On Health

By Aviva Romm MD

Alternative Health Medicine

What's On Health about?

From the stuff your mother never told you, to the stuff your doctor never learned, On Health features taboo-busting conversations that demystify and de-stigmatize our bodies, all while bridging the gap between conventional medicine and wellness. Join Yale-trained MD & midwife Aviva Romm and her line-up of expert guests as they discuss everything from periods to menopause, sex to reproductive health politics, and motherhood to mental health. Each week, Dr. Romm will be exploring the science and wisdom of how our bodies work, what makes us well, what gets in the way, and how we can live our best lives on our terms, authentically and bravely. You can expect to learn more about topics such as women's brain health, cesareans, microbiome seeding, women’s sexual health, and much more. Plus, you'll get Aviva’s musings, tips, and guidance from 35+ years of helping women take back their health—and their lives. The new medicine for women is here!

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LAST EPISODE

Should I Freeze My Eggs? Le...

09.20.2023

Considering whether to embark on the journey of freezing your eggs? Naturally, this comes with a myriad of questions and considerations. If you're pondering this path and wondering if it's the right move for you, you're not alone. Join me ...

On Health episodes:

09.20.2023 Should I Freeze My Eggs? Let’s Chat About That! Considering whether to embark on the journey of freezing your eggs? Naturally, this comes with a myriad of questions and considerations. If you're pondering this path and wondering if it's the right move for you, you're not alone. Join me ...
09.13.2023 Hot Flashes Gone Public with Tamsen Fadal Menopause is a transition that is so hushed, misunderstood, and often considered "taboo” in our culture. But what many fail to notice is that menopause is a beautiful new chapter in life that deserves respect, recognition, and reverence. I'm on ...
09.06.2023 Perfectionism: Healing the Shadow Side As we transition into autumn, with to-do lists piling up and the pressure of getting back "on track," it's an important time to revisit an age-old and perenially resonant topic: Perfectionism. It's part of how we end up overwhelmed, doing ...
08.30.2023 Centering Mothers with Support, Community, and Wisdom (with Chanel Porchia-Albert, Ancient Song) The US, known for medical progress, is facing higher maternal mortality rates than almost any western country, and too many women don’t get the birth experience they hoped for. Enter my guest, the amazing Chanel Porchia-Albert, founder of Ancient Song ...
08.23.2023 Vaginal Ecology - What You Need to Know I’m a vaginal ecologist. Say what? Yes, you heard that correctly, a vaginal ecologist. Ecology is the relationship of organisms to one another and to their environment – their ecosystem. And just like any ecosystem in nature, your vagina has ...
08.16.2023 How This Mama Is Transforming the Supplements Industry As of 2022, the supplement industry was estimated to be worth $35.6 billion. But all that glitters is not gold. Supplement companies have a history of stepping into murky waters with health claims and products that don’t provide what they ...
08.09.2023 The Lowdown on Pap Tests, HPV and Pelvic Exams As if hopping onto an (almost always freezing cold) exam table butt-naked wasn't stressful enough, knowing what to do when it comes to Pap tests and pelvic examinations can be super confusing at any age. This week, I’m resharing a ...
08.02.2023 The Power of Hypnobirthing with Kerry Tuschhoff When the word "hypnosis" comes to mind, we often associate it with stage performances and peculiar antics, but there’s a deeper and more powerful side to this practice, particularly when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth. This is where hypnobirthing ...
07.26.2023 Optimizing and Protecting Your XX Brain With Dr. Lisa Mosconi Did you know researchers estimate that nearly two-thirds of those living with Alzheimer’s in the United States are women? As this data continues to emerge, conversations surrounding brain health are as important as ever before, which is why I’ve decided ...
07.19.2023 Reclaiming Birth with Allison Yarrow According to a recent survey of over 1300 women, 56% experienced dissatisfaction with their births. Unfortunately, this statistic reveals only a glimpse into a very broken system and the reality for birthing women in our country, where 30% report some ...
07.12.2023 10 Birth Control Myths and Realities You Should Really Know Part 2 Welcome back to the second half of this two-part series, 10 Birth Control Myths and Realities You Should Really Know! In part one, I explored the Pill's connection to blood clots, cancer, depression, and cognitive changes. Through rigorous research and ...
06.28.2023 10 Birth Control Myths and Realities You Should Really Know Part 1 For almost sixty years, the birth control pill has been a symbol of sexual liberation for women, offering relief from symptoms and granting newfound control. For some women, it can be practically miraculous. But the Pill also has side effects ...
06.21.2023 Vagina Obscura and the Sexist History of Female Anatomy With Rachel E. Gross Female anatomy is shrouded in misconceptions and limited knowledge. Yet within us lies potential for transformation, healing, and pleasure. On today's episode, I'm thrilled to be joined by distinguished journalist and author of the acclaimed book "Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical ...
06.14.2023 On Our Best Behavior: The Price Women Pay to Be Good Enough with Elise Loehnen Perfectionism, that nagging feeling of never doing enough, of never being good enough, guilt any time you practice a little self-care. Do you ever wonder where these feelings and inner voices that dog us come from? It's a question I've ...
06.07.2023 On BETR Ways to Close the Healthcare Gap with Ellen Pompeo It’s a startling and unfortunate reality that too many Americans are unable to access the medications they need for their basic healthcare, and that on top of this, billions of dollars' worth of pharmaceuticals go to waste annually, causing environmental ...
05.31.2023 Let's Chat About That - Did the Pill Ruin My Fertility? Are you concerned about the impact of birth control pills on your fertility? It's only natural to prioritize the well-being of your body and future fertility. And rest assured, you're not alone. A recent study of over 2,000 women who ...
05.24.2023 Toward a New Model of Maternal Health in the US with Neel Shah, MD In a recent development, the US Preventive Services Task Force sounded the alarm about the increasing prevalence of hypertensive disorders among pregnant women. They have advised monitoring blood pressure throughout pregnancy since these disorders have doubled in the last three ...
05.17.2023 Intermittent Fasting and Time-Based Eating: Is There Evidence for Women’s Health and Weight Loss? In the ever-changing landscape of trends and choices, it's important to separate the fleeting fads from the timeless practices. Today, we embark on an insightful journey, shining a light on two prominent trends that have taken center stage: Intermittent Fasting ...
05.10.2023 Re-Owning Yourself: A 360 Approach to Menopause with Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz Over the course of her twenty-year medical career, my guest today, Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, noticed a shocking dearth of information and support for women beginning and experiencing menopause. For too long, this crucial stage in women’s lives has been given ...
05.03.2023 How to Choose the Best Birth Control for You Are you overwhelmed by the number of birth control options available and wondering which one is right for you? Are you confused about the safety of various contraceptives? Confused about whether to use the Pill or another contraceptive method for ...
04.26.2023 What's a Normal Period, Really? with Kate Clancy, PhD In this episode of On Health, I dive deep into the science and culture of our menstrual cycles with Kate Clancy, PhD, period researcher and expert in the field of reproductive biology who has dedicated her life’s work to advocating ...
04.19.2023 How Social Media Censorship is Impacting Women's Sexual Health CONTENT WARNING: Sexual assault Did you know that it takes only 3.5 years to sail around the world but up to 10 years to get an endometriosis diagnosis? That three out of four women experience pain during intercourse at some ...
04.12.2023 Hormonal Hot Housing: On Why We Need to Understand and Prevent Early Puberty in Our Daughters As parents, it’s instinctual that our number one priority is to ensure that our daughters grow up as happy and healthy as possible. So with the very real phenomenon of early puberty on the rise, it's understandable that many of ...
04.05.2023 Dismissed: On the Way Bias May Be Affecting Your Healthcare with Dr. Angela Marshall Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, body size, and other factors have a significant bearing on whether you will be diagnosed and treated correctly. And health-care bias can mean the difference not just between suffering and relief ...
03.29.2023 On What We All Need to Know About Living with Long COVID Have you wondered if you or someone you know has Long COVID? It's VERY possible! As of 2023, the CDC estimates that 1 in 5 people, as many as 1 in 3 college students, and a preponderance of menopausal women ...
03.22.2023 On Period Pain in Teens - A 6th Vital Sign That You Don’t Want to Miss If your teen daughter is struggling with period pain and you're looking for answers - or you're a teen here for yourself - this episode is for you. Period pain, or what’s medically known as dysmenorrhea, has become such a ...
03.15.2023 On Family Secrets with Dani Shapiro Imagine opening an email that contains a revelation that rocks your world to the core, forcing you to completely rethink your origin and your identity- this is exactly what happened to my guest on today's On Health Podcast episode, Dani ...
03.08.2023 On How to Have a Safe, Empowered Miscarriage at Home: What Every Woman Needs to Know TRIGGER WARNING: Miscarriage and pregnancy loss. Both physically and emotionally, there is very little that can prepare a woman for something 1 in 4 of us will experience in our lifetime: miscarriage. Early pregnancy loss is a complex topic that ...
03.01.2023 On Invisible Illness: Living at the Edge of Medical Knowledge with Meghan O’Rourke From chronic fatigue to Lyme’s disease to COVID to autoimmune conditions, "invisible" illnesses and those who suffer from them are often disbelieved. It's often a struggle to receive a diagnosis, and more often than not, sufferers do not receive the ...
02.22.2023 On Vaginal Dryness and Painful Sex in Menopause An estimated 6,000 women in the U.S. reach menopause every single day—that’s over 2 million each year! And an average of 27 million women between the ages of 45 and 64 experience menopausal symptoms. All this to say, you are ...
02.15.2023 Thinx Again: On What We Need to Know about PFAS in Our Period Products As thoughtful consumers, we try to make the best decisions for ourselves and our families. And the bottom line is that we shouldn't have to twice about the possibility that the everyday products we use, from the cookware in our ...
02.08.2023 On the History of the Migraine Personality with Joanna Kempner Sensitivity to light, sounds, and sometimes smells, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes hours spent in darkened rooms. If you suffer from migraines, then you're all too familiar with these symptoms, which may affect you infrequently or as often as several times ...
02.01.2023 Let’s Chat About That: On Supporting Optimal Immunity In Pregnancy Motherhood is a lifelong role, during which there will be no shortage of opportunities to worry. Even before you give birth, your mama-bear radar is engaged, and you’re suddenly motivated to do all you can to protect this precious being ...
01.25.2023 On the Big Letdown: A Radical Conversation on Birth and Breastfeeding with Kimberly Seals Allers Content Warning: In this episode, we will be talking about maternal mortality, infant mortality, and the impact of racism on maternal health. 60% of all maternal deaths are fully preventable, and the complications women experience are not inherent to black ...
01.18.2023 Pt. 2 On Alcohol and Women's Health from Fertility thru Menopause Welcome to the second half of our alcohol miniseries! In part one, I focused on how alcohol metabolizes differently in women than men and how this increases women's alcohol-related health risks. I also talked about how alcohol can effect puberty, ...
01.11.2023 On Women, Alcohol, Our Hormones and Menstrual Cycles Alcohol. It's the kind of frenemy that many women have a love-hate relationship with. It may make us feel good in the moment—relaxed, more social, less anxious—but many women find that after a drink or several, they’re moody, irritable, don’t ...
12.21.2022 Why Creating & Setting Boundaries is Essential for Our Health At some point, too many of us internalized the belief that being a woman means complete self-sacrifice, not setting healthy boundaries for our well-being, and not taking care of our fundamental needs – even for sleep, quality food, and relaxation. ...
12.14.2022 How Being a “Good Girl” is Hazardous to Your Health From a young age, we’re taught to be "good girls." We’re told to be polite, to be nice, not to interrupt, and to say thank you—even when we don't mean it. As little girls, we're best "seen", not heard and ...
12.07.2022 Come as You Are with Emily Nagoski This week, I'm sharing a replay of my interview with New York Times bestseller, Dr. Emily @Nagoski, author of Come as You Are, because she's so interesting and because as we shift through seasons of our lives (and through pandemic ...
11.30.2022 Women’s Top Thyroid Questions, Answered (Part 2): Thyroid Antibodies + Thyroid Treatments The thyroid is such a complex part of our endocrine system, involved in hundreds of processes that affect nearly every aspect of our health, so naturally there’s plenty of ground to cover. I’m so thrilled to be picking up where ...
11.23.2022 Healing Our Food Relationship with Mindfulness How many times have you sat down to a meal already worried about the calories in the food you’re eating? Or plagued by feelings of guilt and feelings of loss of control instead of the pleasure and nourishment of eating? ...
11.16.2022 How to Boost Your Immunity for Cold and Flu Season This year, staying well and preventing colds and flu is more important than ever. Not only is it expected to be a worse-than-average flu season, but we’re also entering another COVID winter. But what is it that you can do ...
11.09.2022 Blood Sugar Balance with the Glucose Goddess Blood sugar balance. It's the starting place in my patient care, and it's the one core thread, other than eating 'whole foods,' that runs through how I personally think about what I eat. Why? As your body’s preferred energy source, ...
11.02.2022 Women's Top Thyroid Questions, Answered (Part 1) The thyroid is one of the most important and complex glands in our body. And as women, we need to know a thing or two about it because, statistically, 1 in 8 of us will suffer from thyroid issues during ...
10.26.2022 Who’s Afraid of Fever? Every year, over 5 million parents visit the ER because their child has a fever and they're worried.. Sometimes those visits are necessary. But more often than not, we assume that we unnecessarily fear fever, and assume we have to ...
10.19.2022 Optimizing Immunity Through the Gut-Immune Axis With Robynne Chutkan MD What do sleep, mucus, and, plant diversity have in common? They're all important aspects of a healthy gut and immune system, which is what I connect the dots on today with my guest-friend and sister MD, Dr. Robynne Chutkan. In ...
10.12.2022 Negativity Bias: Why We Expect the Worst and How to Change That Human brains do a lot of thinking - to the tune of about 6200 thoughts per day! Most of these are just passing thoughts, but according to researchers, a lot of those that reach our consciousness can be classified as ...
10.05.2022 Enough Already: Protecting Kids from Environmental Toxins Every time you're fuelling your car or walking into your home and don’t have to worry about lead exposure, it’s thanks to my guest today, no less than one of my heroes, Dr. Phillip Landrigan. But the question still remains— ...
09.28.2022 How Doulas Make a Difference with Tracie Collins George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery—these are names you know. I hope. But what about Kira Dixon Johnson, Yolanda Kadima, and Tatia Oden French? These are names that you may not have heard. They are the names of Black women ...
09.21.2022 Why We Need Birthing Centers Despite years of evidence about the incredible outcomes, safety, and cost-effectiveness of midwives, midwifery care is still not the standard for pregnancy and birth in the US, and access to birthing centers remains limited. Yet, studies show they are associated ...

Older episodes

On Health

What's On Health about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

On Health episodes:

Should I Freeze My Eggs? Let’s Chat About That!

Hot Flashes Gone Public with Tamsen Fadal

Perfectionism: Healing the Shadow Side

Centering Mothers with Support, Community, and Wisdom (with Chanel Porchia-Albert, Ancient Song)

Vaginal Ecology - What You Need to Know

How This Mama Is Transforming the Supplements Industry

The Lowdown on Pap Tests, HPV and Pelvic Exams

The Power of Hypnobirthing with Kerry Tuschhoff

Optimizing and Protecting Your XX Brain With Dr. Lisa Mosconi

Reclaiming Birth with Allison Yarrow

10 Birth Control Myths and Realities You Should Really Know Part 2

10 Birth Control Myths and Realities You Should Really Know Part 1

Vagina Obscura and the Sexist History of Female Anatomy With Rachel E. Gross

On Our Best Behavior: The Price Women Pay to Be Good Enough with Elise Loehnen

On BETR Ways to Close the Healthcare Gap with Ellen Pompeo

Let's Chat About That - Did the Pill Ruin My Fertility?

Toward a New Model of Maternal Health in the US with Neel Shah, MD

Intermittent Fasting and Time-Based Eating: Is There Evidence for Women’s Health and Weight Loss?

Re-Owning Yourself: A 360 Approach to Menopause with Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz

How to Choose the Best Birth Control for You

What's a Normal Period, Really? with Kate Clancy, PhD

How Social Media Censorship is Impacting Women's Sexual Health

Hormonal Hot Housing: On Why We Need to Understand and Prevent Early Puberty in Our Daughters

Dismissed: On the Way Bias May Be Affecting Your Healthcare with Dr. Angela Marshall

On What We All Need to Know About Living with Long COVID

On Period Pain in Teens - A 6th Vital Sign That You Don’t Want to Miss

On Family Secrets with Dani Shapiro

On How to Have a Safe, Empowered Miscarriage at Home: What Every Woman Needs to Know

On Invisible Illness: Living at the Edge of Medical Knowledge with Meghan O’Rourke

On Vaginal Dryness and Painful Sex in Menopause

Thinx Again: On What We Need to Know about PFAS in Our Period Products

On the History of the Migraine Personality with Joanna Kempner

Let’s Chat About That: On Supporting Optimal Immunity In Pregnancy

On the Big Letdown: A Radical Conversation on Birth and Breastfeeding with Kimberly Seals Allers

Pt. 2 On Alcohol and Women's Health from Fertility thru Menopause

On Women, Alcohol, Our Hormones and Menstrual Cycles

Why Creating & Setting Boundaries is Essential for Our Health

How Being a “Good Girl” is Hazardous to Your Health

Come as You Are with Emily Nagoski

Women’s Top Thyroid Questions, Answered (Part 2): Thyroid Antibodies + Thyroid Treatments

Healing Our Food Relationship with Mindfulness

How to Boost Your Immunity for Cold and Flu Season

Blood Sugar Balance with the Glucose Goddess

Women's Top Thyroid Questions, Answered (Part 1)

Who’s Afraid of Fever?

Optimizing Immunity Through the Gut-Immune Axis With Robynne Chutkan MD

Negativity Bias: Why We Expect the Worst and How to Change That

Enough Already: Protecting Kids from Environmental Toxins

How Doulas Make a Difference with Tracie Collins

Why We Need Birthing Centers

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