 36:38Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  What do you think about that right now? Do you feel like we're developing a new age for Hollywood?

• 36:42Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Jean Smart won.

• 36:44Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yes.

• 36:44Speaker 01

  Jean Smart for Hacks.

• 36:46Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So good.

• 36:46Speaker 01

  Catherine O'Hara is doing more. Well, I mean, she's always been fabulous. Yeah, I mean,

• 36:52Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Kathy Bates, I mean.

• 36:54Speaker 01

  Kathy Bates, that doll. Yeah, I mean, I just, but I didn't come up in Hollywood and I know they must feel that ageism, but I don't see it. But I think everybody's thriving at our, at that age and up.

• 37:08Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I love it. I love seeing it. So your next Netflix special, Unspeakable Things?

• 37:13Speaker 01

  Unspeakable Things.

• 37:15Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  What are we going to be speaking about?

• 37:16Speaker 01

  Honey, it's more stories about all these kids and Chuck Morgan and the unspeakable things parts is I, you know, do unspeakable things with Chuck Morgan and he still has a lot of testosterone. And I remember my nurse practitioner saying, I'm going to give you some testosterone. I said, thank you. And she goes, the more Tennessee plays. She said, I'll just tell you, it's going to up here. You got to keep up with that. And I was like,

• 37:40Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So I started testosterone for muscle mass. Like in our house, nobody was complaining. Like it happened when it happened. Everybody's happy. Like I, I wasn't feeling like pressure of, you know, having to perform more. And then because I'm thinner and I was worried about my mom fell in broke her hip and bone density and I'm skinny. I don't have a lot of muscle. Like, you know, maybe I'll add in this testosterone off label to see if it'll help me in this, all this weightlifting I'm trying to do and eating all this protein. Besides the new couple of chin hairs, which are manageable.

• 38:16Speaker 01

  It makes you want to do it.

• 38:17Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I wouldn't say hanging from a chandelier, but I would say he's very much happy.

• 38:24Speaker 01

  Oh, that's nice because that's how men show love. That's the way God made them and there's nothing wrong with that.

• 38:31Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  He's definitely happier and there's just more of an uptick in my end of the area. Actually, maybe even suggesting on my part, which hadn't happened in a long time.

• 38:41Speaker 01

  And don't you know, that makes him feel good.

• 38:43Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Outside of vacation. Yeah.

• 38:44Speaker 01

  Outside of vacation in a hotel room. Because in that special I talk about Chuck Morgan loves a hotel room and gets a glazed look over his eyes and I feel like I'm doing this. Okay. I saw you post the kind that you use and I asked somebody, can you give me what Dr. Mary Claire's got? Cause I take a little day, it's just a little like in a syringe kind of thing. It's compounded and I just take, it's just like this much of, and I don't know what.

• 39:12Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So I did compounding for our patients for a long time because that was the thing I had the best access to because we don't, and we can debate that on another podcast, but we don't have an FDA approved version for women, though we have tons of studies showing it's safe and effective and I'm fighting that battle with the FDA right now. Okay. So we borrow the men's. All right. So you either have to compound it or go get AndroGel or T-STEM or get an injectable.

• 39:36Speaker 01

  AndroGel, is that what you were showing in the video?

• 39:38Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  Where can you get it?

• 39:40Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  From a pharmacy. So I, we found a reliable supplier and it's very, very inexpensive. So that bottle, because it's made for men, will last a woman like four to five months. The way we micro, you have to microdose it basically. So.

• 39:55Speaker 01

  Is it prescription?

• 39:56Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  It is a prescription. Yeah, you have to have a prescription for it. But it's works great. It's easy to use. The bottle lasts forever. It's very affordable. And so we've really switched to that away from compounding because compounding can be variable. My patients travel far distances to come and see me. And so I don't know these compounding people where they're trying to get their meds and shipping can be a little squirrely with creams and stuff. So this seemed to be like a good solution that worked for it. And a lot of my menopause friends, other docs that I hang out with, they do a lot of T-stem gel too. So which is prescription in the little packets.

• 40:29Speaker 01

  Because let's face it, and I know Dr. Laura that had the radio show, still has it.

• 40:34Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Oh, Dr. Laura.

• 40:35Speaker 01

  I remember her saying, what do men need? A casserole. And you know what? I mean, and it really, and it not that men are simple, it's just.

• 40:47Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Uncomplicated.

• 40:48Speaker 01

  It's very uncomplicated. And if I make a Duncan Hines yellow cake mix with a balt frosting, as my momma calls it, chocolate, put that in the oven, that's cooking. I pour a little bleach in a toilet so Chuck thinks I've cleaned. Then he comes home, you know what? He's almost in tears. It does not take a lot for a man. It really doesn't. But it's terrible when, when you're going through menopause and it does hurt and you, and then you think, my body, my stomach doesn't look like a stomach. What has happened to me? And then you're sweaty. I've tried to tell Chuck Morgan, I am feel this, you know, put his hand on my chest and it'll be, you know, I just feel I need to plan it.

• 41:33Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So I tell patients that the male libido, and libido is like a Freudian term, you know, I don't love the term libido, but you know, your, your desire, everybody understands what that is. Men's tends to be very simple, just a little off on switch, usually on. Okay. Easy. A female's is the flight deck of a 747. There are more buttons and bells and whistles and clicks and over here and you turn on this one and this one goes over there. It's a lot more complicated. And so just throwing testosterone at someone doesn't help everyone. We probably have a good 30 to 40% response rate for desire. Relationships are part of it. Body image is part of it. You know, so much is changing on how we feel about ourselves and how we're socialized

• 42:16Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  to be performers and givers and sometimes you're just tired.

• 42:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're tired. You know, I buy little gowns now and they're not that cute. And they've got like a cool technology in them so that I, you know, and I look like a meme all. And then there's all kinds of things. Also, it is, I think, relationship. In the morning, women need to be told, you look beautiful today. Can I do for you? Yeah, can I unload the dishwasher? It's like warming up a car. And I believe that, you know, I had all those classes in child family studies. So I get all that and it, and it does. You have to really communicate and all of that. So I do think so much of it is relationship. And then, you know, women do feel like your body has changed and it's changing again.

• 43:06Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Right. But I have patients who are still having incredible sex lives. Like it's possible. It's possible. And testosterone, let me just throw this out there and they don't pay me to say this. There are two FDA approved products for women that work at the level of the brain because libido's a mood. It's up here, right?

• 43:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:26Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Men's is more just there.

• 43:28Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 43:28Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Addy, which we were talking about last night. And, and Vilese, there's an injectable that you can give yourself 30 to 45 minutes before the onset. And that will help release some hormones that'll make you more receptive. But I just, most of my patients and myself included, when I really think about it, my husband would be like, is it working? Is it working? It's been 30 minutes. Do you feel anything yet? So, it's a little, you know, so Addy is a pill you take every day.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  And let me say this about precious men, because I've got two grandsons, a son and a, and a husband, and I love men. Men don't even care if you, your stomach. Men don't even care. We get that in our head. They don't care. God love them. Just had a baby and Chuck Morgan would be flaring his nostrils at me. He does not care what I look like. He loves me for who I am. He has never said a word about my body. It's in my head.

• 44:24Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  My head. That's the way we're socialized. So, big marquee birthday. Congratulations.

• 44:30Speaker 01

  Thank you, my darling. It's good to be alive at 60. Landed hard, but.

• 44:34Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I'm 57. I'm right behind you. So, 30-year-old LeAnn, thinking about 60-year-old LeAnn, what did you think you'd be doing at 60?

• 44:43Speaker 01

  At 30? I would have thought probably I would be a grandmama.

• 44:50Speaker 01

  And I would think I would have a career, but I didn't know it was going to be this wonderful. That 30-year-old didn't know all this. It's pretty special. It's bigger and sweeter and more wonderful than anything I ever dreamed of. And I tell you why. I thought I was going to be 40. I thought I was going to be younger and thinner when this happened. Okay, whatever. But now that I'm at my age and when this happened to me in my 50s, and I, I'm in a lane by myself. My team, everybody in Hollywood says this to me, in the comedy industry too, I'm in a lane by myself. And I'm speaking to, and I found them, they found me. And every time I walk out in the Big Panty Tour, the first tour, and I was scared to death. Um, because I'd never been a big, did a big tour like that in theaters.

• 45:35Speaker 01

  And every time I walked out, they would stand up before I ever said a word and blow kisses at me, and they had presents for me. You know, I don't want to be sappy, but it was so precious how they loved on me and wanted to see me do well. Everybody wants to see me win. And it's girls my age that are like, oh, if she can do that, I can do this. She's in her 50s? I can start a business. I can go. Back and be a yoga teacher. I can go back to school or whatever. In my first tour, I partnered with Vanity Fair because they had a real comfortable big panty. And they gave five women seed money to start their own thing during the big panty tour. And they had people fly and they picked five women and gave them seed money to start businesses

• 46:20Speaker 01

  or go back to school or whatever they were gonna do. And it was precious.

• 46:23Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So for the women listening right now who are in their 50s, I mean, I, they come to my office and they are a lot of times devastated by life. Menopause is like, they're taking a hit from, from untreated menopause. I can get them that back. But then they're at this life transition, you know, divorce sometimes, kids leaving the house, parents getting sick and old. And what would you say to a woman who's like, there's nothing left for me. I can't do that. You know, where am I gonna go? What am I gonna do?

• 46:52Speaker 01

  I would say whatever their desire had been. I've always heard this, like, what your desire was as a child, like, what did you dream of being? I think we all have these dreams in life and the world stamps it out. But I had that dream. But you know, I've heard more people saying like, I wanted to be a so and so. And everybody said, oh, no, you can't do that. But what is it that you desired in your heart you've wanted to do because you can do it now? Because think about it, we're smarter than we've ever been. We're wiser than we're ever been. This is the time to do it. I mean, it's just never too late. And I know that sounds sappy, but it's not. It's never too late. And you see all these people doing wonderfully. Yeah, I'll tell you what I

• 47:34Speaker 01

  love on Instagram, and it got in my algorithm for a while, need to get it back. It'll be like an 80 year old woman that's gone back to Narcisco and finished her degree. I mean, it's just doable.

• 47:44Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Or to me, what I love seeing is the like elderly women, 70s, 80s, going to the gym. And they walk in with a walker and then they're walking out on their own two feet. And I'm like,

• 47:57Speaker 01

  Joan, little Joan, little Joan taking a big log and flipping it into loom.

• 48:04Speaker 01

  She's living her best life.

• 48:06Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Train with Joan on Instagram.

• 48:07Speaker 01

  Train with Joan. If you need inspiration, look at little Joan in a bikini.

• 48:11Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  She's got her biceps going.

• 48:13Speaker 01

  I know. It isn't though, really. I mean, there are people that go back to school, that start a business. But if you can get help and people behind you, and people want to see people do well, they want to help people. This is the time to do it. And people say to me all the time, I look at your schedule, and in hell in the world are you doing it? Because everybody's so tired. And I go, I bet I'd be tired if I didn't have this adrenaline going. Because this is so exciting for me. But I do, I really try to prioritize my sleep now. I have all these sleep hacks, I do.

• 48:41Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Tell me about some of them, because I'm still struggling.

• 48:44Speaker 01

  I have got to have it at 66 to 67 degrees. I would even go colder. When I was in LA and it was just me and my baby, and Chuck Morgan went in there worried about, you know, the thermostat. Yeah, and him covered up in a fleece because he's cold and I'm not. I got to sleep in like, like you could hang meat. And I think that that makes you sleep better. I have a sleep mask. Now I bought this little contraption that's a red light. I turn that on, it's like 26 minutes and I have all that sleep mask. I don't know if that does anything, but I think it does. And I have a sound machine and I get all that out and hope that nobody comes in on me. I don't eat late. I used to eat after I'd get off stage. But I have found out, eat before you don't want to burp in the microphone.

• 49:29Speaker 01

  So get something where you won't have reflux or burp in the microphone. But then, don't eat a big gob. Like, in all these towns, it's so sweet, we'll go, we're trying to do well. And we'll go, can we get a chicken breast with no oil? And a baked potato with nothing else on it, maybe some A1 and a vegetable like a broccoli. And these precious people in this town want us to have their best food. So then here's this fried chicken breast with a, over a corn sauce.

• 49:56Speaker 01

  With a barclay and cheese casserole, you know, everybody wants to see us get their best food from their town. So then we end up eating that. And I found out I thought during the big panty tour, you can go back and look at those pictures. I was inflamed. I don't even know what you call my breast. I don't know what that was. They look like feed sacks. I wear this Oura ring and this Oura ring will say.

• 50:15Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  They'll tell you, you can't lie. Yeah.

• 50:17Speaker 01

  You'll, yeah. And during the series, when little Tim Daly was playing my boyfriend, he wore an Oura ring. And he goes, do you think they're telling us the truth about the sleep? He said, when I get up and it says 98, you scored a 98. He goes, I don't feel like I really did. But anyway, the Oura, it's weird because it'll say, did you have a late meal?

• 50:35Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Did you drink alcohol?

• 50:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. And see, on the big panty tour, I was freaked out of getting in front of those big crowds and they would have a little wine for me. And I wouldn't drink a lot, but I, and I, I have stopped that. I don't care about alcohol. I'll drink it a little bit every once in a while, a margarita, have a little bit of red wine. Cause I think that messes me up terrible.

• 50:57Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  There's great studies coming out now, looking at sleep disruption and alcohol's effects, especially after menopause. Like, the girls aren't sleeping, by the way. Nobody in perimenopause and menopause is sleeping like they used to. And we're learning more. Of course, hot flashes have a lot to do with it. But like, when I tell my patients, a certain percentage of you, and me included, if I choose to drink more than a one glass, you know, I am choosing not to sleep. That is my choice.

• 51:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, just stay up all night and start knitting something.

• 51:26Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Start that novel.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  I try, yeah, I take magnesium.

• 51:30Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 51:30Speaker 01

  So that I can poop and sleep.

• 51:33Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  That's two for one.

• 51:34Speaker 01

  Two for one. I hate for these boys to hear this. Um, and then I take, I like a magnesium threonate. I think that helps relax my body. Um, and I do try to take something over the counter, like a gabapethenanine, like some kind of like a mixture.

• 51:51Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I'm an L-theanine fan.

• 51:52Speaker 01

  Valerian, yeah, valerian. So I'm always looking for, I'm the girl on Instagram that gets influenced with supplements. I'm watching little old women finish their degree.

• 52:04Speaker 01

  And buying supplements and shows that don't over stimulate toddlers. That comes through mine too, because I got two toddlers, two babies. But yeah, I try to really prioritize my sleep so that I can do this tour. And that's what people ask me all the time. I don't know how you're doing it, Lynn. And I'm so thankful that I have the strength to do this. My thyroid medicine, I keep that where it's supposed to be. That's energy. I take my B12 methylated because I have that MTHFR gene. And I make sure I get my vitamin D.

• 52:32Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah. Who's doing your blood work? Who's, you know, is your nurse practitioner still managing?

• 52:37Speaker 01

  She retired and we all resented her. She, you know, had to go live her life and made us mad.

• 52:43Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  God forbid.

• 52:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I have now an endocrinologist that helped take care of my girls because they both had thyroid cancer and I have nodules, bad nodules. So she watches that. She does a lot of that. I have, um, I've had wonderful people like my regular provider, those NPs and PAs there that would just make sure my vitamin D levels were where they were supposed to be and all that. But the nurse practitioner found out the MTHFR thing. And I would think, I'm so tired compared to my friends. And, and it's, she said, you're not absorbing your B's, Lynn, like you're supposed to. So that is really and truly helped me. And if I forget, like I get off and it's in a, another suitcase or something and I've forgotten it, then I think, why am I so tired? I'm like,

• 53:27Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  You forgot your,

• 53:27Speaker 01

  It's that, my B12s.

• 53:29Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  So your girls, what's the best advice you think you've given them? They probably would say something different, but like, what do you feel as the mother has been the best, like gift you've given your girls?

• 53:38Speaker 01

  I try to tell them now, well, I've said and kissed them in the mouth and we've, we're close. We're very close. We've had a good time, honey. I've been fun. I'll just say it. I didn't push in school. If Chuck Morgan had had, had been at home and pushed them, they'd be in Harvard with a nervous tick. But we went to the zoo a lot. I'll just tell you, Dollywood, Dollywood's near here. We had a ball.

• 54:02Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I saw the billboard.

• 54:03Speaker 01

  Ah, it's a wonderful park.

• 54:04Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  We're Knoxville right now.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  Yeah. If there was like a parent teacher conference, I'd go to their parent teacher conference and I'd go, we're going to Dollywood afterwards. So we have a very close relationship, but no. Now is there grown women, I tell them, I want you to be happy. This world goes by, this time goes by so fast. As it says in the Bible, it's like dew on, on a leaf, it's gone. And I just look back now and here I am sixty and I've had a wonderful life. But I, I try to tell them, take care of your body, eat good foods, get this foundation going for when you have your babies. When you go through your, you know, always take care of yourself. I wish I'd take better care of myself. I've had good, I mean, I've had times when I have and then times when I haven't and you know, I feel stressed out and I'm on tour and

• 54:48Speaker 01

  I could take those bands. Little Tony Horton said, just take a band, lean in, do some squats, dance, dance to a few songs, you know. I know you want to get in that band because it's so easy. You get off a flight, you're lugging all that. You go to hotel room, you need to go to that hotel gym. It's depressing. But you know, I go, well, I just need a comedy nap, laying in the band, stare at the wall. I need to stay active. I tell them, I want, you know, don't do as I did.

• 55:15Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 55:15Speaker 01

  Do as I say. Take care of your body. I want that they want babies. I want to help them with their babies. I want to be up in the band and teach them how to breastfeed. And then I want them, when they go through their forties, get that foundation, eat those blueberries. Darn it, not goldfish with that Diet Coke and a big SUV driving. Mad at people you don't know you're mad at.

• 55:38Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Kids a handful and then you eat a handful.

• 55:40Speaker 01

  Handful, honey. I love a goldfish, but I'm trying not to do it.

• 55:44Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  That extra chatter.

• 55:45Speaker 01

  That extra chatter.

• 55:46Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 55:47Speaker 01

  And I just tell them, do what makes you happy because you know, everybody gets in some bad job that they're not happy in before you know, you turn around and you're sixty.

• 55:55Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:56Speaker 01

  You know, live life to the fullest every day. I tell them, I want y'all to be happy and I want y'all to find your passion because I believe in that. Like Chuck Morgan's a lot more practical than me and he's the one that's had the health insurance. So I've, you know, I've relied on Chuck Morgan. I've been the dreamer. But I do believe in, in dreaming and dreaming big and keeping that dream alive and never letting those dreams die. I really do because I think that pushes you and keeps you. I don't even know if people shouldn't retire. I know they want to.

• 56:28Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I mean, maybe you're corporate nine to five, but there's a new book coming out called Joyspan. And it's a woman who's a gerontologist, which is fancy for she takes care of old people. And she's phenomenal. And so I'm going to interview her too. And she says, the number one predictor of health span, which is women live longer than men. I see all the bro science guys out there talking about I'm lived to a hundred and twenty. I don't have a single female patient who wants to be a hundred and twenty, not if everybody around her is dead. She's like, I just don't want to be in a nursing home. I just don't want to have dementia. I just don't want to have this 10 years of somebody having to take care of me. And what this doctor says is that relationships, using your brain, stimulating your mind.

• 57:08Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Besides the healthy habits, if you make it to eighty, you know, and cancer doesn't get you or something else. If you want that last decade to be healthful, relationships, relationships, relationships and using your brain. So even though you don't nine to five it, you have to be doing something with your talent.

• 57:26Speaker 01

  Yes. Okay. And I was just at Mississippi, Mississippi college asked me to come and do a Q and A. And I did pictures with all these people that had bought tables. It's a fundraiser for athletic and academic scholarships there. And a little woman, they were, you know, helping her in, she was walking, but they, they said, this is our grandmother. Ninety-two, works at Chick-fil-A. Three days a week for three hours and makes the cookies. You know, Chick-fil-A has the cookies and the desserts. She, I guess they may be pre-made. I don't know Chick-fil-A. But she's doing that job and she goes, girl, I love it. And her daughter said, she's like a destination. People go to see her at this Chick-fil-A and make over her.

• 58:08Speaker 01

  And everybody loves her. She's so popular. And I said, I hope I'm doing that. I've always wanted to work in food. I used to when I was in college. I could see myself making the desserts three days a week and getting to be with people. And I think that's important to stay connected. And my little mama wanted to work and kept working after they shut down their business. And then she got sick, but she's at the senior citizens playing cards and beating the fire out of everybody in Canasta.

• 58:33Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Brain.

• 58:34Speaker 01

  Uh huh. And playing bingo and doing all that.

• 58:36Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I like that you use your brain and it's a way to socialize with your friends. All my friends are doing like a Zumba class in Galveston.

• 58:43Speaker 01

  Yes, I love Zumba.

• 58:44Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  And I have a little gym we built at our house, like over thirty years, you know, here's Christmas, we get a new weight bench or, you know, whatever. But I miss like being with my girlfriends and we used to play games and do stuff when the kids grow up and whatever. I'm like, I may have to go to that damn exercise class. Just to go hang out with my girlfriends and dance around with some weights in my hand.

• 59:01Speaker 01

  I love that and I love jazzercise, but when I go here in Knoxville, because I'm kind of a big deal here.

• 59:06Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Yeah.

• 59:06Speaker 01

  Then people had to see me in my yoga pants. And I just feel weird about people going, look at Leanne's Fanny in those, she's eating a lot of goldfish.

• 59:14Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Tell me about what, what's coming up. What do you have? What do we need to let everybody know about?

• 59:19Speaker 01

  I just had, I was just on, um, Family Feud, Celebrity with Laney Wilson.

• 59:24Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Did you win?

• 59:25Speaker 01

  We won. Chuck Morgan goes, I knew we were gonna win.

• 59:29Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Who'd you bring from the family?

• 59:31Speaker 01

  All my babies.

• 59:31Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Like a trailer for it.

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was my children, all the three of my kids, because you have five. I wish I could do it again, because I was so nervous that I was like freaked out over Britney Spears questions. And now I think, oh, I would have had a ball, but I did have a good time and Steve Harvey was precious. He is my idol. When I first got started with Out by Concerts, thinking, what do you want to do, Leanne? I always said, I want to be the female Steve Harvey. He's done stand-up movies, television. I mean, he's done everything and I just think he's so funny. I'm finishing out my tour, just getting started tour. And then I will be shooting back in production for season two of Leanne on Netflix and I'm so thankful they gave me a season two. Praise God.

• 1:00:13Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Season one was fantastic.

• 1:00:14Speaker 01

  Thank you. Yet for twenty-eight days.

• 1:00:16Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  When you were having the hot flash after the date?

• 1:00:19Speaker 01

  They sprayed me with something weird. But yeah, those kind of scenes, you know, I really have never been an actress. I mean, I've only done one movie. But I thought, okay, that feels real to me. I think I can pull that out of my butt, because I've had many hot flashes, haven't had to make out with somebody during one. And then I thought, if I, if Chuck Morgan, God forbid, left me, because let me tell everybody, I'm still with Chuck Morgan. Some people think that I've really been left and no, Chuck Morgan is on my butt. Yeah, I'm still married. Okay, but in this series, Tim Daly is my, Agent Andrew is my boyfriend. And when I had to go away for the weekend and I had to go to a hotel room. With Agent Andrew, that came easy to me because I thought if I had to go now on a

• 1:01:02Speaker 01

  date and start dating, period, start dating and then go somewhere and share a bathroom with somebody and wear a bathing suit and a hamburger in the poo. I mean, it would kill me. So that was easy, that episode. But yeah, so I start filming that and then I'll go on tour again, this 200 city tour, and I hope I get to do movies. I hope I get to do a movie again. I had a ball. There's maybe some opportunity with that for parts. So I hope I get to do that. But touring and television series.

• 1:01:32Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  Awesome. Well, it was wonderful having you on today. I love you.

• 1:01:37Speaker 01

  My little Mary Claire. I tell everybody, I know Mary Claire. I've got her phone number, but I try not to worry you because you're doing all this. People are going to kill you.

• 1:01:45Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  I still sit on the couch and watch Netflix. So, you know, you can always text me when I'm doing that because I'm usually watching you.

• 1:01:51Speaker 01

  Oh, you angel from heaven. Thank you, you doll. You give, give, give, you angel. This is going to be wonderful. You're going to help so many people, you doll.

• 1:02:02Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  As a reminder to our audience, you can find LeAnn, at LeAnn Morgan Comedy on Instagram, and go read her book, What in the World? You can also stream the first season of LeAnn right now on Netflix and catch her hilarious new Netflix special, Unspeakable Things, streaming November 4. I'd love to hear from you about this topic and anything else that's on your mind. You can find me on Instagram at Dr. Mary Claire and get honest and accurate information on health, fitness, and navigating midlife at thepauselife.com. If you're loving this podcast, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode. While you're there, leave us a review and be sure to share the show with the women

• 1:02:42Dr. Mary Claire Haver?

  you love. We would be so grateful. You can also find full episodes on YouTube at Dr. Mary Claire. UnPaused is presented by Odyssey in conjunction with Pod People. I'm your host, Dr. Mary Claire Haver. The views and opinions expressed on UnPaused are those of the talent and the guests alone and are provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. No part of this podcast or any related materials are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.