Questions We’re Finally Asking—A HERology/Vitals Crossover
What if the questions women have been asking for decades are finally getting answers?
In this special crossover episode of The Vitals and HERology, Vitals host Leslie Schlachter sits down with Drs. Joanne Stone, Anna Barbieri, and Leslee Shaw to celebrate the opening of Mount Sinai's Carolyn Rowan Center for Women's Health and Wellness—and to explore how it's reshaping women's healthcare.
From puberty through pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause, and healthy aging, the conversation tackles the hormonal transitions that affect every stage of a woman's life. The panel separates fact from fiction on hormone therapy, GLP-1 medications, peptides, compounded drugs, and the flood of wellness advice dominating social media, while explaining why prevention, education, and personalized care matter more than ever.
Whether you're in your 30s, 40s, 60s—or simply want to better understand women's health—this episode offers practical, evidence-based guidance from leading experts who are changing the conversation.
Leslee Shaw: [00:00:00] You made a, a very important statement, is the earlier the start, the safer it is.
Anna Barbieri: Like, women had even no idea that they were experiencing perimenopause because, again, nobody talked about it. Yeah. It used to be this taboo topic. I mean, clinicians didn't know about it. So in the meantime, you spent months, sometimes years, not sleeping, having- Mm
mood change, brain fog, you know, fatigue, all of those things, and you were told, "Well, nothing hormonal is going on because you're still getting periods." And that's not really true. Right.
Leslie Schlachter: Hello, and welcome back to The Vitals, Mount Sinai Health System's groundbreaking new podcast. I'm your host, Leslie Schlachter, a neurosurgery physician assistant here at the Mount Sinai Hospital. Today, we have a special edition of the show. We're gonna commemorate the opening of Mount Sinai's new Carolyn Rowan Center for Women's Health and Wellness.
To discuss the opening of the center and the [00:01:00] center's new women's health-centric podcast, Herology, we're joined by the Rowan Center's most prominent doctors. We have Dr. Joanne Stone, Dr. Anna Barbieri, and Dr. Leslie Shaw. Thank you so much for being here. Okay, so to kick us off, what is the need for a dedicated women's health center?
Where did this come from?
Joanne Stone: Well, I think that women's health has been completely under sort of resourced and, and has been sort of not so important, so there was a real need for having a center that really highlights women's health and how we can prevent diseases and how we can really treat people differently.
You know, we're not, you know, obviously men, and, you know, the biology is so different. Right. So it was so important to have a place where we can just totally focus on women's health.