Ep. 130 - Women Pay $350 for a Hormone Men Get for $86 | Katrina Pierson

Women are paying $350 for a testosterone pellet. The same hormone, in a men’s tube, can last a year for $86.

Texas Rep. Katrina Pierson (HD 33) — former Trump national spokesperson and chair of the House Subcommittee on Maternal Health, Menopause and Access to Evidence-Based Medicine — sits down with Brad Swail on Texas Talks to walk through her Texas Women’s Health Initiative: baseline hormone testing, HRT coverage, physician liability, iron and prenatal access, and why she says doctors now practice insurance instead of medicine.

Pierson spent 14 years in healthcare, including OB-GYN. She filed a menopause-coverage bill in 2025 that never got a hearing. After the FDA lifted the HRT black-box warning, she took a larger package to the Speaker and got interim charges. In this conversation she explains:

• Why she wants insurance to cover physician-prescribed perimenopause and menopause treatment — including testosterone when medically necessary

• The case for baseline hormone testing before women get labeled with depression or anxiety

• Prior authorization, compounding clinics, and telehealth HRT after the black box came off

• Why Medicaid still requires a prescription for prenatal vitamins, and why she wants physicians able to dispense iron and basics in the office

• What she heard in her subcommittee’s first hearing on prenatal nutrition and Healthy Texas Women

• The gap she flagged in HTW: enrollment is up, participation is down

• The next hearing (date TBD) on menopause and perimenopause, including patient testimony at the Capitol

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