Intimate Health, Redefined: Meet the Gynecologist Breaking Barriers in Women’s Sexual Wellness

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what it is that you do and how you help women, and also how you came to get into this particular niche of sexual health for women.

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My goal is to change the landscape for women as it pertains to women's sexual health.

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We love sex, but we don't want to talk about it, so it takes a unique physician, a unique group of physicians that you can find, who have the resources, capabilities to speak about a lot of the modern day concerns for the modern day world.

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It allows us just to live, and so there's more to intimacy than procreation, and that's what a cosmetic gynecologist is all about.

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That's what.

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I'm in love with, and that's kind of what I do.

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Hi, I'm Linus Woods Mullins and I love to help women to vibe, to be more vibrant, intuitive, beautiful and empowered in midlife.

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So come on, let's vibe.

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You know, many of us probably have heard women talk about the idea that they just don't like the way they're looking in their female parts, and so many times when we start talking about this if we talk about it at all it's uncomfortable.

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But the other thing is we just don't have a lot of information and so we kind of poo-poo it, we joke about it, but many times things don't get done.

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Well, today we have a guest with us who actually is an integral part of that process.

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Dr Michael Reed, aka the cosmetic gynecologist, is a leading board-certified cosmetic gynecologist with over 20 years experience in women's sexual health, and Dr Reed's mission is to basically de-stigmatize the whole sexual health services and normalize discussions about sexual health and pleasure and empowering women in the process.

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So, dr Reed, thank you so much for being with us on the Vibe Living Podcast.

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It's wonderful to have you here today.

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Well, I'm truly, truly excited to be here and be a part of this wonderful platform and share whatever information I can, and really my goal is to change the landscape for women as it pertains to women's sexual health, so thanks for having me.

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Well, thank you.

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You know it's interesting because women don't talk a whole lot about any of these things yet, and still it's such an integral part of our overall wellness to have a good sexual experience, to have sexual health.

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We just don't talk about it.

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Why do you think that is?

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Well, I think it's something about America.

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I mean, we love sex but we don't want to talk about it, but also like when it comes to just caring for women and being physicians.

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Physicians, you have to remember, are people too, and you'll find that the statistics show that 65% of women would prefer it if the physician would bring it up, but unfortunately, 65% of people in general, including physicians, have a difficult time bringing the subject up.

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So it takes a unique physician, a unique group of physicians that you can find, who have the resources, capabilities to speak about a lot of the modern day concerns for the modern day woman.

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Hello.

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You say modern day woman and I'm not even sure what that is now, because so much has changed and given what's going on in terms of women's rights and having the opportunity to make decisions based upon what's going on with their bodies, I'm just wondering if the current climate makes it more prohibitive to even talk about this kind of thing.

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But let's first talk about what it is that you do and how you help women, and also how you came to get into this particular niche of sexual health for women.

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Yeah, so I am traditionally a board certified OBGYN practice delivering babies delivered well over 5,000, have been.

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I have also been like chairman of the department, and I had a desire to change, and so I changed and got involved in cosmetic gynecology.

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All cosmetic gynecology really is is a term for laypersons to understand that this is a physician who's done extra training, has a particular interest and wants to move the landscape for women when it comes to women's sexual health, and so we're able to, and we do feel comfortable talking about all aspects of intimacy, whether it's pain, whether it's improving relationships, whether it's taking improving your odds of improving orgasm.

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There's just a number of things that we do that revolve around the world, revolve around sexual health, and I believe this to be very important, because when we are able to have a fulfilling intimate relationship with someone that we deeply care about, it helps us in so many ways.

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It also frees our mind to be creative, it allows us just to live, and so there's more to intimacy than procreation, and that's what a cosmetic gynecologist is all about.

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That's what I'm in love with and that's kind of what I do.

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Now, what exactly can we do?

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We could do a number of things.

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If you look at the vulva from outside in.

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From the outside, we can do things like clitoral unhooding.

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This is something that that affects women who suffer from diseases like lichen sclerosis or genital urinary syndrome of menopause, where, in fact, that the clitoral hood actually fuses and doesn't allow the glands to be exposed for pleasure, and so that's a something that we can do is clitoral unhooding and helping the women with these debilitating diseases.

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We can help with the labia majora.

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If I'm talking too much, you can interrupt any time.

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I'll go on and on.

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No, no, no, I'm listening.

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In fact, I was thinking we were talking about the unhooding and all of that.

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I wanted to ask you about that.

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Women, you know some of them, have lived with these kinds of things for a long, long time and haven't mentioned anything to anyone about it.

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What advice can you give to women about beginning to have that conversation with their gynecologist?

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How can they bring it up?

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How can they address it?

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Yeah, that's why I'm talking about when I say the modern day woman.

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The modern day woman is no longer accepting no or I don't know as the answer.

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The modern day woman is now sharing their experiences with other women.

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The modern day woman is now experiencing and sharing their experiences with their daughters and looking for ways to improve the longevity of their vulva vagina and their sexual intimacy.

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And you know, that's interesting because I think a lot of women don't even realize that they have a choice in that.

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That's why conversations like these are so important.

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What are some of the kinds of cosmetic surgeries that you have done for women?

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What are some of the kinds of cases that you've had?

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Yeah, so if we look at the vulva looking on the outside labia majora the labia majora sometimes will sag and be unsightly to the patient and cause bulging.

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So we can do kind of a facelift to the labia majora and tighten that skin.

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Lift to the labia majora and tighten that skin.

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Sometimes the labia minora, the smaller inner lips, sometimes are in the way and precludes the freedom to wear and do as the patient would like to do, meaning she might want to wear certain outfits or intimate apparel, she may want to be, or she may be a triathlete and needs to bike, swim and run, and the labia are in the way and chafe and cause discomfort.

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So really contouring the labia really allows a woman to be more free in her terms or in her eyes.

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Another thing that we often do sometimes is perineoplasty, where sometimes after obstetrical trauma things just don't look the way they used to before having babies and you want things to kind of look the way they did before and so we can do a perineoplasty to kind of close things up, make things a little bit more tighter and look and have some semblance of what your vulva may have looked at prior to having children.

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Just the opposite of that.

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We can do a reverse perineoplasty where sometimes, as we age and we don't use the vagina, the vagina can shrink and become tight and taut and not resilient and flexible like it should be, and so we can do a procedure where we're able to open the vagina and allow for access and penetration.

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We can also tighten the internal pelvic floor to help with the pelvic floor so that she can help with bowel movements.

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We can take care of hernias.

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We can tighten the vagina to their liking so that they have greater friction.

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I mean, when it comes to pleasure for a woman, it's directly correlated to the amount of friction generated.

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So if we can decrease the internal diameter of your vagina, then, we can increase the friction, and so we can increase pleasure.

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So those are just some of the things that we can do.

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There's a whole host of non-invasive things that we can do, as well as biologics that we can do like mesenchymal stem cells.

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We can do ERP.

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I mean, this is a field that needs to be housed in a discipline of medicine, and that's another goal of mine is to make that happen, so that there's official training for physicians to have this done.

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Well, you know it's interesting.

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That was the next question I was going to ask you how many of there are you cosmetic gynecologists?

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Because my next question was for someone, because this podcast, of course, goes all over the world.

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How do they go about finding someone that has this expertise?

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What kind of certifications or what kinds of questions do they need to be looking for or asking?

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Yeah.

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So the first thing you want to do if you're interested in any of those type of procedures, you want to look up the term cosmetic gynecologist.

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So a cosmetic gynecologist is a board-certified OBGYN who hears the voices, hears the questions of the modern-day woman and has gone out to get further education to be able to provide those services.

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Now, once you found a cosmetic gynecologist, you don't stop there.

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You got to investigate those cosmetic gynecologists because there's variations, there's levels to this right, and so you want to look at their website.

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You want to see what they're talking about.

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Do they have a page dedicated to what service you're interested in about?

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Is there anything on youtube where they're displaying their ability to teach?

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Have they been officially trained by some of the bona fide trainers in the united states?

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These are the things that I think are important to for the audience to understand that all doctors aren't equal.

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And you know, I think, as we are talking more and more on platforms and the dissemination of information is so readily available, I think patients are understanding that physicians aren't equal and that there are levels to do this?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And you know, I have had some experiences with doctors that sometimes don't get it right and I'm not anti-doctor, because I admit that happens.

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It's just that I do know that everybody's different, everybody's experience is different and I wanted to talk about that.

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What are some of the misconceptions or myths that surround cosmetic gynecology that you frequently encounter and how do you address them?

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Here's a couple of big ones this is the misogynistic field of medicine where people are trying to make money off of women and their insecurities.

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That's a misnomer and that's not the truth.

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Another thing is that, because the word cosmetic is there, this is oh, this is only hollywooders, a1 listers, people, porn ladies and only fans.

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No, this is not it.

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Remember, cosmetic is there only as a term to identify us as someone different that is listening to the modern day concerns and that we've gone out to get that education to address those modern day concerns.

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So don't get caught up on the word cosmetic but oftentimes people do, but it's just a term, so that you know that we're listening and we want to help you in all aspects of sexual intimacy.

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So, and it's not for Only fans, is not for Hollywood A1 listeners, it's for the everyday woman, it's for the soccer moms, it's for the teachers, it's for the nurses, it's for women who want to improve the longevity of their vagina and vulva and remain as intimate with their partner for as long as they can.

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Same thing men have done and they're still doing it, using testosterone, using Viagra, cialis, penis pumps, anything they can to improve the longevity of the penis.

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So here we are.

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Don't judge us.

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Get on board with us because we're here.

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Absolutely, and I love what you said, because information is power, but acting on that information is powerful.

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So let's say someone's listening to this podcast and they're like, okay, I'm going to look into it, I'm going to go ahead and do a consultation to find out what this is all about.

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And let's talk about that a little bit in terms of some of the things that can happen.

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From a safety aspect, what are the potential risks associated with cosmetic gynecological procedures and how do you ensure the overall well-being of the patient as they're going through that process?

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Okay.

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So this is a great question because it kind of piggybacks on what we've been kind of talking about is doing your due diligence.

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So I think with cosmetic gynecology because it's not housed as of yet you have to do some information, you have to do some research, not only research into the physician, but research into what it is that you want to accomplish.

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Or it doesn't necessarily have to be research.

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You have to be specific as to what you want to accomplish, because there's so many things it could be.

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Hey, you know, every time I'm having intercourse I'm splitting on the backside and I'm dry.

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Well, you got to be able to say, hey, I want to improve moisture, that's what I'm coming in for.

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Or, you know, I'm not feeling my husband the way that I like to.

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I just don't feel him, I can't grip and pull him in the way that I want and that I was able to in the past.

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I want some help with that.

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So I think what you have to be able to do to maximize your visit with a cosmetic gynecologist is to have an understanding of what it is that you want to accomplish.

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And when you have an idea of what you want to accomplish, you're better able to assess that physician and see what her knowledge level is and what her skill level might be, because you have some ideas as to what you want to accomplish.

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You can't just go in there blind, right exactly.

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And not have any ideas of what you want to do they're blind, Right exactly, and not have any ideas of what you want to do.

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I always tell people all the time my clients and the folks that listen to this podcast that gone are the days where you go to your doctor and you just lie on the table and say, okay, tell me what's wrong with me.

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Instead, you need to go in there with a pad and pencil with the things you've observed and the things you're concerned about, and then also to be able to take notes on the things that they tell you so you can make informed decisions.

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One thing I want patients to do and if there's any physicians that are listening, I would want them to do the same and that is doing an exam with a handheld mirror.

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Where else in medicine do you have to just take the word of the physician?

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She tells you oh, you have this, this and this.

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You got a polyp coming out of your cervix.

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This is why you're bleeding.

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And you go okay, and you just say okay, and you believe it.

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Well, I'm saying now it's time to get a handheld mirror out.

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Every patient that I examine gets a handheld mirror.

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They're able to see what's going on and see what I'm seeing, which makes a tremendous difference in understanding what it is that you're treating, why you're taking the medications that you're taking and why you need to take them the way they need to take them, because now they see it.

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So the second thing is for the patient.

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If you are with a physician who doesn't have a handheld mirror, you do have a phone.

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Ask them to snap a picture of what it is that they're describing to you and what the problem may be, and have them take a picture, and it even suggests that it would be nice to have a handheld mirror.

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I think that it will make such a big difference for women, just that small change.

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Because a lot of times when I have patients come in for these procedures, I give them a quick anatomy lesson, and with a handheld mirror, and they are just taken aback by the fact that they're able to go over their anatomy with their physician looking at the same time, wondering about this what is that, when do you urinate from?

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And be able to see what it is that they're wanting to improve or change or treat.

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So that would be my little tip.

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We're talking about something that is an important everyday function in our lives, and it's also a part of the body where human life exits.

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It's a source of pleasure.

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It's where we're able to remove the toxins in our body.

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So many things, yet we, as women, have a tendency not to know anything about it or even look at it.

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See, you're starting to describe the modern day woman.

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She wants to see it, she wants to understand it, she wants to know what it is, she wants to improve upon it.

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No, we're not sitting back on shelves and just letting life come at us.

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The modern day woman is setting the pace.

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I love that.

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And as we move forward, what do you see happening in the future with this kind of practice in cosmetic gynecology?

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What kinds of things can we be looking forward to in the future?

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Well, I think within a decade, this will be housed within a discipline of medicine.

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I think that there will be a residency program where OBGYNs can actually be trained how to talk to patients about sexual health.

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They'll be trained on how to examine patients for sexual wellness, because there's a difference.

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There'll be a place where physicians will know that they can send their patients.

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It will be just like reproductive endocrinology there's a doctor to help you get pregnant, there's gonna be a doctor that helps you with your sexual intimacy, and that's the cosmetic gynecologist.

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And this will happen also in the United States.

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I'm actually trying to make that happen in the United States.

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My colleague and I, carolyn Delucia, we started an institute of restorative and cosmetic gynecology where we train other physicians on these exact topics that we're talking about.

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We train them both on non-invasive and surgical treatment options.

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We even include cadavers so that the physicians can practice on a live human before they practice on a live human, and so I think that this is the first steps to changing the landscape for women, and we're on our way to doing it, and that's what I think will happen in soon order.

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You know that is so important, that this is happening and that we're talking about this.

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This is a really important conversation because it doesn't happen enough, but I want all of you who are out there, first of all, so that you can get further education is to begin to start following Dr Reed on his media.

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Go ahead and go to his website and take a look at what he does, because that in itself is an education, and then begin to start educating yourself.

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It's not just for you, but for your daughters, your friends, their children.

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We need to be talking about this and stop covering it up, because this is an important function of our health.

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I cannot tell you.

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I had an incident myself not too long ago that didn't have to do so much with sexual health, but had to do with what was going on with my vagina.

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It's kind of it wasn't funny at the time, but it just lets you know how we have a tendency to disconnect ourselves from our vagina when things go wrong, in terms of really thinking critically about what could be happening.

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It was Valentine's day and my husband had prepared this lovely bath for me.

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He had all this good smelling stuff in there, and now I know from a holistic standpoint because I've been a holistic health coach for 17 years and very rarely do I get into any bathtub with anything in it, but I wasn't thinking at the time, right.

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So I'm getting in there and enjoying it and everything else right.

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Well, about five days later I started having this weird itching thing going on and I thought, gee, you know what this feels so familiar.

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Not critical thinking at all, Just going by what I know, which is hardly anything when it comes to my body and the vagina, I'm not that engaged in it the way I should be.

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So I'm thinking I think I have a yeast infection.

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And everybody's like well, you know what it could be a yeast infection.

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And everybody's like, well, you know what it could be a yeast infection.

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That does happen to menopausal women.

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I'm no longer menopausal, but I'm 67.

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And but still it happens with women in their sixties.

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I had a few times.

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I've had that, so that's what it is right.

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So it's bothering me so much and I've done all the over the counter and everything else.

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I even go to emergency, okay.

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And they give me this stuff right, and it's still bothering me.

00:22:00.388 --> 00:22:08.244
So one of my daughters said Mom, is there anything else that you've done differently, that you don't normally do?

00:22:08.244 --> 00:22:09.288
And I'm like, no, no.

00:22:09.288 --> 00:22:13.570
And all of a sudden I remember, ah, it's the bathwater yes.

00:22:13.570 --> 00:22:21.746
And the thing is it had a slight color to it and I am grossly allergic to hair dye.

00:22:22.205 --> 00:22:33.654
It's something that I developed in my 50s and you know, I used to get my hair dyed and my hair is all gray, not because I'm making some kind of a statement, because I'm a holistic person, it's because I'm allergic to hair dye.

00:22:33.654 --> 00:22:34.536
It's because I'm allergic to hair dye.

00:22:34.536 --> 00:22:37.178
And so then, all of a sudden, ding, ding, ding.

00:22:37.178 --> 00:22:43.261
Everything went off.

00:22:43.261 --> 00:22:43.844
Everything fell into place.

00:22:43.844 --> 00:22:44.548
I knew exactly that's what it was.

00:22:44.548 --> 00:22:45.792
I knew exactly what I needed to do when I went to the doctor.

00:22:45.792 --> 00:22:56.528
I explained it, but it all started with my being less engaged in terms of what could possibly happen with my vagina and that, if you have an allergic reaction to somewhere else on your body, why not?

00:22:56.528 --> 00:22:57.981
Why would it not be the vagina?

00:22:57.981 --> 00:23:00.969
And I'm telling you, the itching was so horrible.

00:23:00.969 --> 00:23:03.153
I tried everything.

00:23:04.861 --> 00:23:05.583
I was walking.

00:23:05.583 --> 00:23:08.528
Did they have to give you oral steroids?

00:23:08.528 --> 00:23:09.972
Yeah, once they figured it out.

00:23:10.119 --> 00:23:12.749
yeah, Once they figured it out, they were able to give me the oral steroids.

00:23:14.742 --> 00:23:16.066
It worked almost immediately.

00:23:16.406 --> 00:23:27.145
Yes, and the other thing was I had the same symptoms that I had when I had the allergic reaction with the hair dye with my scalp a little bit of oozing and all that.

00:23:27.467 --> 00:23:27.686
Yeah.

00:23:27.686 --> 00:23:52.393
But because I didn't come armed with the right information, I didn't ask a lot of questions and they were kind of following my lead and I thought to myself I got to make sure I tell this story because we have to be critical thinkers when it comes to what's going on with our body and not just go with the absolute okey-doke, because things change in our body and as a result of the changes the chemical changes then our body presents things differently.

00:23:52.393 --> 00:24:03.948
So we have to remain open-minded and I think probably everybody should take a look at what's going on with their vaginas from a cosmetic perspective, because it opens up your world.

00:24:03.948 --> 00:24:15.997
Just listening to you of the possibilities of what could be done, that cosmetic gynecology is going to be becoming even more prevalent.

00:24:15.997 --> 00:24:24.079
What kinds of advice can you give women in terms of things that they should be looking for that would benefit maybe from cosmetic gynecology?

00:24:25.182 --> 00:24:27.400
Like you mean like symptoms that they would benefit from?

00:24:27.539 --> 00:24:31.111
Not necessarily symptoms, but just when it comes to their sexual health.

00:24:31.111 --> 00:24:37.887
Women don't always question certain things that are going on, because they just think oh well, that's just the way it is because I'm getting older.

00:24:38.641 --> 00:24:44.393
Well, I think that's the biggest thing right there is finding someone that you can speak to and ask those questions.

00:24:44.393 --> 00:24:55.675
One of the things that cosmetic gynecologists are good at is answering the unspoken question, because we're interacting so much with women and being able to read between the lines.

00:24:55.675 --> 00:25:00.525
But we got to get it to the point where women just will ask the question.

00:25:00.525 --> 00:25:07.226
You know we, they don't know until they ask, and there's a group of us out here willing and able to answer.

00:25:07.226 --> 00:25:10.291
Just find us and ask us, ask us.

00:25:10.291 --> 00:25:11.013
That's that's.

00:25:11.013 --> 00:25:17.432
That's what I would say is ask the questions that you want to get educated on and leave Dr Google out of it as much as you can.

00:25:17.432 --> 00:25:20.670
But you can also be a source, a resource.

00:25:21.859 --> 00:25:23.807
Yeah, it could be a start, but it's not the end.

00:25:23.807 --> 00:25:26.626
It could be the start of the journey, but it's not the end at all.

00:25:26.626 --> 00:25:30.989
Dr Reed, thank you so much for being on the Vibe Living podcast.

00:25:30.989 --> 00:25:32.586
It's been wonderful having you here today.

00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:34.603
Oh well, thank you so much for having me.

00:25:34.603 --> 00:25:45.386
It was a pleasure and honor and I just love the opportunity to speak about women's sexual health and I hope not hope I know sooner than later the landscape will change for women.

00:25:46.288 --> 00:25:46.829
Absolutely.

00:25:46.829 --> 00:25:54.627
And again, for those of you who want to find out more about cosmetic gynecology and Dr Reed and what it is that he does, his website is there, as well as his social media.

00:25:54.627 --> 00:25:56.856
Get engaged, ladies.

00:25:56.856 --> 00:25:59.143
Get involved in what's going on with your body.

00:25:59.143 --> 00:26:00.905
Don't do as I did.

00:26:00.905 --> 00:26:01.708
Do as I say.

00:26:02.490 --> 00:26:04.713
I definitely wasn't engaged.

00:26:04.713 --> 00:26:07.306
I was like going down a whole nother rabbit hole.

00:26:07.306 --> 00:26:08.951
And the answer was right there.

00:26:08.951 --> 00:26:12.127
If I had been a little bit more open and more of a critical thinker.

00:26:12.127 --> 00:26:23.541
Our bodies are rare and very important to us and, as far as I know, we only go around this sun one time in terms of being here on this earth, being in this particular life, in this particular body.

00:26:23.541 --> 00:26:34.413
So it's important for us to keep moving forward and getting the information that we need to be able to vibe, to have more vibrant, intuitive and beautiful and empowered mid-lives.

00:26:34.413 --> 00:26:56.057
Thanks so much for joining the Vibe Living Podcast and have a fantastic day and don't forget to vibe everybody Bye-bye.

00:26:56.057 --> 00:27:01.602
Thanks for listening to the Vibe Living Podcast and don't forget to subscribe, like and comment and share this podcast.

00:27:01.602 --> 00:27:04.625
Have a fantastic day and don't forget the vibe.

00:27:04.625 --> 00:27:05.586
Bye, bye everybody.