Welcome to The XX Lab, where I talk with scientists and top-performing women to give you insights that you can use in everyday life.
This is not another health podcast telling women to optimize endlessly or chase extreme longevity. It’s a science+life podcast for women who want to feel better now—not just live longer later.
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The Hormone-ADHD Connection Women Aren’t Told About | Dr. Jolene Brighten #21
Episode 21
Monday, October 5, 2026 • Duration 01:52:01
You've been told midlife brain fog is just stress. What if perimenopause is actually revealing a brain you've been masking your whole life?
In this episode of The XX Lab, I sit down with Dr. Jolene Brighten, board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist and author of Beyond the Pill, to talk about her new book, ADHD and Women. We explore why perimenopause unmasks ADHD, how to tell it apart from brain fog, the birth control connection, and what actually supports the ADHD brain.
Whether you're curious about ADHD in women, hormones and the brain, or the hidden side effects of hormonal birth control, I think you'll find this conversation to be a science-backed, deeply validating look at how hormones shape who we are at every life stage.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
ADHD isn't a deficit of attention. It's difficult to regulate attention, and hormones influence how it shows up across a woman's life.
The highest rates of new ADHD diagnoses are in middle-aged women, a group that was missed for decades, not a sign that ADHD is new.
Perimenopause can cause ADHD-like symptoms in women who don't have ADHD. True ADHD has been present since childhood.
Diet, sleep, and daily movement don't cause or cure ADHD, but they strongly influence how severely symptoms are expressed.
Timestamps
What Happened When She Questioned The Pill (00:00)
Birth Control Myths And The Hidden ADHD Risk (06:26)
Late ADHD And Autism Diagnosis: The Signs She Missed (15:44)
Perimenopause Or ADHD? How To Tell The Difference (42:07)
Pharma Skepticism, Hormones And ADHD Stimulants (54:20)
Is ADHD Rising Or Just Diagnosed More? (1:11:47)
ADHD Meds For Kids, Creatine And Omega-3s (1:22:48)
Why She Regrets Starting The Pill At 17 (1:37:55)
PMDD Isn't Just Progesterone: Histamine And Inflammation (1:44:49)
Guest Bio
Dr. Jolene Brighten is a board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist, certified menopause specialist, and nutrition scientist known for translating complex hormone science into practical care. She is the bestselling author of Beyond the Pill and Is This Normal?, and her new book, ADHD and Women, explores how hormones shape ADHD across a woman's life. She hosts The Dr. Brighten Show, a top-rated women's health podcast.
The XX Lab is where midlife women come to understand the science of their own biology: hormones, brain chemistry, behavior, and the research that finally makes sense of how you feel. Dr. Sarah Hill breaks down the evidence with rigor and warmth, so you can make decisions rooted in real science, not guesswork.
For more research-backed insight on your hormones, brain, and behavior, find Dr. Sarah Hill here:
Your Relationships Are Affecting Your Health More Than You Think | Dr. Rich Slatcher #20
Episode 20
Monday, September 28, 2026 • Duration 01:30:02
What if the strongest predictor of how long you live has nothing to do with your diet, your sleep, or the gym? I have spent my career studying hormones and behavior, and this one still stops me: the quality of your relationships predicts mortality at roughly double the effect of exercise.
In this episode of The XX Lab, I sit down with Dr. Rich Slatcher, Gail M. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Georgia and director of the Close Relationships Lab. Rich and I were in the same graduate program at UT Austin, so this is part science, part reunion. We cover why social connection predicts mortality, how partner responsiveness shapes health, why men benefit more from marriage than women do, and what makes a first date work.
Key Takeaways:
- Social integration predicts mortality at roughly double the effect of exercise
- Opening up only helps your health if the person listening actually responds
- Men route nearly every emotional need through a spouse; women keep wider networks
- Where you have a first date matters far less than how open the conversation gets
Timestamps
How Relationships Shape Health With Dr. Rich Slatcher (00:00)
Expressive Writing Can Boost Your Immune System (01:25)
What Women Should Know Before Taking Hormonal Birth Control | Dr. Nusa Faric #19
Episode 19
Monday, September 21, 2026 • Duration 01:27:08
You've been told the pill is too small to change who you are. What if the science says otherwise, and you're not imagining it?
For years, women who reported mood changes on the pill were told it was in their heads, and the research was called conflicting. A new meta-analysis suggests the pattern was there all along. We just weren't looking at the best studies.
In this episode of The XX Lab, Dr. Sarah Hill sits down with Dr. Nusa Faric, a health psychology researcher whose meta-analysis pooled the highest-quality trials on hormonal contraception and depression risk. Together they explore why past reviews missed the signal, how synthetic progestins reshape a brain wired for cycling hormones, why adolescent users may be most vulnerable, the “sham period” myth, and what a better contraceptive future could look like.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Conflicting results on the pill and depression often reflect study quality, not a true absence of effect.
- Filtering for high-quality trials with large samples and clean controls reveals a link that weaker studies obscure.
- Non-oral methods like the hormonal IUD, shot, and patch tend to carry a worse mental health risk profile than the combined pill.
- Adolescent users may face longer-lasting effects because the developing brain does not always return to baseline.
- Younger women who use hormonal contraception in adolescence are more likely to remain on antidepressants later.
- The pill flattens the natural hormonal cycle into a near-constant synthetic signal.
- The monthly bleed on the pill is a “sham period,” not a true menstrual period.
Timestamps
The Pill and Depression: What Science Really Shows (00:00)
How Sex Hormones Shape the Male & Female Brain | Sarah E. Hill & David Puts | #18
Episode 18
Monday, September 14, 2026 • Duration 01:55:54
You've been told the pill and the hormonal IUD act "locally," that they barely touch the rest of you. What if science says almost the opposite? Most of us treat hormones as background chemistry for periods and pregnancy, when they are really broadcast signals traveling everywhere blood goes, switching genes on and off in the brain, the muscles, and far beyond the reproductive organs.
In this episode of The XX Lab, Dr. Sarah Hill sits down with Dr. David Puts, evolutionary anthropologist and neuroendocrinology researcher at Penn State, to explore what hormones actually are, how they shape the brain before birth, the myth of "locally acting" hormones, what the menstrual cycle does to attraction, and how the birth control pill nudges desire and partner choice.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Hormones act by binding a receptor that regulates gene expression, changing what a cell makes.
- A purely "locally acting" hormone does not hold up; if it reaches the bloodstream, it travels.
- Most women on the hormonal IUD stop ovulating, evidence the hormone reaches systemic levels.
- Sex hormones shape the brain, not only the reproductive organs, from before birth.
- CAH and IHH serve as natural experiments for studying prenatal hormone effects on behavior.
- The "masculine voices when fertile" preference is weaker and less consistent than popular science suggests.
WHOOP Scientist: The #1 Habit for Better Sleep, Recovery & Long-Term Health | Dr. Kristen Holmes #17
Episode 17
Monday, September 7, 2026 • Duration 01:23:05
Your WHOOP recovery score dips, you slept fine, you did everything right, so why does the number look worse? What if that "bad" reading is your body working exactly as it should?
In this episode of The XX Lab, Dr. Sarah Hill sits down with Dr. Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist at WHOOP, to explore what wearables really measure in women, resilience to hormonal change, sleep-wake regularity, mental health as the foundation of performance, and her new book, Aligned.
Whether you are curious about what your wearable is telling you, navigating perimenopause, or rethinking how mental health, sleep, and recovery connect, this conversation offers a women-first lens on performance and resilience.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- A lower recovery score during your cycle is often normal biology, not a sign you did something wrong.
- Women on hormonal birth control show fewer perturbations, and their data can resemble a man's.
- Cardiovascular amplitude is a novel, patented marker of resilience that HRV and resting heart rate miss.
- The resilience you build in your 20s and 30s shapes your perimenopause and menopause experience.
- If your mental health is not right, top fitness and performance stop mattering very quickly.
- Sleep-wake regularity predicts disease better than sleep duration and supports mental health too.
Timestamps
The Scientist Behind Your WHOOP Recovery Score (00:00)
From Elite Coaching to Human Performance Science (02:25)
Availability: The Metric That Predicts 86% of Success (04:45)
Shira Boehler: The Cancer That Kills More Young Women Than Breast, Ovarian & Colon Combined | #16
Episode 16
Monday, August 31, 2026 • Duration 01:08:55
You did everything right, kale, running, annual blood tests, and still ended up with a mass in your lung. So why does the disease killing more young, healthy women than breast, ovarian, and colon cancer combined still carry the stigma of a smoker's disease?
In this episode of The XX Lab, Dr. Sarah Hill sits down with Shira Boehler, lung cancer survivor, author of the New York Times bestseller One Scan Saved My Life, and founder of the Cancer Doesn't Care foundation, to explore why lung cancer is rising in young non-smoking women, sex differences in medicine, the toll on caregivers, and why a $200 scan could rewrite the guidelines.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Lung cancer kills more young, healthy women than breast, ovarian, and colon cancer combined, yet gets a fraction of the awareness and funding.
- "If you smoke, you get lung cancer" has curdled into "if you have lung cancer, you smoked", a stigma that keeps survivors silent.
- The real truth is simpler and scarier: if you have lungs, you can get lung cancer.
- Non-smoking women in parts of Asia get lung cancer at higher rates than smoking men, pointing to a female health crisis science hasn't explained.
Timestamps One Scan Saved My Life: Shira Boehler's Story (00:00)
Pushing for the Low-Dose CT Doctors Dismissed (05:37)
Why Lung Cancer Kills More Young Women Than Breast Cancer (08:52)
The Myth That Only Smokers Get Lung Cancer (14:08)
How Women's Heart Attack Symptoms Went Ignored for Decades (21:31)
Why Does Attraction Change in Relationships? with Dr. Andrea Meltzer | #15
Episode 15
Monday, August 24, 2026 • Duration 01:18:01
Why does attraction change once you're in a long-term relationship? And could hormones, physical attractiveness, and even what happens after sex shape how satisfied couples remain over time?
On this episode of The XX Lab, Dr. Sarah Hill sits down with Dr. Andrea Meltzer, Professor of Social Psychology at Florida State University, to explore the science of attraction, mate choice, sexual satisfaction, and long-term relationship health.
Dr. Meltzer has spent years studying how individual differences and interpersonal dynamics shape romantic relationships. Her research uses longitudinal and experimental methods to examine newlywed couples, giving researchers a rare look at how attraction, stress, sexual satisfaction, and perceptions of partners influence relationship outcomes over time.
Does physical attractiveness predict relationship satisfaction?
The conversation begins with a surprising finding about physical attractiveness and relationship satisfaction. Dr. Meltzer explains why attractiveness can matter differently for men and women once a relationship becomes established, and why the person you find attractive from across the room isn't necessarily the same person you experience as attractive when they're your partner.
Sarah and Andrea also discuss how people tend to see their romantic partners more positively than outside observers do. Relationship satisfaction and commitment can shape how attractive we perceive our partners to be, suggesting that attraction isn't simply a fixed reaction to someone's physical appearance.
How can couples protect relationship satisfaction over time?
Relationship satisfaction tends to decline on average over the course of marriage, but Dr. Meltzer emphasizes that couples differ considerably in how steep that decline is. Her research points toward factors that may help buffer against those changes.
The conversation ends with practical ideas for maintaining strong relationships, including positive communication, supporting a partner's goals, and creating novel experiences together. Dr. Meltzer also highlights something couples may underestimate: the role that outside stress can play inside the relationship.
This episode is for anyone curious about the science of attraction, hormones, sex, mate choice, marriage, and what actually helps romantic relationships stay satisfying over time.
KEY TAKEAWAYSGUEST BIO
7 Surprising Things Your Voice Reveals About You with Dr. Greg Bryant | #14
Episode 14
Monday, August 17, 2026 • Duration 01:10:43
What does your voice say before you even finish a sentence?
Long before someone processes your words, their brain has already begun decoding your voice. In a fraction of a second, people can make surprisingly accurate judgments about your age, biological sex, emotional state, health, native language, and even aspects of your social relationships. The fascinating part? Most of this happens automatically.
In this episode of The XX Lab, Dr. Sarah Hill sits down with cognitive scientist Dr. Greg Bryant, Professor and Chair of Communication at UCLA, to explore the hidden science of human vocal communication. Drawing from evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and behavioral biology, Dr. Bryant explains why our voices evolved to carry so much information and how humans have become remarkably skilled at interpreting those signals.
Sarah and Greg discuss how listeners detect subtle vocal cues associated with illness, strength, stress, confidence, and authenticity. They also explore why these abilities likely evolved to help humans navigate cooperation, competition, caregiving, and mate selection.
Whether you're interested in psychology, neuroscience, communication, women's health, or human behavior, this conversation offers a fascinating look at one of the most overlooked aspects of everyday life: the science hiding inside every conversation.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Your voice communicates far more than the words you speak, including biological and social information.
Listeners can often estimate a person's age, biological sex, emotional state, and native language after hearing only a brief vocal sample.
Subtle vocal characteristics can provide clues about illness, physical condition, and overall health.
Humans evolved specialized abilities to rapidly interpret vocal signals because they support cooperation, survival, and social decision-making.
Genuine laughter carries different acoustic characteristics than polite or socially motivated laughter.
Vocal communication combines language, context, and sound into a remarkably rich social signal.
GUEST BIOGUEST LINKSHOST LINKS
Why Women Compete Differently Than Men with Dr. Khandis Blake | #13
Monday, August 10, 2026 • Duration 01:17:45
Are women really less competitive than men, or have we been measuring competition the wrong way?
In this episode of The XX Lab, Dr. Sarah Hill sits down with Dr. Khandis Blake, PhD, evolutionary psychologist and researcher, to explore how hormones, competition, confidence, mate preferences, and modern environments shape women's behavior in ways that are often misunderstood.
Why do women compete differently than men?
Drawing on years of research in evolutionary psychology, Dr. Blake explains why women often compete through different strategies than men, how status and relationships influence those behaviors, and why common stereotypes fail to capture the full picture. Sarah and Khandis discuss the evolutionary pressures that shaped female competition and why cooperation has been just as important to women's success as competition itself.
The conversation also explores how hormonal fluctuations across the menstrual cycle can influence confidence, ambition, social behavior, and partner preferences. Together, they unpack what researchers know, what remains uncertain, and why nuance matters when discussing sex differences.
How do hormones shape everyday decisions?
Sarah and Khandis examine research on hormonal contraception, workplace behavior, mate choice, and the gender pay gap, asking whether biology and modern culture interact in ways that help explain differences in outcomes without reducing them to simple cause-and-effect stories.
Whether you're interested in women's health, psychology, relationships, or understanding the science behind human behavior, this episode offers an evidence-based conversation that challenges common assumptions while respecting the complexity of the research.
Key Takeaways
Women often compete through social and relationship-based strategies rather than direct physical competition.
Cooperation and competition have evolved together as complementary survival strategies.
Hormonal changes can subtly influence confidence, motivation, and social behavior.
Confidence is influenced by both biology and environment rather than either factor alone.
Hormonal contraception may affect some aspects of psychology differently across individuals.
Guest Bio
The Wellness Industry Isn't Making Us Healthier with Sarah Ann Macklin | #12
Episode 12
Monday, August 3, 2026 • Duration 01:26:16
We have more health information than ever before, yet we're getting sicker, more stressed, and more overwhelmed. So what's missing?
In this episode of The XX Lab, Dr. Sarah Hill welcomes Sarah Ann Macklin, registered nutritionist, former international model, host of Live Well Be Well, and author of Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard. Together, they explore why today's $8.5 trillion wellness industry isn't delivering better health and why the missing ingredient may have less to do with information and more to do with how we relate to ourselves.
Why isn't more health advice making us healthier?
Sarah Ann shares her remarkable journey from the fashion industry to clinical nutrition, revealing how years of chasing perfection ultimately reshaped her understanding of health. She explains why fear-based wellness messaging often backfires, how self-worth influences health behaviors, and why sustainable habits begin with self-compassion rather than self-criticism.
The conversation also explores mindset, stress, body awareness, food insecurity, nutrition science, and the fascinating ways our thoughts can influence our physiology. Sarah and Sarah discuss why understanding your body's signals is essential for making lasting lifestyle changes and why health doesn't have to be built on restriction or guilt.
What does it really mean to work with your body?
From the science of interoception to practical advice about whole foods, supplements, cooking, and behavior change, this episode offers an evidence-based roadmap for building a healthier relationship with food and with yourself. Rather than chasing perfection, Sarah Ann explains why learning to trust your body may be one of the most powerful health interventions available.
Whether you're overwhelmed by conflicting nutrition advice, struggling to build healthier habits, or simply looking for a more compassionate approach to wellness, this conversation offers practical tools backed by science.
Key Takeaways
More health information doesn't automatically lead to better health outcomes.
Self-compassion is a critical foundation for long-term behavior change.
Fear-based wellness marketing often undermines healthy habits.
Guest BioGuest Links
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Dr. Rich Slatcher is the Gail M. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Georgia, where he directs the Close Relationships Lab. He earned his PhD at UT Austin with James Pennebaker and completed an NIMH postdoctoral fellowship in health psychology at UCLA. His research examines self-disclosure, partner responsiveness, and how close relationships shape physical health and wellbeing.
Oral vs Non-Oral Birth Control Risk Compared (54:50)
Your Pill Side Effects Are Not Imagined (01:04:30)
Guest Bio
Dr. Nusa Faric holds a PhD in health psychology and informatics from University College London and is now a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Her work sits at the intersection of women's health, hormonal contraception, digital health, and mental health.
Dr. David Puts is Professor of Anthropology and Psychology at Penn State and Co-Director of the Center for Human Evolution and Diversity, where he directs the Behavioral Endocrinology and Evolution Lab. His work bridges the "why" of evolutionary theory with the "how" of hormones and gene expression, studying the sexual differentiation of the brain and behavior, mating psychology, and sex differences.
Leaving Princeton to Scale Recovery at WHOOP (10:15)
Why Your Cycle Changes Your Recovery Score (14:55)
Resilience to Hormonal Change and Amplitude (18:10)
Why Building Resilience Starts in Your 20s and 30s (24:15)
The New Book Aligned and Losing Her Mother (32:45)
Why Mental Health Is the Foundation of Performance (44:00)
Sex Differences in Sleep and the Light Diet (55:25)
The HEAL Framework and Sleep-Wake Regularity (1:11:55)
Guest Bio
Dr. Kristen Holmes is the Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist at WHOOP, where she has led research on recovery, sleep, and women's health since 2016. A two-sport All-American at Iowa and seven-year US National Field Hockey Team member, she was one of the most successful coaches in Ivy League history at Princeton, winning 12 league titles in 13 seasons. A psychophysiologist, her work focuses on how psychology, physiology, sleep, and recovery shape human performance. She is the author of Aligned.
If She Could Rewrite the Screening Guidelines (1:04:36)
The One Thing She Wants Every Woman to Do (1:10:07)
Guest Bio
Shira Boehler is a lung cancer survivor and author of One Scan Saved My Life, a New York Times bestseller chronicling her diagnosis as a healthy, non-smoking runner and mother of four. Diagnosed at 43 after a mass was caught incidentally, she had half her right lung removed and was declared cancer-free at stage one. She founded the Cancer Doesn't Care foundation, which funds low-dose CT screenings for those who cannot afford them, and focuses on early detection, dismantling stigma, and modernizing screening guidelines.
Relationship attraction is shaped by context, meaning a partner's personality, behavior, status, and relationship dynamics can matter alongside physical appearance.
Sexual afterglow can last roughly 24 to 48 hours after sex, potentially helping couples maintain a sense of connection between sexual experiences.
Stronger sexual afterglow has been associated with greater relationship satisfaction months later, suggesting that the effects of sex may extend beyond the sexual encounter itself.
Sexual frequency appears to matter up to a point, while sexual afterglow may become particularly relevant once couples are already meeting their desired level of sexual frequency.
Positive communication and novel experiences together may help protect relationship satisfaction, while outside stress is an often-underestimated influence on romantic relationships.
Dr. Andrea Meltzer is a Professor of Social Psychology at Florida State University whose research examines relationship development, maintenance, and well-being. Her work focuses on how individual differences, stress, sexual satisfaction, partner perceptions, and interpersonal dynamics shape romantic relationship outcomes over time.
Follow The XX Lab for more science-based conversations about women's health, psychology, relationships, and human behavior.
Evolutionary psychology helps explain why humans are exceptionally tuned to vocal cues.
Understanding how voices shape perception can improve communication, relationships, and social awareness.
Dr. Greg Bryant is a cognitive scientist who studies communication and cognition from an evolutionary perspective. He serves as Professor and Chair of the UCLA Department of Communication, where his research examines vocal communication, laughter, music perception, social cognition, cultural evolution, and behavioral biology. His work combines laboratory experiments, cross-cultural field research, acoustic analysis, and comparative studies across species.
If you enjoyed this conversation, follow The XX Lab, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who's fascinated by the science of human behavior.
Mate preferences are flexible and can shift depending on context and life stage.
Evolutionary psychology helps explain behavioral patterns without determining individual outcomes.
Biological differences should inform research without reinforcing stereotypes.
Understanding women's psychology requires considering both culture and biology.
Scientific nuance is essential when discussing hormones, behavior, and sex differences.
Khandis Blake is an evolutionary psychologist whose research examines female competition, hormones, mating psychology, status, and human behavior. Her work explores how evolutionary science can help explain modern social dynamics while challenging common misconceptions about women.
Enjoyed this conversation? Follow The XX Lab and leave a review to help more people discover evidence-based conversations about women's health, psychology, and human behavior.
Whole foods support healthier body signals than highly processed foods.
Mindset can influence physiological responses to nutrition and exercise.
Chronic stress affects both physical and mental well-being.
Supplements should support, not replace, a nutrient-rich diet and should be guided by appropriate testing when possible.
Sustainable health comes from working with your body instead of constantly trying to fix it.
Sarah Ann Macklin is a registered nutritionist, former international model, founder of the Be Well Collective, host of the Live Well Be Well podcast, and author of Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard. Her work focuses on evidence-based nutrition, behavior change, and helping people build healthier relationships with food and themselves.
If you enjoyed this conversation, follow The XX Lab and leave a review to help more listeners discover science-backed conversations about health, psychology, and human behavior.
