Becoming Real with Dr. Lori

An Ohio campaign ad targeting Dr. Amy Acton prompted a conversation that reaches far beyond politics: What do sexual assault survivors hear when someone’s childhood trauma is used against them?

I’m joined by Donisha Greene of Cleveland Rape Crisis Center to discuss the fear of not being believed, why survivors may wait years to tell someone, and what meaningful support looks like.

https://drloristevic.com/sexual-assault-survivors-trauma-political-weapon/

My husband Jay doesn’t open his MyChart unless we’re sitting together, holding hands. We made that agreement after the morning he found out, alone on the couch in the dark, that his prostate cancer had returned.

In this episode, I look at what connection actually does in the brain and body when we’re afraid, including a hand-holding study that explains exactly what happens on our couch.

We also talk about why loneliness makes reaching out feel riskier than it really is, and why so many of us hint at needing help instead of simply asking for it.

If there’s a hard moment coming for you, this conversation is for you.

“I have a voice in my head, and I want you to hear it.”

The voice belongs to my Nana—a four-foot-eleven, blue-eyed, raspy-voiced Polish woman who was my soulmate. Her voice is why I wrote Greedy for Life, why I led a TEDWomen workshop on intergenerational relationships and why I started Nana’s Tribe Foundation.

In this solo episode, I share Nana’s story, our family’s love of Cleveland Guardians baseball and the lessons my grandparents taught me through the Quick Lunch: feed people, protect their dignity and create places where conversation and connection can happen.

We also explore why intergenerational relationships matter. Our brains prefer familiarity and predictability, but that instinct can divide us by age, race, gender, religion and experience. Genuine relationships help us question assumptions, reduce loneliness and ageism, and see people as individuals rather than stereotypes.

Nana left me her voice, a passion for Guardians baseball and a belief that human connection can move the needle on bias and isolation.

Pull up a chair. Let’s talk about how we carry that legacy forward.

Show Notes: https://drloristevic.com/why-intergenerational-relationships-matter/

Self-Care for Women: Why Functioning Isn't the Same as Being Well

I'm recording this one from a road trip, and if you know me at all, you know driving is not my idea of relaxing. I spend most of the ride working an imaginary brake from the passenger seat.

But I chose to make this trip because there are people at the other end of it who matter to me, and somewhere along the highway I started wondering when we decided self-care only counts if it feels good in the moment.

In this episode, I invite you to think about self-care as something bigger and a little more honest than a bubble bath or an afternoon off, though I'm a fan of both.

We talk about why so many women say "I'm fine" when what they really mean is "I'm still getting everything done," and what it might look like to care for ourselves before a crisis forces us to.

I also return to a question from my book Put On Your Big Girl Shoes and share how my understanding of the strong woman has changed in the ten years since I wrote it.

If you've been grading yourself on how well you do self-care, or quietly wondering why it never seems to be enough, come ride along with me.

Show Notes: https://drloristevic.com/self-care-for-women-functioning-vs-being-well/

What happens when a physician knows what care a pregnant patient needs—but providing it could expose that physician to criminal charges?

I sit down with maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. David Hackney, author of Impossible Choices, to examine what changed inside the exam room after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

We discuss how abortion bans affect far more than elective abortion. They can shape the care of women facing miscarriage, cancer, heart or kidney disease, severe pregnancy complications, and fetal conditions incompatible with life. Dr. Hackney explains the critical legal difference between an “exception” and an “affirmative defense,” and why uncertainty about the law can delay medical decisions when time matters most.

This is not simply a political conversation. It is a candid look at what happens when the law enters the exam room—and doctors and patients are left to make impossible choices.

Show Notes: https://drloristevic.com/abortion-bans-high-risk-pregnancy-care/

What happens when your lab results are normal, but you know you do not feel like yourself?

In this episode, I sit down with Ann Konkoly, DNP, MBA, WHNP-BC, MSCP, a board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner, to talk about the hormonal changes that can begin during perimenopause and continue through menopause.

We discuss why a single blood test may not tell the whole story and why symptoms such as disrupted sleep, brain fog, anxiety, joint pain, and changes in sexual health are so often treated separately.

We also revisit the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative and the fear of hormone replacement therapy that followed. What do we now understand about HRT benefits and risks? How do estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, timing, and personal health history affect the decision?

This is not an argument for or against hormone replacement therapy. It is an evidence-informed conversation to help women understand their options, ask better questions, and participate fully in decisions about their health.

Show Notes: https://drloristevic.com/hormone-replacement-therapy-perimenopause-menopause/

You walk into a room and forget why you're there. A word you've used a thousand times won't come. And somewhere underneath the frustration, a quieter fear starts to build — is this menopause, or is it something more serious?

In this episode, Dr. Lori draws on decades of clinical work with dementia and midlife women to explain what brain fog during perimenopause and menopause actually is, what the research really shows, and how to recognize when a change in your thinking deserves a closer look. If you've been quietly worrying about your brain, this conversation is for you.

Show Notes: https://drloristevic.com/menopause-brain-fog-or-dementia/

Why does sex become painful for some women? Why can orgasms take longer—or feel different—during perimenopause and menopause? And why are women rarely asked about sexual health after cancer?

Dr. Lori talks with Dr. Rachel Pope, a gynecologic surgeon and women’s sexual health specialist, about the physical and psychological changes women often struggle with privately.

They discuss painful intercourse, pelvic-floor tension, changes in desire and orgasm, the effects of estrogen and testosterone, and options for women recovering from cancer treatment.

This is an honest, medically grounded conversation about women’s bodies, relationships and the sexual concerns that deserve far more attention—and treatment—than they receive.

Show Notes: https://drloristevic.com/painful-sex-after-menopause-cancer-treatment/

Pregnancy and postpartum can change far more than a woman’s body. Hormonal shifts can also intersect with anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts, OCD and, in rare cases, postpartum psychosis.

But how do we know when what a woman is experiencing has moved beyond the expected exhaustion and adjustment of having a baby?

In Part Two of our four-part Women’s Health Series, Dr. Lori talks with Dr. Lulu Zhao, an OB/GYN specializing in women’s behavioral health and reproductive psychiatry, about pregnancy and postpartum mental health—and why this is a conversation for women and the people who love them.

They talk about why women can look completely functional while struggling underneath, what partners and families should know, PMDD, postpartum anxiety and depression, intrusive thoughts, postpartum OCD and psychosis, and the complicated questions surrounding psychiatric medications during pregnancy.

And perhaps most importantly, they look at a question many women find themselves asking: Is this hormonal, is it my mental health—or could it be both?

Show Notes: https://drloristevic.com/postpartum-depression-anxiety-psychosis-hormones/

Alzheimer's may be diagnosed late in life, but brain health is built decades earlier. And nearly two-thirds of people living with it are women.

In this solo episode kicking off a new women's health series, Dr. Lori breaks down why the line between mental and physical health has never made sense to her, what neuroscience reveals about the menopause transition, and why women have historically gotten only a fraction of the research funding despite carrying the bulk of the disease.

You'll hear the Lancet Commission's fourteen modifiable risk factors for dementia, and a hard truth about the millions of women quietly putting their own brain health at risk while caring for everyone but themselves.

This episode sets the stage for a series featuring real conversations on pregnancy and postpartum mental health, sexual health, and hormone therapy. Come back and listen. You owe it to yourself.

Show notes: https://drloristevic.com/brain-health-for-women-alzheimers-risk/