On Health for Women

In this episode I address the overall risks of COVID-19 with various autoimmune conditions, as well as risks for those of you on immunosuppressive medications. This information is not meant to replace your doctor’s advice, and should merely serve as a starting point for a conversation with your health care provider, and to raise your personal health awareness. And I hope it provides you with a sen...

While herbs are an important part of my life and work, this is really a time to be cautious about who you listen to and conservative about what you try. In this episode I urge everyone to follow the CDC precautions for the prevention of COVID-19, adding in the importance of eating well and getting enough rest. For those of you who want to try herbs and supplements to support your immunity, I discu...

If you’re pregnant, naturally, you’re concerned about COVID-19 for your own health and your baby’s. Who wouldn’t be? While a thorough search of the medical literature and the CDC website for data on COVID-19 and pregnancy shows just how very little is known at this time about the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, the good news is that what we do know so far is generally reass...

The only treatments doctors usually recommend for endometriosis include pain medications, hormonal therapies, and surgery. These treatments have big risks, and aren’t always effective. In this episode I share four supplements and herbs that have been scientifically shown to not only help relieve the pain associated with endometriosis, but actually to reduce lesions and cysts. These natural approac...

Many women have never experienced an orgasm. Many women don't know what they like in sex or how to ask for it. And a lot of women are struggling with chronic pelvic pain and other issues from endometriosis and other conditions that can make traditional sex very uncomfortable. Many of those women think this means they can't experience sexual pleasure. For one company, vibrators and sex toys aren't...

Hair loss. It fills our hair brushes, our sink drains, and our nightmares. It also brings a lot of women to my medical practice. Up to 50% of women will experience significant amount of hair loss in their life. In this episode we explore the common causes of hormonal hair loss and what you can do about it. For the accompanying article and show notes, go to avivaromm.com/hormonal-hair-loss/

Being a new momma can feel over the top exhausting at times - a lot of the time, in fact. But being a new mom with a thyroid problem can feel like holding baby while pushing a piano up a hill. Over the top. And it’s not just a slow functioning thyroid that can be making this time in your life feel crazy. An overactive thyroid can be keeping you from getting sleep and can riddle you with anxiety. Y...

Healthy thyroid function is essential to the physical and emotional health of pregnant women and to new moms. It’s also critical for the health of the baby. This is such an important topic that I’ve brought this popular podcast episode and blog back for an encore. I discuss the risks of undiagnosed thyroid problems for mom and baby, how thyroid function changes during pregnancy, and why it’s impor...

Hypothyroidism is the most common thyroid problem and the autoimmune form, Hashimoto’s disease, is the most common form of all. We know that 28 million individuals in the US alone are affected, and it's suspected that about 50% more are affected, have symptoms, and remain undiagnosed. Yet many doctors seem reluctant to do an adequate work-up of thyroid function. Some even refuse to give the tests...

While nobody wants to ever have a medical diagnosis, the diagnosis of hypothyroidism (or Hashimoto’s, the autoimmune form), which is now so common that 1 in 8 women can expect to receive a diagnosis in her lifetime, is readily ‘figureouttable” and with the right approach, generally very straightforward to manage and live with. Having Hashimoto’s doesn’t mean you’re not healthy, it’s definitely not...

Did you know that spending too much time stuck survival mode can impact your thyroid health? It does so through a profound adrenal-thyroid connection. And what is one of the main things that triggers survival mode? Chronic stress! Because each of us is a living, breathing, complex whole organism, when any one aspect of our lives is affected, each of our internal ecosystems is impacted.. In this ep...

Happy New Year! …and happy Thyroid Awareness Month! Your thyroid — a little butterfly-shaped gland in your neck — is responsible for controlling your energy and metabolism. Thyroid disease affects an estimated 40 million Americans, and nearly 90% of these are women. Studies show that 1 in 8 women can expect to develop hypothyroidism in her lifetime. In this episode, I discuss how to reco...

Join me for my conversation with journalist Jennifer Block, author of Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care and Everything Below the Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution. Jennifer recently found herself at the center of a social media storm over an article she wrote for Scientific American titled "Doctors Are Not Gods." We talk about why she wrote this...

Acetaminophen (Tylenol). Most people reach for it for everyday headaches like it’s no big deal. Acetaminophen has also long been considered generally safe for use during all stages of pregnancy, making it the first-choice pain and fever medication for pregnant women. Yet acetaminophen is not benign. Given the large number of pregnant women using the drug, even a small increase in risk of adverse o...

In her New York Times bestselling book, Come As You Are, Dr. Emily Nagoski, says that the most important factor for women in creating and sustaining a fulfilling sex life, is not what you do in bed or how you do it, but how you feel about it. This means that things like stress, mood, trust, connection, and body image are not peripheral factors in a woman’s sexual wellbeing; they are central to it....

The use of herbs for the treatment of common pregnancy symptoms is very common. Studies and surveys estimate that up to 45% of women use an herbal therapy at some point during pregnancy. For better or worse, there are a lot of “experts” on the internet “wild-west” giving advice that may not always be accurate, so it’s important to get your information from reliable sources that you can trust. This...

Thalidomide, DES, the Dalkon Shield, Essure, Pelvic Mesh. The list of medical devices and treatments for women that have gone very wrong is extensive. Learn how big business has put profits over women's safety and health, and my top 5 recommendations for avoiding unnecessary, inappropriate, or possibly unsafe medical treatments. For an accompanying article and episode links, go to avivaromm.com/me...

If you’ve been exploring women’s hormone wellness online, you’ve likely come across articles touting the miracles of seed cycling for regulating the menstrual cycle. In case you missed it, seed cycling is a protocol where you consume specific seed combinations during distinct phases of the menstrual cycle in order to balance female hormones. The excitement is understandable. The promise of a simpl...

Loss. Abuse. Violence. Bullying. Workplace mistreatment. None of these are experiences we want to have. Yet few humans get through life without being touched by one or another, in some way. This is particularly so for women. For many of us, these experiences create trauma that seems to settle into our bones in ways that shape the fabric of our lives. In this episode my friend Dr. James Gordon...

The idea that gut health is central to our total health goes back thousands of years, but it's been largely absent from modern medicine and science until very recently. In my practice as a medical doctor and herbalist, I see the gut as the epicenter of health. It's often one of the first areas of the body that I work on for helping my patients with many, many different types of conditions. What we...

Can you relate to this? Do you suddenly find yourself catastrophizing when you’re on the verge of something great happening for you? Do you get stopped in your tracks by a fear just when life feels good and happy? If you have "happiness anxiety," you know it’s a real thing and can be a serious impediment in your life, keeping you from taking chances on relationships, opportunities, growt...

Strident debates about vaccinations have erupted in the public sphere which aren't helpful to parents trying to interpret lots of conflicting information about vaccine safety. In this episode of Natural MD Radio I share both my own story as I weighed whether to vaccinate my own four children in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as my experience as a healthcare provider, first as a homebirth...

If you’ve been given an HPV diagnosis or have been told that you have ‘precancerous’ cervical changes or cervical dysplasia, there’s a good chance you’re freaking out. It’s a scary thing to hear, and often, the information isn’t delivered with the whole picture: namely that most HPV infections clear up on their own and most pre-cancerous lesions resolve spontaneously, with very little risk that th...

Most women don't think about their cervix until they have to get a Pap smear. As if the pelvic exam wasn’t stressful enough, getting the news that you had abnormal Pap or positive HPV results , especially when accompanied by words like “cervical dysplasia,” “biopsy,” or “pre-cancerous,” can spin you out with worry. I get it. We’re not given much intel on what all those test results and terms...

The Pap test, HPV screening, pelvic exams. As if hopping onto an exam table butt-naked wasn’t stressful enough, knowing what to do about these tests can be super confusing. I’m going to break it all down so you know what to say yes to, when and why, and when to say, “Thank you, but no!” To read a companion article to this episode, go to avivaromm.com/pelvic-exams/