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Women’s Health Spotlight: PCOS, Perimenopause, and Exciting Updates You Won’t Want to Miss!


September Women’s Health: PCOS, Ovarian Cancer, Perimenopause + What’s Next for Fempower Health with Georgie Kovacs

Women's Health Spotlight Episode Summary


In this special episode, Georgie takes a break from her regular expert interviews to provide updates on important awareness topics happening in September, as well as an exciting preview of what's coming for Fempower Health. She shares personal updates, including reflections on the end of summer and her son's start of fourth grade. Georgie highlights awareness months for PCOS, ovarian cancer, and perimenopause, diving into why these health issues are critical for women's health. She also shares sneak peeks of upcoming episodes focused on pelvic pain, sexual health, and the microbiome.


 
 

Key Topics Covered:

  • PCOS Awareness Month: Understanding the challenges of diagnosing PCOS and how women can advocate for better care.

  • Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month: The ongoing need for better diagnostic tools and how to recognize symptoms early.

  • Perimenopause Awareness Month: Defining perimenopause and menopause, and discussing the importance of shared decision-making with healthcare providers.

  • Upcoming Episodes Preview:

    • Rare causes of pain with sex with Dr. Alex Dubinskaya.

    • Sexual health in midlife with Dr. Kelly Casperson.

    • How to talk about bladder symptoms to get the proper root cause diagnosis with Dr. Tamara Lewis.

    • Gut microbiome and hormones with Guy Daniels.

    • Pelvic pain and trauma insights with Rachel Zar.

    • Shared decision-making in cancer risk and hormone therapy with Dr. Michelle Jacobson.


Key Takeaways:

  • Advocacy in Women's Health: Women need to be aware of their symptoms, especially in conditions without clear diagnostic tests. Being informed helps with better conversations with doctors.

  • PCOS: It's a complex condition that affects multiple aspects of a woman’s health. While there’s no cure, management of symptoms is possible with proper guidance.

  • Ovarian Cancer: Nonspecific symptoms like bloating and frequent urination can lead to late diagnoses. Awareness and diagnostic advancements are key.

  • Perimenopause and Menopause: Shared decision-making between patients and doctors is crucial for individualized care during this stage of life.

  • Upcoming Expert Interviews: A diverse set of expert guests bring valuable insights on sexual health, bladder issues, skin care, and hormone therapy.


“We need proper language around our health to better understand how to advocate for ourselves and talk to our doctor.” Georgie Kovacs

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Host Bio


Georgie Kovacs is a seasoned professional with over two decades of healthcare expertise, having contributed to industry giants like Pfizer, Syneos Health, IQVIA, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. She launched Fempower Health in 2020, a pioneering platform that empowers women with evidence-based insights and support. Collaborating with top experts, Georgie is dedicated to redefining the narrative surrounding women's health, ensuring every woman has the knowledge and resources to thrive and make informed decisions about their health.



Disclaimer


The information shared by Fempower Health is not medical advice but for informational purposes to enable you to have more effective conversations with your doctor.  Always talk to your doctor before making health-related decisions. Additionally, the views expressed by the Fempower Health podcast guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.


Transcript:

Welcome to Fempower Health. This is Georgie. By now, all the school districts in the US are back to school and summer is officially over. So I thought I would take this time to talk about what's coming for the rest of the year with Fempower Health and a couple of important health awareness things to be aware of for September. Before I dive in, I did want to let you know that I have created a survey where I would love to get feedback from you. At the end of the day, Fempower Health was built out of my own experience with infertility and realizing that there are many sub Health Health. You as well as all the other resources provided by Fempower Health. So I'd really appreciate you checking out the show notes for the link to the survey so that I can better serve you and your needs, whether it's the topics that I cover or the way information is presented.


So again, please check out the show notes. As far as this month, a couple of things to call to your attention. Number 1, it's PCOS awareness month. PCOS is a condition that impacts about 1 in 10 women. And like with many conditions in women's health, there is a delay to diagnosis. And a part of the reason for this is because like with many conditions, there isn't a blood test or a urine test or anything like that that can definitively diagnose you. However, there are diagnostic criteria. Thank goodness.


So here they are just in case you are wondering if you're struggling. So you need to have 2 of the following criteria. 1 is irregular or infrequent periods, and this indicates that your ovaries do not regularly release eggs, also defined as ovulation. And so you can imagine how this would impact your fertility. And then blood tests are showing that you have high levels of male hormones such as testosterone. And last but not least, scans showing that you have polycystic ovaries. And, again, only 2 of these need to be met to be diagnosed with PCOS. As far as Fempower Health Resources, you know, PCOS, as you can see here, is complex, and you really need to work with an OBGYN who truly understands this and even possibly an endocrinologist.


But because of the other impacts, of PCOS, other considerations include talking to a nutritionist and even a mental health professional because it does have mental health impacts. You may also be experiencing Health growth in different areas and hair loss on your head. So again, please do find the right specialist and you can go the PCOS page on Fempower Health to hear from experts around managing the symptoms. And, I hope that those are helpful for you. And if you have questions, again, please let me know.


In addition to it being PCOS awareness month, it is also ovarian cancer awareness month. And sadly, we do not have a diagnosis or a way to definitively diagnose, I should say, ovarian cancer. And because of this, many women do get a delayed diagnosis and sadly, many do pass away.


So I thought I would just share the awareness and some of the symptoms to be monitoring so that if you do have concerns, you know how to talk to your doctor. Because, again, one of the things that I'm realizing in the 150 plus experts I've spoken to over the 5 seasons of the podcast is we need language around how to talk to our physicians, but we don't the things that happen in our body, we live with every day. And so unless there's like a massive change and our body is speaking loudly to us, there may be symptoms that we don't fully notice. So it's always helpful to have general awareness of things that could lead to certain issues with your body.


And so the language around ovarian cancer symptoms, abnormal vaginal discharge or bleeding after menopause, bloating or a swollen feeling in the stomach, feeling full very soon after starting to eat new urinary frequency, new constipation or other changes in bowel movements, discomfort or pain in the pelvic area, abdomen, or lower back, and fatigue. As you can see, these are fairly nonspecific symptoms, but they are important. So if you're experiencing any of these changes to your body, make a list of those and talk to your doctor. And they can do testing to look at you, but it's more around, you know, visually looking at your body rather than like a definitive blood test.


What's great though is there is a company AOA DX, which is run by a previous guest doctor or sorry. She's not a clinician. Apologies. But, Orianna Papin-Zoghbi. And she is such a fabulous leader, and she and her team are working on a diagnostic test. And so I'm really excited to see how their clinical trials perform because it is something that we so, so desperately need. The good news is there are treatments for ovarian cancer. We just need to get women diagnosed earlier.


The last awareness month, it's perimenopause awareness month, and this is new. October is menopause awareness month, but I do agree we need more awareness around perimenopause. And, as you may know, I have created a specific podcast channel for perimenopause and menopause because, you know, at Fempower Health, we cover so many different topics. And now I'm testing out having specific channels for some of these larger topics. And, again, just a quick definition in case you haven't listened to any of the perimenopause and menopause information or haven't seen it on social media. Perimenopause is the time that's leading up to when you hit menopause. And I had recently interviewed doctor Jerilynn Prior who talks about the importance of differentiating between the two because I think globally we are using the term menopause. So menopause specifically is 12 months without a menstrual cycle.


And once you've hit that, you're in menopause. Some people say post menopause, but it's technically menopause. The time before that, perimenopause, what's happening is your hormones are changing throughout the day and over the course of days, weeks, months. And this is why you're seeing brain fog and sudden anxiety, breast tenderness, your periods changing. Just all of these changes are happening to your body, and a lot of women are just confused like, wait a minute. What's happened? I never used to feel this way. And so it's really important to monitor those symptoms and talk to your doctors so that you can get the right treatments. And it does it's not like it just suddenly creeps up one day.


It's just after time, you're like, wait a minute, what's happening here? Obviously, changes to your period are much more obvious, but some of these other, changes aren't And, you know, I think they're just quick background. 20 years ago, there was a study released where it really put the fear of using hormone therapy, with doctors. And so now I feel like a lot of people are still catching up to pieces that are happening or the mental health changes. A lot of clinicians are simply giving women mental health medications when it could actually be hormone therapy that supports them. Health again, I'm, you know, hormone therapy is a personal choice and maybe, you know, you would want an SSRI or some other mental health medication. So it's really up to you and it's shared decision making with your clinician. But that's just an example of some of the things that are happening in this space. But you can also check out the perimenopause and menopause page on Fempower Health, as well as the female cancer page, since I was talking about ovarian cancer.


And there you can dive much, much deeper into these topics. Okay. So those are all the awareness months. Now what's coming over the coming weeks with Fempower Health? I've got a lot of exciting topics coming your way, and so let's, talk about what those are. This week, I just released rare ish causes of pain with sex, and that is on the chronic pelvic pain channel. You cancer, again, also go to the website, and, there is a sexual health page. So you can check out all the sexual health topics if that is something of interest. And what we really talk about is, you know, with pain with sex, there's a lot of different reasons for it.


And it's really important, like with everything, to share what symptoms you're experiencing so that we can find the root cause for pain with sex. And so Dr. Alex Dubinskaya shares all of that information. I also had the opportunity to interview Dr. Kelly Casperson, and we talk about how sex is not over once you've hit midlife. Another interview that I'm doing is with Dr. Tamara Lewis, where we're talking about bladder problems. So a lot of times we may go to the doctor and say, oh, I think I have a UTI.


Or we may have symptoms, but it's not like we're going to go to a doctor and say, Hey, I think I have vulvodynia, or I think I have lichen sclerosis. And so what we do here is talk about things from a symptom perspective. So if you are experiencing bladder issues, this will really help you have that language around how to talk to your doctor about the symptoms so that you can get the proper root cause diagnosis. The microbiome and hormones, Guy Daniels, was one of my first guests on the podcast, and he is The Microbiome Expert. And he's coming back to talk about this relation between the hormones and microbiome. And he is someone who has read thousands and thousands of article articles and is now coaching people who've been struggling with chronic health issues and are just unable to have success with their clinicians. And he's been doing a great job in supporting these people. So I can't wait to share that.


I also have a really intimate and very important conversation with Rachel Zar on pelvic pain and trauma. I read, body keeps the score in preparing for this episode, and it is a really, really important and valuable one. Another hot topic I've been dying to talk about is weight loss drugs. And I recently spoke with Lisa Larkin, who's been running the North American Menopause Society. And before I think I even finished my question, she already knew who I should interview. So Dr. Angie Fitch will be providing information on that. And we talk about the facts and fiction around weight loss drugs.


Another couple of episodes, so scoliosis and pelvic health, hypermobility and chronic pelvic pain, and shared decision making around cancer and menopause. Additionally, I've done a lot of chronic pelvic pain episodes on endometriosis, but we haven't talked about adenomyosis. And so one of the top clinicians at one of the large centers who works with pelvic pain patients will be educating us on adenomyosis. So that's a an example, a long list of some of the amazing episodes that are coming your way, and I'm really looking forward to sharing that with you.


So, again, be sure to follow Fempower Health, where you listen to podcasts with these specific, topics. A lot of them are going to be on the chronic pelvic pain channel and the perimenopause menopause channel. And for this specific channel that you're listening to now, I'll be doing a mix of replaying old episodes, putting in some new episodes, and some of them will be me talking. So this is again why the survey is so important because I want to make sure that I'm serving you best, and I am trying to solve for the fact that there's a lot of really interesting women's health topics, but not all of them are interesting to everyone because of the life stage that you're in.


And so I am trying to manage how best to serve that content to you. So if you don't want to take a survey, you can even message me on that content to you. So if you don't wanna take a survey, you can even message me on social media or send an in, send an email to info at Fempower dash health dot com. And, again, check out the show notes for the link to the survey. I really look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much, and I hope you found the information today helpful. Have a great week.

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