071: Women’s Health w/ OB/GYN Jessica Shepherd, MD

Dr. Jessica Shepherd is an OB/GYN and women’s health expert, founder of Her Viewpoint (an online women’s health forum with a focus on addressing what she calls “below the belt” topics in a stigma-free setting), and the host of the new wellness podcast Breathe & Bloom. You may recognize her from her many TV appearances: as a frequent contributor on The Today Show, Dr. Oz, Steve Harvey, CBS News, and FOX News, among others. As an OB/GYN, she practices in Dallas and was previously at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she served as Director of Minimally Invasive Gynecology. She also gives lectures on fibroids, myomectomies, and women’s health issues around the world. Her writing has been featured in numerous publications, including Women’s Day, Women’s Health, Self, Family Circle, Parents, Essence, and WebMD, and she is a national speaker for Poise, Allergan, and other brands promoting the discussion of women’s health issues. As a member of the board of the Women’s Health Foundation as well as the Multicultural Leadership Committee of the American Heart Association, she uses her expertise to help women understand their health conditions and how to address them appropriately. As we dig into in this interview, she understands all too well that women’s health issues are not discussed openly enough, and that these conversations need to expand for us to remove the stigma of sexual and reproductive health concerns. There is a connection between the physical, emotional, and spiritual that she strives to address in her practice and beyond.

Tune in as Dr. Shepherd shares…

about her COVID safety videos on social media how she realized she wanted to be a surgeon why endometriosis is an illness that she really cares about why women often feel shame or guilt around their reproductive health issues — and how she actively seeks to discuss them in the open the kinds of diagnoses she commonly sees, aside from endo: ovarian masses, fibroids, fibromyalgia, dispareunia (vaginismus, vulvar issues) her approach: to give women improved quality of life, with an understanding of integrative options and the body-mind connection that endometriosis diagnosis can take, on average, 6-10 years the nature of pain: that it is entirely subjective, but it is up to doctors to teach patients to express what the pain actually feels like so they can accurately diagnose and treat understanding the difference between pain that’s normal — and pain that isn’t that pelvic pain issues are publicly underrepresented understanding how specialists receive referrals, and how to ensure continuity in your care a discussion about the use of power morcellators in fibroid removal — and how minimally invasive surgeries have been adjusted since the blackbox warning from the FDA went into effect in 2015 why she keeps a sex therapist and a relationship therapist on call for her patients how the COVID pandemic is showing us the cracks in the US healthcare system why it’s worth asking doctors and specialists about their cash rate that while lifestyle management is important in overall health, it’s equally important that your choices be sustainable when women should begin getting regular Pap smears and other regular sexual health tests, and why they’re important

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