Ethical OB/GYNs everywhere sighed heavily this evening when they realized from the action on their Facebook and Twitter feeds that The Ellen Show broadcast incorrect and potentially harmful information about ovarian cancer screening to almost 4 million people. Millions more will likely hear about it on social media. Ellen Pompeo, who plays a doctor on […]
Category Archives: cancer
Gwyneth Paltrow’s detox smoothie has too much arsenic for my taste
Gwyneth Paltrow threw down the gauntlet. Having people ask about the validity of second-hand medical information from a ghost, wanting explanations about the antiparasitic properties of goat milk, or questioning the physics of recharging a jade egg with lunar energy is apparently more tiresome than adrenal fatigue. Too much entropy! To remind herself that chicks […]
Women should get a routine check in with their GYN, not a routine pelvic exam
I have been a gynecologist for over 20 years. Including residency I have been performing pelvic exams for over 26 years. I have done thousands of routine well-woman pelvic exams and thousands of exams for women with symptoms. While my personal n of 1 is certainly not research I have not once picked up a […]
Voting Libertarian? I hope you or your kids never get sick
My thirteen-year old boys had an appointment this week. When we were done the provider who normally chats with me in that provider-to-provider way abruptly changed the conversation to tell me he finally deciding who was getting his vote. I was expecting this to be the lead in to some new Donald Trump joke. However, he […]
The one where I stand accused of being a shill for big lingerie
After more than four years of blogging it has come to pass that a comment is so outrageous that it warrants its own little post. The comment isn’t about abortion or contraception or shirtgate or any of the seemingly “controversial” things that I write about it. No, it is about bras. It is in response […]
Hey Gwyneth Paltrow, a GYN says stop scaring women about bras and breast cancer
Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP is the latest site to stoke false fears about bras and breast cancer (scaremongering being a nice touch for breast cancer awareness month – wraps up the whole October fright fest thing with a pink bow). The post is written by Dr. Habib Sadeghi, a doctor of osteopathic medicine and apparently the person who […]
HPV vaccine over age 26 – is it worth it?
Currently the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccines are approved in the United States up to the age of 26. This has nothing to do with safety but due to the fact that the studies submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) involved this age range. The HPV vaccines were primarily studied in women aged […]
The HPV vaccine protects African American and white women equally from cancer
The Internet, or parts of it, claims the HPV vaccine is ineffective or less effective for African American women than for white women. This idea appears to have originated with Bustle and their take on a study that looked at HPV types in women undergoing testing of pre-cancers of the cervix. Drawing conclusions about the […]
The importance of the HPV vaccine in one graphic. Really.
Here are the percentage of cancers (by site and sex) due to HPV 16/18 and 31/33/45/52/58 The older HPV vaccine covers HPV 16/18. The new 9 valent HPV vaccine protects against 16/18 as well as 31/33/45/52/58. The vaccines are highly effective and have already begun to reduce pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix. Current data indicates […]
What if the HPV vaccine only lasts for 10 years?
Once of the concerns tossed around by critics of the HPV vaccine is the fear that it might only delay HPV infections. This was brought up by Dr. Harper on the infamous Katie Couric HPV episode, it’s also not an infrequent comment left on my blog, and of course it’s bandied about by a variety […]
