Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn

Beyond the Mammogram: Why Dr. Jenn Simmons Believes QT Imaging Is the Future of Breast Cancer Screening

What if breast cancer screening could give women more information without radiation, painful compression, or unnecessary procedures?

In this solo episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons answers one of the questions she hears most often: What exactly is a QT scan, and how is it different from a mammogram?

As a former breast cancer surgeon turned integrative physician, Dr. Jenn challenges the conventional approach to breast cancer screening and explains why she believes QT Imaging represents a major advancement in breast health. She breaks down how the technology works, why it was developed, and how its ability to create detailed 3D images and monitor changes over time could transform the way breast abnormalities are evaluated.

Dr. Jenn also shares why breast cancer screening should go beyond looking for tumors. From metabolic health and inflammation to individualized risk assessment, she explains the comprehensive approach she's building at Perfeqtion Imaging & Wellness.

Because breast health isn't just about detecting disease. It's about understanding your body, identifying dysfunction, and taking a proactive approach to your long-term health.

What You'll Learn

• What QT Imaging is and how it uses sound waves to create detailed 3D breast images without radiation or compression
• Why Dr. Jenn questions the safety and limitations of traditional mammograms and contrast-enhanced breast MRIs
• How QT Imaging was developed to address screening challenges for women with dense breasts, implants, or a history of breast cancer
• How monitoring a lesion's growth over time may help physicians make more informed decisions about further testing
• Why Dr. Jenn believes conventional breast screening leads to unnecessary biopsies and interventions
• How metabolic testing, inflammatory markers, and personalized risk assessments fit into a more comprehensive approach to breast health
• Why Dr. Jenn believes breast cancer prevention requires looking at the health of the entire body, not just the breasts

Timestamps

00:00 - Why Dr. Jenn left conventional breast cancer surgery and reimagined breast health

01:07 - What is QT Imaging, and why does it matter?

02:00 - The risks Dr. Jenn associates with mammograms and repeated radiation exposure

03:30 - The alternatives Dr. Jenn uses for breast health screening

04:30 - The limitations of breast MRI and gadolinium contrast

07:00 - Why QT Imaging was developed for women with complex screening needs

08:30 - How QT Imaging works without radiation or compression

10:00 - How monitoring lesion growth could change breast cancer screening

12:00 - Unnecessary biopsies, overdiagnosis, and the limitations of conventional screening

14:00 - Why Dr. Jenn combines QT Imaging with metabolic and inflammatory testing

15:00 - A comprehensive approach to breast health and disease prevention

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

Dr. Jenn Simmons is joined by Dr. Louise Newson, a hormone-focused physician and menopause educator, for a wide-ranging conversation about the difference between bioidentical and synthetic hormones, why hormone fear persists in medicine, and how that fear affects women’s long-term health. They also dig into breast cancer, BRCA mutations, perimenopause, testosterone, compounding, and why shared decision-making matters more than blanket rules.

Key topics

• Dr. Louise Newson shares how her medical path moved from internal medicine and pathology into general practice, medical writing, and ultimately menopause and hormone care.
• She explains why the Women’s Health Initiative and other early studies created lasting confusion by mixing synthetic hormones with bioidentical hormones.
• Dr. Newson breaks down the biological difference between endogenous hormones and synthetic compounds, using receptor biology and chemical structure to show why they are not interchangeable.
• The conversation examines why many clinicians still fear hormone therapy, including outdated warnings, guideline dependence, pharma influence, and professional ego.
• Dr. Newson argues that menopause is not just a “natural transition” but a hormone deficiency with real biological consequences, especially for bone, cardiovascular, brain, and metabolic health.
• They discuss the misconception that hormones should only be used briefly, and why some women benefit from continuing treatment based on symptoms, quality of life, and future risk reduction.
• The episode covers testosterone in women, including why it is underused, why it is often misunderstood as only a libido hormone, and how it can affect mood, energy, sleep, joints, and cognition.
• They explore how perimenopause is best approached by assessing progesterone, estradiol, and testosterone separately rather than relying on one broad label.
• Dr. Newson addresses compounding, explaining why individualized preparations can be useful and why “compounded” does not automatically mean unsafe.
• The discussion moves into breast cancer and BRCA mutations, with a focus on why hormone decisions should be individualized rather than ruled out by category.
• They emphasize that women need better information to make informed choices, and that refusing to offer hormone treatment can itself cause harm.

Timestamps

00:00 - Why Dr. Louise Newson is such a trusted voice on hormones

01:17 - Losing her father young and the path into medicine

03:39 - From prescribing HRT to becoming a medical writer

04:04 - The WHI study and why it changed everything

05:55 - Why antidepressants were replacing hormone care

07:32 - Synthetic hormones versus bioidentical hormones

09:33 - How receptor biology explains the difference

10:32 - Chemical examples that show how small changes matter

11:30 - Why WHO classified ethinyl estradiol as carcinogenic

13:34 - Why warnings and guidelines keep the fear alive

15:28 - The vacuum created when doctors stopped learning hormones

16:41 - Training more than 33,000 clinicians in menopause care

18:57 - Why gynecologists are not necessarily hormone experts

19:24 - Why endocrinology and psychiatry often miss the issue

20:49 - Is menopause a disease or a normal transition?

22:15 - Why early menopause raises the stakes

23:34 - Why hormone therapy should remain a choice

24:27 - What happens when the body adapts to low hormones

25:41 - Why supplements cannot replace estradiol, progesterone, or testosterone

28:55 - What older women discover when they finally try hormones

29:57 - The so-called window of opportunity after age 60

31:31 - Why hormones may still help women with heart disease

33:41 - Why there will never be a big randomized trial

35:07 - Why medicine accepts some evidence standards and ignores others

37:39 - The compounding controversy and why it makes no sense

39:36 - Why testosterone can be safer as a pump or customized preparation

40:03 - Why Dr. Newson dislikes the words menopause and perimenopause

40:59 - Treating progesterone, estradiol, and testosterone separately

42:38 - Why testosterone is so misunderstood in women

44:03 - The limits of libido-only thinking

45:28 - Testosterone data in men and why it gets ignored for women

46:11 - BRCA mutations, ovarian cancer, and hormone eligibility

48:56 - Why society guidelines are not the same as facts

49:54 - The hidden harm of withholding hormones

51:52 - The woman whose life changed after starting treatment

53:09 - Why not prescribing can create real long-term danger

54:11 - Women often know more than their providers now

55:38 - The breast cancer population and refusing tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors

56:46 - Estrogen receptor positive does not mean estrogen caused the cancer

60:06 - Risks of tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors

61:33 - Testosterone use after breast cancer

63:05 - Why cancer and recurrence happen with or without hormones

65:26 - Who Dr. Newson would refuse to treat

66:55 - A breast cancer case where hormones supported mental health

68:09 - Why old breast cancer treatments included estrogen and progesterone

70:13 - Why hormone treatment is reversible

71:56 - The goal is helping women reach a better baseline

72:23 - Where to find Dr. Louise Newson

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

Dr. Jenn Simmons speaks with pharmacist turned integrative health author Dr. Isabella Wentz about the hidden drivers of IBS, why so many people get mislabeled without answers, and how gut issues can connect to autoimmune disease, hormones, and chronic inflammation. Dr. Wentz shares her own path from conventional pharmacy into root-cause medicine, including how her personal experience with fatigue, IBS, and Hashimoto’s changed everything.We discuss the limits of standard IBS care, the most useful testing strategies, and the major causes she sees in practice, from SIBO and food sensitivities to protozoal infections and hormone disruption. This conversation is especially useful for anyone who has been told their digestive symptoms are “just IBS” and wants a more complete framework.

Key topics

• Dr. Wentz shares how she entered pharmacy school wanting to invent drugs, not practice natural medicine, and how her own illness redirected her career.
• Her first major gut issue began in pharmacy school with fatigue and severe IBS symptoms, which improved after removing certain soy-based meal replacements.
• She explains IBS as a wastebasket diagnosis, not a true root-cause diagnosis, and says it often reflects a much bigger underlying problem.
• She notes that IBS can precede autoimmune conditions by 5 to 10 years, which is why gut symptoms should be taken seriously.
• She outlines red flags that should prompt further testing, including rectal bleeding, blood in stool, weight loss, fever, and new IBS symptoms after age 35 to 40.
• She recommends functional testing such as SIBO breath testing and comprehensive stool analysis like GI Map or Gut Zoomer to look for dysbiosis, low enzymes, and infections.
• She explains why SIBO often comes back if the true driver is not addressed, such as low thyroid function, low stomach acid, H. pylori, or protozoal infection.
• She cautions against overly restrictive diets, saying many people end up with “gluten-free junk food” patterns or elimination diets so strict they create new problems.
• She discusses food sensitivity testing, saying results vary widely by method, but she has seen strong practical value in IgG testing for symptom tracking.
• She highlights the role of parasites and protozoa, especially microscopic organisms like Giardia and Blastocystis, and her preference for testing rather than guessing.
• She and Dr. Simmons discuss hormone effects on digestion, including how progesterone decline and estrogen dominance may contribute to constipation and IBS symptoms.
• Dr. Wentz emphasizes that healing should support real life, not perfection, so people can travel, eat normally sometimes, and still feel well.

Timestamps

00:00 - Why Dr. Wentz wrote her fifth book on IBS
03:29 - From pharmacy school to the first signs something was wrong
04:42 - Fatigue, IBS, and the soy lecithin discovery
06:57 - When Hashimoto’s changed the entire direction of her career
08:21 - Why root-cause medicine became impossible to ignore
10:51 - How she found answers before functional medicine was mainstream
13:54 - Why IBS is often the wrong label for the real problem
18:39 - Red flags that should never be written off as IBS
21:26 - The two tests she relies on most: SIBO and stool analysis
23:15 - Why SIBO keeps returning when the root cause remains
26:53 - Protozoa, infections, and why SIBO is often secondary
28:18 - Movement, walking, and improving gut motility
29:06 - What IBS still gets wrong today
30:17 - Why gluten and dairy are often the first foods to remove
31:33 - When elimination diets become too extreme
33:30 - Processed “healthy” foods, artificial sweeteners, and gut irritation
36:27 - Birth control, IBS risk, and hidden hormone effects
42:26 - Progesterone, estrogen dominance, and constipation cycles
45:04 - Gut connections to anxiety, TMJ, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue
47:50 - Parasites, protozoa, and how Dr. Wentz tests for them
52:28 - Full moon timing and why collection method matters
54:28 - Why food sensitivity testing depends on the test used
57:17 - Getting foods back after elimination
59:33 - Her own shift away from perfectionism
62:50 - What the IBS book covers and who should read it
65:10 - Where to find Dr. Wentz online

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

Dr. Jenn Simmons talks with Dr. Robin Berzin about her path from an unexpected pre-med background to conventional medical training, then into functional medicine and entrepreneurship. The conversation covers the roots of Robin's interest in prevention, her early exposure to health and nutrition, and how she built Parsley Health into a national, insurance-covered practice.In this episode, they discuss why functional medicine can work alongside conventional care, how to think about root causes instead of symptom suppression alone, and what it takes to scale a health care company without losing clinical rigor. Robin also shares the realities of fundraising, leadership, and protecting her own health while building a company and raising three kids.

Key topics

• Dr. Robin Berzin's origin story, from international relations and economics to medicine
• How a college thesis on hormone-treated beef helped shape her interest in public health, nutrition, and cancer risk
• Why she did not initially see herself as a science person, and how she later reframed medicine as pattern recognition and synthesis
• The role of her father's internal medicine background, and why she still did not assume medicine was her path
• How yoga, meditation, organic food, and personal health experiences deepened her interest in prevention and whole-person care
• What functional medicine means in practice: using the same medical tools, but focusing on root causes, personalization, and prevention
• Why Robin saw a need to standardize and scale functional medicine through Parsley Health
• The tension between conventional medicine and alternative medicine, and why she rejects all-or-nothing thinking
• Examples of root-cause thinking, including recurrent UTIs, migraines, autoimmune disease, infertility, and chronic fatigue
• The challenge of building trust with insurers through outcomes data, cost savings, and reduced utilization
• What it took to raise capital as a female founder with no MBA and no prior business background
• How leadership changed as Parsley grew from a small team to a 120-person company
• The importance of listening to patients, not just investors or skeptics, when making company decisions
• How Robin maintains her own health with sleep, supplements, meditation, food choices, exercise, and self-monitoring
• Her hope that evidence-based functional medicine becomes part of standard primary care

Timestamps

00:00 - Why Dr. Robin Berzin stands out in functional medicine
01:22 - The unexpected path from undergrad to medicine
02:26 - A thesis on hormone-treated beef and public health
04:35 - Early exposure to cancer prevention and health research
06:12 - Having a doctor father, but not seeing medicine as an obvious path
07:01 - Why medicine is more about synthesis than equations
09:22 - Strengths that matter in clinical practice
10:56 - From conventional med school to a functional medicine career
12:40 - What functional medicine actually means
14:14 - Yoga, food, and becoming more aware of health
16:18 - Research, ADHD trials, and early clues about her own ADHD
18:12 - Early exposure to Mark Hyman and Dr. Oz
20:31 - Why Parsley Health was built to fix access and consistency problems
21:24 - Real outcomes from functional medicine care
22:33 - Why medicine should use both conventional and functional tools
23:47 - Root-cause care for UTIs and migraines
25:09 - Functional medicine versus paint-by-numbers primary care
26:04 - Making functional medicine accessible through a national platform
27:24 - The courage required to build a company while practicing medicine
28:29 - Trial, error, and the first steps as a founder
31:20 - Bootstrapping the first version of Parsley
33:28 - Building a patient base and hiring the first team
34:32 - Raising a first round as a female founder
36:11 - The fear and pressure of taking investor money
37:30 - Learning fundraising with help from other women in venture
38:26 - Why fundraising never really ends
39:23 - How investor relationships changed as Parsley grew
41:28 - Why medicine did not prepare her for executive leadership
42:16 - The hardest lessons in hiring and management
44:15 - When investor priorities pushed the company off course
46:17 - Choosing company survival while staying true to the mission
47:45 - Parsley's broader mission and why health care costs are unsustainable
49:34 - Why functional medicine should become standard primary care
50:01 - Using outcomes data to win over insurers
52:25 - Why people assumed Parsley was only for the “worried well”
53:29 - How the medical community has responded over time
54:20 - The rise of longevity medicine and ongoing skepticism
56:52 - Dark nights of the soul during fundraising and board conflict
59:51 - How Robin protects her own mental and physical health
62:52 - Sleep, data, and the reality of life as a busy founder
64:03 - Travel routines, intermittent fasting, and skincare
65:53 - What she hopes medicine will look like when her career is done
68:17 - Why impact is fastest when you stay in your lane
70:18 - Food dyes, public health priorities, and respecting different missions
73:16 - Curiosity, skepticism, and keeping the lamps lit
74:24 - What Parsley Health offers now and how to work with the team

Connect with Dr Robin Berzin & Parsley Health:
Website: https://www.parsleyhealth.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinberzinmd/

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

Dr. Jenn Simmons and Dr. Erica Schwartz on hormones, individualized care, and questioning mainstream medicineDr. Jenn Simmons sits down with Dr. Erica Schwartz for a candid conversation about women’s health, hormone replacement, and the importance of individualized care. They discuss why hormone therapy is gaining renewed attention, why many providers are not adequately trained to prescribe it, and how patients can make more informed decisions about their health.

They also explore breast screening, overdiagnosis, metabolic health, medical fear, and the value of having a trusted provider who looks at the whole person. Together, Dr. Jenn and Dr. Schwartz challenge one-size-fits-all medicine and make the case for thoughtful, relationship-based care.

What You'll Learn:

• Why hormone therapy requires better provider education, not just wider access
• How outdated medical training continues to affect women’s health
• Why individualized care is often more important than rigid protocols
• The difference between breast cancer prevention, diagnosis, and overdiagnosis
• Why metabolic health is central to breast health and long-term wellness
• How watchful waiting can sometimes be safer than immediate testing or biopsy
• Why progesterone and synthetic progestins should not be treated as the same thing
• What women should consider before using supplements, peptides, or extreme diets
• Why having a trusted healthcare provider can prevent conflicting and unnecessary treatments
• How patients can question medical assumptions while taking greater responsibility for their health

Timestamps

00:00 - Why hormone conversations are surging and why training matters

02:10 - Dr. Schwartz’s path from conventional medicine to individualized care

04:00 - Medical paternalism, discrimination, and resistance to change

15:46 - Why mammography is diagnosis, not prevention

17:32 - Hormone replacement, oral estrogen, and breast cancer concerns

24:07 - Perimenopause labels, social media, and inadequate training

30:30 - Why relationships matter more than protocols and lab results

43:13 - Watchful waiting, breast biopsies, and the value of doing less

45:55 - Metabolic health as a foundation for breast cancer prevention

56:34 - Questioning mammography and taking responsibility for your care

60:08 - Why modern medicine needs more time for patient relationships

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

Dr. Jenn Simmons and Dr. Bradley Campbell unpack why autoimmune disease is rising, why so many patients are dismissed for years, and why symptom suppression alone often makes things worse. This conversation focuses on root causes, especially gut dysfunction, stress, and immune triggers, and explains why individualized care matters more than one-size-fits-all treatment.Dr. Campbell shares how his work evolved from injury care into complex autoimmune cases, while Dr. Simmons brings the perspective of conventional medicine, cancer care, and the limits of training that does not teach health optimization.

Key topics

• In this episode, Dr. Simmons opens with a blunt critique of how poorly autoimmune disease is understood in conventional medicine, especially when labs are “normal” but patients are clearly unwell.
• Dr. Campbell explains how autoimmune cases found him through patients with chronic, rare, and complex conditions that mainstream care could not resolve.
• We discuss the gap between medical training and real-world health care, including the difference between knowing how to prescribe and knowing how to create health.
• Dr. Simmons and Dr. Campbell agree that the system rewards sickness management, not healing, and that insurance incentives often push short visits, prescriptions, and procedures over root-cause work.
• In this episode: low iron is treated as a major red flag for digestive dysfunction, malabsorption, celiac disease, low enzymes, or bile flow problems, not just a number to supplement away.
• We discuss why proton pump inhibitors can create long-term digestive problems by reducing stomach acid, impairing digestion, and contributing to dysbiosis and infection risk.
• Dr. Campbell outlines his autoimmune screening approach, including ANA, ENA panels, thyroid antibodies, hormone testing, food sensitivity workups, and broader root-cause diagnostics.
• The autoimmune triad comes up in detail: genetics, gut dysfunction, and a trigger such as physical trauma, infection, medication, food reaction, or emotional stress.
• We discuss parasites as a controversial but real variable in some autoimmune cases, especially in the context of protozoa, gut imbalance, and chronic thyroid issues.
• Dr. Simmons and Dr. Campbell both push back on rigid diets and medical absolutism, arguing for individualized decisions around grains, dairy, nightshades, and autoimmune protocols.
• The conversation closes with a strong emphasis on stress, nervous system overload, childhood trauma, and the need for quiet, reflection, and community without constant screen input.

Timestamps

00:00 - Why autoimmune disease is exploding and often missed for years
03:15 - How Dr. Campbell’s path shifted from music and injuries to autoimmune care
06:23 - Why medical training is a foundation, not a complete education in health
08:49 - Doctors as well-intentioned players inside a broken system
11:10 - Why screening versus symptom-based testing must be treated differently
13:20 - Autoimmune disease is highly individualized, even when diagnoses look similar
14:23 - Why celiac disease is often found only after a breast cancer diagnosis
16:36 - Why 30 patients a day leaves no room for root-cause medicine
19:34 - Insurance incentives reward sickness instead of health
23:55 - Years of delayed diagnosis and the cost of being told labs are “normal”
26:52 - Low iron as a clue to digestion, not just iron deficiency
28:19 - Why stomach acid matters for digestion, immune protection, and bile signaling
31:03 - How Heidelberg testing evaluates stomach acidity in real time
33:39 - What Dr. Campbell looks for that many providers miss in autoimmune cases
36:09 - The autoimmune triad: genetics, gut dysfunction, and a trigger
37:34 - Structural, biochemical, and emotional triggers that can set off autoimmunity
40:28 - Parasites, terrain, and why over-treatment is not always the answer
43:44 - Vaccine-era inflammation, informed consent, and autoimmune flare concerns
48:59 - A better model for autoimmune disease: the immune system is trying to do something
51:02 - The autoimmune protocol diet and when a less restrictive approach is better
53:31 - Nightshades, liver function, and why food rules should not be universal
56:13 - Why grains and dairy are not automatically bad for everyone, but can be poor fits in active disease
61:34 - Blood sugar, energy, mood, and why kids often need more real food
63:41 - Why processed protein bars and powders are often worse than whole foods
65:49 - Food transitions at home: why change is hard even when the benefits are obvious
67:46 - Root-cause thinking applies to MS, breast cancer, dementia, osteoporosis, and diabetes
70:03 - Dr. Campbell’s membership community, weekly teaching, and lab support
71:30 - GLP-1 drugs: useful tools for some, but not a shortcut for lifestyle change
74:42 - Stress, trauma, quiet time, and why emotional load drives chronic disease
76:55 - Why unresolved trauma and a lack of safety can affect healing for years

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

Between a Shot and a Hard Place: Vaccine Facts, Medical Freedom, and Trust in Medicine

Dr. Jenn Simmons speaks with pediatrician and integrative medicine practitioner Dr. Joel Warsh, known online as Dr. Gator, about vaccines, informed consent, and why trust in medicine has broken down. The conversation focuses on what parents are actually being told, what the research does and does not show, and how medical decisions get shaped by mandates, industry incentives, and fear.We discuss vaccine schedules, the difference between evidence and dogma, how chronic disease trends relate to broader lifestyle and systems issues, and why Dr. Warsh believes parents need more transparency and more room to choose.

Key topics

• Dr. Warsh explains how he moved from conventional pediatrics into integrative medicine after seeing the value of sleep, diet, exercise, and root-cause thinking in primary care.
• He describes why vaccines became a major focus in his practice: parents kept asking questions, and he realized medical training had not prepared him to answer them deeply.
• The hosts discuss how COVID-era mandates intensified distrust, especially in states like California, where school and work requirements effectively removed choice for many families.
• Dr. Warsh argues that medicine has become too force-driven and too dogmatic, and that doctors should educate rather than pressure patients.
• The conversation turns to the idea that modern medicine is heavily shaped by pharma funding, which affects training, journals, media, and what gets studied or published.
• They compare longevity to healthspan, with both speakers noting that people may be living longer but not necessarily healthier, especially in the last 10 to 15 years of life.
• Chronic disease in children is a major theme, with discussion of rising rates of diabetes, obesity, autoimmune conditions, neurodevelopmental concerns, and autism.
• Dr. Warsh says the most surprising part of his research for Between a Shot and a Hard Place was realizing how little true vaccinated versus unvaccinated data has been published.
• He explains the vaccine schedule has expanded over time and discusses why he thinks the lack of manufacturer accountability reduces incentives to improve safety.
• The episode also covers newer vaccine platforms, including mRNA, and why Dr. Warsh is especially cautious about their use in children.
• Hepatitis B for newborns comes up as a particularly important example of a vaccine whose timing and risk-benefit calculus he thinks should be revisited.
• The discussion ends with a broader call for medical freedom, informed consent, and the ability for parents to make decisions without being forced.

Timestamps

00:00 - Why vaccine conversations are impossible to avoid

02:10 - How integrative pediatrics changed Dr. Warsh's practice

03:31 - Why parents' vaccine questions became unavoidable

05:13 - Writing Between a Shot and a Hard Place

06:50 - Why COVID deepened mistrust in medicine

09:36 - Why school requirements don't feel like a real choice

13:22 - Medicine should educate, not coerce

17:06 - How pharma shapes training and medical thinking

20:34 - Why accountability matters for vaccine safety

23:28 - The rise of chronic disease in children

30:22 - Big Food, convenience, and multi-generational health impact

36:15 - The Henry Ford vaccinated vs. unvaccinated controversy

40:48 - Why “the science is settled” is the wrong phrase

43:43 - How the vaccine schedule expanded after 1986

48:26 - Rethinking timing, prioritization, and cumulative risk

54:14 - RFK, reform, and transparency

55:14 - What surprised Dr. Warsh most in the research

62:03 - Reassessing newborn and early childhood vaccine timing

67:30 - Why Hep B for newborns is controversial

69:58 - Traditional vaccines vs. mRNA

73:17 - Why Dr. Warsh is cautious about mRNA for kids

75:28 - Why pulled vaccines used to be removed faster

77:41 - The accountability gap

79:39 - Why medical freedom matters for the future

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with Dr. Daved Rosensweet for a wide-ranging, deeply informed conversation about menopause, hormone replacement therapy, breast cancer risk, and why so many women have been left without clear, trustworthy options.Dr. Rosensweet shares how the Women’s Health Initiative created lasting fear around hormones, why that fear was built on misreported data, and how the conversation around estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone has slowly begun to change.

Together, they make the case that hormones are not the enemy of women’s health and in many cases, they are central to preserving it. The conversation also turns to safety, testing, individualized dosing, and the role of breast imaging. Dr. Jenn explains why QT imaging is changing the way she thinks about screening, and Dr. Rosensweet reflects on why he has long required imaging before prescribing hormones. The result is an unusually honest, technically rich, and hopeful conversation about how to care for women better at every stage of life.

What You’ll Learn

• Why the Women’s Health Initiative misled both the public and providers
• What the data actually showed about estrogen and breast cancer risk
• Why many women were taken off hormones unnecessarily for decades
• How Dr. Rosensweet thinks about the safety of hormone replacement after breast cancer
• Why estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone all matter for women’s health
• How hormone loss contributes to sleep problems, brain fog, libido loss, bone loss, and muscle loss
• Why the timing of hormone therapy matters, but it may not be “too late”
• How Dr. Rosensweet approaches individual dosing and hormone testing
• Why topical delivery matters when it comes to clotting risk and liver metabolism
• How QT imaging fits into a safer, more modern breast-screening strategy

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and episode overview

09:50
Hormone therapy after breast cancer: what the science says

12:31
The role of estrogen and breast cancer risk

14:23
Hormones and breast cancer risk: what the latest studies show

16:22
The lag in medical progress and the 30-year delay in hormone research

17:44
Why the narrative that estrogen causes cancer persists

20:02
Recent advances and the future of hormone therapy

22:51
The importance of provider education and safe hormone protocols

25:49
Signs you should consider hormone therapy

30:44
What women can do if they missed their window for hormone therapy

33:49
Is it ever too late for hormone therapy?

36:02
Determining the right hormone levels and testing methods

37:24
How Dr. Rosensweet ensures safe hormone replacement practices

44:33
Understanding breast cancer cells and hormone receptor sites

46:03
Hormones as protectors, not causes, of breast cancer

47:08
The impact of environmental toxins on health

48:17
The need for testosterone in women and men

52:02
Addressing the lack of provider training on hormones

54:27
Empowering women to have informed conversations about hormones

55:46
Closing remarks and call to action

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons returns for part two of her conversation with Ivy Harris, the homeschool mom and researcher behind Done with Diligence, to answer the question Part 1 left open: if not a mammogram, then what? Dr. Jenn makes her most direct case yet that screening healthy, asymptomatic women with mammography is unethical and unsupported by science, and she lays out the alternative she built her practice around. This is the episode where she stops critiquing the old model and hands women a new one.

Ivy asks the question every listener is thinking after Part 1: is there ever a situation where Dr. Jenn recommends a mammogram? Her answer draws the one line that matters most in this whole conversation, the line between screening a woman who feels fine and diagnosing a woman who has a symptom. One of those saves lives. The other, she argues, has been quietly manufacturing cancer for sixty years. This is the episode you'll want to send to every woman who's ever been told she has no choice but to start at 40 and repeat every year.

What You'll Learn

• Why Dr. Jenn recommends no screening mammogram for any asymptomatic woman.
• What the difference between FDA cleared and FDA approved really means, and why mammography would never pass the FDA today
• How QT compares to mammography and why it was built for dense breasts and implants first
• Why screening a 30 year old with a mammogram isn't avoided because it can't be done, but because it would reliably cause cancer
• Why the WISDOM trial showed more screening produces more biopsies and more diagnoses without saving a single additional life
• What women should actually screen for instead, the metabolic dysfunction and inflammatory markers that point to prevention
• The daily, no-cost practices Dr. Jenn says do more for breast health than any scan, from fasting to bone-loading movement to detoxification
• Why a biopsy does not spread cancer, and why stage one breast cancer is 99% survivable
• Why the difference between surviving breast cancer and thriving after it usually comes down to who gets a health plan, not just a treatment plan

Episode Timeline:
01:29 Do mammograms save lives or save breasts
01:50 Why finding cancer early doesn't change the outcome
02:20 How QT imaging and doubling time work
05:01 The difference between screening and diagnosis
07:14 Thermography, ultrasound, and the tears test
12:32 FDA cleared versus FDA approved, explained
18:06 QT versus mammogram sensitivity, 91% versus 71%
20:47 QT for dense breasts and implants
23:51 QT insurance coverage, cost, and access
26:11 What age to start screening, and why not mammograms
28:20 Responding to Peter Attia and the WISDOM trial
34:21 Diet, fasting, movement, and prevention basics
38:53 What to do after a breast cancer diagnosis
39:44 Whether biopsies spread cancer, and the estrogen myth
43:30 Dr. Jenn's credentials and qualifications

Guest: Ivy Harris
Where to find her: donewithdiligence.com & @donewithdiligence

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with Ivy Harris, a homeschool mom of four, researcher, and soon-to-be certified homeopath behind the blog Done with Diligence, for part one of a two-part conversation on the hidden risks of mammograms and breast cancer screening. Ivy is not a doctor. She's a mom who decided she wasn't going to walk into her first mammogram without doing her own homework first, and what she found is the reason this episode exists.

It started with one post, Ivy broke down what she'd learned about mammograms into five parts, shared it, and watched it split her audience in half, with some women thanking her and others telling her she was going to get people killed. Dr. Jenn picks up exactly where Ivy left off and does the math no one does at check-in: 40 million screening mammograms a year, and by the numbers in the study Ivy found, the radiation alone works out to tens of thousands of cancers and over a thousand deaths a year.

This is the episode you'll want to send to every woman who's ever been told a mammogram is simply safe, simply necessary, and not worth questioning.

What You'll Learn

• The naming decision behind "mammogram" that Dr. Jenn says was never an accident
• Ionizing radiation is a classified carcinogen, and why radiologists won't apply that logic to their own test
• The cross-country flight radiation comparison doctors use to reassure you, and why it doesn't hold up
• How breast density and size can mean 10x more radiation for one woman than another in the same mammogram
• Why younger breast tissue takes more damage from radiation as screening age keeps getting pushed lower
• Overdiagnosis: the NIH's own number is as high as 1 in 2 women screened
• Why DCIS, diagnosed in 90,000 women a year, has no physical route to become life-threatening breast cancer
• How standard DCIS treatment can raise heart failure and fracture risk higher than the diagnosis itself
• False positives and the 80% benign biopsy rate hiding behind every mammogram callback
• What a 2026 American College of Physicians paper found on mammograms and breast cancer mortality, at every age
• Why decades of mammography have increased mastectomies by 20%, the opposite of what screening promised
• Lead time bias: how a screening test can look life-saving on paper without changing when anyone actually dies
• The UK surgeon forced to resign for telling women the truth about mammogram screening

Episode Timeline:
00:00 Introducing Ivy Harris and Done with Diligence
02:27 Why Ivy researched mammogram safety before her first screening
03:00 Going past the rumors to the actual breast cancer research
04:13 Her viral mammogram post and the backlash that followed
05:32 Standing firm on breast cancer screening controversy
07:39 Radiation risks: why a mammogram is a breast x-ray
09:12 The studies linking mammogram radiation to breast cancer
11:14 How radiation damages younger breast tissue
13:36 The math: 40 million mammograms and radiation-induced cancer deaths
17:59 Overdiagnosis and unnecessary breast cancer treatment
26:14 The train analogy for mammogram overdiagnosis
28:12 How breast cancer actually progresses versus the screening myth
32:29 The real harm of overdiagnosis and overtreatment
34:54 Why mammograms don't reduce all-cause breast cancer mortality
50:15 Lead time bias and misleading screening survival statistics
52:04 Michael Baum, saving breasts, and a Part 2 preview

Resources Mentioned:
American College of Physicians, Annals of Internal Medicine, April 2026: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-3424

Guest: Ivy Harris
Where to find her: Done with Diligence & @donewithdiligence

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with Dr. Aimie Apigian, a physician with a master's in biochemistry who left surgical training to study the biology of trauma after her own health collapsed. Together they make the case that unresolved trauma, including the kind you'd never check a box for, is not a side note to breast cancer but part of the terrain it grows in. This is the conversation conventional oncology skips entirely.

Dr. Aimie didn't recognize her own trauma until it nearly destroyed her health. Raised to be her adopted father's emotional stability, she carried a burden she never named as trauma, until a failed adoption after six years left her with chronic fatigue she couldn't get out of bed from one month later. She knew the research linking adversity to disease. She still didn't see it in herself. If you've ever told yourself your childhood "wasn't that bad," this episode will give language to what your body already knows.

What You'll Learn

• Why the women most likely to carry hidden trauma are the ones who'd swear they had a happy childhood
• What the famous ACE study found when it looked at wealthy women, and why it shocked the medical world
• Why trauma isn't a feeling you can think your way out of, but a physical loop your body keeps running
• What a review revealed about childhood adversity and breast cancer risk
• Why the state you were in before your diagnosis matters more than the diagnosis itself
• How to tell if your body is still holding trauma, without digging into your past
• Why feeling safe feels terrifying to a nervous system that survived on control
• How healing can start with just two seconds at a time
• Why no retreat or single psychedelic trip will do what small daily habits can
• Why most people start their trauma work in the wrong place, and pay for it

Guest Dr. Aimie Apigian
Where to find her: https://biologyoftrauma.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/draimie/

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons responds to Peter Attia's breast cancer screening episode (#396). Attia asks the right question: why are 42,000 women still dying of breast cancer every year? But his answer, more mammograms and MRI on top, is exactly wrong. Dr. Jenn breaks down, study by study, why that 40-year approach has never moved the death toll.

Forty-two thousand women a year. That number has not moved since mammography went mainstream in the 1980s. Detection rates are up, diagnoses are up, and the death toll has not changed. We have been finding more cancer, calling more women patients, and watching the same number of them die. If you have ever scheduled your annual mammogram believing it was the most protective thing you could do, this episode will reframe everything you thought you knew.

What You'll Learn

• Why the breast cancer death toll has not moved in 40 years, and why more screening is the reason
• Why DCIS is not cancer, why mammography invented it, and what happens to a woman the moment it gets labeled "stage zero"
• Why an aggressive tumor is aggressive from the day it forms, and why finding it earlier on a mammogram does not change what it does next
• Why mammography catches the cancers least likely to kill you, and routinely misses the ones that will
• What happened when researchers followed 89,835 women for 25 years and compared annual mammography to doing nothing, and why you have never heard about it
• What the Cochrane review found after analyzing every randomized mammography trial ever run, and why Peter Attia addressed it in one sentence
• Why the WISDOM trial, the most significant recent evidence in this space and the one study Attia never mentions, is an indictment of everything he argued
• Why there is no standard radiation dose for a mammogram, and why the woman next to you in the waiting room may have received ten times less than you did
• What the FDA has formally documented about gadolinium staying in the brain and bones for years, and why the women being told to get it every six months are the last women who should
• Why insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, and toxic burden are among the most powerful drivers of breast cancer risk, and why Attia's episode contained zero mention of any of them

Resources Mentioned

• Peter Attia, Episode 396 on breast cancer screening: peterattiamd.com/breastcancerscreening
• Dr. Robin Berzin, founder of Parsley Health
• Miller AB, et al. Twenty five year follow-up of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study. BMJ. 2014;348:g366.
• Gøtzsche PC, Jørgensen KJ. Screening for breast cancer with mammography. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013;(6):CD001877.
• Zahl PH, et al. Results of the Two-County trial are not compatible with official Swedish breast cancer statistics. Danish Medical Bulletin. 2006;53(4):438–440.
• Nyström L, et al. Long-term effects of mammography screening: updated overview of the Swedish randomised trials. Lancet. 2002;359:909–19.
• Esserman LJ, et al. Risk-Based vs Annual Breast Cancer Screening: The WISDOM Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2026;335(9):763–774.
• FDA gadolinium-based contrast agent safety communications (2015, 2017, 2018), summarized in Fotenos A, FDA Pediatric Advisory Committee, Sept 2018.
• Kanda T, et al. High signal intensity in the dentate nucleus and globus pallidus and cumulative gadolinium dose. Radiology. 2014;270(3):834–841.
• Veenhuizen SGA, et al. Supplemental breast MRI for women with extremely dense breasts: DENSE trial. Radiology. 2021;299(2):278–286.
• Tabar L, et al. Reduction in mortality from breast cancer after mass screening with mammography. Lancet. 1985;325:829–32.

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with keynote speaker, author, and 2025 Dynamic Woman of the Year Erika Rothenberger for a conversation about what happens when life forces you to stop playing small. Erika had a day in 2022 that changed everything. What she did on the other side of it is what this conversation is about. Dr. Jenn and Erika get into the trauma we avoid, the life we keep deferring, and why the hardest moments tend to be the most clarifying ones.

If you have ever survived something hard and wondered what you are supposed to do with it, this episode will give you your answer.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What Erika survived in 2022 and why she considers it the greatest turning point of her life
• Why playing it safe is the most dangerous thing a woman can do
• Why Dr. Jenn believes a breast cancer diagnosis can be an opportunity and what that actually looks like in practice
• The real reason most women never go after the life they want and why it has nothing to do with time, money, or circumstances
• Why the trauma you have been avoiding is not behind you. It is driving you.
• A simple daily method that takes 36 minutes and rebuilds your entire mindset from the ground up
• The science behind why the people you surround yourself with are either quietly lifting you or quietly costing you
• The gap in Pennsylvania law that leaves women unprotected and the legislation Erika is fighting to change
• Why the most powerful thing a woman can do for her health right now has nothing to do with her body

Episode Timeline
01:07 Introducing Erika Rothenberger
03:09 Energy, seasons, and the permission to give 60%
06:56 Erika's story and the morning that changed everything
12:41 Playing small vs. playing large
16:36 Fear, inertia, and the life you keep putting off
19:45 Writing the book and going public with her story
27:32 Why healing is a choice you make every day
32:27 How to protect your time and fuel yourself first
35:35 Why no is a complete sentence
38:01 Finding the good in every setback
40:02 Why a breast cancer diagnosis can be its own kind of punch
43:00 Why your circle determines your ceiling
45:22 What Erika took away from watching Mel Robbins
50:57 The Audacious Summit, October 2025
52:45 Money, legacy, and what you are building
59:22 Finding your thing and going after it
1:05:44 Where to find Erika and closing thoughts

Where to Find Find Erika Rothenberger:
Website: https://www.erikarothenberger.com/
Instagram: @erikalearothenberger
Book: Audacious Expansion

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with James Maskell, health economist, founder of the Evolution of Medicine, and the architect of a movement to reverse cognitive decline, to make the case that Alzheimer's is not a death sentence. It is a solvable problem that medicine has been approaching the wrong way for 40 years.

James flew to South Africa when his father collapsed and was expected to die. Every doctor in the room was preparing the family for the end. James walked into his father's house and saw black mold on the wall. Days after moving his father out of that environment, he was opening his eyes. Two weeks later, the doctor declared he had no terminal illness at all.

This is the episode to send to anyone who's been told a declining mind is the only end of the story.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

• Why there is no effective drug for Alzheimer's and why 40 years of pharmaceutical research has been chasing the wrong target
• What the 6 root cause categories driving cognitive decline actually are and why they are the same ones driving breast cancer
• What the first randomized controlled trial on reversing Alzheimer's showed and why 91% of participants got better without a drug
• Why catching even a single point drop on a cognitive test can prevent full decline if you act on it immediately
• How biotoxins like mold can trigger what looks exactly like end stage Alzheimer's and how removing the cause reverses it
• Why loneliness and loss of purpose are not soft factors but measurable root causes of cognitive decline and breast cancer
• What the Blue Zones actually have in common and why it has nothing to do with supplements or technology
• Why community is one of the most powerful clinical interventions we have and how to start building it today

Episode Timeline
00:00 Why Community Is the Most Powerful Clinical Intervention We Have
07:15 40 Years of Alzheimer's Drugs and Nothing to Show for It
12:57 Why Neurologists Are the Last Doctors to Accept This Science
18:23 The Myth That You Were Healthy Right Up Until Your Diagnosis
26:03 Catching Cognitive Decline Before It Becomes Alzheimer's
30:41 The 6 Root Cause Categories Driving Cognitive Decline and Breast Cancer
33:21 The Science Behind Why Your Social Circle Shapes Your Health Outcomes
37:41 How Retirement, Isolation, and Lost Purpose Are Fueling Chronic Disease
41:20 Trying to Change the System Is the Wrong Goal
45:51 Why the Chronic Disease Crisis Will Force the System to Collapse
53:10 How Real Health Change Starts at the Grassroots Level
59:08 Final Thoughts on Taking Your Health Back

Where to Find James Maskell:
Instagram: @mrjamesmaskell
Website: https://jamesmaskell.com/

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with Broadway star, bestselling author, and master communicator Renee Marino to make the case that self-advocacy is not a career skill, it is a health act. Renee went from five Broadway shows and a Clint Eastwood film to co-hosting Tony Robbins's global summits, and every door she walked through opened because she asked.

She was the only actress in the entire Jersey Boys Broadway cast not called in to audition for the film because a middleman dropped the ball, and if she had not looked the casting director in the eye and asked for the role she was already playing eight shows a week, she would have watched herself be replaced on screen while Clint Eastwood waited for her to walk through a door she never knew was open.

This is the episode for any woman who has ever left an interaction in work, the doctors office, or in their personal life feeling dismissed and said nothing.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

• Why losing your voice shifts your body chemistry toward defeat and stress, and why Dr. Jenn calls speaking up a health tool, not just a mindset
• Why no agent, manager, or doctor will ever advocate for you as powerfully as you can advocate for yourself in the room
• What keyboard confidence is costing women in their health relationships and why a text is almost always the wrong tool for an important conversation
• The two questions to ask before hitting send on any message, post, or reply that actually changes how you communicate
• What breast cancer screening looks like when the technology is built to actually show you what is there, not flatten and irradiate you

Episode Timeline:
00:00 Introduction to Renee Marino
04:10 The power of asking for what you want
06:50 Navigating Rejection
09:53 The Importance of Hard Work and Integrity
12:41 The Role of Communication in Success
15:15 The Journey to Becoming Mary Delgado
18:14 The Impact of Speaking Up
25:47 Speaking up as self-advocacy
31:39 Lessons from the kitchen table
37:37 Why she wrote Becoming a Master Communicator
40:05 The three communication homes
44:44 Balancing technology with real connection
47:47 Women, voice, and the difficult label
1:06:35 Experiencing breast screening that treats you like a person
1:12:08 Glam and Grit: an event built for real connection
1:14:45 Final thoughts and takeaways

Where to Find Renee Marino:
Instagram: @iamreneemarino
Book: Becoming a Master Communicator

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with Dr. Betsy Greenleaf, the first board-certified female urogynecologist in the world, to dismantle the lie that estrogen causes breast cancer, expose the hormone training gap hiding inside every OB/GYN office in the country, and explain why the online HRT explosion isn't liberation; it's the setup for the next Women's Health Initiative.

At 41, Dr. Greenleaf was surgically menopausal, prescribed antidepressants for symptoms her doctors blamed on hormones, and living with a lupus diagnosis she'd carried since age 18. When she stopped treating the symptoms and started treating her gut microbiome, the mood swings resolved, the immune dysfunction cleared, and the lupus markers that had defined her health for decades simply disappeared. The conventional medical system had no framework for what happened to her so she went looking for one.

If you've ever been handed a hormone prescription with no questions asked, or been told your labs look "normal" while you feel anything but, this episode will give language to what you've already suspected.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why your gynecologist, urologist, and endocrinologist almost certainly received zero formal training in sex hormones
• Why only 23% of residents finishing training today feel prepared to treat midlife women
• How chronic stress hijacks your sex hormones and converts them straight to cortisol
• Why when tens of millions of women stopped HRT after the Women's Health Initiative, breast cancer rates went up, not down
• Why estrogen is not cancerous and why progestins are a different story entirely
• How 90% of your serotonin and 80% of your immune system live in your gut
• Why putting a 20-something on testosterone is masking the real problem
• The five lactobacillus strains that actually rebalance the vaginal microbiome and why most probiotics don't contain them
• Why no probiotic will work until the tissue itself is healthy and the full menu of options that can fix it
• How the brain-gut-vagina connection drives libido, and why testosterone is rarely the answer for low sex drive

Episode Timeline
00:00 Introduction to Urogynecology and Dr. Betsy Greenleaf
03:48 Awakening to Functional Medicine
06:34 The Importance of Gut Health
08:14 Training Gaps in Hormonal Health
11:09 The Dangers of Hormone Mismanagement
14:00 Stress and Hormonal Balance
16:46 The Role of Lifestyle in Hormonal Health
19:21 The Fear of Hormones and Cancer
21:55 Understanding Estrogen and Cancer Risks
24:01 The Holistic Approach to Health
28:38 Integrative Medicine and Continuous Learning
31:30 The Role of Tools in Health Management
34:19 The Shift from Conventional to Holistic Medicine
37:15 Understanding Microbiomes: Gut and Vaginal Health
40:05 The Interconnection of Health Systems
43:58 Intimacy and Libido: The Psychological and Physical Connection
50:38 Navigating Midlife Symptoms and Hormonal Health
53:33 Innovations in Health Tracking and Patient Empowerment

Where to find Dr. Betsy Greenleaf:

• Website: https://pauseinstitute.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/drbetsygreenleaf

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this solo episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons takes on one of the most accepted messages in women's health and dismantles it with decades of evidence. Routine yearly mammography screening does not hold up when you actually read the trials. Dr. Jenn walks through the WISDOM trial, the Cochrane Review, the Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Study, and the brand new 2026 American College of Physicians guidelines to make the case that one-size-fits-all screening is not just outdated, it is causing real harm.

She also takes on the estrogen myth that has left millions of women suffering through hot flashes, bone loss, brain fog, and lost quality of life for decades. A 1.8 million woman study and the Women's Health Initiative say estrogen is not the villain. The real culprit may be something millions of women are still being prescribed today.

If you have ever been told to just get your mammogram every year without a single conversation about the risks or what the data actually shows, this is the episode you have been waiting for.

What You'll Learn

• What the 2026 American College of Physicians guidelines say about annual mammography and why radiology groups do not want you to hear it
• What the WISDOM trial found when women received fewer mammograms and why the results challenge everything we have been told
• What the Cochrane Review and Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Study concluded after studying hundreds of thousands of women over decades
• Why up to 50 percent of screen-detected cancers may have never grown, spread, or threatened a woman's life and what that means for how we treat them
• Why estrogen alone has never been shown to cause breast cancer and what the data actually implicates instead
• The difference between synthetic progestins and bioidentical progesterone and why that distinction could change every conversation about hormones and breast cancer
• What BRCA mutation carriers need to know about hormone replacement therapy after risk-reducing surgery
• What smarter, safer, individualized breast cancer screening actually looks like

Episode Timeline

00:00 Introduction
01:08 This Is an Informed Consent Episode
04:00 The WISDOM Trial and the End of One-Size-Fits-All Screening
08:30 Fewer Mammograms, No More Advanced Cancers
11:41 Why Adding MRI Led to More Biopsies and Zero Benefit
15:00 The Only Endpoint That Actually Matters
17:30 What the Cochrane Review Actually Found
19:30 The Number Every Woman Deserves to Hear
23:00 The Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Study
27:00 What Overdiagnosis Really Means
31:00 The 2026 American College of Physicians Guidelines
36:03 The Estrogen Myth
41:00 The Women's Health Initiative Unpacked
49:00 Birth Control, Progestins, and Breast Cancer Risk
53:00 Progestins Are Not Progesterone
57:00 BRCA Mutation Carriers and HRT: What the 2026 JAMA Data Shows
01:03:00 The Future of Breast Cancer Screening

Studies Mentioned in This Episode

• The WISDOM Trial — JAMA
• The Cochrane Mammography Review — Cochrane
• The Canadian National Breast Screening Study: 25 Year Follow-up — BMJ 2014
• ACP Breast Cancer Screening Guidance Statement — Annals of Internal Medicine 2026
• Cracks in the Estrogen Carcinogenesis of Breast Cancer — Journal of Clinical Oncology 2026
• Hormonal Contraception and Breast Cancer Risk — NEJM 2017
• Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer: Women's Health Initiative — JAMA Oncology 2020
• HRT After Oophorectomy and Breast Cancer Risk in BRCA Carriers — JAMA Network Open 2026

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with thyroid and hormone specialist Dr. Amie Hornaman to dismantle the standard of care that is leaving millions of women dismissed, misdiagnosed, and under treated. They cover what the full thyroid panel actually looks like, why T4-only therapy fails the vast majority of patients, and how the thyroid is connected to every other hormone system in a woman's body.

What happens when a competitive athlete starts gaining weight, losing hair, and can't get a single doctor to take her seriously? Dr. Amie found out in her 20s with 40 pounds of unexplained weight gain, six doctors, six dismissals, and one mentor who finally ran the right tests and changed the course of her life and career.

If you've ever been told your thyroid is fine while your body is telling you otherwise, this is the episode you've been waiting for.

What You'll Learn

• Why testing TSH alone is not a thyroid workup and what the five markers are that actually tell the full story
• What free T3, free T4, and reverse T3 mean and why reverse T3 is the most dismissed marker in the panel
• What thyroid antibodies TPO and TGA reveal about Hashimoto's and why your doctor's normal range is meaningless
• Why 95% of hypothyroid cases are Hashimoto's and why your antibodies may already be elevated even if your doctor says they are not
• Why your GLP-1 will stop working if your thyroid is not optimized first
• How estrogen dominance low progesterone high cortisol insulin resistance and low ferritin all interfere with thyroid function
• Why your insurance-based doctor cannot give you proper thyroid care even if they want to
• What the FDA's move against natural desiccated thyroid is really about and who benefits
• Why testosterone is protective against breast cancer and why women are being denied access to it
• What it actually feels like when your thyroid is optimized and how Dr. Amie gets patients there

Episode Timeline:

00:00 Show Intro
01:08 How Dr. Amie Became Dr. Jenn's North Star
05:02 Pain to Purpose: 40 Pounds and Six Dismissals
08:37 Where Conventional Medicine Gets It Wrong
16:58 Why Thyroid Disease Is at Epidemic Levels
19:14 The Full Thyroid Panel You Actually Need
36:43 Why T4-Only Therapy Fails Almost Everyone
40:27 The Hormonal Web Nobody Is Addressing
45:32 What Thyroid Optimization Actually Looks Like
52:22 The FDA Threat to Natural Desiccated Thyroid
59:42 Dr. Jenn's Testosterone Gatekeeping Story
01:05:22 The Importance of Prevention in Healthcare

Find Dr. Amie Hornaman

Website: https://dramie.com | Book: https://thyroidfixbook.com

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this solo episode, Dr. Jenn Simmons delivers a five-alarm wake-up call on breast cancer screening. The American College of Physicians just dropped new guidelines and the radiology world is furious, not because the science is wrong, but because it isn't on their side. Dr. Jenn breaks down what the data actually shows, why mammography's survival benefit has been a statistical illusion for decades, and what real preventive screening looks like.

She also takes on DCIS, collagen fears, and the question every woman with a breast cancer history is afraid to ask about hormones.

Every woman deserves this information before she makes a decision, not after.

What You'll Learn

• Why DCIS is not breast cancer and what the data says about over treating it
• What the new ACP mammography screening guidelines say and why the radiology world responded with opinion instead of evidence
• How lead time bias and over diagnosis have made mammography look like a lifesaver when it isn't
• What the Wisdom Trial revealed about personalized breast cancer screening and why the results make annual mammogram guidelines indefensible
• What preventive breast cancer screening actually looks like without radiation, compression, or harm
• Why collagen supplementation has no association with breast cancer risk or recurrence
• Why bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is not off the table after a breast cancer diagnosis.
• Why you need to tread the root cause and treat the tumor

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with hormone specialist Karen Martel to talk about what's really driving the metabolic chaos of perimenopause and menopause and why the solution most women need is the one they've been told to fear. They also tackle one of the most misunderstood topics in women's health: the relationship between estrogen, metabolic health, and breast cancer.

What happens when a nutrition expert who helps women lose weight suddenly can't lose weight herself? Karen found out the hard way at 42, gaining 15 pounds in six months, losing her period, battling depression, and watching her skin age before her eyes. Despite eating clean, exercising, and doing everything "right," her body had other plans.

This is the episode you'll want to send to every woman in your life who's been told her labs look "fine."

What You'll Learn

• Why you can gain weight in perimenopause without changing your diet or exercise routine
• The biological aging study that found perimenopausal women are aging faster on the inside and what stops it
• Why estrogen is the metabolic master hormone and what happens to your hunger signals, blood sugar, cholesterol, and muscle when it drops
• Why being asymptomatic in perimenopause does not mean nothing is happening to your heart, brain, and bones
• Why it is never too late to start hormone replacement therapy
• Why insulin and insulin-like growth factor may be driving estrogen receptor positive breast cancer more than anyone is talking about
• Why women with a history of breast cancer are not automatically disqualified from hormone replacement therapy and why most doctors have it wrong
• How GLP-1s are changing the game for menopausal women
• The truth about breast cancer, estrogen receptors, and why insulin may be a bigger driver than anyone is talking about

Episode Timeline:
01:07 Meet Karen Martel
04:10 Karen's Personal Perimenopause Wake-Up Call
09:09 Why You Cannot Out-Diet or Out-Exercise Hormone Loss
17:21 What Estrogen Actually Does in the Body
25:12 HRT Delivery Methods and Why Form Matters
26:28 Breast Cancer, Estrogen Receptors, and the Insulin Connection
33:48 The Vaginal Estrogen Contradiction
37:08 Estrogen as the Most Powerful Anti-Aging Tool
38:56 The Pharmaceutical Incentive Behind the Anti-Hormone Narrative
44:35 Menopausal Weight Gain and Where GLP-1s Fit In
53:13 Is It Ever Too Late to Start Hormone Replacement
59:39 Women Deserve Better Standards of Care
1:02:06 The Statistics That Should End the Debate
1:05:38 Topical Estrogen and Why Ingredients Matter

Find Karen Martel
Website: https://karenmartel.com/

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.perfeqtionimaging.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons