Know Your "V"

Vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC)

2012-01-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a week, life is an adventure for sure if you know what I mean. There are so many surprises and unexpected events that it is hard to plan a day and not make several changes along the way, right? We just have to remain flexible at all times. Like today for instance, I was on my way to work when a nurse from the hospital called to notify me that I am the "Doctor on call". This means that

Identifying and treating Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction

2012-01-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone I hope you all had a wonderful week.Tiffany wrote in this week as she is 22 weeks pregnant and experiencing moderate to severe pain in her pelvic bones and pubic symphysis. The pain is worsening as her pregnancy continues and the baby gets heavier to carry. As the pain worsens it affects her ability to walk and move around normally. She hopes to deliver vaginally but with all the

Labiaplasty - Surgery for practical and cosmetic improvements

2012-01-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

Labiaplasty has to be the most controversial procedure I do today. I have at least two patients a month express concern about the differences in appearance of their labia. They compare themselves to pictures of other women, friends and family. They worry because their labia minora is longer than their labia majora and this has caused them a lot of discomfort and irritation. For many women,

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (POS)

2012-01-05T10:59:00.000-08:00

Good morning, I hope you have all had a wonderful week. So Shelly’s labs and ultrasound came back and just as predicted, the uterus was normal. The ovaries showed the small immature cysts that border the ovary. This is classically seen in PCOs or polycystic ovarian syndrome. It’s interesting to go see the radiologist and have them show you this. What happens is that the follicles begin to mature

Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding (DUB)

2011-12-30T06:25:00.001-08:00

Good Morning, I hope you all had happy and safe holidays. The holidays and preparations can leave us so worn out, that we need the 3 day New Year’s weekend to relax and recover.Last week I went over the normal menstrual cycle because I believe it helps to understand our bodies better. If we know how things are supposed to work we can recognize when things are not functioning normal. That’s true

Irregular menstrual cycles

2011-12-23T14:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to you all. It is so nice that we have had beautiful blue skies to enjoy as family and friends join us during all the holiday activities. I know the ski resorts have opened early due to all the snow on that fell on the mountains. So let’s grab the sleds and warm the cocoa and marshmallows and have some fun!I’ve had a lot of questions from many of you about your irregular menstrual

That Recurring UTI Could Be More Than Just A UTI

2011-12-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I hope your holidays are going well. We have had some early snow here and cold weather. I’m sure many of you have too. This has brought the ski season in sooner to the delight of many.I know that many of you are troubled by urinary tract infections (UTIs) and continue to have symptoms even after treatment. In fact, many of you may feel that your UTI did not even go away (or keeps

Are Oral and Hormonal Contraceptives Safe?

2011-12-08T12:54:00.001-08:00

Good Morning, I hope all is well this week. As we all know, contraception is an important women’s health issue. It seems to be a regular part of the daily routine for many of us. A question I am frequently asked about is whether oral or hormonal contraceptives are safe, especially in women over 35 or who have medical conditions.Besides preventing pregnancy, women gain some real

All about Human Papillomavirus (HPV)

2011-12-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, I hope you had a yummy, awesome Thanksgiving feast with all of your family and friends around to make you laugh (or drive you crazy).I know so many of you have been stopping me in the hospital and calling to ask about the HPV/HR-HPV (high risk) like Georgia and Chloe who were there when the little 21 year old came into the hospital with invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the

Alcohol and Breast Cancer

2011-11-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful, delicious holiday meal with your friends and family. This is the time of year when many of us enjoy holiday cheer like ‘Spiced Cider’, Homemade Hot Buttered Rum, Tom & Jerry’s or maybe just a good Holiday Wine.So many of you ask me questions about the breast and breast lumps. And so many of you worry about breast pain and

Hypermenorrhea and Endometrial Ablation

2011-11-18T09:14:00.000-08:00

Good Morning everyone! What a beautiful time of year. I don’t know if you feel the same with the cooler weather and the leaves on the trees and the landscape changing color. It seems to take summer’s heaviness out of the air and even though some of earth’s life is falling asleep for awhile, if feels like a new beginning or ‘do-over’ time of year. Why do I say that, as we gather with friends and

Combating Vaginal Odor with WaterWorks

2011-11-11T10:08:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, I hope you had a good week. Isn’t it so crazy to think that Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away?! Wow! Of course that means all of us last minute people need to get busy at least thinking or making a list of what we need to do to prepare to take the stress off, you know? The holidays should be a time where family and friends, can slow down everyday worries and just enjoy each other

Natural Remedies for Hormone Imbalances and Menopause

2011-11-04T11:15:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good week. I’m running a little behind, pheww! I have been running day and night lately, which is good, just not all the time. So I want to focus on a question that keeps coming up in my office about alternative treatments for menopausal symptoms and what works. As we all know menopause is when the ovaries stop functioning and no longer manufacture our

Can Natural Remedies Really Help A Bladder Or Urinary Tract Infection?

2011-10-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have more and more patients that are turning to natural remedies when they become sick or have a medical problem such as urinary tract infections (bladder infections). Some of you may experience bladder infections regularly to the extent that you have been placed on a daily antibiotic by your doctor to help prevent recurrence. It is common for some women to experience symptoms after sex as

More On Vaginal Odor and WaterWorks

2011-10-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

Vaginal odor is an embarrassing problem and can interfere with intimacy because, well who wants him down there with that problem, right? Most everything we are taught to do can actually worsen vaginal odor, like douching or washing with harsh soaps and/or cleansers. They even make feminine hygiene sprays to cover up the odor like perfume or deodorant we use on other parts of our body. Of course

Does Breastfeeding Provide Long-Term Health Benefits?

2011-10-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful week! The weather is finally perfect for getting outdoors again, yeah!! We are seeing a real push these days to bring awareness to new moms about the benefits of breastfeeding newborns. Benefits such as decreased otitis media (inner ear infections), gastrointestinal illnesses, pneumonia, childhood and adult obesity, type 2 diabetes and leukemia. But there has been less emphasis

What Is Vulvodynia?

2011-10-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sexual activity is something most of us take for granted and is a pleasurable way to relieve stress and spend quality time with our partners. Some women struggle with the desire to have and enjoy sex with their partners because they experience severe pain with sex and unusual spasms of the vagina that can make having sex impossible.There are a number of conditions that can cause pain externally

The Effect Of Hot Weather on Menopausal Women

2011-10-06T12:39:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I sure hope you all had a wonderful week. My daughter & and I are having a little disagreement as she loves the hot, hot weather but I am happy to take out my sweaters and jackets and enjoy the cooler weather. The rain we’ve been having has cleaned everything & helped bring forth our second blooming season in late fall. I guess when it’s cooler most people I talk to feel more

Should I Keep My Ovaries If I Have A Hysterectomy?

2011-09-29T13:22:00.001-07:00

This week I have had many patients coming in for annual exams. In addition to the usual paps and mammograms many of them have been requesting testing to screen for ovarian cancer. There seems to be a lot of concern and talk about this lately as it is a hard cancer to detect and we don’t have a great way to test for it. I have a patient named Jean who has had nothing but trouble with her uterus

The Benefits Of Good Sex!

2011-09-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

Today I want to finish up on the health benefits of orgasm for women. We started this discussion a few months ago, and then I was surprised to see the same subject being discussed on the daytime talk show “The Doctors”.Studies have shown that frequent sex (3+ times a week) with orgasm is vital to the general contentment and health of each person. The more frequent the orgasm, the better off that

More Information About Myofascial Pain Syndrome

2011-09-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

It is always so amazing to me how quickly the weeks pass. I suppose it helps to know so many women wrote in this past week wanting to know a little more about myofascial pain syndrome.It is very difficult to diagnose the origin of chronic pelvic pain. Many of you have visited the gynecologist’s office several times and continue to struggle with the same pain.Myofascial pain syndrome (or MFP) can

Chronic Pelvic Pain and Myofascial Pain Syndrome

2011-09-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

Today I want to talk about pelvic pain since so many of you write to me about this with real concern. Lori came in just this week and said she had seen several doctors back in Kentucky and none were able to find anything wrong with her. It sounds silly, but most of us have experienced this and it can be very frustrating when you continue to have pain and there is no solution or relief.Chronic

Should I Eat Fish During Pregnancy?

2011-09-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hi, everybody! I am looking forward to our topic this week, as so many of you ask about what changes should be made to your diet when you are pregnant. This topic is troublesome because there is so much information out there that it can become very confusing and overwhelming. One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how much fish is healthy to eat during pregnancy. So many women become

Handling Menopause

2011-08-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! The weeks are just flying past us, which in some ways I don’t mind as I look forward to cooler days and evenings. Of course then summer will be ending and all the children returning to school (okay, so we are all happy about that), and another year will have passed us by. I want to take the last two weeks and pull them into this week to help us all to have good understanding on female

Menopause and Orgasmic Disorder

2011-08-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone this beautiful August day here in Vegas. I hope you are enjoying the warm summer days like we are here, although like many places in the US, we are still about a month away from being able to enjoy the outdoors for any length of time. Last week we talked about masturbation as a way for women to help themselves to understand how their bodies work and what they need to do to achieve