Join the cysterhood Uncovering a blind spot in womens health
[Music]
all right everyone
i want you to reflect back onto the best
years of your life
take a moment you can close your eyes if
you feel the need to
you were all thinking about puberty
right
wait y’all were okay yeah your body is
rapidly changing but it
is also the time of your life you begin
having your own ideas of the world
who you want to be you see i thought
puberty would be the time i’d really
start feeling like a woman
and at such a young age i thought there
were only three defining things to
feeling like a woman be pretty
be skinny and have a cute boyfriend
boom womanhood but instead
during puberty i begin having male
pattern balding
yeah y’all heard that right extremely
oily skin
and gained about uh 30 pounds in the
span of one summer
this is definitely not how tiger beet
described puberty to me
my mother and i knew that those symptoms
were not normal
but my general practitioner and the
dietitian would say oh you’re fine
you just need to eat better take your
vitamins
and you’ll outgrow this i refuse to fall
into that checkup checklist where they
ask me the same questions
they ask all of their patients and don’t
fully hear
my problems finally at age 17
after five years of worsening symptoms
30 plus doctors appointments and
countless times i had to miss school
i was finally at the right page to see a
gynecologist
now this is pretty typical coming of age
protocol to see a gyno around
age 17 you know boom womanhood
uh but i saw it as an opportunity
to speak to another doctor i never had
talked to before and
see if they had any idea what i had in a
matter of a few moments
without a doubt in her mind she told me
that i had
polycystic ovarian syndrome
or pcos for short which is a hormonal
disorder responsible
for all of my symptoms in the matter of
five minutes
this doctor diagnosed me with something
i battled with
for five years but it turns out
pcos affects the lives of approximately
1
in 10 women and is the leading cause of
female infertility
if there are so many affected why did it
take
countless years and multiple doctors
to diagnose me with something that seems
to be so massive
often general practitioners do not know
of this diagnosis
or think to refer you to a specialist
and this unfortunately can be seen
across
all women’s health care many times when
women are describing their symptoms
they can be written off as being
emotional
sometimes flat out dramatic which can
downplay getting a diagnosis
extremely especially when the diagnosis
isn’t in that certain doctor’s
wheelhouse
federal law actually didn’t even require
the inclusion
of women and minorities in clinical
research
until the revitalization act was passed
in 1993.
now this created a gap in knowledge and
funding on knowing women’s bodies
as compared to men’s
now i don’t believe this blind spot in
the medical world was deliberate
but i do think it’s a perfect example
how women have not been treated equally
for
centuries and the effects of that are
still lingering
it’s not about individual doctors not
caring about their female patients or
not wanting to treat them the same
but it’s the fact we don’t have enough
medical research
to treat women
all right men you have to admit it
majority of you have probably never
heard of pcos
it’s all right i take no offense but
women
we all know what viagra is and what it’s
used for
now i’m not trying to point fingers at
your primary care physician and their
credibility
all that i’m saying is there’s not
enough medical research to treat
women basically only in recent years has
there been funding
for this medical research for women’s
issues and this research
is vital in helping all doctors better
diagnose women
luckily i grew up in metro atlanta
where i had access to a plethora of
doctors
and was able to go to my gynecologist
and get a diagnosis
and then get referred to my lovely
endocrinologist who actually
specializes in pcos
but what about all the other women who
may not have access to proper
reproductive health care
in fact 110 out of the 159 counties in
the state of georgia
have inadequate or no ob gyns or
gynecologists
which was the doctor to diagnose me and
most other women living with pcos
imagine having all of those terrible
symptoms and just no answers
because the doctor who could diagnose
you was
an hour away a couple counties over
and that’s just the state of georgia
imagine what it looks like for the rest
of the country
this disparity continues to break my
heart
because i still vividly remember the
countless times i sat in my mom’s car
and bawled
after another doctor told me to just
take my vitamins and eat better
the thought of so many women having
nowhere to find answers
sends a shiver down my spine because
this isn’t just something that makes you
gain an extra 30 pounds
or gives you difficulty having children
later down the road
a study published in 2015 showed that
women living with pcos
are twice as likely to be hospitalized
for mental health conditions heart
disease
diabetes reproductive disorder
and cancer of the uterine lining
this is no longer a cosmetic nuisance or
an infertility issue
but something that could lead to
long-term health concerns
when undiagnosed and untreated okay
little secret um most the facts
that i’ve told you in the last five
minutes yeah those weren’t told to me
in the doctor’s office to my surprise
i found a whole online community
of sisters
that are very knowledgeable in our
disorder
and yes women living with pcos
decided to give us the cringy name of
sisters
after reading these women’s blogs
watching their videos and hearing their
stories
i found out that it was really common
for women living with pcos
to have difficulty getting a diagnosis
and as much as that sucks for all of us
it made me feel a bit less crazy
it made me feel like someone finally
understood me after all of those years
these women made me realize that i don’t
need to be embarrassed
to find answers about the disorder or to
seek help
and advice with the difficulties this
disorder has given me
asking for help seeking advice
should not be looked upon as a weakness
because as human beings it is our
biggest strength
all right non-sisters time for you to
perk up
sit straighter in your seat why should
you care
well it could be your sister your
girlfriend
your wife your mom but all of that
shouldn’t even matter
it’s about having compassion for all
even if you cannot relate
it is already known that women are not
hurt enough and it is
compounded for women of color and those
who do not have
access to proper health care you may not
be the researcher or the doctor to help
me find the cure
but you’re someone who can still listen
feeling
heard can change someone’s life and i
know that because it did for me so what
would i go back
and tell myself when going through the
dreaded puberty
i would tell her to advocate for her
doctors to go beyond the checkup
checklist
because women’s health matters
i would tell her that she does not need
to be afraid
because there’s a whole community of
women ready with open arms to help her
through the realities of pcos
i would tell young tot that she can be
cute with 30 extra pounds and
some male pattern balding
there is no cure but this movement is
just getting started
stay informed push for equal rights
and find a community that makes you feel
sane
well i finally feel heard and i have my
voice
and we need your support so i’d like to
formally invite you to
join the sisterhood
thank you