In the Ladies' Room with Dr. Donnica

The HealthyWomen 2021 Survey reveals that moms still feel pressured to ‘do it all’ and continue to deprioritize their mental health and well-being.  Ummmm. . .we needed a study to find that out?! In all seriousness, research shows that women are more likely to experience postpartum depression (PPD) if they receive little or no support from family, friends, or community after childbirth than women who receive appropriate support. With 1 in 8 mothers in the U.S. reporting experiencing symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD) each year, there is a need for greater fourth trimester (the 12 weeks following baby’s arrival) planning and support.

So what are we going to do about it?  Check on Mom https://www.mycheckonmom.com is a program to help new and expectant moms create a maternal mental wellness plan and designate a group of trusted friends and family who are empowered to help her through the postpartum period. The site also features ongoing inspirational content and helpful information and tips. Here to discuss this with us today is Dr. Kristina Deligiannidis, Director, Women’s Behavioral Health of Northwell Health.  Dr. Deligiannidis is a national leader in the field of perinatal depression and novel therapeutics research. Her research program includes a focus in psychoneuroendocrinology, particularly neurosteroids and hormones, and neuroimaging in women’s behavioral health. She has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles plus several textbook chapters and has given more than 170 scientific presentations.

Dr. Deligiannidis completed her undergraduate degrees in biology and psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. As a recipient of predoctoral intramural research training awards, she trained in molecular neuroendocrinology research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). She received her medical degree from and completed her psychiatry residency and chief residency in psychopharmacology research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. After residency, she completed a visiting fellowship and further training in multimodal neuroimaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.

Dr. Deligiannidis joined faculty at Zucker Hillside Hospital, the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in September 2016. She is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and currently serves as the director of women’s behavioral health at Zucker Hillside Hospital. As a reproductive psychiatrist, she has expertise in treating women with mood and anxiety disorders linked to the menstrual cycle, pregnancy/postpartum and perimenopause.

Here’s an email I recently received: “I've had a hysterectomy due to cervical cancer diagnosis 3 yrs ago, had to use IVF to conceive my twins, experienced chemically induced menopause in my 20s related to endometriosis, all while on active duty so lots to share, LOL!!!  I'm also connected to a women's online "sexology" group talking about intimacy as we age.”  So you know, we had to invite that woman to be a guest on our show!  She’s Pamela Price, Deputy Director for The Balm In Gilead and with us today!

Pamela manages the various health initiatives of the organization.  Under her leadership, The Balm In Gilead provides support to faith-based and public health institutions in areas of program design, implementation, and evaluation, which strengthen their capacity to deliver programs and services that contribute to the elimination of health disparities.  

Mrs. Price also serves as the Director for The National Brain Health Center for African-Americans.   In 2016, she co-developed a six-part educational curriculum for nurses and allied healthcare professionals aimed at addressing knowledge gaps related to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias affecting African Americans.  Mrs. Price has conducted numerous training sessions across the country with various nursing associations and healthcare organizations.  She also co-created and facilitates an accredited training for healthcare providers; aimed at increasing cultural competencies related to the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of dementia in African Americans.      

Mrs. Price holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health and has more than 20 years of experience in public health, epidemiology, and healthcare.  As a registered nurse, she has served as a member of the U.S. Army Nurse Corp.  Mrs. Price is also an experienced consultant and serves on various boards and steering committees, frequently conducting workshops and trainings across the country at various conferences and events in addition to providing technical assistance and capacity building services to community-based organizations.   

Most women have heard of fibroids—and most women will have them—so let’s talk about Fibroid Facts!  Fibroids are the most common type of non-cancerous tumors in women.  But just because they aren’t cancer doesn’t mean they are “benign”: they can be asymptomatic, but more often, they can cause a wide range of physical symptoms, including heavy menstrual bleeding and an overall reduced quality of life. 

Uterine fibroids occur in more than 80% of African American women and nearly 70% of Caucasian women by the time they are 50 years old.  Fibroids are also the leading reason for hysterectomies performed in the U.S.

My guest today, Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell knows a lot about fibroids, both personally & professionally.  She is a practicing, Board-certified ob-gyn and section head of women’s services at Ochsner Kenner in New Orleans. She is the Medical Director of programs with the LA Department of Health as well as an associate professor and director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Uterine Fibroids.

She earned her medical degree from Meharry Medical College and completed her residency training at Ochsner Health System. She also earned a Master of Applied Science in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Additionally, she has received certification in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.

Did you ever meet someone at a meeting & immediately decide that you want to get to know this person better?  That you want them to be on your team?  That’s how I felt when I met Lisa Charles several years ago when we were both speakers at Olympian Joetta Clark Diggs’ annual women’s health conference.  It’s no surprise that this inspirational speaker is known as “Coach Lisa”.  She’s the CEO of Embrace Your Fitness, a health & wellness consultancy.  She has walked the talk, having to overcome her own health & weight management challenges.  She’s a life coach who has also had an incredible diversity of life experiences from being a state and federal prosecutor for more than a decade, becoming a jazz and opera singer and actor, and then changing lanes to focus on health & fitness.  She is the Research Coordinator for the Rutgers University Aging and Brain Health Alliance & today adds 2 new accolades to her resume:  she is a new author of the motivational book “Yes! Commit. Do. Live.”  And she is my official new health & fitness trainer. 

In case anyone ever wondered if LinkedIn actually works, the answer is YES! I learned about today’s guest through a LinkedIn post about Suzanne Sinatra being named to the Forbes 1000 List which recognizes bold and inspiring entrepreneurs on their way to breakthrough success.  And she is well on her way with the launch of her company “Private Packs”.  I immediately invited her to join us In the Ladies’ Room! 

Private Packs is a consumer products company that makes wearable, reusable hot and cold packs to relieve pain, swelling, and discomfort in the lady parts on-the-go.

Suzanne is a pioneer in the SexTech and FemTech spaces.  In addition to making the Forbes 100 list, she has been honored by Yotpo’s 2020 Amazing Women in E-Commerce.

Through her exciting entrepreneurial journey, Suzanne was also forced to embark on a journey no one wants:  battling breast cancer. She now describes herself as a proud breast cancer survivor, who is committed to helping other women by sharing her story to raise awareness about women’s health and sexual wellness.

Originally from Toronto, Suzanne served in the Royal Canadian Armed Forces where she was one of three women in Canada selected for a highly competitive Aircrew Search and Survival course.  She is also a skilled markswoman. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we’ve been asking each of our guests to describe their personal and professional pandemic experiences.  Today’s guest, Shari Wallack sums it up in the title of her new book, “From Hell To Challah”.  As the founder of Buy The Sea, the largest and most decorated cruise and all-inclusive brokerage company in the industry, Shari experienced a mind-numbing professional crash in one day when cruise ships stopped sailings & her days became filled with arranging refunds for her clients rather than bookings.  Her adult children came home to roost & with increasing anxiety, depression and despair Shari just wanted to run away from home.  Unfortunately, the first stop on her journey was an involuntary commitment to a mental hospital.  The rest of the story—3 months of travel & cooking in far-flung kitchens-- is far more uplifting. 

So here’s a novel concept:  a new pharmaceutical company focused on women’s health has launched with the strategy of actually LISTENING to women!  Their strategy is to put women at the center of everything they do—and not just their customers.  70% of their Board of Directors—including the Chairman of the Board—are women. 

Another company leader, Organon’s Head of Research & Development, Dr. Sandra Milligan is our guest today.  We have a broad agenda planned including talking about how she got here--& why she went to both medical and law school first.  We’re also going to discuss Organon’s “Here for Her Health” campaign & how you can share your voice; why a new kind of women’s health pharmaceutical company is needed now; How our understanding and appreciation of wellness/healthcare has evolved in a near post-COVID world; and her perspective on Innovation in women’s health – the current state of it and what’s needed.  And because we’re both women physicians of a certain age, we’re going to discuss our own experiences with menopause, as well as some other women’s health topics that remain overlooked, misunderstood, & undertreated ranging from post partum hemorrhage to endometriosis. 

Before joining Organon, Dr. Milligan served as Merck’s senior vice president and head of global regulatory affairs and clinical safety. Previously, she served as vice president of product development regulatory for Genentech, and prior to that, she was at Amgen for 10 years in positions across legal and regulatory affairs functions. She also proudly served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps for 7 years.

Dr. Milligan has also served on the Board of Directors of the Drug Information Association (DIA) for several years, as well as serving as their Board Chairman. She is a graduate of both George Washington University School of Medicine and Georgetown University Law Center.

For more information: https://www.twirla.com/pdf/Twirla%20FINAL%20PI%20IFU%20PPI.pdf#page=24

Currently, an astonishing 45 percent of the 6 million pregnancies in the United States each year are unintended. Every year, 2.8 million American women, married and unmarried, young and not so young, are expecting an outcome they didn’t expect. According to the Guttmacher Institute, another way to look at this data is that nearly 5% --or 5 in 100-- American women aged 15—44 have an unintended pregnancy each year. The Guttmacher Institute also reports that on average, U.S. women say they want to have two children. To accomplish that, a woman will spend close to three years pregnant, postpartum or attempting to become pregnant, and about three decades—more than three-quarters of her reproductive life—trying to avoid an unintended pregnancy.

Here to discuss this & related issues is Dr. ALYSSA DWECK a practicing gynecologist in Westchester County, New York and a paid spokesperson for Twirla. She has delivered thousands of babies. . . and counseled thousands more women about how to prevent making babies when they don’t want to.

A graduate of Barnard College, she has a Master’s Degree in Human Nutrition from Columbia University and a Medical Degree from Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. She has been voted a “Top Doctor” in New York Magazine and Westchester County. You may have read one or more of the 3 books she has co-authored: The Complete A to Z for your V, The Sexual Spark, and V is for Vagina.

This episode of “In The Ladies’ Room with Dr. Donnica” is sponsored by the makers of Twirla, the levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol transdermal system. Twirla is a weekly birth control patch for women with a body mass index, or BMI, less than 30 who can become pregnant. Twirla is less effective in women with a BMI of 25 or more. If you have BMI of 30 or more, please talk to your healthcare provider about which method of birth control is right for you. Please see boxed warnings regarding cardiovascular risks associated with smoking and with having a BMI over 30 as well as other safety information at the end of this podcast and linked above.

You’ve heard a lot of doctors—including your own—talk about the importance of diet & exercise from many different perspectives.  But today we’re going to break down nutritional information into the particularly exciting area of cellular nutrition & preventing Age Associated Cellular Decline. 

Today’s guest has been dancing through life from a young age.  Dr. Noelle Reid is a board-certified Family Medicine physician who was a trained dancer prior to medical school. She bridged her love for dance through the practice of Yoga, Pilates, & movement, which she has creatively made into a focal point of her medical practice.

Dr. Reid is a graduate of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine & completed her residency at Harbor UCLA Medical Center.  She has also been a medical contributor for ABC/ Good Morning America, & a frequent guest on other shows including Fox Soul TV, Good Day LA/ Fox 11, and “The Doctors”.

This episode of “In the Ladies’ Room with Dr. Donnica” is sponsored by Celltrient Cellular Nutrition, a new line of nutritional beverages and supplements from Nestle Health Science that are formulated with cellular nutrients that go to work deep within your cells to address key sources of Age-Associated Cellular Decline (AACD).

Dr. Erika Moseson is a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician aka a lung and ICU doctor. She’s a graduate of Cornell Medical School. She’s the founder of Air Health Our Health, an educational resource regarding the intersection of breathing healthy air and the well-being and weals of our communities. She hosts the Air Health Our Health podcast where she interviews experts on everything from tobacco and vaping to policy options to improve public health. She is one of the American Lung Association’s Health Professionals for clear air and climate action.

Erika and Donnica talk about clean air. Erika believes in the motto “don’t light things on fire and breathe them into your lungs”. This pertains to tobacco, marijuana, diesel, fire, and more. When you light something on fire, the particles that are generated hang in the air. Even though you can’t see them, they are there and you are breathing them in. This year we’ve seen an unprecedented number of wildfires in California. Californians are now having to check the air particles before they can walk outside to know if the air is safe to breathe. The particles that you inhale go into your blood veins and can stay there and lead to heart attacks, strokes, and other diseases.

Erika goes over what needs to be done policy-wise to create cleaner air. A lot of companies rely on transportation methods that are terrible for the environment and finding cleaner solutions are key to cleaner air. They discuss how smoking and tobacco sales should change to support the environment and people who are looking to quit smoking. Tobacco companies target lower-income communities and people of color in their advertising. This is directly impacting the health of those communities at a disproportionate rate. Now kids are being introduced to vaping, which has an insanely high amount of nicotine compared to smoking cigarettes for something that is flavored like bubblegum.