Advertise on podcast: HERvoice

"Every person's journey through menopause is very unique... listening and understanding the impact and level of distress for some of these conditions is really important."  Virtual mental health counseling is now available at HerMD for California residents!  Dr. Michael Krychman is HerMD's Chief Medical Officer in addition to a Board Certified OBGYN and an AASECT Certified Sexual Counselor and Supervisor. He specializes in menopausal health, hormone therapy, sexual pain disorders, vulvar disorders and loss of libido, chronic medical illness, and medical devices and their impact on female sexual function.  In addition to being an active reviewer for the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Dr. Krychman has published seven books, including his most recent one: The Sexual Spark, 20 Essential Exercises to Reignite the Passion, 100 Questions & Answers for Women Living with Cancer: A Practical Guide to Female Cancer Survivorship. Dr. Krychman has been featured by several national shows and publications, including the Today Show, US News, and World Report, in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Health Magazine. He has been named a Top  Orange County Physician of Excellence by Orange Coast Magazine in Survivorship, Sexual Medicine, Vulvar Care, and Menopause for the last seven years. He is currently a clinical health professor at the University of California Irvine and is a nationally known specialty in cancer survivorship; Dr. Krychman provides medical care at Ann’s Clinic, a High-Risk Breast, and Ovarian Cancer Center.

“If we know so much about the science of our skin. Why is there so much subjectivity around skincare?”   Devanshi Garg Sareen is a skincare enthusiast, a 3x founder, and a mother. Hailing from New York City by way of Iran, India, the UK, New Zealand, and Germany, almost always an outsider, she learned early on to look at people through the lens of shared human experiences. After 10+ years working in technology services, Sareen worked as an innovation consultant in 2020 for Big Beauty, leading her to reflect on pain points with her own skincare journey and a desire to demand more from the modern brands we use. This eventually led her to launch Motif—a forward-thinking beauty brand that merges real science with customer-centric design—grounded in the desire to connect people through daily progress and growth.

"With age comes wisdom, creativity, ingenuity, and lessons learned. There's so much for women as they transition into their menopause and beyond to contribute to the world.  And yet, we don't pay attention to them....women are saying we're no longer going to take this.  We're going to talk about this. This is no longer taboo...While healthcare is falling behind, women are really pushing the demand forward."  Dr. Taniqua Miller, MD, is a dynamic speaker, board-certified OB/GYN, women’s health physician, empowerment coach, the founder of the educational platform TaniquaMD, and a midlife/menopause health expert committed to empowering women in their midlife journeys through education and community. From a young age, Dr. Taniqua was committed to empowering women and girls through the pivotal transitions of puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause. As a teenager, she witnessed her mother experience debilitating menopausal symptoms with little support from her healthcare providers. It was a theme she repeatedly saw as she cared for women in midlife: scant education, little support, and taboo discussions about a natural and powerful transition in the lives of her patients. These experiences led Dr. Taniqua to devote her life to studying women’s healthcare, advancing patient-centered empathic care, and building a world for all women to embrace boundless lives. She trained in psychology at Yale University and earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical school before completing her residency training in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. Dr. Taniqua is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and is recognized as a nationally certified menopause practitioner for the North American Menopause Society.

What needs to happen to provide better care for people with endometriosis? A LOT.  Shannon Cohn, Director of Below the Belt, shares her thoughts with Dr. Somi Javaid.  Below the Belt is a captivating documentary that follows a diverse selection of people with endometriosis as they navigate their diagnosis, from personal symptoms and navigating their everyday lives to the impact on their relationships.

"Train for menopause like you're training for the marathon." Routinely dismissed, misdiagnosed, and undertreated, heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States. Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum is on a mission to empower women to live healthy, vital lives through comprehensive heart-centered prevention and wellness with her new app, Adesso.

"I almost became a statistic myself and I couldn't even believe it while it was happening. But maternal mortality doesn't just tell us the number of women dying in child birth...it also tells us how well a country's healthcare system is functioning. It tells us  the overall position of  women in society." Anushay Hossain is a feminist journalist and political analyst whose work is featured on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and more. Her writings on politics, gender, and race are published on Forbes, CNN.com, The Daily Beast, and Medium. Last October (2021), Anushay published a book titled “The Pain Gap” an exploration of real women’s tales of healthcare trauma and medical misogyny with this meticulously researched, in-depth examination of the women’s health crisis in America—and what we can do about it. Meticulously researched and deeply reported, this book explores real women’s traumatic experiences with America’s healthcare system—and empowers everyone to use their experiences to bring about the healthcare revolution women need.

Could facilitating oral sex be the key to closing the orgasm gap?  Despite consistently ranking oral sex being one of their favorite if not their favorite sexual activities and three times as likely to lead to orgasm when compared to penetration, 87% of women have turned down receiving oral sex for a number of reasons.  On this episode of HerVoice, we sit down with Melanie Cristol, Founder, and CEO of Lorals. FDA-cleared, Lorals for Protection fit just like your favorite undies for safer and pleasurable oral sex. Melanie is the founder and CEO of Brazen Goods Inc., a company that launches unique technologies to improve health, happiness, and personal relationships. As founder of Brazen Goods and creator of the company’s product Lorals, Melanie has been interviewed by The New York Times, Fast Company, Cosmopolitan, and The American Lawyer, and she has been featured in various media outlets speaking about tech, manufacturing, and sexual health. Melanie founded Brazen Goods after spending five years as an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, an international law firm. At O’Melveny & Myers, Melanie conducted internal investigations of multi-billion-dollar corporations (including a member of the Fortune 5), represented corporate executives in civil and criminal proceedings, and litigated mass actions on behalf of companies in the healthcare, consumer products, pharmaceutical, and technology industries.  Melanie has also worked at MTV Networks, Lambda Legal, and the National LGBT Task Force. She attended school in New York City and graduated with honors from Columbia College and Columbia Law School.

"People who are trauma survivors, their body has not been a safe place. It's not a safe place to land and then there's that disconnect between the body and mind." On this episode of HerVoice, we sit down with Exhale to Inhale Instructor Ellyn Gerry to explore the mind-body connection and the healing power of trauma-informed yoga.  Ellyn Gerry has over three decades of combined experience as a Labor and Delivery Nurse, Childbirth Educator and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. She is a highly regarded Prenatal/Postnatal Yoga Teacher, and currently co-teaches the Prenatal Yoga Center’s Teacher Training with Deb Flashenberg. She has completed over 1000 hours of Yoga and Fitness training, including Pelvic Floor Yoga with Leslie Howard, Advanced Yoga TT with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman Yee, Yin Yoga with Corina Benner, Trauma-Informed Yoga with Exhale to Inhale, Accessible Yoga with Jivana Heyman, and Baby and Me Yoga with Kidding Around Yoga. She is also certified in Yoga for Recovery from Eating Disorders with Chelsea Roff, Relax and Renew Restorative Yoga with Judith Hanson Lasater and is a Level 3 Mindfulness MeditationTeacher with Cyndi Lee. Additionally, she is a Power Pilates Instructor, NASM Women’s Fitness Specialist, and Body Ready Method Pro. She is currently completing specialty training in Yoga for Female Health with a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective. When she is not teaching or studying, she loves to swim with her two grandchildren. 

"What we are trying to do is reframe periods to be something that is powerful and something that is exciting to talk about at the same time." Myths, misconceptions, and misinformation about periods feed into stigma which can be hugely damaging for menstruators around the world. On this episode of HerVoice, we sit down with Nadya Okamoto to discuss period poverty and the stigma around menstruation. Nadya Okamoto is the co-Founder of August, a lifestyle period brand working to reimagine periods to be powerful. She is also the author of the book PERIOD POWER: a Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement, and founder and former Executive Director of the nonprofit organization, PERIOD. Outside of her work in the menstrual health space, Okamoto is also a mental health advocate and known as a Gen Z marketing expert. She recently graduated from Harvard College, class of 2021. Her debut book, PERIOD POWER, published by Simon & Schuster in 2018,  made the Kirkus Reviews list for Best Young Adult Nonfiction that year. Nadya is also the former Chief Brand Officer and Board Member of JUV Consulting, a Generation Z marketing agency based in NYC. She has been recognized on the lists of Forbes 30 under 30, Bloomberg 50 “Ones to Watch” and People Magazine's Women Changing the World. HerMD recognizes that sex and gender exist on spectrums and that our patients have diverse gender identities. In some instances, HerMD uses the word "woman" (and the pronouns "she" and "her") to describe patients or individuals whose sex assigned at birth was female whether they identify as female, male, or non-binary. As gender language continues to evolve, we strive to include more inclusive language in our published content and within our clinics.

"When you come from an approach of telehealth first, of digital-first, it's really what are the logistical challenges to reach those patients everywhere.... we're able to reach people in a way that traditional healthcare hasn't been able to. Through that we also know, for example, we have helped patients in 70% of counties that contain a healthcare provider shortage area. We also know that we've sent prescriptions to 99% of contraceptive deserts. So the possibilities when it comes to digital and delivery, really open up access to populations that have been underserved. " In this episode, Favor's Senior Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Stephanie Swartz explores the importance of access to affordable and convenient healthcare for women and people who menstruate in a post-Roe world.  Favor, formally The Pill Club, combines telemedicine and direct-to-consumer pharmacy with the broadest insurance coverage in the space and has evolved from a single-point solution focused on birth control delivery & reproductive healthcare to a comprehensive digital health platform that seeks to address racial, socioeconomic and gender gaps in our current health system. Stephanie Swartz is Favor’s Senior Director of Policy and Public Affairs, where she advocates for access to affordable, convenient, and high quality healthcare for women and people who menstruate. Previously, Stephanie worked in global public policy roles at Google and Uber, covering consumer protection topics ranging from privacy to safety. At Uber, she led efforts to publish the company’s first of its kind Safety Report, which detailed incidents including sexual assaults on the platform. Stephanie graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from California State University Long Beach and received an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. A native of Southern California, Stephanie currently lives in Washington, D.C. 

"All of us can become better informed and understand what are we entitled to and what we need. And if what we need isn't want we get how can we change that?" Reproductive rights have been among the most contentious and volatile issues in the United States. In this episode, Delphine O'Rourke sets the record straight on the ruling from data privacy concerns to contraception access while highlighting the need for attention and change in the women's healthcare space nationwide.     Delphine O'Rourke is a partner at Goodwin Law. She is an advocate for women’s health and wellness offering authoritative expertise in healthcare laws and regulations. In addition to being a trusted and invaluable advisor for companies transforming the health and wellness industry, Ms. O’Rourke is an experienced health system leader and in-house counsel. She was Associate General Counsel of Ascension, one of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S., and bridges the traditional health system for her clients’ products, services, and investments. Ms. O’Rourke serves on the boards of the Columbia Law School Alumni Association, The Forum of Executive Women, and The Foundation of The Forum of Executive Women. She is Vice-Chair of the Women’s Leadership Council of the American Health Law Association, member of CHIEF (a private network focused on connecting and supporting women leaders), healthcare expert for Endeavor (the world’s leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs) and Fellows Mentor for Summit Impact (a community-powered approach to scaling global impact).

"I challenge anyone who hasn't looked in the eyes of these women to try to make any rulings or judgments about their lives and to make decisions about their bodies." Reproductive rights have been among the most contentious and volatile issues in the United States. In this episode, our founder, Dr. Somi Javaid sets the record straight on how the Roe v. Wade ruling will affect patients and providers across the country.   Stay tuned for part two where we chat with our legal counsel on the broader implications of this ruling from a legal perspective.