Dr. Ariana Smith

And I think we need to make it

part of our curriculum and part of our training to really understand how these hormones impact women, both when we remove organs and when we supplementally replace hormone therapy during menopause.

Yeah.

They need more.

You know, I think we also have some science to indicate things like incontinence may worsen, in fact, with systemic hormonal replacement.

And it's something we need to make sure women are informed of.

They may have a mild problem that gets a little worse.

And we probably could address that with the addition of vaginally applied hormones or potentially other treatments for incontinence, but at least making women aware that these things may happen so they don't think it's a harmful thing.

side effect and a reason to stop using the hormones.

Yeah, I think the biggest misconception is the claim to enhance sexual pleasure, right?

That sex is going to get better.

And this is where I think some women do get in trouble and start going and looking for things to do to themselves that are not founded to be true and could potentially cause harm.

So we're surgeons, we're scientists, right?

We want to offer women things that are going to definitively improve quality of life.

And this is where the misconceptions that are out there that are easily found on Google and other websites for women are leading women astray.

So to your point...

Yeah, I agree.

You always drive it home, Karen.

I mean, that's exactly right.

And this is where we may be able to collaborate with some of the advocacy groups who really are dedicated to improving the general health and overall well-being of women and really try to improve messaging around that.