(big band music)
- What?
(laughing)
I have seen some really great gynecology TikToks lately.
And these are not them.
Today we are once again, dipping our toes into vagina talk,
which has sadly had its pH disrupted
by some serious misinformation.
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Let's jump into the video.
(upbeat music)
- This is from the Idaho legislature.
They start talking about colonoscopies
and things just go downhill from there.
I swear we did not edit this.
This really happened today,
because this is what today is like in the news.
(chuckling)
- If the news has to preface a segment with,
"This is the legislature and I swear it's not edited",
you know it's going to be good.
- [Barbieri] You mentioned the risk of colonoscopy,
can that be done by drugs?
- [Madsen] Mr. Chairman Representative Barbieri,
it cannot be done by drugs.
It can, however, be done remotely,
where you swallow a pill and this pill has a little camera
and it makes its way through your intestines.
And those images are uploaded to a doctor,
who's often thousands of miles away,
who then interprets that.
- Actually very cool technology.
- [Barbieri] Follow up, Mr. Chairman Barbieri.
- [Barbieri] Can this same procedure then be done
in a pregnancy?
Swallowing a camera and helping the doctor determine
what the situation is with the-
- [Madsen] Mr. Chairman Representative,
it cannot be done in pregnancy, simply because
when you swallow a pill, it would not end up in the vagina.
(laughing)
- [Madsen] Fascinating.
(laughing)
- I can't, surely.
Sometimes reality is scarier than the movies.
I, what?
My six year old knows more about where fetus gestates
than that person, who is on the state legislature.
What is happening?
Why?
I'm speechless.
I have no words.
It doesn't happen very often, but I have nothing to say,
except, no, you can't swallow a camera
and make it end up in a uterus or a vagina.
(buzzing)
And I love how he ended with, "That's fascinating".
- Something crazy that we were never taught
as women is that the egg that we get pregnant with
is actually chosen three months before we get pregnant.
So you should be preparing your body
three months prior to conceiving,
so that you have the best
and healthiest quality egg possible to avoid things
like miscarriage and an unhealthy pregnancy.
And it will actually make your baby healthier, as well.
So, something to think about and I'm now offering a program
that gets your body right before you get pregnant.
And I'm offering it at a very discounted rate.
So fill out my link in bio form to learn more.
(phone disconnecting)
- Okay, while there is definitely something to be said
for preparing your body for pregnancy,
the idea that the egg is chosen
three months before you get pregnant is, first off, silly,
that's not the case, but also,
why would you start getting your body ready
three months before if it's chosen three months before?
Wouldn't you need to start three months before that.
I don't know.
I don't know how this works, I'm just asking questions.
Regardless, yes, you should do everything
to optimize your health before pregnancy.
But I don't like the idea that you are telling people
that how they act and what they do affects their egg quality
and potentially their miscarriage risk
or having an unhealthy baby could be their fault,
because they didn't prepare their body
for a high quality egg.
That's silly.
There is definitely some things that we can change.
Optimize your diet, stop smoking, stop drinking alcohol.
These are definitely good things.
But the idea that if you
aren't preparing your body for pregnancy,
it's setting you up to have an unhealthy egg
and an unhealthy pregnancy and an unhealthy baby
is just absolutely silly.
Also, I will refer you back to the Instagram
misinformation video that I made,
because I guarantee you this person is selling something.
She advertised it there at the end.
I don't know how much it is.
I don't know what their qualifications are,
but pay attention to what somebody has to gain financially
from you believing what they are saying.
- Save someone from having a 54 hour labor like I had,
I hope.
Here are six things I wish I would've done
during my pregnancy that may have saved me
from having a really long labor.
When they tell you to eat the dates, eat the dates.
Okay?
Four weeks before your due date you eat six a day.
Eat the dates.
I didn't eat any dates at all.
And look where that got me.
Drink the red-
- The dates one actually does have some
pretty decent literature behind it.
Eating six dates a day about a month before your due date
can be associated with a lower incidence of needing oxytocin
for augmentation and a more efficient labor.
So, I agree with this one, evidence based,
I will put a link in the description
to the recent meta analysis that came out,
I think five or so years ago.
But yeah, can't disagree with that one.
- The red raspberry leaf tea.
It might not taste the greatest, but drink it.
It's gonna tone your uterus.
Your uterus needs to be toned and ready for action.
If you're able-
- Can't fully agree with this one.
So there is literature looking into this,
but no real good literature that says it's beneficial.
Also no great literature that says it's harmful,
but red raspberry leaf tea does have the potential
to interact with other medications
and given the lack of proven benefit
and the potential for harm or interactions
with other medications that you might be taking
I would just recommend against this one.
(buzzing)
We don't really have any reason
to think it's actually going to help and it could hurt.
- Well, two, be active.
Don't just sit on the couch for nine months, like I did.
Do pre-
- Absolutely agree.
Maybe some of these aren't as bad as I thought.
- Prenatal yoga, it's gonna help you be limber.
It's gonna help you be strong,
because labor is like a marathon.
It is hard work
and you want your body to be physically ready for it.
Take a birth-
- Absolutely, I totally agree with that.
And prenatal yoga has a lot of literature to back up
that it's helpful with improving pelvic pain,
improving mental health,
improving how people view their labor
and the efficiency of that labor.
I am all for prenatal yoga.
I think being active in pregnancy to the point
that it's comfortable and you can is always a good thing.
And prenatal yoga wins in my book, every time.
The only caveat to that is hot yoga.
When you are pregnant, you might be at a slightly
increased risk of passing out,
particularly in hot steamy environments, like hot yoga.
And, if you are holding inverted positions
for long periods of time, so just be wary of that,
but overall, prenatal yoga
absolutely something that I would recommend.
- Class, so you know what the hell's going on down there.
Knowledge is power, my friends, do research
and find out as much as you possibly can
about what you're gonna go through.
- Knowledge is absolutely power.
I do not disagree.
I think whether or not you take a birth course
is completely up to you.
I'm the type of person that wanted all the information.
So, even though I was a fourth year medical student
and had attended many births
and actually caught people's babies,
I still chose to take a birth class
when I was having my first babies.
That being said, I definitely have had patients
who think that taking a birth class either
worsened their anxiety or would worsen their anxiety
if they did it,
and they preferred to just go along with the flow
and let the experts give them the information as needed
or ask questions as they came up.
So, completely person to person dependent,
but if you're the type of person that likes the information,
like I am, and you feel like that's something you wanna do,
birth class is an excellent idea.
- My last little tidbit is see a prenatal chiropractor.
You wanna make sure everything's aligned,
especially your hips, because if anything's outta whack
it's gonna make it really hard for that baby to come out.
- I'm not typically one to recommend chiropractic care
during pregnancy.
I don't think that as a whole
most chiropractors get sufficient education
in pregnancy and the physiology of pregnancy
to safely provide chiropractic care.
I've never seen any real convincing evidence
that this is beneficial.
So, you may find an exception,
someone who's done additional training in pregnancy
and things like that.
But my overall for this is
chiropractic care during pregnancy
is not my top recommendation, but you're an adult.
You can make decisions for yourself.
(gaming music)
♪ Snap back to reality ♪
♪ Oh there goes gravity ♪
- It's the glue that binds the books' pages together.
It has a chemical in it.
I can't remember the exact name of it right now,
but it is a natural laxative.
- Admittedly, I had to look this one up,
but there is a described phenomenon
where people go into a library or a bookstore
and suddenly have the urge to have a bowel movement.
As I was doing a little bit of cursory research
I saw it called "Book Bowels",
but also Mariko Aoki Syndrome,
based on the person who first described the phenomenon
in the 80s, in Japan.
Has a really interesting Wikipedia page
if you wanna go read through it,
but the long and short of it is
there is a described phenomenon
and we have absolutely found sufficient evidence
to say that people do experience this,
but there is definitely not a medical
or scientific explanation as of yet.
And the book glue idea was just an idea
and has really no scientific basis that said it's true.
So, it probably happens, we don't know why.
The relationship to contractions, I mean,
the physiology of having your bowels move
and uterine activity are closely related,
both in proximity to each other,
but also in the hormones that work
on those types of muscles.
So, I could definitely see it being related,
but not something I could find described
or something I've ever heard.
So, interesting, probably not caused by the book glue,
but a good read on Wikipedia if you have a couple minutes
to go and peruse.
(upbeat music)
I already can tell this is gonna be one of those,
I just, I don't even wanna watch this.
(upbeat music)
Labs I recommend all women run every year
hormone and fertility essentials.
I will start off by saying this person is a natural path
and is selling things that directly benefit
from you believing what they say.
They go on to say
every year you should have Progesterone, Estradiol,
FSH, LH, Total Testosterone, Free Testosterone,
Sex Hormone-binding Globulin, DHT, Cortisol,
Prolactin, TSH, Total T3, Total T4, Free T3, Free T4,
Reverse T3, MAH, eh, it keeps going.
(high pitch talking)
Triglycerides, a complete Metabolic panel,
a total blood count with differential.
Every year you should have those tested,
according to this person.
And, let us not forget,
check out my website to order your own.
Can't imagine that this person might benefit
from telling you to order every lab under the sun
every year from their website
where they undoubtedly get a kickback of that money.
And they have a free lab guide,
which I promise is going to put you
on a mailing list where you'll get access to pay for
their further information in the future.
I go through a lot of these tactics
and things in my Instagram misinformation video.
If you wanna hop over there
I'm not going to belabor that right now,
but let's talk about what is actually recommended
in the preconception period,
as far as testing and STD screen,
checking to see if you are immune to Rubella
and getting a vaccination if you are not.
Checking to see if you are immune to Varicella,
which is chickenpox
or if you've had a Varicella vaccination,
or you know that you had chickenpox as a child,
genetic carrier screenings for people who just want to know
if they carry something like Cystic Fibrosis
or for people who are high risk of having things like that.
Hemoglobin A1C, if you are high risk for being a diabetic
or getting diabetes, or if you already know
that you have diabetes, a TB test, which is Tuberculosis,
if you are at high risk of contracting TB, Toxoplasmosis
and CMV testing, which is a bit controversial
and not universally recommended.
So that's something specifically to discuss
with your own doctor
or whoever's taking care of you for the pregnancy.
Now she listed a whole bunch of other things.
Why are those not actually recommended
to be tested every year?
Well, for one, most of them that she listed
are not even screening tests,
they're diagnostic tests,
meaning they're used if somebody is having symptoms
or had an abnormal screening test
to further delineate what's going on.
We take care of whole people, not just volumes of lab values
and lab values come back with an average,
but some people who are just fine asymptomatic
and don't need treatment are going to fall slightly
outside of that.
So you can produce anxiety and confusion,
and also a ton of cost ordering things that
you're not going to do anything with.
This is silly.
Lipid testing should be done once a year,
once you reach adulthood.
So somewhere between like 18 and 25, and if that is normal
you don't need testing again until after age 35,
after that only every five years, unless it's abnormal
or you're specifically high risk.
Glucose and Hemoglobin A1C should be tested
at least once at some point in your life.
But definitely doesn't need to be done yearly,
unless you are high risk for diabetes or you have diabetes.
TSH, which is thyroid testing,
also does not need to be done yearly.
There's probably room for recommending this
at some point before you try to get pregnant one time,
but definitely doesn't need to be done every year
unless you have thyroid problems
or you're high risk for that.
And then CBC and iron studies looking for anemia,
only if you have a reason that you would be anemic,
but otherwise we will check that in pregnancy
as pregnancy is a risk factor for anemia,
but you don't have to have that done every year.
Not helpful.
I don't like ordering lab tests unless I have a reason.
I am very specific in this.
I discuss it with our residents
and junior doctors at length, probably on a weekly basis.
What are you ordering?
Why are you ordering it?
What will you do if it comes back positive or negative,
high or low
how is it going to change our management?
What will we do with the results?
Do we know why we're ordering this and how we will use it?
If the answer is no,
you shouldn't be ordering it, plain and simple.
If you don't know why you are ordering it
or how you will act on it
or what the indication for ordering it is
based on evidence and science, don't order it.
It's a waste of money and time
and can cause anxiety and unnecessary interventions.
(suspenseful music)
This is a bit hard to read, it's blurry,
but it says, "Thinking about the women who choose
the copper IUD instead of hormonal birth control
thinking it won't impact their hormones
without understanding that inorganic copper
within the body can cause copper toxicity,
which has been known to cause major hormonal consequences.
And although it's hormone free
it can still significantly impact hormone balance."
This is absolute bonkers nonsense.
There is zero evidence that the copper IUD
causes copper toxicity.
In fact, because I knew that,
but couldn't quote the literature on it,
I looked to see if I could find the incidents
and I can't even find it ever having been reported,
funny enough.
So, no, I can pretty well guarantee you,
you're not going to get copper toxicity from copper IUD.
This is fear mongering.
And I bet if you go to this person's page
they are also selling something that benefits
from you believing that you don't need to be using
any kind of birth control.
As a caveat, if you have Wilson's Disease,
then maybe you wanna talk with your healthcare provider.
That is a very rare condition.
And I am willing to guess most of you don't have it,
but before choosing to get a copper IUD,
if you have Wilson's Disease, chat with your doctor.
(laughing)
- He said, he said, "If women don't want a pregnancy
they should just not release an egg."
(laughing)
- [Man Driving] Yeah, but it doesn't work like that.
(laughing)
- I like how whoever she's talking to says,
"Yeah, but it doesn't work like that."
Like, yeah, but I don't know.
Sometimes I read or watch TikToks and I think, surely,
surely people don't actually believe this, right?
This is, they're trolling,
like nobody actually believes that.
Right?
And then I go back and I watch the sex ed reactions
that we've done.
And the video that the Alaska school board made about me.
And I think, you know what, actually,
judging by the state of sex education in this country,
maybe there are some people out there
who actually believe this and they're not just trolling.
Who knows?
I've stopped trying to guess,
but if anyone is wondering and needs clarity,
no, you don't just decide to release an egg or not.
Unless you take hormonal birth control pills,
which I guess it is in effect,
deciding not to release an egg.
So, thanks for being here today, y'all,
I hope that you learned something.
If you did leave a like on this video.
I will link a whole lot more OB GYN Reacts
right over there at a playlist.
They are all very good.
And I promise you'll learn something,
go binge watch them, work your way through all of them.
You will not be disappointed.
I will see you next Monday.
(upbeat music)