I see women who have painful cycles all of the time.  Most are controlled with over the counter medications or some degree of rest, and after ruling out other causes of pelvic pain (ovarian cysts, for example) I can start my patients on pain medications or hormonal contraceptives that significantly improve their pain.  That’s the norm.  Every once in a while, however, I come across a patient who has REALLY ...

Angelina Jolie did the medical world and women all over quite a service by stepping forward last month and shining a spotlight on BRCA status and testing.  She revealed that she is a carrier of the BRCA gene, and that she had undergone a complete bilateral mastectomy.  For those who are not yet familiar, the BRCA gene stands for “BReast CAncer” and encompasses a hereditary genetic mutation that is passed do ...

As a gynecologist who takes care of a fair number of teenage patients, I sometimes find myself walking a fine line between patient privacy and parental information.  For example, I saw a young woman the other day who had recently become sexually active.  She had convinced her mother to bring her to me because she had painful cycles and wanted to control them with hormonal contraception.  The issue was twofo ...

Last month, a very near and dear member of my family was diagnosed with lung cancer.  The diagnosis was devastating to our family, of course, as was the stress of the subsequent lung surgery and recovery.  My family member was a longtime smoker in her youth, who quit over a decade ago.  I had the conversation with her about smoking for so many years of her life, and she said “I never thought that I would be ...

Well, it’s official.  The flu is now spread across all 50 states, and by all accounts, this year’s flu season is turning out to be a bad one.  Despite the overwhelming numbers of people that have become sick with this virus, I still can’t convince some folks to get a flu shot!  Reasons vary depending on the individual, and I have heard everything from “It doesn’t work for me” to “I hate needles” and my all ...

The country of India is up in arms over the recent gang rape of a young woman on a public bus.  She was assaulted with a metal rod and beaten, left for dead on the side of the road.  She did, in fact, die 2 weeks later of injuries sustained during the attack.  She has brought renewed vigor to a national conversation about the violence against women that is prevalent in Indian society.  Women- and men- acros ...

I started my small gynecology practice and began blogging for the Skinless Project in the same month almost one year ago- January 2012.  With the holidays and new year approaching, I cannot help but reflect on the lessons that the year has brought me- both personally and professionally.  Opportunity and challenge seem to come knocking together most days, but the risks- and rewards- have been worthwhile.  I ...

I was talking to one of my young patients the other day during an annual exam, and she asked me what she could do to strengthen her vagina.  I reviewed Kegel exercises and she said that she had already done those and that her vagina still didn’t feel “as tight as it used to be before I had my daughter”.  So we had the conversation about how childbirth can cause permanent changes to the pelvic floor and how ...

Periods can be weird. Some women are regular as clockwork and can tell me the exact date and time of day that their periods will arrive. Others have a range of normal, somewhere between 28 and 30 days, for example, that they mark the calendar by. Then there are periods that don't follow the rules. These are periods that set in with a vengeance, causing heavy bleeding never experienced before, or an "extra" ...

For the past month, there has been a tremendous interest in the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  As it turned out, the Supreme court upheld the law as constitutional, and we are now moving forward in shaping healthcare to uphold the law and its mandates. To be perfectly honest, I am not sure how the ACA will affect the everyday practice of medicine- ...