00:04:31.360It's been circulating around the school moms.0.98
00:04:34.540And I mean, I love I love the headline, The Billionaire's Vagina Club, because I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is like so ripe for a thriller.0.96
00:04:41.300I'm like, who's going to die in this story?0.99
00:04:43.900Whose vagina is going to be the killer?1.00
00:04:45.680Which vagina is going to be the killer?1.00
00:04:48.920And, you know, it's about Silicon Valley tech ladies and then also tech wives who have this one concierge doctor who treats them for all of their all of their health issues.1.00
00:05:00.100And she also encourages all of them to have a lot more sex.1.00
00:05:03.960I think that most women just don't want to have sex with their gross tech husbands because tech1.00
00:05:07.480husbands are gross. But that said, you know, they have they're paying, you know, six figures a year0.99
00:05:15.060to get this kind of good health care. But one of the things you're saying is that we can get it
00:05:21.960out of our very broken system. We just have to advocate for ourselves. Right. Yeah, I think
00:05:26.140there's really it's shocking to me because I actually do have a concierge practice and I find
00:05:31.900it's so fascinating like where people are and what their mindsets are it's very different from
00:05:36.700New York City to Westchester for example and I think that ultimately what's happening in the
00:05:42.260country and I want to just be very clear I think that more women that are probably listening more
00:05:49.100women are probably spending more money on wellness coaches and lifestyle coaches and aren't even
00:05:56.560seeking out the concierge, you know, medical people. Right. But at the same time, it shows1.00
00:06:03.680how desperate women are to just have someone fucking listen to them. Excuse me. Don't fucking1.00
00:06:07.800listen. I just want someone to fucking listen to me. Am I allowed to curse on that? OK, good,1.00
00:06:10.860please. You can. Yeah. Yeah, I figured. But it's just so that's crazy to me. And ultimately,
00:06:16.360so what my goal is, right, like I'd like to be everyone's concierge doctor that needs it. But
00:06:20.940ultimately, you know, we have this philosophy in surgery, see one, do one, teach one. Like
00:06:25.680ultimately what I want to sell women is not needing me, right? Like I want to sell women1.00
00:06:30.820in their weakest points, the ability to understand medical language that they don't think they can1.00
00:06:35.060understand. Understand if you're going to be healthy, you've got to deal with your trauma
00:06:38.320and understand that as women, we do have spiritual needs, whether that's walking barefoot in the
00:06:43.920grass or going to church, going to temple or calling a psychic and working with a seer and
00:06:49.580whatever it is we have these pieces of us that all need attention and ultimately no one provider
00:06:56.180unless you have a six-figure amount to spend with someone who will work with you which if you do
00:07:02.180god bless of us god you can call me no i'm just kidding but like but if you have that and you can
00:07:07.740get that from someone else that's great but ultimately so much of that because we're so
00:07:12.240unique as individuals has to come from ourselves and right so we have to be re-empowered to
00:07:19.400understand no one's coming to save us it doesn't mean another hassle but it means that we are
00:07:24.340important enough that like we know a lot more than we're given credit for and it's not that hard
00:07:31.320it sounds really simplified and silly but if you walk into a cough and cold and flu aisle and cbs
00:07:38.800you're like assaulted with 8 000 products so many yeah right if you learn four words you can get
00:07:45.320whatever the hell you need you can feel like a doctor and you don't ever have to feel intimidated
00:07:49.080by that encounter again. It's like those little things give us back our strength to get better
00:07:56.300care. And it's not just going in and being like, fuck you, doctor. Like I'm in charge here. You're1.00
00:08:01.680a jerk. I'm not talking about things like that. I'm just talking about things that will slowly1.00
00:08:05.660build our confidence back up because it's just it's non-existent. And it's not because doctors
00:08:10.800suck. Lots of doctors suck. But the doctors are struggling. The majority of doctors are struggling1.00
00:08:16.940just as much as their patients in different ways.
00:08:45.500but then also as you said know how to advocate for ourselves know what words to use know what
00:08:50.120language to use to get what we need i mean it is insane i will tell you i am trying to switch0.72
00:08:56.880primary care doctors mine is very very nice but should not be treating a woman in perimenopause
00:09:04.440right now right she's a woman who went through menopause and kind of believes she's like you
00:09:09.820just tough it out and i'm like oh that's not where i'm at my friend i i shall not tough this out
00:09:15.400My generation says no. My generation says no, thank you. And so I'm looking for a new one,
00:09:19.640but no one's accepting new patients, right? Like everyone is full, exhausted, overworked. And so
00:09:24.960now we're looking at concierge medicine and thank God we can afford it. That's right. And I'm going
00:09:29.500to tell you something that's so interesting about this. And this is not to scare people,
00:09:33.760to make them feel like, well, there's nothing I can do because it's quite the opposite. And this
00:09:36.820is where I talk about ownership. Even if you've got a great OBGYN, the reality is there are so
00:09:42.980many OBGYNs that are not adequately trained to treat menopause. And so, you know, what a lot of
00:09:49.680people wind up doing, and it's not wrong, it's better than not doing anything, but they go online
00:09:54.360or they, you know, watch, and you have to be careful about who you're consuming and what
00:09:58.860you're consuming. But I do feel that there is, instead of feeling like you're never going to
00:10:04.800find answers, you can, as patients now, if you know how to use AI, for example, if you know how
00:10:12.340to use it right you can get medical information that you don't understand translate it into
00:10:18.380person speak and have that help guide you as you search for maybe the person who might not be your
00:10:24.100primary care provider but who's going to prescribe you the right hormones so it's it's really i think
00:10:29.920unless you do that for people who can't afford to go to a concierge person you can try to do an
00:10:35.840online menopause service like at least people are starting to talk about it in a way there's money
00:10:41.260going into it and i think that there is a real push at least toward educating the people who
00:10:46.480you would think would be the right people to do it yeah i mean yeah and i also want to say joe
00:10:51.300you know you bring up something very very relevant a lot of people sort of give me grief for this but
00:10:55.320i don't care it's really how i feel yeah whatever i mean a woman should see a primary care doc and
00:11:01.280an ob-gyn every single year from the time she is sexually active or getting periods regularly
00:11:06.940until she's dead yeah because ultimately ob-gyns whether or not they know how to do your concierge
00:11:13.560medicine are still a woman's doctor they'll talk to you about things a primary care doc may not0.98
00:11:18.320and they're really important right like are you having sex your primary care doctor even if they're
00:11:24.360concierge is not going to ask you that but an ob-gyn probably will even if you don't like them
00:11:30.140you know whatever it is at least it's what you know we're trained to do at least that
00:11:34.840Yeah, well, and I love my OBGYN. It's very interesting because she was also a little dismissive of perimenopause until she went through it. I remember I was talking about, you know, gaining weight and stuff. And she's like, no, you're just like, this is just how it's going to be. But now that she is also going through it, she has gotten the training to help her patients through it.
00:11:54.660That said, I mean, I want to I want to ask you something that I don't know if this is controversial in the world of medicine.
00:12:00.780We're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, I have a I have a very important question for you.
00:12:13.580OK, we are back. I actually think there should be separate doctors for women having babies and then women going through perimenopause.
00:12:24.660menopause I don't again it's all vaginas but I do think that these are very different stages
00:12:31.620of our lives what do you think about this so this has been a thing that's been in dialogue since I
00:12:37.700was a medical student because when I was a medical student I was obsessed with obstetrics and the
00:12:43.500miracle of birth not so much caring about the surgery with infected tubes like wasn't so into
00:12:48.380it. And not only are OB and GYN tracks wildly different, but the subspecialties in OB-GYN
00:12:56.560are also wildly different. My husband fixes organs and urine that's falling out of women
00:13:02.680in OB-GYN. And I do babies and complex things in women's care in a very different way. So
00:13:08.620it's been discussed a lot at the higher levels about breaking them into two separate pathways.
00:13:14.760It's something a lot of doctors in my field feel should absolutely exist.
00:13:20.180But I just don't see it happening right now because there are so many other places that really need attention.
00:13:27.580And so it's really important with the way that the politic of the country is right now, that women who deliver babies understand that super early pregnancy situation.
00:13:38.320And that's really, until a certain point, a GYN focus, right?
00:13:42.780If somebody has an OBGYN and it ruptures, they have to be able to operate on them.
00:22:39.140I, when my best girlfriend, Glynis, got, you know, her online preacher degree to marry Nick and I, I asked her to work at least nine Taylor Swift lyrics into the vows as she was asking them to us.
00:23:07.820And I think that, again, if you can use it in a way where you're not asking it for information, but you're using the right source to help it help you more, that's really important.
00:23:18.680And you can also say, listen, I'm a big apologizer.
00:23:22.100What is the checklist of things I can bring to my doctor if these are my symptoms?
00:23:25.780And I think that is just tremendously helpful.
00:23:28.680All right, let's take one more quick break.
00:23:30.980And when we get back, I want to talk a little bit about how women's health symptoms are often treated as anxiety and not actual medical problems.
00:23:48.760You know, I think that women's health issues are so often written off as just anxiety, so much so that I feel like I've been gaslit to believe that when I'm sick, it's just anxiety.
00:25:35.840I also want to point out that there are a lot of medical diagnoses, endometriosis, for example, mast cell activation, for example, all of these things, ME-CFS, long COVID.
00:25:46.680These are all these kind of complex Freudian illnesses, many of which come with a heightened state of inflammation in the linings of your body.
00:25:56.480And part of what becomes inflamed in many of those situations is the blood-brain barrier, is the brain.
00:26:04.040So there is an exacerbation of neuroinflammation that can absolutely, mast cells, for example,
00:26:12.160which are the cells that burst open and release histamine, which is a fight-or-flight signaler,
00:26:17.480mast cells sit in huge numbers right at the vagus nerve.
00:26:20.900And the vagus nerve is the master keeper of our autonomic nervous system, which controls fight or flight.
00:26:27.900So hand in hand with diagnoses that are often dismissed, go things that are chemically happening in our body to make us feel wildly, wildly anxious.
00:26:39.120So it is not just chicken and eggs, but it's also one and the same.
00:26:42.640I mean, I just, again, we can't say it enough.
00:26:44.880I think that women are dismissed so often and it's just infuriating.
00:26:49.360you mentioned endometriosis. It's not something I've ever dealt with personally, but a lot of my
00:26:54.420friends have. And they were dismissed for years, for decades. Endometriosis is a particularly
00:27:01.520fascinating condition for me to talk about because, first of all, up to one in 10 women have it. It's
00:27:06.420one of these mystery illnesses that women are told is just part of being a woman that's actually
00:27:12.600receiving a tremendous amount of attention because a lot of young women are being diagnosed. And the
00:27:17.440young generation is like, we're not going to take the same shit our mothers did. And they're1.00
00:27:21.280actually doing something about it. There's also money going into it and there are scientific
00:27:25.860advances being made. We are moving towards diagnosing endometriosis now without surgery,
00:27:32.460which is a huge deal. So there are advances happening in real time. And so, you know,
00:27:36.780as someone who deals a lot in this space, it's really exciting to see. It's of course not enough
00:27:41.940fast enough, but there is change happening. Like I think the women are going to step up here and1.00
00:27:45.940really, we're going to save the world a little bit. And I don't mean to sound idealistic because
00:27:50.100we have so many problems. But endometriosis is really a particularly fascinating and exciting
00:27:58.040condition to watch right now because of all of the change that's happening so quickly.
00:28:02.640The things that we don't know about women's bodies are insane to me. And yet the fact that,
00:28:08.100you know, men over 50 can't get a fucking erection has been fixed for the past 30 years,0.99
00:28:13.740right it's just like also i don't think those men should be having erections i think that nature0.99
00:28:18.000for a reason totally they shouldn't let's all right so let's say over 60 or over something1.00
00:28:23.280right it's just like the world is telling you no more penis okay just put your gross penis away1.00
00:28:29.540that's right and yet women still can't get a fucking anesthesia when you get an iud put in1.00
00:28:34.920it's insane it's insane it's really it's really insane and i think that we've just been so quieted0.99
00:28:41.480for so long. And another thing that's really difficult, and I've navigated this in sort of
00:28:46.720finding my own way in this social media maelstrom, is that, you know, an angry woman oftentimes is
00:28:54.540not listened to as much as a less angry woman. So it's a really difficult thing to navigate,
00:29:00.320right? Because it's easy to dismiss people yelling and screaming and angry, but we're all
00:29:06.440so freaking angry. So it's like, how do you, right? We're so mad. So how do you navigate this
00:29:14.240in the right way to really make change with basically another species? I mean, men are1.00
00:29:19.760another species. They're amazing men. I mean, look at Kevin Reddington and my husband's a really good
00:29:24.240guy and he's an OBGYN. Like there's, there's, there's men who are not part of the patriarchy
00:29:29.280and women who are. And I think that's ultimately what we have to point out, right? Like it's the
00:29:35.020patriarchal system of medicine that is broken and that can be male or female.0.99
00:29:40.640I mean, like, yes, there are women doing bad things in the world. Generally, though,0.99
00:29:44.420I do think that women would run the world better. But there's also good men. And I think,
00:29:49.340you know, one of our goals should be to nurture good men. I'm trying to think about it every day.
00:29:55.960Yep, exactly. I mean, I have a 23-year-old son, so I know exactly what you're talking about.
00:30:01.300And I think that's really, really, really important. And so, you know, I know that it seems a little unnecessary when it comes up sort of about like, you know, the effect of endometriosis on men. Like, really, can we just put our money somewhere else? However, however, in a perfect world, you know, the empathetic man needs to be nurtured and cultivated.
00:30:24.340And that doesn't make them weak. It makes them a better man.
00:30:27.040I mean, I just did a whole podcast series for Baby List on on birth.
00:30:33.240And it was great because we talked to like doctors and real women.
00:30:36.540And I just joke with all the OBGYNs that I talked to.
00:30:39.580I was like, we should do a whole other series on on fixing birth, on just like fixing women's health, which I think would do really well.
00:30:47.400I mean, maybe it's an offshoot of Under the Influence.0.84
00:30:49.160Well, and also, I think the other thing to address that that really is critical about fixing women's health right now is because of, you know, some big, big, beautiful bill, there is a maternity desert in every state in the country.0.96
00:31:04.220There are rural hospitals closing down. There has to be a solution. 80 percent of our states have maternity care deserts, which means that women have to travel at least 30 minutes for care.0.92
00:31:16.000So we've got to figure something out, whether that's, you know, doulas or midwives that are in vans that are driving across the state for care.
00:31:23.680I mean, we have a really, really significant problem that is just festering right under our noses.
00:31:29.200And that's got to be addressed, too. Right. It's not just, you know, in the billionaire's vagina club room or the labor rooms in New York City.
00:31:35.700It's a crisis that's happening. Totally. Totally. I mean, and there's solutions, right?0.97
00:31:39.860like again like you give a woman a problem and she's like okay love this idea let's like let's
00:31:45.760get an ambulance and just travel like i'll be a traveling midwife i'll be a traveling doula
00:31:51.160we can do this we can get this done we just need a little bit of funding right and instead we're
00:31:56.120gonna bomb around yeah yeah that's right right exactly i could have you on 19 times um i'd like
00:32:03.060you to go back on the show tell will you tell everyone where they can find you and tell us a0.99
00:32:06.980little bit about your butt. I'd love it. Oh, I'd love to. That's great. So I am on Tracy Chevelle0.99
00:32:12.100MD. It's my website. It's my Instagram handle. It's my TikTok handle. I don't really go on TikTok
00:32:16.460as much as Instagram. I feel like Instagram is more personal. I have a sub stack out called,
00:32:21.000it's just coming back to life. It's called More Than Medicine with Dr. Tracy. And I have a book
00:32:25.360coming out January 26, 2027. It's my first book. It's like, I call it my fourth baby. Like my
00:32:31.940business was my third child right and this is my fourth and final baby for right now it's called
00:32:37.180labor and deliverance reclaiming the healing in women's health it is made up of stories because
00:32:43.140ultimately stories will save us all it's more or less true stories there's some fictionalized data
00:32:49.420to protect patient privacy but it's nine patient stories the story of my own journey through
00:32:54.360complex mystery illness and dismissal and it's broken into the medical emotional and spiritual
00:32:59.040sides of being well as a woman with action items thrown in there as well. It sounds so, so good.
00:33:05.040Thank you so much for being here today. It was such a pleasure. Bye.