It's Not a Purse

It's Not a Purse is a documentary podcast series that revisits events from modern history that have impacted the lives of women. Each season, we investigate a timeline of pivotal moments where institutions, politics and media made decisions with life altering consequences for women's health, opportunity access and autonomy. In Season 1, A Study on Trial: The Women's Health Initiative Revisited, we go back to July 9, 2002. On that day, the NIH held a press conference where they inaccurately stated that HRT lacked benefits and caused breast cancer — claims that did not match the data from their own study. The media frenzy caused millions of women and physicians to unnecessarily abandon HRT overnight. The fallout reshaped how a generation of women and doctors approached the treatment of menopause symptoms for decades. You'll hear the voices of many who were there, those who have contributed to the milestones of progress as they unfold, and the series host Ami Armstrong's own perspective as a curious person trying to figure out if creating awareness through storytelling can help to close the women's health and opportunity gaps.