The Mel Robbins Podcast - The Science of Women’s Health: Ob/Gyn Reveals 10 Truths You Need to Know

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

Today’s episode is a must-listen because you’ll learn exactly what to do (and not do) to take better care of your body. In this research-packed episode, one of the top gynecologists in the world is here to debunk 10 myths about women’s health. Mel is asking all the uncomfortable questions you want to ask but never have, and today you’re getting the answers.Gone are the days of feeling small or out of control when it comes to your health. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to take their power back. Dr. Jen Gunter, MD, is joining Mel in this no-shame, straight-to-the-point conversation. Dr. Gunter is known as the internet’s best Ob/Gyn. She is a double-board certified, fellowship-trained medical doctor and a fierce advocate for women’s health. Dr. Gunter says you deserve science-backed solutions, not fairytales, and she is here to bust through all health myths and clear through the misinformation. This conversation is going to make you think differently about everything, from periods to pleasure—it’s all covered today.And you’ll also want to listen all the way to the end for one of the most poignant, inspiring endings to any episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast.For more resources, including links to Dr. Gunter’s research, website, and social media pages, click here for the podcast episode page. If you liked this research-packed episode, you’ll love Dr. Gunter’s first appearance on The Mel Robbins Podcast, which focuses on menopause: How to Balance Your Hormones: What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You About MenopauseFor another personal episode about health, listen to the recent conversation Mel had with Dr. Rena Malik, MD: I’ve Never Told This Story: Leaky Bladder, Pelvic Floor, UTIs, & Constipation (#1 Urologist Gives Solutions)Connect with Mel: Get Mel’s new free 26-page workbook, What Do You Really Want, to finally answer that question and redefine your future.Watch the episodes on YouTubeFollow Mel on Instagram The Mel Robbins Podcast InstagramMel's TikTok Sign up for Mel’s personal letter Disclaimer

Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast Do you ever feel completely overwhelmed by the conflicting medical and health advice on the internet? Well today you and I are busting medical myths and misinformation with a world-renowned double board certified medical doctor That's right. The amazing Dr. Jen Gunter is in the house. And look, if you're shy about these kinds of TMI things, don't you worry. Your friend Mel is gonna go ask the embarrassing questions on both of our behalves. Should you sleep in underwear at night? Is wearing a thong bad for your

vagina? How do you properly clean your lady parts anyway? What are the shocking period symptoms that nobody talks about? Don't lie to me. You've thought about these questions before, and I know you want the answers. I sure do. And that's exactly where we're going today

on the Mel Robbins Podcast. Hey, it's Mel, and I am beyond excited that you decided to listen to this episode today because you and I are busting dozens of health myths, especially when it comes to women's health. And look, there's so much misinformation flying around when it comes to how you take care of your body. And what's actually normal when it comes to how you take care of your body and what's actually normal when it comes to what your body is doing. Well, our guest today has been called the internet's favorite OBGYN.

Dr. Jen Gunter is a double board certified fellowship trained medical doctor. She's also a fierce advocate for women's health and a three times international bestselling author. She is hilarious, upfront and trustworthy. And here's why I love her. She provides the science myth busting, no nonsense facts so that you have the science back solutions, not fairy tales, because it's in the solutions that you'll be able to take control of your health. So let's dive in. Dr. Gunter, thank you for jumping on a plane and coming all the way to the Boston for the Mel Robbins podcast. We are thrilled that you are here.

Well, thank you so much for asking me and I'm thrilled to be here. So I'd like to start by having you speak directly to the person that is listening right now. And can you tell them what they may experience in their life and with their health if they listen to everything that you're about to share and they take the research back advice that you're about to give them? I would say that if you take home one thing from what I'm talking about today is that the importance of facts, of evidence-based information, because that will help you advocate for yourself in the doctor's office.

It'll help you figure out what you're seeing online is truth or trash. And it'll help you feel less alone with your own body if you actually know the facts about it. Well, one of the reasons why I was so excited to talk to you, Dr. Gunter, is because you are the internet's favorite OBGYN that people turn to around the world to debunk

all the myths that are out there about women's health. We're going to talk about menstruation and how to take care of your body. And before we do though, I just want to know how did you get into being a OBGYN, and why have you become the doctor of reason and the doctor of research online? Well, I'm probably more motivated by anger than anything else. When I was in medical school, I was really bothered by the fact, this was in the mid-1980s, I was really bothered by the fact that everybody who was teaching me about women's bodies were men. And so that bothered me.

And I thought, well, I'm going to go into OB-GYN. So that was the motivation for that. And the myth-busting also kind of came from that. I had a significant personal health problem that resulted in a lot of city of health issues for my kids. And I got sucked into a lot of disinformation and found myself in that weird spot between medicine and not knowing and was trying to navigate it. And I thought, you know, if it's really hard for me, what is it like for other people?

And I was always this annoying person in grand rounds at the back like correcting everybody. And I thought, you know, if it could affect me, then how does it affect everybody? And so I just decided that I was going to try to clean up the medical internet, and here I am. Thank God. Why is real information about women's health so hard to find? You know, I think that we do a bad job about teaching people about their bodies in school.

So people start out without the information they need. They have limited times with doctors. They don't get listened to many of the times. Some of it because the doctors aren't trained appropriately. Some because they have a 12-minute visit. And then disinformation is sexy, right? It's a lot easier to tell people that you can solve their problem with some crazy restrictive diet or with some supplement or something else as opposed to talking about, you know, the things that are much more complex and harder to distill to sound bites. So I think it's this really sort of complex array of things that is all together affecting women. So you do a ton of debunking online. What is the

current state of social media in terms of what it's talking about and what rises to the top when it comes to women's health and how is that making so many of us feel like we're in the dark when it comes to our bodies? Yeah, I mean, fear cells on social media, fear cells in general with the media, but you see a clip and someone's telling you, if you don't take this hormone, this is going to happen. If you don't take this supplement, this is going to happen. And you watch it and this person may be their doctor or researcher or they seem like they know what they're talking about. And so you become afraid and then you're much more likely to watch that. And then what happens is the algorithm feeds you that over and over and over again,

because the algorithms are so smart. I mean, it's why I get fed shark attack videos all the time, because I'm scared of those. So once I see them, I watch them to the end. So the algorithm is not your friend. When it comes to women's health, what is your approach to alternative medicine? Well, I believe women deserve facts and evidence-based medicine.

And alternative medicine is existing outside of that universe. And so I would say to anybody who promotes that, do not think that women deserve science, do not think that women deserve studies, do not think that they deserve the funding to know what's actually happening to their bodies. So yeah, I think that if your therapies are good, you should prove it. We shouldn't be going based on what you say. We should be going on facts. Women deserve facts. It's true. And I feel so bad for all the young girls that are out there probably getting

all their information from influencers on social media. Yeah, I mean, there's, you know, there's good influencers and there's ones that are not at all. And, you know, it's difficult to have a changing body as it is, whether you're going through puberty, whether you're going through, you know, the menopause transition. But then if you don't have the facts to have that foundation, it just makes it so much harder. And that's really why I do what I do,

because I don't want people to be going, what the, you know, I want them to have the empowerment that comes with knowledge. Well, it makes a lot of sense, because if you also don't know, and then you're experiencing this on your own, and then you're too embarrassed to ask a question Even when you do see a doctor, you're gonna just completely start going. Oh, there's something wrong with me

Oh, like my body's the bad one or the one that smells bad or I'm doing something wrong And you might not even bring it up with your doctor because you think it's normal for you to be like that so dr. Gunter, let's talk about hair growth and taking care of your hair that is growing around your, I guess, what would I even say, the vulva? Pubic hair. Your pubic hair, thank you. I'm trying to be fancy here. So let's talk about pubic hair.

Everybody wants to talk about pubic hair. It's so fascinating. Well, I'll tell you why. As a 56-year-old woman, I'm gonna share something that I don't think I'll tell you why. As a 56 year old woman, I'm gonna share something that I don't think I've ever shared publicly. When I got engaged at the age, I guess I must've been 26, 27, I had this bachelorette party

and my friends bought me this ridiculous thing to dress up in that just was this weird kind of series of ribbons that was tied together like a teddy. And when I stepped out, everybody was like, because I didn't do anything to my pubic hair. I mean, this would have been back in the early 90s, like trimming, waxing, Brazilian wax,

like this was not a thing. And so I had my first ever pubic hair grooming at my bachelorette party where my girlfriends were literally trimming around this thing that they had put me on. And it was the first time that I'd ever even known that this was a thing. Now fast forward and I'm 56 and I look at how obsessed

even teenagers are about their pubic hair. First of all, it's kind of sad. And secondly, I just think that there's probably a lot of misinformation about what you should do down there, what you shouldn't do down there, why to be careful around it. And so I'm just going to turn the mic over to you. Yeah. Well, and it's not surprising that people have those questions

because I swear every second month, every woman's magazine talks about pubic hair. Like it's the most important thing in a woman's life. So yeah, I mean, we have pubic hair for a reason. Most likely it's to protect the skin, to help maintain the pH, help to trap moisture in, you know, so it's probably less important now as it was say 10,000 years ago when we didn't have the kind of coverings and ability to protect ourselves from the elements that we have now. It's a personal choice like any hair removal. And obviously with society it has sort of waxed and waned, pardon the pun, with importance.

A lot of it, I think our current sort of obsession with it is related to the fact that showing pubic hair used to be a sign of nudity. That was a sign of public nudity. So when people started removing more and more like in, you know, clubs and things like that, they could start to show more and more and more. So that was kind of part of the definition of public nudity. So I think it's got that sort of titillation associated with it. But, you know, no one gets worked up if they see a dude's pubes hanging out from his swim

suit, right? Like that's okay. It's okay that it sort of melds into the hair on his thigh. No one's freaking out going, oh my god. So you know, I think it's just a personal thing if people do all kinds of body modifications. People pierce their ears, they pierce their nose, they get tattoos, they you know, they remove pubic hair. Some of these things are more reversible than others. And I just think if you like it, that's fine. Just to keep in mind that if you start developing irritation, if you start developing problems, then that could be part of it.

And sometimes we see issues when people have been removing pubic hair chronically, their skin starts to get drier. If that doesn't bother you and you're just like, well, I'm just going to use a moisturizer. That's okay. You know, you're adults and you make a choice. But there really isn't a medical reason that we would recommend it apart from there is a condition called hydradenitis superativa, which is a chronic inflammatory condition of a sweat glands on the vulva. It also can affect in your armpits and other places you have these specialized sweat glands. And for people with that condition,

removing pubic hair with laser can sometimes be helpful. But people have to remember when you remove pubic hair, it's traumatizing to the skin. You're raking a razor over the skin. So that's causing irritation or inflammation. It can introduce infection. We see lots of infections related to pubic hair removal. So people make choices all the time.

Is it normal to feel embarrassed by the fact that you didn't know any of this? The reason why people don't know is nobody talks about it. So if nobody explains to you the names of your body parts when you're first using them, if nobody talks about it in school, if every message you've seen has been damaging or you know that you're dirty and disgusting, you walk through all the stores and you see all of that, you watch a movie and there's no foreplay and no pubic hair, everything that you've seen, you see women's magazines that tell you the most important things, your pubic hair, you know, and you see all this, of course, they would be normal to say, well, how did I not know

that you didn't know this because the system was stacked against you? Because we haven't even been able to say vagina in print until when was it? Like maybe 15 years ago, 20 years ago? I might be wrong, and maybe this is one of these truthy sounding things, but I heard it wasn't until the vagina monologues that the New York Times could put vagina in print. So if saying the word vagina has been basically forbidden in public until what, like 1990-ish, how could people know? So what are we getting wrong about our vaginas?

That's a loaded question. I would say that there is a large industry out there trying to make you think that your vagina is a broken heap of, you know, something that is the worst possible thing you could imagine. If you walk into any grocery store or drugstore, you see shelves and shelves and shelves of products designed for the vagina and the vulva. And, you know, none of them are necessary really except menstrual products. But you see all vulva. And, you know, none of them are necessary, really, except menstrual products. But you see all these things, and of course,

even if you don't have any symptoms at all, how could you not be affected by all of that? So I think the big thing that we're getting wrong is that the vulva and vagina need some kind of extra special care. They don't? No. You know, the vagina's a self-cleaning oven.

It takes care of itself. You don't need to do anything there. And the vulva is just skin, you know, I mean people have been taking care of their vulvas for tens of thousands of years without, you know, special wipes and washes and nobody died out because of that. So I think it's really important for people to remember that there's really nothing special that's needed. You know, you can use a cleanser down there if you want to on your vulva on the outside

where your clothes touch the skin, not inside, just like you use a cleanser elsewhere on your body want to on your vulva on the outside where your clothes touch the skin, not inside. Just like you use a cleanser elsewhere on your body and that you're good to go. So just so I get the terminology right, and I'm embarrassed that I'm about to clarify this as a 56-year-old woman, but I'm going to ask anyway. So the vulva is the stuff on the outside. It's like the curtains and the vagina is the inside? Yeah. So the vagina is inside where you would reach inside

to pull a tampon, that type of thing. The vulva's where your clothes touch the skin, and the vestibule is where the two meet. Okay, wait. So now you just added a third thing. I did. So the vulva's the outside. So as you're sitting here listening to Dr. Gunter, if you're sitting, it's what's pressing

against your pants or your underwear, if you're wearing, it's what's pressing against your pants or your underwear. If you're wearing it. Exactly. And then when you open that up, you call that the vestibule? Yeah, so think about a doorway, right? So if you're outside on the street, you're looking at the building face, that's the vulva. If you step in the doorway, that is the vestibule,

and if you open the door and go in, that's the vagina. So does your vulva and vagina have a pH? Sure, everything. Your skin has a pH, so your skin has a pH, your mouth has a pH, every part of your body that has water has a pH. And so the vagina has a pH that's between about 3.5 and 4.5, it's acidic,

and that exists as part of controlling the vaginal ecosystem. That is what allows the good bacteria to grow, that stops the bad bacteria from growing. It's what keeps the whole thing as it needs to be. The skin pH is a little bit higher. And so what you don't want to do is introduce products into the vagina, even water, because that can actually damage that ecosystem and that actually can cause the pH to rise. So an elevated pH in the vagina is a sign that there's something wrong. It's not a cause, it's the result.

And so you can't change it with any kind of product, it's an inside job. So is there a pill or a supplement or some sort of product that we need in order to clean or balance the pH of our lady parts? No, so the whole balancing a pH is this big myth. Anyone who tells you that you can balance the pH of your vulva or vagina has outed themselves as being an idiot on the subject. So you can't do that.

There's no product that can do that. And I always tell people you should be blocking people online if they're talking about that. So how do you know if your pH is off? Well, if you don't have any symptoms, you don't need to worry about it. And what symptoms would I be looking for? So if you have a discharge that's different for you,

if it's yellow or green or has a smell or it's got blood in it, if you have itching, either inside or on the outside, you should see your doctor. We check your pH of the vagina to help us make a diagnosis of some conditions, but an elevated pH in itself is not necessarily a sign that anything needs to be done medically. Also in menopause, the pH of the vagina rises if you're not using estrogen.

You said that the vagina is a self-cleaning oven. What does that mean? Well, that you don't need to do anything to it. When you think about a self- cleaning oven, if you took any abrasive cleaners to it, you would damage the inside of it, right? That's what that analogy is all about. So you don't need to add anything to it because you're just gonna damage it. Got it.

Well, now I'm thinking about my oven because I always spray something in there before I turn the dial. So I'm both being marketed to incorrectly for my oven and I'm being marketed incorrectly for my vagina. Well, I just want to say I am certainly not an expert in oven technology and I get around oven cleaning by just not doing it.

So I saw online that if I eat pineapple that my vagina is gonna smell better, is that true? Yeah, no, that's a load of garbage. So, and I think it's really important for people to know that anytime they hear someone saying that, the underlying message is they want you to believe that your vagina stinks. It's all based in this idea that they want you to think

that there's something wrong or bad or dirty with your body to sell a product or sell a diet, or to just get attention and clicks, right? So you can't change the odor of your vagina with any kind of food. What if you can't change the odor of your vagina with any kind of food. What if you don't like the odor? Well, if you think that there's something different, medically different, you should go in and get evaluated and get tested to

make sure that what's going on is not a medical condition. And if there isn't a medical condition, then I think it's important to talk with your medical provider or what's bothering you. But many, many people are really affected by that disinformation I spoke about earlier, about all the shelves and shelves of products that they've been subjected to. They've often had awful things said to them by men

about how their bodies smell. I spent a lot of time undoing harmful words from men. You know, I'm sitting here reflecting on what you were saying about the way that there's been so much misinformation. And I've always been completely paranoid about smell. And I can think all the way back to college and hearing a male friend talking about somebody

he had hooked up with and that she smelled bad. I think it was the first time I ever thought to myself, wait a minute, does everybody talk about this? Like, do we smell bad? And it has been something that stuck in my mind and has made me absolutely paranoid. So do not worry about it unless there is something that makes you worried and then go talk to a doctor. Yeah. So your experience is really common. I would say that I have this conversation once a week in the office. I'm not kidding. Once a week, I'm undoing damage created by careless commentary from men.

Often this is commentary that comes in the bedroom. Imagine you're supposed to be with somebody who loves you and they tell you that you stink. What kind of person does that? So yeah, there's this whole industry, this industry of feminine freshness. If you look at even today, the marketing, they tell you if you can invest in feminine freshness, you'll have more confidence.

You'll have more confidence on crossing your legs. I've seen that in an advertisement. You know, this is all built to sell product, and I would say that the least educated person about a normal vulva and vagina is a man. Well, they don't have one. So, you know, it helps to actually understand the equipment that you're trying to fix.

You mentioned that you can clean the outside, but you don't want to put anything on the inside. kind of fix. You mentioned that you can clean the outside, but you don't wanna put anything on the inside. So is there a particular type of product or product to avoid when you're thinking about cleaning your body and your vulva and the vestibule? Yeah, so generally I tell people to avoid everything associated with a feminine hygiene industry.

If the wash is specifically for the vulva, it's just part of the pink tax. That's the best thing about it is you're paying more. But studies tell us actually that using these feminine hygiene products are associated with a higher risk of infections and other problems. So you don't want to use those. And they often have fragrance. And there's also the destructive messaging.

Like it's a vagina, not a pina colada. Like your vulva shouldn't be smelling like a tropical fruit drink, right? It should smell like a body part. So there's all that destructive messaging. So what happens is, you know, you can get a buildup of sebum on your skin, just like you can anywhere else. And some people want to wash that off. And so a cleanser, just a cleanser like you would use for your face,

a GenPil facial cleanser, you know, I use either a CeraVe product or Eucerin, just whatever is, you know, on the market. But you want to be a cleanser, not a soap, because soap raises the pH of the skin and soap is drying. So a cleanser is the best thing, but it doesn't have to be a special vulva cleanser, a gentle cleanser that you use for your face. It's just fine, unscented. You know, I had to laugh at the piña colada thing because I literally was sitting here thinking, but I want my husband Chris to go down and drink the piña colada thing because I literally was sitting there thinking, but I want my husband Chris to go down and drink the piña colada. So I am literally subject to the marketing.

Yeah, but you know what? He should think that your normal body is like that. It's exciting that you don't need this artificial smell to make you enticing. That's all marketing. I had never thought about it that way. You know, that's all marketing. I had never thought about it that way. Now let's talk about discharge. Is discharge normal? Yeah, it's normal to have up to three to four milliliters of discharge a day.

And so your vagina is constantly shedding cells. That's part of the way it protects itself. There's mucus coming out and the cells actually, bad bacteria attached to the cells and it's kind of like a way to flush things out So it's a constantly sort of cleaning process if you will I mean cleaning is not the exact right term But it's an analogy so go with it. So the discharge is just part of the normal healthy, you know ecosystem Just like you have saliva that's part of your normal healthy ecosystem in your mouth. Everything's lubricated

So it doesn't feel dry, stuck together. And yeah, so you'll have up to three to four milliliters of discharge, which is pretty significant. And I actually had a viral moment on TikTok where I showed people what normal discharge looked like on my underwear. And people freaked out because they hadn't seen that.

We use all these euphemisms to talk about discharge. And I'm like, look, this is normal. It's a normal amount of discharge and get over it. So is it like blowing your nose in a Kleenex sort of situation? Well, it can vary. Some people can have very little, they might have almost nothing.

And some people can have a healthy stripe on their underwear and anything in between, and that's okay. I have never heard anybody explain discharge and connect it to saliva. But when you talk about it in that context, it makes perfect sense. And again, 56 years old, anytime I see discharge, I'm like, something's wrong with me.

That is bad. I don't want that in my underwear. You said three to four milliliters. Like how much is too much? Everybody's different. And obviously when we talk about that volume, you know, we're talking about within sort of two standard deviations. So, you know, if you're soaking a mini pad, you should probably go in and get that checked out. That would be at the upper limit of normal. But many, many times I have women come into the office and they think that their discharge is abnormally heavy.

And they show me and I'm like, no, that's, that's normal. Wow. What should you look for in terms of, okay, I want to go see my doctor when it comes to discharge. Cause having two daughters, this is one of those things that I hear them kind of complaining about. Like if they ever complain about anything body wise, it's like, is this normal? Is discharge normal? And so other than it seems like too much, is there a color?

Is there a smell? Like what should you look for? Yeah. So white to clear discharge is normal, even a little bit of cream. If you have discharge that is dark yellow, if you have discharge that's green, if you have discharge that's got blood in it, those are all reasons to see a healthcare provider. If there's an odor associated with it, if you have an itch, if you feel irritation, if you have pain with sex, those would all be reasons to see a healthcare provider. And also if you think you could have been exposed to a sexually transmitted infection. There must be so many myths and misinformation when it comes to the female orgasm.

So Dr. Gunter, where do you want to start? Yeah, so I would say one of the biggest myths is that a penis is a reliable way to achieve orgasm. And I would say it's probably the least reliable way. So many, many women are made to feel that if they don't have an orgasm with penile penetration, that there's something wrong with them. And that's actually normal.

Lots of people don't. You know, there's nothing wrong with you if penis and vagina sex isn't what gives you an orgasm. This idea that both people should orgasm at the same time is also, you know, that's Hollywood, you know, which is invests what, like zero seconds in foreplay, right? So some people need a lot of foreplay. Some people want a lot of foreplay, right? So the idea that that you should just orgasm like that also, that's a Hollywood myth. And the idea that orgasm is needed for pleasure, right? So pleasure, desire, all of these things are important in the sexual experience.

And so if somebody feels very satisfied with their sexual encounter and they haven't had an orgasm, that's also okay. We shouldn't be making sex necessarily goal-oriented. Obviously, if that's what you like, that's different, but it's important for us to understand there's a big wide range of what people like. I think that's really important because I would imagine

if you're having trouble having an organism with penetration, or if it's taking you longer than you think it should, and you start to develop a story in your head that there's something wrong with you, or that this is very hard for you to do, I would imagine that all of that stress and the story you're telling yourself also interferes with your ability to have an orgasm.

Absolutely, things that take you out of the moment, right? So, you know, mindfulness plays a big part in a good sexual experience, and things that are taking you out of that, you know, just like, is there a pile of dirty laundry? You know, different that are taking you out of that, you know, just like, is there a pile of dirty laundry? You know, different things can take you out of that moment, right? So yeah, I think it's just really important for people to understand that pleasure is generally the goal.

And again, people have different desires, different things that they want to get out of sex. And so it's important to think about that whole range of experience. But in general, I would say the biggest myth that I undo is this idea that the penis is the bringer of the orgasm. I mean, obviously there's lots of people who, lots of women having sex with women who have fantastic, amazing sex. There's people who have fantastic, amazing orgasms

with vibrators, like get over the penis. It's not the be all and the end all. If somebody's listening and they do have trouble having an orgasm, do you have particular advice or recommendations that you would give to somebody? Well there's a couple of good books that I would recommend, Come As You Are, I think it's a really great book by Emily Nagowski and Better Sex Through Mindfulness by Dr. Laurie Brotto. Those are a couple of good books that I recommend. You know, A Sex Therapist be helpful. Just learning the mechanics, understanding things, and exploration, getting a vibrator,

trying different things, seeing what pleasures, you know, thinking about all the different tools that might be available to you. So if you're having sex and it's pleasurable but it's painful, what do we need to know? Yeah, so I would like people to know that pain with sex isn't a normal experience. And if you have pain with sex isn't a normal experience. And if you have pain with sex, your healthcare provider should be helping you out. Too often I see people who just say, well, I told my doctor, he said that was normal

and it's not normal. So pain with sex is a medical condition and it can be caused by many different things. So a yeast infection can cause pain with sex, for example. The changes with menopause can cause pain with sex. People can develop tight muscles around their vagina, a condition called vaginismus, which can cause pain with sex. People can have nerve pain condition. They can have skin conditions that can cause pain with sex. There's many, many different things that

can cause it. Endometriosis can cause scarring at the back of the vagina and that can cause pain with sex. There's a condition called a painful bladder syndrome. So you think about all the different structures that are around there. So many, many different things can cause pain with sex. So it's important to get an evaluation and get a diagnosis so then you can hopefully get the right treatment. Dr. Gunter, do all vaginas self-lubricate?

So everybody makes vaginal discharge, but there's gonna be a spectrum. And with sexual activity, there's going to be a spectrum and with sexual activity there's also going to be a spectrum about how much lubrication is made in response to it and there could be a whole different reason for that. You know, stress could play a role, your physical health, you know, the amount of foreplay you've had, how you're feeling at the moment. And so if you need lube, great, you need lube and if you don't need lube, great, you don't need lube. If you just like lube because you like it, great,

you like lube, you know, why not try different things? I take it we should be avoiding the lube that smells like a pina colada. Well, I would just tell people to be mindful that there are lubricants that can be irritating. And they're lubricants that have what's called a high osmolality, and those can actually cause damage to the vaginal mucosa.

They can be irritating over time. They can even cause some changes that might make it easier for you to contract HIV if you're exposed. So to just be mindful about the warming ones, things like that. So there is certainly potential for irritation with some of them. Some of them, I think, have menthol in, which provides that warming or cooling sensation. That can be very irritating to the tissues. As a gynecologist, I always recommend people, you know, if they're having any kind of issues, a silicone-based lube

tends to be really very well tolerated. But there's lots of good water-based lubes. There's, you know, you can use oil. So there's lots of different options available. And obviously, if you use something and it irritates you, you know, don't use it again. That was a big word, the osma. Osmolality, yeah. How would I even know if it has osmolall, I can't even say it. Yeah, well you would have a copy of the vagina bible, or you would go to my blog, The Vagina, and you'd be able to look up some of that stuff. So osmolality is basically the concentration of the molecules in water and when you have

a substance that has a high osmolality, it's gonna pull water away. So, you know, we know the osmolality of the vagina, you know, is around like 180, 200. And so if you have something that's much higher than that, it actually, again, it's a bit of an allergy, but can dry out the vagina, can pull water out, and that can actually cause some damage to the cells.

And we see some of these products have, know very very high osmolalities especially the things like you know the warming or the cooling or other types of things. What are the like no's? So as a gynecologist what are if I'm looking at a lube what do I want to get like what's your favorite lube? So obviously as a gynecologist we're gonna give the more general answer because there's different situations but I would say in general the least irritating lube is a silicone-based lubricant. But not everybody likes the way that feels. So each lube has a different like slip or feel to it.

So there's water-based and there's oil-based lubricants. And obviously you can't use oil-based if you're using a latex condom because it can weaken that. Wait, okay. I didn't know any of this. So hold on a second. So oil-based. So does that mean like coconut oil, olive oil? Like what kind of oil do you recommend? So some people use oils, but they also are commercial oil-based lubricants as well. So anything that's oil-based or an oil can weaken latex. So you can't use that. But you can use water-based and silicone-based lubricants with latex condoms. So Dr. Gunter, what is the hymen? Does it break when you have sex? What is this thing?

I wish people would just forget the word hymen, just erase it from the collective knowledge. Because it is probably the most misunderstood body part. When we're infants, we have a pretty large hymen. It's sort of a big mucosa, this big membrane that covers a large part of the vagina. And if you think about when you're an infant, you know, you're leaking stool and you're leaking urine, and it would kind of make sense that you might have a bit of a barrier there. But then as you grow, the hymen sort of basically becomes a nothing burger, you know.

And when you get exposed to estrogen, when you start to go through puberty, it just becomes like the vagina. And you know, some people, a very, very, very small percentage might have a little bit of tightness left in that hymen. When they're older, that would be the minority. That would be like, I run a specialty clinic

where I see people have pain with sex, and I might see that like once every two years. So again, that shouldn't be something like in somebody's common collective. You know, I tell people, think about the hymen like baby teeth. It's something you had at one point in time. It served some kind of purpose, and now it's not an issue. So the hymen doesn't break with sex. There's no like cherry to pop. It's not a freshness seal. Most people don't have any bleeding the first time they have sex.

This is this whole myth that has been created by, I would say the virgin industrial complex. Virginity is a social construct, it's nothing physical. There's actually been studies, we can't tell looking at somebody whether they're sexually active or not. We can't tell based on physical exams.

Really? Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. So it's this whole awful industry and there's these awful doctors offering to rebuild a home, which isn't even a thing. It's so awful and it's so predatory and it's all made to make women feel as if they're damaged or spoiled, right? Which is how different is that than making women feel that they stink? Everything is about making women feel smaller and damaged. And whenever you hear any message, you always wanna think, okay,

if I keep that thought along the rest to the conclusion, does that make me less of a person? And if it is, then that thought is wrong, right? It's so true. I'd never really thought about the enormity of the messaging. Like, I don't ever hear women or men standing around talking about how somebody's ballset stinks or that, you know, once a guy loses his virginity, that something happens to his penis.

Right, or the more erections a guy has, the more, you know, rubbery and flaccid his penis might get, right? That's another big myth, right? The more you have sex, like your vagina's gonna get stretched out. I'm like, have you even ever, like, seen a woman? Like, what is wrong with you? Does your mouth get stretched out from eating?

Like, what is wrong with you as a person to say that? There's a lot wrong with you. Well, I'm sitting here laughing because I'm like, it doesn't. Like, I bought into all of these myths. Right. I mean, if those things got stretched out, then what would happen when you had a big bowel movement?

Seriously, your body is designed, your muscles, everything is designed to stretch and come back and has elasticity. And this idea that the only body part that gets worn out or overstretched is the vagina is this big patriarchal Awful myth. That's so true. Yeah, I mean cuz it bounces back after you have a kid, you know again If we worried about things getting stretched then how does that work with an erection? Right like think about how this the skin is stretched and then it goes flaccid Well, my gosh, if you have four or five of those, your penis is gonna be ruined. Unbelievable.

You're the best. Oh my God. I wish I knew you when I was like in my teens. I've spent decades living as if these myths were true. Well, you know, I think if I ever write an autobiography, it's gonna be titled, Wait a Minute. That's a great, great title for you. I feel like right now is a great moment to take a break.

And during the break, here's what I want you to do. Digest what we just talked about, but share this with anybody that you care about because we all need this information. Everybody deserves the truth. And that's what you're getting from Dr. Gunter today. And when we come back, we're going even more TMI. Does lace underwear cause a UTI? Pubic hair myths?

The truth about cleanses. Stay with us because we're going there and we'll be waiting for you after a short break. Welcome back. It's your friend Mel Robbins and you and I are here with Dr. Jen Gunter and I am asking her all the questions that we've been afraid to ask our doctors and Dr. Gunter is showing up. So wait a minute. Do you need to wear underwear? No. I mean, you can. You don't have to. If you like to, it's great. You know, I'm a practical person.

I don't like to get discharge on my pants because, you know, some of them are dry clean only. I don't have to wash them more often. But you know what? It's each to their own. It's totally fine. It's not serving any specific health purpose. Again, you know, people manage without, you know, underwear for millennia.

If you want to wear it, great. If you don't want to, don't. It's all good. Now, I remember growing up, my mom always used to say, you got to sleep without underwear on because you got to let it all air out. And that seemed to make sense to me. But now I'm sitting here going, wait a minute,

does your vagina need to breathe at night? No, your vagina doesn't have lungs, so no. Oh my God. No, you don't need to breathe at night? Now your vagina doesn't have lungs, so no. Oh my God. No, you don't need to air it out. The one minor exception might be if you're wearing latex against your skin all day, something that traps moisture and causes rubbing and irritation. So in the same way, if you think about a baby in a diaper,

that it's so occlusive because it's meant to stop any urine from getting out, right? So the idea that if you've had something occlusive on your skin for long periods of time, yes, it is good to give your skin a break from occlusion. But that's not what underwear is. I'm always like, when people say that, have they seen underwear? You know, what underwear is like that? You know?

Well, what about shapewear? Is it bad for your vagina health? No, it's not. Your vagina's on the inside. Nothing on the outside is gonna affect it. So, you know, if your shapewear is irritating your vulva, then, you know, it's probably a bit too tight, just like if it's irritating in your groin or something else, you know, just like if your shoes are too tight and they're uncomfortable, you know, but if it's comfortable and you're fine, then where would you like? I saw something online where a person was going off, of course, about the fact that lace underwear can give you a yeast infection.

I don't know where people come up with these things. I think though, again, follow it through to the end. Who wears lace? Loose girls, right? Black lace. So if you think about this white cotton underwear myth, where does that come from? Well, who wears black lace underwear? In the 50s, that would have been those kind of girls, right? I mean, awful ideas. And so, yeah, I mean, the idea that the color of

your underwear is going to have some kind of like health repercussion, well, then why isn't my green shirt affecting my skin, right? Why isn't my green shirt affecting my skin? Right? Why isn't your black shirt affecting your skin? How does the color of fabric only uniquely affect the vulva? Right? I don't make any sense at all. Lace is fine if again, if it's irritating you,

like if it's in the wrong, you know, we've all put on underwear where it's just like caught in the wrong place in your drawing or just like the wrong place, then put a different pair on that's really about the fit. So obviously a thong is fine as long as it's not irritating you. Yeah, exactly. Everything's fine as long as it doesn't irritate. Look, if you want to wear something that's too tight, look, I personally don't because I like to be comfortable, but I'll admit I have worn uncomfortable shoes, because they looked cute.

So each to their own. So Dr. Gunter, what do you want us to know about yeast infections? Yeah, so unfortunately, diagnosing a yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis over the phone or remotely is very difficult, because the symptoms can overlap a lot. And there's lots of things that can produce

identical symptoms to a yeast infection. What are the differences between them? So bacterial vaginosis is a change in the vaginal microbiome that has allowed emergence of what we call anaerobic bacteria. So bacteria that is less healthy for the vagina. Normally that bacteria is kept in check by the good bacteria but so it's been allowed to overgrow and it has changed the bacterial makeup of the vagina. And it can produce an odor, it can produce a discharge and that can be a little bit irritating as well. Sometimes people get an itch, everybody's different. A yeast infection is an overgrowth of yeast. The pH of the vagina remains the

same where the pH rises with bacteriophaginosis. And we don't really understand why people get recurrent yeast infections or you know we all have yeast in our vagina, we have yeast on our skin, we all have yeast everywhere in small amounts. And why for some people yeast starts to overgrow we don't really know. There certainly are some factors that are linked to it so sometimes it could be that people acquire a strain that's more virulent, more aggressive. There may be local immune system issues with the vagina as well. Estrogen in the vagina can sometimes increase the risk of yeast infections. That's why we see more in pregnancy as well. So there can

be lots of different reasons for that. But other things can cause itch as well. So people can develop a dermatitis of their vulva and it can be very itchy and they can be misdiagnosed as having a yeast infection. So it can be hard to tell over the phone. So you know I always tell people if you believe you have a yeast infection you know it's ideal to talk with a healthcare provider but if you end up using an over-the-counter product and you don't get better then you absolutely need to be seen because the majority of yeast will be treated with an over-the-counter product. So that should work about 95% of the time.

So if it hasn't worked, then you need to be seen because then either if you do have a yeast infection, you might have a resistant strain, so you need to have that checked out. The more likely thing is that you never had a yeast infection to begin with. So you kind of get like one remote treatment, and if that doesn't work, then you really need to escalate it. Gotcha. And again, it's the same factors. If you're having pain while having sex, if there's a smell that's not normal or bothers you, if the discharge has changed, if you're itchy, those are all the same symptoms.

And the problem is they can overlap with many different conditions. So you can get itch and irritation from low estrogen and menopause, you can get itch and irritation from low estrogen menopause, you can get itch and irritation from BV, bacterial vaginosis, you can get itch and irritation from yeast, you can get itch and irritation from a dermatitis on the vulva. So sorting those things out it's actually if you're a specialist it's not that hard if you ask the right questions and do the right tests, but it's important if you have those symptoms to you know to see someone who can help you. You know, there's a lot of stuff online about boric acid being used to balance the pH of your vagina.

Is that true? No, you can't balance your pH of the vagina. If you put acid in the vagina, it's just gonna return back to its pH, the pH that it was very shortly after that. Boric acid doesn't work by raising the pH of the vagina, by the way, or affecting the pH of the vagina. It works because it's basically a detergent. It's like bleach, basically. It kills everything, which if you have a serious yeast infection that can't respond to other medications, then

that might be an option. And we also use it as part of a multi-step regimen for bacterial vaginosis because the boric acid can destroy biofilms, which are complex sort of bacterial colonies in the vagina or complex colonies that can allow bacteria to persist. Is that something people buy over the counter? Yeah, and there's been a huge explosion of this and, you know, I see people come and have been using boric acid for months or using it all the time. And the thing is it kills your good bacteria too. So you don't want to be using it, you don't use it to just touch up your pH or touch things up. That's people do that all the time. And it's advertisers, there's influencers on social media that advertise because they're paid to. And I would say that boric acid is probably the most misunderstood thing out there. And I'm not the only person who's sort of seen this explosion of people using it.

I was talking at a medical conference a few years ago and I mentioned that and these other OB-GYNs who do the same thing, I do like, oh my gosh, I've seen the same thing. And yeah, it's a tool that we use in very specific situations, but it's not something that you should be using chronically. And the very rare situations where we may recommend that you should really be

under the guidance of someone who understands chronic yeast infections. Wow. I'm just kind of letting all this sink in because you're right, the internet is this huge wild west of misinformation. And if you also put that against the backdrop of a history of chronic shaming of women for just normal body function and being marketed to for all of these products that we don't need and in fact can damage the way that your body is naturally designed to work, like it's kind of scary. Yeah, I mean, the internet is an amazing propaganda tool. It's also an amazing research tool, right?

It's like a car. If you drive it correctly, you can go and see amazing places. You can visit the Grand Canyon. You can go to the Redwoods in Northern California. You can go to New York City. You can do amazing things in a car. And you can also drive on the wrong side of the road and kill someone, right?

So it's like any tool, if it's used correctly and you're taught how to use it It can be amazing and if it's used incorrectly by and again There are people who are wanting to use it incorrectly for malice people wanting to use it incorrectly just to sell products and people who just Don't know any better, right? So you get all that as well And so if you don't know how to sort it out, it can be a problem I am loving this so much. And what I'm noticing is every time I ask you a question

that I felt kind of embarrassed to ask, I feel even better. I love how much information you're sharing. So thank you for just being factual and blunt with us. We need to take a break, but when we come back, we are gonna continue busting even more myths, including Dr. Guntner's takes on periods, how much water you need to drink, seed oils, apparently that's very controversial these days, your immune system, and so much more. So stay with us because we will be waiting for you after a short break for a word from

our sponsors. Hey, it's your buddy Mel. This is my own ad, and I took it out because I got something to say to you. You deserve to be happy. You deserve more time to put yourself first, time to breathe. And I want to help you get that time. So I've created a brand new zero cost workbook for you. It's designed using the latest research to help you get clear about what you want.

It's free and it takes you less than a minute to get your hands on this puppy. Just go to MelRobbins.com slash what, W-H-A-T. There's nothing more important to spend your time on than yourself and allow this workbook to be your guide to defining your next chapter. Just go to MelRobbins.com slash what and see for yourself. Welcome back.

It's your friend Mel Robbins and you and I are here with Dr. Jen Gunter, and we're talking medical hot takes. So, Dr. Gunter, what are the biggest myths about periods? Well, I think one of the biggest myths is that you're releasing toxins or impurities during menstruation, and you're not. It's just blood, like the blood from your arm with some endometrium, which is the lining of the uterus and some inflammatory fluid and some cervical mucus and then by the time it comes out, it's picking up some of that vaginal discharge. So what are the shocking symptoms of periods

that no one talks about? Well, I don't think anybody talks about period diarrhea, although I've certainly made that my personal mission to talk about that. So about 12% of people who menstruate get period diarrhea. And if you've had it, you know, and if you don't, then you're really lucky. And I had terrible period diarrhea. I mean, there were days where I'd have to go to the bathroom 10 times, like just, you know, I think I'm a prostagland and overproducer. And yeah, so that's a symptom that people can have. And it's always amazing to me,

you know, whenever I talk about menstruation, I ask people in the room to lift up their hands if they've ever had menstrual diarrhea. And usually, yeah, you've had it, yeah. Usually it's higher than 12%, but I also think that, you know, my audience probably skews more to people who've had medical issues, so that's probably why. But then I ask, you know, and they're almost all women in the audience, who's never heard of it?

And there's always women who put their hand up. And I don't fault them, nobody talks about it. Well, I didn't think it was a thing. I just thought it was obvious because you're having cramps. So wouldn't everything be impacted by the cramps that you're having? Yeah, I mean, not everybody gets it. It's due to the prostaglandins.

And we all have this sort of different, I would say, sensitivity, for lack of a better word, with prostaglandins. Probably some people make more, maybe some people have more prostaglandins. Probably some people make more, maybe some people have more prostaglandin receptors, you know, there's a scale in which people have menstrual cramps, right? There's people who are like, I don't like know what you're talking about. Like I don't feel anything ever and there's people have really bad menstrual cramps and not due to another medical condition like endometriosis

or something like that. So there's this whole spectrum. And some of that may be the fact that some people just either make more prostaglandins, which are the hormones that are produced during menstruation that are part of the menstrual cycle. So Dr. Gunter, is there a cleanse that actually works to clear out the pipes and drop pounds, medically speaking? No, when you hear the word cleanse, you should think scam.

You should translate that into your head. Because it harkens back to the time when we were trying to get closer to God. You needed to cleanse yourself to be closer to your deity. And if you think back, you know, several hundred years, we thought about bodies in the sense of humors, right? You had black bowel, yellow bowel, phlegm and blood, and it was this imbalance. And we wanted to get back in balance. We wanted to get more pure.

We wanted to get, you. We wanted to get closer to God. And when germ theory was discovered, there's kind of the branching off, but it's really fascinating that the wellness industry has really tapped into that sort of purity culture. I mean, it's been with us for thousands of years. So cleanse is really a very purity culture type of term. Is there a term that you would use instead?

Because I do feel like there's this desire, at least when I think of wellness, like I want to do a reset. I want to, you know, if my gut's not in good health, I want to do something that's going to reset it. I see you furrowing your brow at me. Yeah, there's no reset. I've been brainwashed, is that what you're saying?

So you're saying you want to have a, you know, that sounds like a religious experience at a temple or a church, right? So obviously how you feel about your body is different for different people. And there's lots of people like, wow, I feel really reset. I go away for a weekend. And again, that's meaning different things to different people. But is there something medically that you should, you know, do to kind of reset your

body? No, you just like, if you want to start eating healthy, start eating healthy. If you want to start exercising, start exercising. There's no purity test that you need to pass or a supplement that's going to get you there. Do you actually need to poop every day? I mean, the normal range is anywhere from three times a day to every three days.

There isn't a sort of a set what you should do, but a lot of wellness influencers love to talk to you about that. I love to push that because there aren't going to be that many people then who poop exactly once a day, right? I mean, the best that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example.

I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example.

I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example.

I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example. I mean, I think that's a very general example., you know, unless there's a specific reason, your doctor's advised against it. You know, adding fiber to your diet, it reduces your risk of breast cancer, it reduces your risk of colon cancer, it reduces your risk of type two diabetes. It's interesting, there's all these sort of miracle cures that are out there,

but they're just not sexy, right? Like, add more fiber, like, you know, like it's easier to call it the stand on one arm, you know fiber. Like, you know, like, it's easier to call it the stand-on, one-arm, you know, reflex diet, you know. But yeah, it's just, you know, fiber. You know, if people could take away two things for good health, I would say, you know, whether it's for your menstrual cycle, whether it's for menopause, whether it's for your vagina, whether it's for any body part, it would be exercising and eating more fiber. Those would be the two take-home messages. What are your favorite ways to get fiber?

So I am a big fan of high fiber cereals because I'm lazy. So if I have a high fiber cereal in the morning then I'm like a third to a halfway there. I love Kellogg's brand buds, call me Kellogg's, I would like totally advertise for you. So they have 13 grams of fiber in a third of a cup. So you're like halfway there and it's like 70 or 80 calories. And I mix it with a little bit of raw oatmeal, a little bit of walnuts, a little bit of blueberries, pull a bit of milk on it. You're good to go.

I've had more people tell me that I've changed their lives with rand buds than with anything I've recommended. I'm feeling a new sponsor of the Mel Robbins podcast. We're gonna make sure that they know that you're the one that recommended it. Other than exercise and 25 grams of fiber a day, is there anything else you can do to boost your immune system? No. Boosting your immune system isn't even a thing you want to do.

What do you mean boost your immune system? What part of it? Your T cells, your B cells, your adaptive immunity? I have no idea. Exactly. I just think I'm supposed to. No. In fact, there's some diseases that are related to an overactive immune system, right? So it's a boosting your immune system is like a medically nonsensical term. Wow.

Okay. You know, everyone is talking about seed oils online, at least. Are they bad? Are they good? What is a seed oil? I don't even know. Well, I guess a seed oil is oil made from seed, like, you know, canola. And it's not bad.

I don't know. Somebody somewhere came up with an idea that they're inflammatory and they're not. They're fine to use and they're great. Like I love my canola oil. It doesn't have much of a flavor to it. It's good neutral oil. It's got a high smoking point.

It's really good to cook with. So yeah, I mean, people love to jump on these like all or none things, you know? And they sound truthy. So yeah, I mean, people love to jump on these like, all or none things, you know, and they sound truthy. Oh, it's inflammatory. You know, it sounds truthy. You know? Well, on one hand, listening to you, I feel so empowered

because you're bringing the research and you have such a level of like, in terms of just cutting through the crap and appealing not only to your common sense as you're listening, as I'm listening anyway, and I know the person listening to you is like, well, yeah, that's right. If I really did stop and think about it, it doesn't really make any sense. But I think for somebody who doesn't have a medical degree and doesn't have the time to just sift through all this research, it's so overwhelming.

Because one person says this and the other person says that and then this influencer is trying to sell me this protein powder and then I'm doing this cleanse and then I'm doing the reset and then I'm trying to pick my kids up at school and then I'm thinking about the this and the that and I don't know which pill to take and it's overwhelming. It absolutely is. And so that's why I always try to think about how I feel when I'm in a situation where I don't know things. So either at the computer store or with my car,

cause I'm like black holes with those. The secret of medicine is it's not, most of it's not that hard. There's just a lot of it. And so there's certain things that you do need to know. Now, if you want to be a doctor, it's really good to know all the stuff that's around it. But as a patient, there's certain core things that you need to know. And I do think that one of my superpowers is kind of weeding through and saying like,

you know, this is a core thing and this is a core thing. And it's always hard because you're trying to take a complex subject and make it available to a lot of people. And there's always exceptions and things. And so I always tell people, you know, you have to, when you're listening to a podcast, when you're reading a book, you have to appreciate that, that, you know, this is a more general conversation. And there are people who can have individual reasons that things that might work for them. But the general truths are true.

The general truth is you don't want to put soap on your vulva. The general truth is you don't need to clean inside your vagina. The general truth is removing body hair is a choice. It's not something you have to do. You can do it if you want to. There might be some risks. That's what being a grownup is all about. And then also just understanding that there's so many forces trying to weaponize the way we don't talk about women's bodies against us.

And there's so many people out there, you know, trying to make a buck. At the end of the day, the reason I do this is when I was pregnant, a very complicated pregnancy, I had triplets. One of my sons died at birth. My other two boys were in the intensive care unit for a very long time.

They were one pound, 11 ounces, and one pound, 13 ounces. And my son Oliver also had a complex congenital heart defect and he needed his first heart surgery when he was three pounds and they both came home on oxygen and my son Victor also had cerebral palsy and I know what it's like to be overwhelmed. I know what it's like to have people offer you an easy answer and head down the wrong path. I made choices for my kids that I wish I hadn't done. And so I get how hard it is to take all of that stuff in. And I just want people to know that I'm coming from that place that I've been there. And I know how awful it feels. And I just don't want other people

to feel like that if I can have any part of fixing it. Well, thank you. You have cut through so much crap for us today. And I'm sure that the person listening, just like me, is feeling a mixture of tremendous gratitude and empowerment. And then also the question I always have, which is, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

Other than sending and sharing this episode with everyone that you know and checking out all the resources, which there will be so many resources listed in the show notes for this. If you were speaking directly to the person listening, who just wants to feel empowered and our audience more than anybody is really about action. Like, what can I put into action in my life? What is the most important thing? Will you just speak to that person directly? Something that I think is a very important thing to consider is to always fact check the information that you get. And so investing and learning how to check

information I think is a really great tool. You know, not just for the disinformation that's all around about medicine. There's all kinds of disinformation about so many different things. So investing and learning. And the other thing I would say is that anybody who's trying to tell you that you need to fix something urgently, that there's you're wrong, you've got to act on this, that you know that's a sales pressure tactic. Unless you're in the emergency room and you're you're literally bleeding to death, there's always time to step back and gather the information and to not act out of a place of anxiety or panic. And so you know

urgent health situation different, but in general, kind of the stuff that you see coming at you on social media, you have time to stop and reflect and absorb and look for other sources. That one certainly hits home because I have a situation, I think everybody probably has one in their family with somebody that they love where my husband's father was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and six days later he was in an emergency room, no second opinion, and the surgery went horribly wrong. And there's no doubt in my mind that that rush to surgery and not taking a breath and reminding yourself that we have time here, that that ultimately killed them. And so I do think that that's a really important thing

for you to hear that you have time. Is there a particular way that you would recommend that we research because of course, most of us go into our doctors with the printouts from WebMD and probably get the giant eye roll from the docs, you know, like, oh, here we go, here we go, done the research.

But is there some way that you would recommend that we conduct our research or other sites that you can think of that you would send us to? Yeah, so I'm not a believer in hacks, but I'm gonna give you my number one hack. So Google is not a medical library. Google is a repository of information, and it's not curated for you in a way that's helpful for you.

It's a popularity contest. There's so much search engine optimization that goes along. And so what comes up first is not always going to be accurate. And we all take what comes up first or second. And you know what? If the first, second, or third thing isn't what you want, instead of going further, we all just start the search again. What you can do is have your topic and then find out the name of the medical

professional organization that is governs that area. How do I do that? So for example, for menopause, you would put your question, hot flashes treatment, and you would either put menopause society or NAMS. They used to be called the North American Menopause Society and that's probably still going to come up on the search. That will force everything that's menopause society related to come up first. Now if I were doing that on a type of cancer or on a certain type of bone break. If I use the word society, does something come up? So you could start with the American Cancer Society.

Got it. And then on that page, then you might find, okay, you know, esophageal cancer is under this. You could also ask the doctor. So what's the organization that writes the guidelines for this condition? Or you could just Google that. What is the organization that writes no?

They're not all what you think. So I can never remember the names, so I'm not going to say it, but there's one pediatrics organization that's actually basically a hate group, but they've got their name that's almost identical to the American Academy of Pediatrics. So you have to be very careful.

There are bad actors out there. So ask the physician who writes the guidelines, because there are guidelines. Or you could put WHO, World Health Organization. You could put CDC, because there's guidelines. Like if you're dealing with cancer, well, there's, you know, somebody's come up with the guidelines for esophageal cancer. Someone's come up with the guidelines

for endometrial cancer. What's the organization? And start going there. But in the American Cancer Society, it would be a great place to start. Try to get articles from there, and then often you can find references in those sites and go on. But it's not going to happen like that, right? Also, some places have medical libraries, and you can go and talk to the medical librarian.

Now, smaller hospitals don't necessarily have that that but there are some places that do. My son who's got the heart problems having open heart surgery next month and that's how you know I sort of looked up all the things that you know his doctor told me and you know I believed her and I trust her and she's fantastic but you know what you you I wanted to look things up as well and And so, you know, that was the strategy that I took. Well, Dr. Jen Gunter, the entire Mel Robbins Podcast family is going to be sending your family all kinds of loving energy. Oh, thank you.

For a wonderful outcome. Thanks. Thank you so much for being here and pouring into us. I feel really empowered, and it feels really good knowing that somebody as smart as you is out there cleaning up the internet and busting the myths and the misinformation on behalf of all of us. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's been great. You're welcome. And to you, I want to thank you for being here with us today. And I'm sure you

feel as empowered as I do. Make sure you send Dr. Gunter and her family incredible healing vibes. And of course, we are linking to all the resources that we have cited in the show notes. And I wanted to be sure to tell you, in case nobody else does, that I love you, I believe in you, and I believe in your ability

to create a better life. And today, you learned so much, common sense, research back, medical advice that will help you take control of your health, advocate on behalf of yourself and your family. I hope you go do that. And I'll talk to you in a few days. So Dr. Gunter, thank you for jumping on a plane

and flying across Comfort. I can't even speak that. Okay. I was saying you were just warming up. It's all good. Also, I just realized I should probably clean my glasses. Yeah, I just took off a layer of street grime from mine. And now I can I'm like, Oh, wow, my God, I can actually see.

It's amazing. Do you like that? Yeah, I'm gonna do one more. Hold on a second. Okay, what was that? Whatever it's called. You know, Dr. Gunter, you know, no problem, I'm going to do one more. Hold on a second. Okay, what was that? Whatever it's called. You know, Dr. Gunter. You know.

No problem. I'll do it. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for letting me talk so much. Oh, thank God you did too. You were awesome.

Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper. This is the legal language. You know what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend.

I am not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode.