Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast - The Second Opinion: It’s Not Hysteria! ft. Dr. Karen Tang

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Did you know the word hysteria comes from the Greek word hystera, meaning uterus? On this episode, Dr. Karen Tang and Dr. Sharon chat about the history and evolution of Obstetrics Gynecology, unpack different subspecialties, and discuss the myth of the "wandering womb". Plus, Dr. Tang shares experiences patients may have on the operating table, surgical options for reproductive health, and why you may want to choose a minimally invasive surgery for gynecologic conditions. Board Certified OBGYN and Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgeon, Dr. Karen Tang, reaches millions of people every month through her educational videos on TikTok and IG. With over 15 years of experience, Dr. Tang specializes in endometriosis, fibroids, chronic pelvic pain, menopause, and gender-affirming care. She is the founder of Thrive Gynecology in Philadelphia, where she provides expert care to patients nationwide. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Have questions? Submit them here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello, everyone, it's Michelle Norris. Today I want to share a new podcast from my very dear friend, Dr. Sharon Malone. Dr. Malone has been there for me over the years with all my questions about all kinds of things, menopause, changing bodies, things that I'd like to talk to my doctor about, but I can't always reach my doctor late at night or early in the morning or on the weekend. The second opinion with Dr. Sharon is where women take back the conversation on health with straight talk. and real experience. It's hosted by Dr. Sharon Malone, a leading OBGYN and paramenopause menopause expert with over 30 years of experience. This show features high profile advocates, experts, and patients just like you as they share how their second opinion changes lives. Dr. Sharon will tackle the questions and topics we've been conditioned to ignore. The ones we search for at 3 a.m., but never bring up at the doctor's office. We're talking to

talking dismissal symptoms, gaps in health care, family hardships, menopause, or newly developing health-related news. You'll hear from Dr. Sharon and Dr. Karen Tang, a board-certified gynecologist and minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon. She sits with Dr. Sharon to discuss OBGYN fundamentals you need to know. The two doctors share how OBGYN medicine started off with a lot of mystique from the male perspective. why minimally invasive surgery is a very impactful solution for certain gynecological conditions. Please enjoy this episode of The Second Opinion with Dr. Sharon. They actually would treat people by, you know, tempting the uterus with things that they thought they would like.

Like, say, like, you should have sex. Like, if you are unmarried, the reason you're having health issues is because you need more sex. Or literally, they would hold up sweet things to, like, the pelvic area to say, tempt the uterus to come back to where it's supposed to be. Today, we're talking with Dr. Karen Tang, a board-certified OBGYN, who specializes in minimally invasive gynecological surgery. We'll discuss how it is evolved over the years. What is it? Who does it? And more importantly, if you are contemplating surgery, are you a candidate? Welcome, Dr. Tang. Dr. Wallone. I'm so excited to be here.

your best-selling book, it's not hysteria, is really a great reference book because it really has all things gynecologic. So, you know, anything that a patient wanted to know about their bodies, about procedures, about things that they may encounter. So I want to ask you a little bit about, you know, the beginning because as I read your book, one of the first things that really struck me is that we kind of started from the same way. I'm sort of explaining our field. You know, gynecology is really a specialty that really has its roots in racism and misogyny. You know, they kind of go hand in hand with how our field was created. And you talk about, you know, J. Marion Sims and I've spoken about him, the father of gynecology. And I'm embarrassed to say that as a gynecologist, I knew his name because of the procedures and the

instruments that we used. But I never knew the history. It was maybe like around like when COVID happened that I first heard about it because there were women who were protesting the statue in Central Park. There was a statue of J. Marion Sims. And that was the first time I actually had ever heard that story. You know, for those who don't know, J. Marion Sims was literally, he was called the father of gynaecology.

And he was very famous for developing techniques for surgical repair of Vescovastroval fistulas, which can happen because of childbirth. And what most of us didn't know is that he actually had experimented on enslaved women, that he had practiced his techniques on unnecised slave women. The actual numbers unknown, but there were three women, Betsy Anarka and Lucy, who we actually know their names, but there were many more who were unnamed. And it was quite shameful. I could not believe that I did not know this story.

And, you know, like Dr. Malone was saying, we have instruments named after him. They're called Sims retractors. The speculum that we use nowadays for PAP smears is actually developed by him. I couldn't believe this. I thought this was a rumor when I was researching my book. I actually found like the whole like, you know, the whole like, you know, scanned copy of his journals where he literally wrote about he bent a spoon. He literally bent like a pewter spoon so he could retract and look inside the vagina. So all of this is it's just stranger than, you know, like you would think it would be like fiction, but it's actually the harsh and terrible reality of our field.

And I think the fact that it's taking us so long to acknowledge and even know that this existed, I think it is part of the reason that there's so much embedded, you know, like racism, misogyny into the history of our field that we didn't even recognize. And it sort of infiltrates the way that we see patients, the lack of research, you know, how different women, black women are viewed in terms of their perceptions of pain. Like, it really is quite foundational. Right. And even just the notion that it took until like the 1840s before gynecology, even as a field of study, was something that anyone was ever interested in. I think that was probably his biggest contribution was like, oh, women need somebody to look at their women parts. That end of itself was revolutionary. That's why I felt it was important for the book to start with a history chapter. I think I made the point to my editors. I was like, I feel like I can't just like launch into.

medical facts without giving like a groundwork because, you know, the, it's not just about like lab values and hormone levels. It's about like human beings. So, you know, it was really something that I felt very strongly about to kind of center it and give this, you know, this context. And also, as I was writing, like each of the different sections in the history chapter, I kind of draw back an association to how things happen now. So for instance, you know, the, a lot of women with endometriosis, a very common condition that causes chronic pelvic pain, are told still today to get pregnant to treat their endometriosis. And the reason that that rumor exists is because people may temporarily feel better in pregnancy, like because of hormone changes, but it's obviously

not like a long-term fix. The crazy thing is that like women have been told some variation of that to get pregnant to fix their health problems for like all of human history. So it's like all the way back to like ancient Greek and Egyptian times and ancient Roman times like we're like well is there something wrong with your health just get pregnant it means your body's starving for pregnancy or you know that's going to be the answer oh please tell this story about the wandering womb the wandering womb so yet literally isn't that funny I love this story so yeah ancient and Greek Roman Egyptian times they literally thought your uterus moved around your body and that it was like almost like an animal like seeking things seeking sex seeking pleasure

things seeking pregnancy. And so they actually would treat people by, you know, tempting the uterus with things that they thought they would like. Like, say, like, you should have sex. Like, if you are unmarried, the reason you're having health issues is because you need more sex. Or literally, they would hold up sweet things to, like, the pelvic area to say, like, tempt the uterus to come back to where it's supposed to be. And even, you know, like Plato, like one of these, like, these, you know, foundational, like philosophers. He's like, you know, this, this, this founding father of philosophy. Like there's literally quotes about him saying like the wandering womb and how it affects

like women. And it's just wild. It sounds so ridiculous. But like this literally was like for, you know, hundreds of years something that people actually thought like these actual, you know, health specialists thought was what was happening with the body. Right. Because every, they thought that everything that women, somehow it was always just shrouded

in equal parts, mystery and shame. Exactly. They kind of went hand in hand about why we behaved. And I think that, you know, historically, people just threw their hands in the air and go, oh, women, they're so complicated. Why you can bother? Come up with something crazy. And then now we have subspecialties in GYN, and some of which are really of a relatively

recent vintage. And I want you to just go through it because people don't understand what the difference, like what do the different subspecialties do? Yes. And this is so exciting for me to talk about because I don't think anybody has ever asked that in an interview. You know, we jump right into like the specific issues and topics. And like a lot of people don't realize that there are these subspecialties for people who need more specialized care. So middling base of GYN surgery is for the surgical management of things like endometriosis, fibroids cis.

And it sort of is related to pelvic pain because so many of those conditions cause pain that are specially also trains in the diagram. and management of complex pelvic pain. So we work very closely with pelvic floor physical therapists and the urogonicalists who specialize in the bladder and the pelvic floor and bladder function and the support of the pelvic organs. There's cancer. So there's GYN oncologists. There are OB, high risk OB specialist called maternal feeble medicine. So there are all these different subspecialties that really kind of dive into more of the specialization. So I think a lot of the struggle that sometimes the average patient goes through in trying to to get the care that they need is that they may only ever, depending on where they live,

you know, if you're a more remote area, only have access to just, you know, not just, but like to general OBGYN and not to some of these like Uber sub-specialists. And it's very hard. Like, you know, it's just like primary care where primary care doctors are absolute, you know, heroes because they're trying to handle so much. And I feel exactly the same way about rural OBGYNs because they're literally doing the jobs of like 10 different doctors. But that's very difficult. And it's hard for. the doctors, it's hard for the patients sometimes, if they're really kind of, you know, have a very complicated situation medically and it's hard to kind of get that super specialized care. So I think it's

really important. It's important to talk about the system because I think a lot of people's disappointments with our field, their bad experiences sometimes is because of this difficulty getting the exact knowledge base and specialization that they need. Right. And then the, and then the the whole field of reproductive endocrinology has changed. And because, again, when, believe it or not, when I started IVF was relatively new. And they did a lot of the endocrinology type stuff that, you know, PCOS and things like that, that they, endometriosis that they don't do anymore. That's like, oh, nope, that goes to somebody else. That's now in your wheelhouse now. Absolutely. So that's a big difference. So again, I started my residency in 2005, and back then the endometriosis and fibroid

specialists were the fertility doctors because, again, they were doing these surgeries and managing patients who those conditions were affecting the patient's fertility. Over time, it's changed very much because a lot of fertility doctors now, they are primarily, you know, they're managing infertility on the level of, you know, IUI or IVF cycles, egg freezing, et cetera. And now there's many more. So Miggs is now actually the most competitive specialty, which again, like back when I started, nobody even knew what it was. Like what is that? And now it's become much more popular, especially topics like endometriosis have really been on the forefront of a lot of like social media discussions and things like that. I want to get to what you do and this minimally invasive gynecologic surgery. Do you say Miggs? What do you say? Yeah, we abbreviated Miggs. But nobody knows what that is. So you end up having to say the whole long crazy name. Okay, so for everybody here, minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, we're going to say migs from now on, just as a mouthful. What is the difference in approach? Minimally invasive versus traditional surgery. And I'll just say traditional surgery is, oh, you're having a hysterectomy, you go in, you have an incision, doctors go in, they put their hands on and they remove your uterus or whatever it is that they're going in there to do your fibroids.

that's traditional what we call laparotomies, which is an open procedure. Now tell our viewers and listeners what the difference is, what is a minimally invasive gynaeclagic? Because we're doing the same procedures, but what's your technique that's different? Exactly. So the name kind of gives a little bit of the hint away. So when we think about laparotomies or what we call it, like you said, open procedures, when people think of it as like the bikini cut incisions or C-section incisions,

It's a big incision across like your lower abdomen for GYN surgeries to do things like hysterectomies, fibroids surgeries, cyst removal, etc. As you can imagine, and those of you who have been through these surgeries know, it's a lot to recover from. It's a big incision and it can be painful. It can really limit your activity, your ability to kind of like walk around and exercise and do the things you want to do in your life. So minimally invasive GYN surgery is basically using techniques that have much smaller incisions

that have less pain, risk of hernias, which are like weaknesses in the strength layers of your body, and less blood loss, and there's less risk of scarring. It basically just gets you back to your life faster with less pain, less risk of bleeding and infections and things like that. A lot of it is outpatient? Yes. And I actually do all of my hysterectomy's outpatient, which means that you don't have to stay in the hospital. In terms of like the experience, you know, pretty much everybody who would have a choice would say, yeah, I would rather have the version that less painful, less of a recovery gets me back to what I need to do. Like you were saying, there are obviously lots of situations medically where you would need to do the big incision either because something like the uterus is just way too large.

It would take forever to complete the surgery with the tiny, tiny incisions. Like you said, you have to get a huge uterus out of the body even if you detach everything with a tiny incisions. So it wouldn't make sense to make like four teeny incisions and then make like, a decision this big just to, you know, cut the whole thing up. Right, because when you add them all up, it'd be the size of a regular lab ride. We may have done it the other way. So tell me what types of procedures, what surgeries are appropriate for a minimally invasive gynecological surgery.

So hysterectomies, what else? Yeah, so hysterectomies, which is just to clarify, because a lot of people are confused, actually, about what that means. It just means taking out your uterus. A lot of people hear the word hysterectomy, and they think, it means taking out your ovaries and dropping your hormones or causing menopause. So just to kind of, you know, say right up front, the hysterectomy is just taking out your uterus, including, you know, usually the cervix, which is the opening, the flopian tubes. They're all attached together.

And also we mentioned a couple of times endometriosis, which is probably the most common causes of chronic pelvic pain, really, really painful periods, pain with sex, inflammation bowel problems, bladder problems get worse with your periods. And endometriosis is, is diagnosed and removed surgically, meaning that it doesn't tend to show up on imaging studies unless it's more advanced. If you imagine with a incision, like a C-section incision,

you have to put your whole head into the incision like you can still barely see. So that is actually one of the few surgeries that pretty much all endometriosis surgeries are done laparoscopically. It's almost impossible to really do a good job with a big incision where you can't see that closely. But surgeries are fibroids,

which can include things like hysterectomies, but also surgeries called myomectomies, which are where you cut the fibroids out of the body. And then ovarian cysts, again, most ovarian cysts can be taken out laparoscopically, even if they're pretty big, you can still drain the fluid out and do the surgery. And then a lot of G1 cancer surgeries are done laparoscopically too. So unless there is a big, big tumor where you'd be afraid of, you know, you can't cut it because it could spread the cancer. You know, uterine cancers, almost all of them are done laparoscopically because the cancer is contained inside the uterus. You take out the uterus, the ovaries, and do lymph node dissections all laparoscopically. So that's been a big change.

Again, thinking back to when I was in residency, a lot of uterine cancer surgeries were still done with the traditional incision. Now they're pretty much all done laparoscopically. So just in those like 20 years, you've seen this drastic change, which is really quite exciting. And then your gyrogynecology where people are having problems like your organs are prolapsing weakness because of childbirth and pregnancy and menopause. So they can repair some of these weaknesses and like lift up the vagina, the pelvic organs laparoscopically. And then that is like, trying to think of there's anything else. Oh, sterilizations. Yeah. I was like there's one more. Sterilizations like getting, we call it, you know, getting your tubes tied.

Nobody really ties the tubes anymore. Nobody ties them anymore. Now we take the whole tube out. Who is or is not a candidate? Because everything is not for everybody. So what are the other reasons why someone would not be a good candidate? Yeah. So we touched on with the cancer.

So whenever you do something with small incisions, if you're taking something out, then that thing has to be able to fit out through the incisions that you're making. So that gets trickier when the target, the thing you're removing is bigger and bigger. So at some point, you would have to cut it to be able to take it out through the incision. So for hysterectomies, we make an incision in the vagina. You can take it out through the vagina or through the incisions in your abdomen that we make.

So where that gets difficult is if there's a reason that we shouldn't be cutting it. So the big one is cancer. So obviously if you have a cancer, you don't want to kind of cut up the tumor in the abdomen because that can obviously spread the cancer. So they will actually like sometimes make little kind of exceptions to this. like if it's like not that big, but they can like maybe put into a bag. Like we have what's called containment bags, which are literally just as I sound, a bag that you put into the abdomen, you can put it in there and cut it inside the bag so that the pieces

are captured so that they don't fall into the abdomen. So I've even had, you know, cases where, you know, it's like, you know, pre-cancerous condition or something where they will still do it laparoscopically. Like they'll still, you know, you know, cut it within a bag. But obviously that is up to the specific doctor, the oncologist, you know, it depends on the type of tumor. So that's something that obviously there's like a case-by-case situation. But in general, with cancers, we try and avoid cutting it so that you don't spread it. And then what I touched on with the positioning is actually important because to do it laparoscopically,

again, you have to be head down. So, you know, for those of you watching the video, it's a pretty steep angle, actually. So you have to be able to medically tolerate being in that head-down position with the gas in your abdomen, which is pushing against your lungs and the blood flow to your heart and increasing blood flow to your brain. So for a lot of medical reasons, it's actually not safe for certain patients who have issues with their heart, their lung, their brain,

to be in that position for a really long time. So sometimes these surgeries can take many, many hours. So if somebody has a medical condition where they need to get the surgery done as quick as possible, clotting disorders, they have just other medical complexity where we don't want to keep them

under anesthesia for many, many hours. So these are all things. that again, like, you know, when someone is talking to a surgeon about any sort of surgery, we'll be asking about your medical history and really in our minds trying to get a sense of the safety aspect. Because, of course, like the main goal is a safe, healthy outcome. None of us as doctors ever take it personally when somebody gets a second opinion, never ever, or at least they shouldn't. There shouldn't be any egos. Well, you know, one of the things that comes up whenever we're talking about health disparities and who gets what and who gets offered

what? It comes up all the time that black women are less likely to be even offered minimally invasive surgery, even for the same conditions, same size uterus is not that, you know, we're looking at one or the other. Why do you think that is? I do think that like some of this we talked about with these sort of ingrained, you know, biases. Again, it's not something where someone consciously is like, yeah, well, you know, I think that I'm going to treat a black woman differently, but just something about, and I've heard this in discussions and people talking about like, oh, she's has so many fibroids. Like, are she, you know, and I don't know if it is, like, it's hard to have these discussions

because you don't want to speak ill of your colleagues, but just that, you know, all these, there's something. They're not here. Go ahead. I know. I was out there. They're not in this discussion, so they can take a seat. But just obviously, it's something to do with a bias because, you know, what other reason is there?

You know, it's something that we need to, as a field, be much more cognizant of. and to purposely avoid, you know, treating people differently because of non-medical factors. It really depends on who's operating. You need to make sure that if you're going to do something that complex, you better really, really do some research on who this person is that's operating on you. There are definitely times where we as surgeons need to know when it's helpful to do a surgery and when it is doing more harm. And like I said,

here's a general rule of thumb for you. How long, if you're doing a surgery, how long is too long? We always have to balance like the risk of, the longer of surgery is there's more risk of blood clots, there's more risk of anesthesia complications, airway swelling. So it's not a benign thing to keep someone under anesthesia for that long.

So it also depends on, you know, that, yeah, like there's so many factors, it's hard to give like an easy answer to that. But, you know, somebody who's like, and super healthy and really wants to preserve every, every, everything at all costs versus somebody who is, you know, maybe 49. The likelihood of pregnancy is almost nothing, you know, and wants a surgery where you're cutting every single fibroid out of the uterus and keeping the uterus because she wants to get pregnant. You would definitely have to have a conversation about, you know,

realistic expectations, the risk of doing an incredibly long surgery taking out 50 fibroids when there's very little likelihood of being able to use that uterus to get pregnant. So again, we have to have these really hard conversations about ethics and goals and someone's health. Right, because it's not a one and done conversation. Absolutely. And so for someone who does not get offered, what I would like to know is what would you advise someone about how would they go about finding a minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon, Because not everybody has access or not everyone is going to get referred out by their doctor. So how could they find someone like you?

Yeah. And this is actually, I have a whole chapter in the book about, you know, what next? Like what happens if you are feeling like you're hitting a brick wall? You're not getting the answers that you're looking for or you're kind of just satisfied with the options that your doctor's giving you or they're giving you no options. So it's a little harder to find, like there's not like a directory for, Millmay Basin, like there is for menopause. Menopause, by the way, menopause.org, there's a beautiful directory. Mary Claire Haver's website has

directory. You can find specialists relatively easily, you know, in what you're looking for. There's not like a great directory for migs. Aagel, American Association for Gautologic laparoscopis is our professional society. They do have a directory. It's not super comprehensive, but you can at least start there. So aagel.org. And then I've actually found one of the good things about social media, and obviously I have a love-hate relationship with social media, but one of the really good things is that it's allowed people to talk with others in their community or with their condition across like the country. And a lot of people have crowdsourced things like, you know, who's a good doctor, who's a specialist in this? So for instance,

for endometriosis, there are different groups that have maintained like doctorless. There's something called like Nancy's Nook. There's, you know, I have a lot of patients who tell me that they found me through endometriosis support group, like, you know, on Redits or something like that. So there's definitely, if you belong to any sort of, you know, online discussion groups about your, your condition, you can say, like, does anybody have any recommendations for a good specialist or surgeon in, you know, New York City, in Boston and, you know, wherever. And it's great because you get people's perspectives. You're like, I had a really good experience.

This person really listened to me. Like, my surgery was great. I felt really comfortable and supported. So it's really nice because. back before the days of social media, people were kind of just stuck with whoever they was near them. They didn't really have any way to figure out who was a

good doctor across the country. And obviously not everybody has the resources to travel super far, but at least you can kind of get a sense of in your region who might be somebody who may have more expertise in what you're looking for. And worst case scenario, I mean,

you can usually find someone in an academic setting. So you're near a university hospital of some sort. They'll usually be some specialist or subspecialties in that area that you might want to take a look at. Okay. Well, you know what? We've got to have a little bit. We have a little tradition here where we have a little lightning round.

Oh, I love it. Since October is Menopause Awareness Month, we're going to do a little perimenopause and menopause because in your practice, you don't just do minimally invasive surgery. Oh, my God. I do so much perimenopause menopause now. I would tell like a third of my practice is that. And it's actually lovely. I enjoy it so much.

Well, let me ask you this. Because you trained after 2002, when the women's health initiative came out and changed everything about how we talk about perimenopause and menopause. So what were you taught? Anything? Someone had to be nearly dying of symptoms before you would get HRT. You had to have failed everything else, like, you know, antidepressants, therapy. exercise, soy products. And then we was sort of grudgingly be like, okay, we'll try it. And then I kid you

not, we would give it to them for like a couple of months. And they'd be like, okay, like maybe let's wean you off now. We were so scared. It was so funny now in retrospect, to be like, that is ridiculous. Like, but that's what we did for so long. And I trained at a fantastic, I trained at one of the Harvard hospitals. It was very, very good education and like really evidence-based attendings. And so it wasn't like some podonged place, but this was just the scare that happened because of WHA. It really colored our perspective for so long. So what would you say the number one misconception about perimenopause and menopause is? Oh, that is only the hot flashes, night sweats. I would say, and you probably see this too. I feel like some of the things that people are

most bothered by are like the brain fog, like fatigue, the sleep issues. And so I think that like, you know, the biggest misconception is not even just among the public, but among medical professionals. Like, what is perimenopause, menopause? Like, oh, hot flashes, night sweats. I'm like, oh, it's so much more than that. So much more. So much more. Okay. So next question. Oral estrogen or transdermal, of course. And again, such a sea change back then. We were giving out so much like Prempro and like WHI was this oral medication called Prempro, which almost nobody gives nowadays. You know, oral versions, which now we know because the transdermal, like the, you know, the patches that use on your skin, they don't have the clod and stroke risks. They have more even dosing. The type of estrogen, the esteradial is like what's in your body. And it's, like I said, it seems like it's just on every level it's winning. But back, yeah, back when we were training, they're like, how about some nice spread bro? Like, I don't think I ever prescribed a patch in residency. At home pap smears. Oh, gosh. What do you think about it? At home pap smears. So here are my thoughts on that.

One, I feel like access is obviously important, and there are definitely people who avoid coming to the gynecologist because of fear of the exam. They had a bad experience with a speculum exam, or they have a history of trauma, a history of sexual assault where they feel like they can't tolerate an exam. That being said, this at-home PAP system I have some issues with because it's pretty large. And so for people who are worried about discomfort, you know, there are speculums in our offices, which are much smaller. So, like, pediatric speculums are smaller than this at-home, like, wand. And then there's actually also a HPV self-collection now, which is a Q-tip. It's literally like people can swab themselves. Like, they can still avoid having an exam if they feel uncomfortable with another person doing it.

But it's just the size of a Q-tip. So, again, I feel like that particular brand and model of the at-home wand kind of, uh, testing. I feel like I get the idea of it, but I feel like the execution, I'm kind of like, well, it doesn't sort of provide anything beneficial compared to what already exists. You know, for traditionally, women think of going to the gynecologist to get their pap smear. Oh, yes. Now, that's the, of all the things that we're going to talk about in the course of your office visit, that may be the least important thing. However, that's the hook that makes you come. And what I'm afraid of is that if you say, oh, well, I don't have to do this.

and I don't have to do that and I can just do this, then you'll be missing so many things. So that's my kind of concern with the at-home pap smear test. All right, is there anything else that you want our audience to take away from your conversation? You don't have to suffer. That's a huge one. If you've heard that this is something that you have to deal with, this is a natural part of life,

you know, like everyone has bad periods, everyone has pain with sex, everyone has gone through benepause and they just dealt with it. And so you don't have to suffer just, because there's sort of this cultural idea that like, well, it's like womanhood is suffering. It's not. You deserve answers. You deserve your health to be treated seriously. So, you know, if you're getting that message from anybody, tell them they know what they're talking about, then move on. And hopefully the book, it's not hysteria. Hopefully it helps if you have questions about any of these topics. Hopefully you'll find the answers there. So thanks so much for

having me. I'm so, you know, excited to know. Now we're friends. I think we get to see each other in real life at some point in the not too distant future. So, yes. Dr. Tang, thank you so much for being here. I so appreciate this conversation and I enjoyed it. It's time for the last part of the show where I give my doctor's orders and leave you with takeaways from today's conversation. Number one, know how to describe your symptoms and know your body. Keep a symptom diary. Indemetriosis and PCOS are easily overlooked or misdiagnosed. And remember, pain is not normal. When surgery is recommended, make sure to ask the question, am I a candidate for minimally invasive gynecologic surgery? Why or why not? And remember, miggs or minimally invasive gynaecologic

surgery is dependent on the skill of your surgeon. This is where it is extremely important to know how often your surgeon operates and what additional training, if any, they have. Surgeons who operate infrequently traditionally have higher complication rates. So do your homework. For more information on this episode, check out our show notes. Join us each week as I break down medical topics and leave you with expert advice. Have a question you want to ask? Have feedback for the show. submit your thoughts on my website, Dr. Sharon Malone.com slash second opinion.

Follow this show on YouTube or wherever you find your podcast. If you like what you hear, leave a review. Until next week, take care.