From Anchor to Advocate: Why I Left The Newsroom For Women’s Health

Over the past 18 months since leaving my job at a primetime anchor in New York City, I have been asked over and over, “do you miss it?” “do you regret leaving?” So, I wanted to answer those questions among the others for anyone out there contemplating making a change or wondering if they will regret it if they do. I sure hope this helps.

For years, I sat behind the anchor desk delivering the day’s top stories including politics, crime, weather, human interest and as many women’s stories as I could sneak in. But something was missing from the news cycle. And it wasn’t just a story. It was millions of women. Including me.

At 49, I was sweating through live TV, forgetting words mid-sentence, and crying in the bathroom between segments and always thinking something was wrong with me. No one said “menopause.” Certainly not on air. And definitely not in the newsroom.

So I started asking questions. Quietly at first. Then more boldly. And what I found was heartbreaking and infuriating. Women across this country and the world were being dismissed, misdiagnosed, and gaslit. We weren’t part of the conversation because there wasn’t one.

That’s when I knew: my next headline wasn’t going to be delivered from a teleprompter. It was going to be a movement.

I walked away from my anchor job to become an advocate for women’s health, specifically menopause, perimenopause, and midlife reinvention. I wrote a book.

I produced a documentary. I launched a podcast. But more than that, I found my voice as myself. Not behind a desk, not reading someone else’s words, but telling the truth we’re not supposed to talk about.

Here’s why this matters right now.

I never get over this number. 50+ million women in the U.S. are in menopause. Yet most doctors receive little to no training on how to treat us.

Women are leaving the workforce in record numbers but it’s not not because they’ve lost their ambition, but because they’re navigating symptoms no one warned them about. Trust me, I was one of them dealing with symptoms that made no sense.

Research is decades behind. Menopause impacts heart disease, bone health, mental health, sexual health, and cognitive decline, but it's been systematically underfunded and ignored. We are changing that.

I didn’t leave the news. I am the news. You are the news. We are the news.

And I won’t stop reporting until every woman feels seen, heard, and supported in relationships, at home, at work, and in the doctor’s office.

So if you're reading this and feeling like you’ve lost your spark, your voice, or your place.

I see you.

And I’m here to say: it’s not just you.

And it’s not too late.

This is the story of our lives. Let’s rewrite it together.

xo Tamsen