Sara Gottfried
Person
Dr. Sara Gottfried is a Harvard-trained, board-certified gynecologist. She is an expert in female hormone health, fertility, and vitality, and has been featured as a guest on the Huberman Lab podcast to discuss optimizing hormone health for longevity.
What Sara Gottfried has said on podcasts
34 statements
Trauma and intergenerational trauma substantially affect endocrine function, especially cortisol signaling.
“trauma and intergenerational trauma, because I think that affects the endocrine system so hugely, especially cortisol signaling”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 1:07
Endometriosis, fibroids, and PCOS have strong genetic components.
“that includes endometriosis, fibroids, and polycystic ovarian syndrome”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 1:25
Hormonal benchmarking is generally best performed during a woman’s twenties or thirties.
“generally I find that benchmarking is best performed in your 20s or 30s”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 2:07
Estrogen dominance increases risk of fibroids and endometriosis.
“when that happens, it sets you up for greater risk of fibroids, endometriosis”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 2:47
Vegetable and polyphenol intake predicts future breast-cancer risk.
“Intake of vegetables, polyphenols is such an important predictor of future risk of breast cancer”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 5:09
Teenage vegetable and polyphenol intake is especially important for later breast-cancer risk.
“the most important time is when you're a teenager”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 5:19
Showing teenagers their micronutrient gaps can motivate healthier eating.
“If you have evidence that you could show a 17 year old that they've got micronutrient gaps, I think that would be a motivator for them to eat differently”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 5:22
Magnesium is the most important mineral to assess in nutritional testing.
“Magnesium is really the most important.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 8:54
Approximately 70–80% of Americans are magnesium deficient.
“somewhere around 70 to 80% of Americans are deficient in magnesium”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 8:57
Reducing perceived stress is more useful than simply reducing stress exposure.
“I'm not a fan of lowering stress. I'm a fan of lowering perceived stress.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 12:03
Transcendental Meditation and yoga are effective stress-management tools for many people.
“Transcendental Meditation. I became a certified yoga teacher when I was in my 30s. That is very effective for a lot of people.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 12:20
Knowing about elevated teenage androgens may change future self-care behavior.
“if you know that your testosterone is elevated or some other androgen, it might change the arc of how you take care of yourself”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 13:58
Women’s testosterone usually declines approximately 1% annually.
“usually your testosterone declines by about 1% per year”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 14:33
Post-25 women’s testosterone should ideally be in the upper half of normal.
“the top half of the normal range”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 14:46
PCOS substantially increases later cardiometabolic disease risk.
“it is a massive risk factor for cardiometabolic disease as you get older”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 16:30
Elevated androgens are probably the greatest cardiometabolic disease driver in women with PCOS.
“that elevated testosterone, the high androgens, are probably the greatest cardiometabolic driver of disease for women with pcos”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 16:55
Hyperinsulinemia drives ovarian theca cells to overproduce testosterone.
“High insulin in the blood is driving those theca cells in the ovaries to overproduce testosterone.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 17:17
Continuous glucose monitors change health behavior more than other tools she has used.
“I've never seen any tool that I've ever used in medicine change behavior the way that CGMs do.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 17:28
Insulin abnormalities can precede detectable glucose changes by years.
“insulin, especially postprandial insulin fasting, insulin too can change years and years before you get a change in glucose”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 17:50
High-volume cardio without resistance training tends to produce higher cortisol levels.
“runners, especially marathon runners, people who do a lot of cardio and don't do much resistance training, they tend to have much high cortisol levels”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 21:11
Vitamin C can buffer the cortisol effects associated with chronic cardio.
“Vitamin C can decrease the effect.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 21:22
Oral contraceptives reduce ovarian-cancer risk.
“it reduces the risk of ovarian cancer”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 23:19
Five years of oral-contraceptive use reduces ovarian-cancer risk by approximately 50%.
“if you take the oral contraceptive for about five years, it reduces your risk of ovarian cancer by 50%”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 24:01
Gottfried recommends progestins only when they provide meaningful personal freedom.
“I do not recommend them for any woman unless it gives them some freedom in some way.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 26:44
Oral contraceptives increase inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune-condition risk.
“there's also an increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune condition”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 27:06
Oral contraceptives increase high-sensitivity CRP approximately two- to threefold.
“The studies that I've seen increase one of the markers of inflammatory tone, high sensitivity CRP, by about 2 to 3x.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 27:13
Oral contraceptives raise SHBG and reduce available free testosterone.
“when you go on the birth control bill, you raise your sex hormone binding globulin, it soaks up especially free testosterone”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 27:56
Oral contraceptives can shrink the clitoris by up to 20%.
“it can shrink the clitoris by up to 20%.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 29:10
Perimenopause can last approximately ten years for most women.
“for most women, depending on how attuned you are to the symptoms, it can last for 10 years”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 32:22
Cerebral metabolism undergoes a major change beginning around age 40.
“Starting around age 40, there is this massive change in cerebral metabolism.”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 33:06
Cerebral glucose uptake declines approximately 20% from premenopause through postmenopause.
“there's about, on average, a 20% decline from premenopause up to, like, age 35 to perimenopause to post menopause”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 33:16
Declining estrogen around ages 40–43 appears to drive cerebral hypometabolism.
“the decline in estrogen Starting around age 40, 43 is kind of the average, seems to be the driver behind cerebral hypometabolism”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 35:09
Hot flashes and night sweats indicate cardiometabolic disease risk.
“hot flashes and night sweats are a biomarker of cardiometabolic disease”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 36:18
Women should obtain a coronary artery calcium score by age 45, or earlier when indicated.
“it would be to do a coronary artery calcium score by age 45 and sooner”
Open the episode · Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara GottfriedListen at 36:57
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
