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Hi.
Everyone, I'm Kitty Kuric and this is next Question. Today's episode is a little different but really important and we hope informative. We're bringing you a conversation I had as part of a fun live event we recently put on here in New York City at City Winery. I interviewed doctor Karen Tang. She's a board certified gynecologist, minimally invasive
gynecologic surgeon, and a trusted voice on women's health. You might know her from social media, where she shares smart, approachable education with millions of followers, or as a contributor to Katie Courict Media. I was so excited to finally meet her in person. Together, we tackled everything from periods and menopause to incontinence, yay, and the stigma surrounding women's health,
and we learned a lot in the process. This important conversation was made possible by our friends at Procter and Gamble, who are helping to elevate and support open dialogue around women's health. Let's take a listen. Our next guest is doctor Karen Tang. Before tonight, I have never met her in person, but we were social media pals, and tonight for the first time we got together irl as the kids would say.
So.
Karen is a board certified gynecologist and minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon who's an internationally recognized leader in reproductive health. She reaches millions of people every month with her educational videos across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. She's all a contributor for Katie Kuric Media, as is Mary Claire.
So please welcome doctor Karen Tang.
Okay, this is sort of our segment on how to separate fact from fiction because so much of social media is filled with stuff that isn't accurate. Karen, and so, how did women's health become such a hotbed of misinformation?
I was talking about Saint Joe. I was like, I don't know how long you have you could just be like the history of humankind has like led us to
this moment. It's definitely a combination of how difficult it is to get reliable information, and that's been sort of the theme of the evenings, just us trying and struggling to get this information in this data and this treatment that we deserve, and the sheer number of people who are suffering every day, and it's not just about perimenopause menopause, but so many other aspects of our health, you know, periods and fertility and like sexual health and all of
these things. So all these people suffering a real kind of like you know, lack of easy to access information, and into that sort of vacuum then comes you know, social media misinformation. There's some people who purposely spread disinformation because they you know, like sell detoxes. They're like, you know, we're the only ones who understand, and you know.
People are so profit motives, yeah.
Exactly, and so and then some of it too, is just people being really scared and confused, and social media tends to promote like strong emotions, like they're not real big on facts, Like the algorithm doesn't care about facts. It's basically like, you know, what response did we get? And if someone is like shocked or like they're really scared, it's it's going to kind of get out to more people.
So you know, so the social media misinformation tends to kind of spread like wildfire, you know, doctor getting on there and being like, let me tell you the facts, and the data is definitely not as like algorithm friendly.
So and the mythology starts really young.
I think the way women are taught sort of culturally condition to treat their bodies and to feel shame actually starts when you get your first period, right.
Yeah, or even younger. I was telling Katie backstage. So a nurse that I work with, uh told me her daughter, who was an elementary school got called to the office and they called the parents of the office. So she said a bad word and the nurse was like, oh my god, wash. She swore like what was this? And the word was vagina, Like she had used the word vagina in school, and the teachers were shocked. They were like, how like the mom is going to be so you know, upset.
It's insane. By the way, where is this school.
No, it's in the suburbs of Philadelphia, like our little blue dot in Pennsylvania. But no, it's true. And like this nurse is like, how how can you teach this to children that like a woman's body part is like, it's so shameful, it's akin to a swear word. But this is what happens like from a very young age, like a periods. Oh, it's embarrassing.
And in fact, we asked Karen, we asked chat GPT some of the biggest myths about periods. It said, tampons can get lost inside of you. Menstruating women will spoil food, melt or plants. Menstruating women are impure, unclean. You shouldn't exercise or swim during your period. Obviously they never saw that tampax commercial that came out when I was in seventh grade. But how do these myths kind of impact women?
Yeah, I mean we absorb these messages, so, you know, even though we laugh about the spoiling food, but there's definitely this undercurrent of like, you know, it's embarrassing, it's taboo, it's something that you should you know, hide and be ashamed of. And we sort of absorb these messages about our own bodies. And so they were like oh God, Like you know, I'm not gonna want to talk about you know, my like my vatual discharge, my leaking, my horrible periods, because like, oh God, is just me and
it makes you feel very alone. And I actually call this like the Emperor's New Clothes a fact where you know, you may feel like you're the only one going through something like a perimenopause, menopause, anything, but once you start sharing about it, you'll be like, all of my friends have had something similar. This happens all the time. So I encourage people to try it. You know, once you start talking about it, you'll be like I thought I was the only person, Like everyone is going to have
a similar story. And like I said, just on a cultural level, the absorbing of that message, it trickles down into like, well, you know, no one talks about it. We don't think that many people have this issue, so we don't think as a medical profession that it's worth the research dollars. It's not worth like putting effort into finding like better treatments because we think it's just like ladies dealing with like their hysteria around their periods or around their hormone fluctuations.
Do you think there is a sea change happening though, I really astely feel that women whether you know, they're positive and negatives about social media, but I think one of the positives is it does make people feel less alone, people talk about some of these issues, and it can be used, for example, your content as a real educational opportunity.
Yeah, I mean, obviously Mary Claire has been huge in this. I think, you know, one of the really really strong good things about social media has been like the sense of community. Like obviously like all of this, like people find other people who can kind of share in that same experience, they can share resources, and then you do have like people like us who are you know, medical professionals, educators, trying to get that good information out there.
Confidence comes from knowing your covert literally, whether you're in back to back meetings, out running errands, or finally making time for yourself. Tampax Pearl is designed to keep up. It offers up to eight hours of comfort and protection and features a leak guard braid that helps stop leaks before they happen. Because you deserve products that let you focus on what matters, not worry about what doesn't. Let's
talk about another taboo issue, shall we incontinence? It affects will millions of women worldwide, and I think, honestly, you know, I really believe it's so important.
We have to talk about our bodies.
You know, you want to take care of your bodies, you have to talk, you know, truthfully about your body. I mean, listen, I got a kolonoscopy on national television people. So I've been doing this for a long time because if you know, knowledge is power, and we have to stop being embarrassed you know about all these things because they can be life threatening. But incontinence is one of those things that I think people just feel very nervous
and trepidacious about discussing. But one in three women experience and some kind of incontinence in their lifetime. So what are some of the biggest myths about this? One that it just happens when you're older, right.
I was going to be my first answer. So leaking of urine is actually some studies show it's even more than like fifty percent of women at some point will have some sort of leaking of urine. It's incredibly common. And so you know, I don't know if like trampoline birthday parties are as popular in the city as they are in the verbs. But every time I go to a children's trampling birthday party, like the moms and I just like we make eye contact and we're like.
Well, my friend, who was my friend who talked about jumping and Peen, Yeah, I.
Was just about to say that the first speak.
We've got a lot of people who feel you're pain.
Right pretty much, not everyone, but like a lot of people in this room.
That's amazing, and Peen, that's my special.
Oh yeah, exactly, So it's true.
And are there any men left in this very I hope they've all left.
Yeah, well, I hope they hear because this is again, why should I be embarrass about it? I actually make the point my my husband had like a pinch nerve, and he had no problem telling everyone he was going to the physical therapist. He was going to the doctor. I mean, women go to pelvic physical therapy for urinary incontinence, but everyone will feels so embarrassed to tell. You know, you wouldn't tell your boss, your coworkers. Why not. It's
physical therapy, just like any other physical therapy. So I think this is part of you know, we need to raise awareness about how common it is, like it shouldn't be something that we feel like we have to keep very hidden.
Well, why does it happen as you get older? It is not exclusively for women who are older, but talk about sort of what happens.
Yeah, so anything that weakens your pelvic floor muscle, so we have sort of structures like you know, sphincters and support like you know, fascial structures like inner pelvis that keep the bladder, the urethra, all that kind of under control. As you get older, especially after menopause with like the hormone changes, and especially if you've had a pregnancy. It doesn't even have to have you know, being vaginal delivery, just being pregnant and the pressure it puts on your
pelvic floor. But also anything that you know, people who have chronic cough, people who have like eilther stanlows, like connective tissue issues, anything that kind of weakens your support structures. So that's a huge myth is that it's only people who are older who go through it. Lots of younger women, like premenopausal and their thirties all go through this. So the other myths that are probably important to debunk is like, well, there's nothing you can do about it. You have to
kind of deal with it. Now. We mentioned pelvic physical therapy really really helpful. That's usually our first you know step that we recommend. It's not always surgical either. People think, oh, I don't want to have like surgery for this, but you know, like I said, you can do physical therapy. There's lots of different things that we can do that don't involve either ignoring it or operating.
And it's not as simple as just doing those kegel exercises, is it?
Keels is hard? Like who here is like failed key cost? Because like I know, it's hard to do. It's like strength training. You have to do like ten reps, hold for ten seconds, do multiple like reps throughout.
The day, and then another fun thing I love.
And half the time people are like, I don't know if I'm squeezing the right thing. It's hard to tell, like if you So this is where the physical therapy help. It's like having a trainer. It's like having somebody explain to you, like you hold this muscle. This is where it is like, yes, you're doing it correctly. So it's just like assistance.
So how you know, we talked about sort of the shame and the stigma around so much that we go through with our bodies, you know, from the time we're born to really the time we reach adolescents and then childbirth and perimenopause and menopause and postmenopause. So what do you think it will take to really change attitudes about this?
I mean, I think things like this and speaking openly, like I've been so moved by everything's happening with perimenopause menopause because like, look at this room. I've done a couple of talks outside of Philly and we've like filled theaters. It's just amazing. Like a few years ago, like I could never have imagined that, like you know, the number of people who would come out and say, yes, we want to learn the science, we want to get the
best care, we want to push for more education. And it's just like it just takes people kind of speaking out and raising awareness about it. And you know, I always tell people it doesn't have to be that, Like
you know, you're Katie Couric or your Oprah. All of us have a source of influence, like you know, in our communities and our families, with our kids, you know, talking openly about these things to you know, help you know, one say that this is not something shameful, and two that it's an area of healthcare and we deserve to know about it and have really good treatment options.
Let's talk about, just in closing, how you separate fact from fiction. And I'm not talking about those ads you know that we're served up about belly fat. I'm talking about like legitimate what seems to be legitimate information that just isn't true. And you have some tips on how everyone, you know you can be sort of a conscious it's conscientious consumer.
Yeah.
Yeah, So, first of all, if somebody is out there saying something is always horrible or always the answer for every single person, no matter what, don't believe them because nothing in real life and nothing in medicine is so cut and dry. So a lot of times people will use like these terms like this is like always for everyone, like the best thing ever and like my like you know, hormone detox is going to fix your whole life, or like something is always bad, like HRT is always going
to give you breast cancer. You know, like if you take birth control, you will have this horrible thing, no matter what so always like look for somebody who's giving nuance, you know, like here's like here's the data I'm giving you, like kind of a measured response. And then also if it seems like someone has a conflict of interest, like if they you know, have some you're just kind of like getting a little sense that there's like this is a commercial, Like I feel like you're trying to sell
me something. Oftentimes if you look in their profile, I'll be like, yes, I'm selling you know, like this course
where you like hack your bio or whatever. So right, and then also look at people's credentials because obviously you have again like people who legitimately like trained in this are really trying to kind of like give a balanced look at everything, and they have the credentials for it, you know, board certified, but would be Tyn has this many years of experience, so you kind of have a balance all of it, because you know it's not just
one or the other. You have to have all of those elements together.
Karen Tang, I'm so glad to finally meet you. Thank I'm so excited for your insight.
Thank you everybody for being here. Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Thanks for listening everyone. If you have a question for me, a subject you want us to cover, or you want to share your thoughts about how you navigate this crazy world, reach out send me a DM on Instagram. I would love to hear from you. Next Question is a production of iHeartMedia and Katie Couric Media. The executive producers are Me, Katie Kuric, and Courtney Ltz. Our supervising producer is Ryan Martz, and our producers are Adriana Fazzio and Meredith Barnes. Julian
Weller composed our theme music. For more information about today's episode, or to sign up for my newsletter, wake Up Call, go to the description in the podcast app, or visit us at Katiecuric dot com. You can also find me on Instagram and all my social media channels. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Confidence comes from knowing your covert literally, whether you're in back to back meetings,
out running errands, or finally making time for yourself. Tampax peerl is designed to keep up. It offers up to eight hours of comfort and protection and features a leak Guard for rad that helps stop leaks before they happen, because you deserve products that let you focus on what matters, not worry about what doesn't