Gyno Girl Presents: Sex, Drugs & Hormones

Dr. Sameena Rahman
  • 5.0 (42)
  • Medicine
  • Updated Weekly

As a fierce champion for women empowering women (and the people that love them), GynoGirl provides the knowledge and education to help you advocate for yourself so that you can live your best life! Dr. Sameena Rahman curates a space for exploring hormonal changes, sexual health, and pelvic wellness, while also emphasizing self-love and life improvement. Through collaborations with leading experts and the personal stories of patients, she provides a platform for knowledge-sharing while also addressing healthcare issues that have impaired women’s quality of life.  A board-certified, South-Asian Muslim-American gynecologist who specializes in sex medicine and menopause, Dr. Rahman highlights the influence of religion, culture, racial bias, and societal factors on sexual health experiences.

  1. 4d ago

    Beyond the Pink: Breast Cancer Survivorship, Sexual Health, and Thriving After Treatment | Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky

    We talk a lot about screening and treatment in the breast cancer space. What we do not talk about nearly enough is what happens after. What happens to a woman's fertility, her vagina, her relationships, her body image, her mental health, her cardiovascular health, and her sense of self when treatment ends and everyone expects her to simply be grateful to be alive. Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky is a board certified medical oncologist specializing in breast and gynecologic cancers, head of breast and gynecologic medical oncology at Valley Health System, and author of the new book Beyond the Pink: Navigating Life, Health, and Breast Cancer. Her work has long focused on young women with cancer, sexual health, and survivorship. And this book is her answer to a question medicine has not been asking loudly enough: how do we help women not just survive but thrive? We cover a lot of ground. Hormone therapy after breast cancer, including the nuanced conversations around hormone receptor positive versus negative disease, vaginal estrogen, testosterone, and Duavee. Bone health, body composition, sarcopenia, and the emerging data on GLP-1 medications and breast cancer recurrence risk. The difference between a local and distant recurrence and what ongoing screening actually looks like years after treatment. We also discuss the racial disparities in breast cancer care that begin with clinical trial enrollment and run all the way through treatment decisions, drug access, and who gets believed when they report pain. The medical distrust that Black women carry into the oncology office for very good reason. And what it means to practice truly patient centered care when the healthcare system was not designed to make that easy. Survivorship does not begin when treatment ends. It begins at diagnosis. And you are more than your breast cancer. Highlights: Vaginal estrogen is safe for the vast majority of breast cancer survivors, including those on aromatase inhibitors.Testosterone may actually act as a tumor suppressor in hormone receptor positive breast cancer.GLP-1 medications show early signals toward lower breast cancer recurrence risk.Black women are underrepresented in clinical trials and undertreated in guideline-based therapies.Survivorship care starts at diagnosis, not when treatment ends.Bone density should be checked right after chemotherapy; weight-bearing exercise, calcium, vitamin D, and body composition monitoring are all part of survivorship care.Black women are underrepresented in clinical trials, undertreated in guideline-based therapies, and underbelieved when reporting symptoms; medical racism in breast cancer care is real and documented. Get in Touch with Dr. Teplinsky: Website Podcast Instagram Get in Touch with Me: Website Instagram Youtube Pre Order my Book

  2. Sep 4

    Your Gut, Your Hormones, and What Happens in Perimenopause | Dr. Kumkum Patel

    Many of the women I see in my practice are dealing with gut issues that connect directly to their hormones, and this week I finally got to dig into all of it with someone who truly lives at that intersection. Dr. Kumkum Patel is a board certified gastroenterologist who did a subfellowship in neurogastroenterology and motility and now runs her own private practice focused on IBS and the gut brain connection. Before she was a doctor she was a patient, and her personal journey through infertility, postpartum depression, and pelvic floor dysfunction as a first year fellow is what shaped everything about how she practices today. We start with the gut brain connection, what the enteric nervous system actually is, why the gut is sometimes called the second brain, and how 70 to 80% of our happy hormones are made right there in the gut. From there we get into how stress, whether from childhood trauma, a stressful job, or the hormonal chaos of perimenopause, disrupts that entire system and shows up as bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and IBS. We talk about the estrobiome, the specific gut bacteria responsible for regulating estrogen, and what happens when that balance is off. We cover why perimenopause causes constipation from three different directions at once, why leaky gut is a real phenomenon even if the wellness industry has run away with the term, and what actually works when it comes to treating IBS. We also had a lot of fun with a rapid fire myth busting round at the end covering everything from gut cleanses to probiotics to how often you should actually be pooping. This is the gut health conversation midlife women have been waiting for. Highlights:70 to 80% of your serotonin is made in your gut, not your brain.The gut is a self cleaning organ you do not need a cleanse.Perimenopause affects your gut from three directions at once.Normal bowel movements ranges from 3 times a day to 3 times a weekProbiotics are all about knowing what strain is in them.Leaky gut is real, even if the wellness industry has run away with it.Childhood trauma can show up decades later as IBS or chronic constipation. Get in Touch with Dr. Patel: Website Instagram Get in Touch with Me: Pre-Order my new book Website Instagram Youtube Substack

  3. Aug 28

    The Menopause Experience for Women of Color: What Midlife Really Looks Like | Dr. Kudzai Dombo

    Dr. Kudzai Dombo is a board certified OBGYN, educator, and one of the leading voices in elevating conversations around women of color and their healthcare journey. We start with the SWAN study, a 25-year longitudinal multiracial, multi-ethnic cohort study that enrolled over 3,300 women between the ages of 42 and 52. It remains one of the most important sources of information we have on how menopause affects women differently across racial and ethnic groups. What it found is striking: Black women are more likely to experience worse vasomotor symptoms, their hot flashes last on average 10 years compared to 6.5 for white women, and they tend to enter menopause about 1.2 years earlier. Hispanic women also enter the menopausal transition earlier, with symptoms lasting on average about 9 years. These are not small differences. We talk about why these disparities exist, including the concept of weathering, the chronic stress load carried by Black women navigating systemic racism that accelerates biological aging, and what allostatic load actually means in the body. We get into social determinants of health, what they are, how they shape who gets equitable care and who does not, and why implicit bias is not a character flaw but a phenomenon every clinician needs to examine continuously. We also get personal. Dr. Dombo shares what it felt like to be on the other side of the system she works within, and we talk honestly about what patients can do when they feel dismissed, and what clinicians can do before they even walk into the room. This is a conversation about science, equity, and advocacy. And it is one every woman and every clinician needs to hear. Key TakeawaysThe SWAN study, established in 1996, followed over 3,300 women for 25 years and remains the most comprehensive source of data on racial and ethnic differences in the menopause experience.The SWAN study found that Black women slept on average 30 minutes less per night than white women, even though they were less likely to report sleep disturbances — a gap that has significant implications for cardiometabolic health.Weathering is the concept that chronic stress from navigating systemic racism accelerates biological aging in Black women, contributing to earlier and more severe menopause symptoms and higher cardiometabolic disease burden.Social determinants of health include economic stability, access to quality care, food environments, green spaces, and the chronic stress of racial discrimination — all of which shape health outcomes.Only 6.8 percent of US residents felt prepared to prescribe hormone therapy at graduation a statistic that explains a great deal about the care gap women experience.Hot flashes are not benign; the intensity and duration of vasomotor symptoms is linked to cardiovascular risk and brain health, which makes treating them a priority not a preference. Get in Touch with Dr. Dombo: Website Instagram TikTok Get in Touch with Me: Website Instagram Youtube Substack

  4. Aug 21

    The Hidden Heart Disease Risk No One Is Talking About in the South Asian Community | Dr. Ambreen Mohamed

    South Asians represent about a quarter of the world's population but account for over 60 percent of the world's heart disease. The highest rates of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. And yet most women in the community have no idea this could be coming for them. This week I spoke with Dr. Ambreen Mohamed, a cardiologist with a passion for improving cardiovascular health, particularly in South Asian communities. This is a conversation I have wanted to have for a long time, and it is personal. I lost my mother to a massive heart attack over a year ago, and like so many women in our community, her symptoms did not look like what we are taught to recognize. We talk about why women's heart attack symptoms are so often dismissed, why the research was built on men for decades, and why what we call atypical is actually just different. We get into the genetics that make South Asians uniquely vulnerable, including lipoprotein A, APOB, insulin resistance, visceral fat distribution, and why someone can look healthy on the outside and have significant cardiovascular risk on the inside. We talk about the cultural pressures that make South Asian women put everyone else first, and how chronic stress compounds an already elevated risk. We also cover what good prevention actually looks like. What to ask your doctor. What markers to check beyond a standard cholesterol panel. How pregnancy history, PMOS, preeclampsia, and early menopause all factor into cardiovascular risk assessment. And what is coming down the pipeline in cardiology that gives Dr. Mohamed genuine excitement. This is not a doom and gloom conversation. It is an empowering one. Because knowing your risk is the first step to doing something about it. South Asians make up about 25 percent of the world's population but account for over 60 percent of global heart disease, with the highest rates of diabetes and metabolic syndrome of any ethnicity. What you'll learn: Women's heart attack symptoms are often dismissed because they can present differently from the classic Hollywood version, including fatigue, jaw pain, back pain, nausea, and indigestion rather than crushing chest pain.Microvascular disease, disease of the smaller coronary arteries, is more common in women and diabetics and can be missed entirely on standard imaging.The skinny fat phenomenon is real: visceral fat, the fat that wraps around organs deep in the body, increases cardiovascular risk even in people who appear slim.Early menopause is an independent risk factor for high blood pressure, and the estrogen drop during perimenopause and menopause accelerates cardiovascular risk.Sleep apnea is one of the most underdiagnosed contributors to high blood pressure and should be screened for before jumping to medication.The foundation of prevention is not supplements or peptides: it is sleep, movement, diet, stress management, and knowing your numbers. Connect with Dr. Mohamed: Website Instagram TikTok

  5. Aug 14

    Beyond the Prescription: How to Become a More Empowered Patient | Dr. Lucy McBride

    Have you ever left a doctor's appointment feeling like you were treated as a diagnosis rather than a person? Where the 15 minutes were up before you could even get to the real question? Dr. Lucy McBride is a primary care physician, co-founder of the Ackerly McBride Group in Washington DC, and author of the new book Beyond the Prescription. For over 25 years she has practiced what she calls evidence-based, relationship-centered medicine, and her weekly Substack newsletter Are You OK? now reaches over 41,000 readers. This is not just a book about the medical system. It is about you. Lucy's argument is that self-awareness is a superpower, and that the most powerful thing you can bring to a doctor's appointment is a clear, honest understanding of your own story, your stressors, your history, and the narratives you tell yourself about what you deserve. We talk about why medicine is very good at treating disease but less good at treating the person who has it. We get into the concept of the clinical gaze, what gets lost when a clinician reduces you to your labs or your organ system, and how communication on both sides of the exam table can transform the patient and doctor relationship. Lucy also walks through the patient personality types she writes about in the book, from the people pleaser to the optimizer to the internet warrior, and why recognizing which one you are is the first step to getting better care. We also have a frank conversation about the parts of this that are hard. Health agency is not equally accessible to everyone. Implicit bias is real. Trust has been broken in many communities for very good reason. And putting the onus on the patient to be more empowered while the system remains broken is genuinely a big ask. Lucy does not shy away from any of that. This is a must listen for patients who feel dismissed and for clinicians who want to do better. What you will learn: Self-awareness is the birthplace of health agency: understanding your story, your stressors, your history, and the narratives you tell yourself about worthiness is the foundation of being a more empowered patient.Doctors want to care for whole people but the system does not give them the time or training to do it; pointing that out kindly rather than coming in adversarially can change the energy in the room.AI is most useful in healthcare as a question generator and vocabulary builder, not as a diagnostician.Trust has been broken in marginalized communities for very good reason; acknowledging that history is part of practicing better medicine.The best prescription a doctor can give is sometimes vocabulary: permission to ask the question you are embarrassed to ask and to not settle for less than someone who sees you as a whole person. The biggest takeaway from this episode is: Trust but verify. Go into a new clinical relationship with openness and the benefit of the doubt rather than assuming the worst. And for clinicians: patients who come in with questions and articles are not trying to undermine you. They are doing the best they can in a system that has not served them. Meet them there. Get in Touch with Dr. McBride: Website Substack Instagram Podcast Get in Touch with Me: Website Instagram Youtube Substack

  6. Aug 7

    Pelvic Venous Disease & PGAD: A Wild Journey to Finding Answers | April Patterson

    April Patterson was one of my earliest guests, and her first episode on persistent genital arousal disorder remains one of the most listened to episodes on this podcast. April is a pelvic floor physical therapist who specializes in PGAD. She has also lived it. After spinal surgery addressed her original PGAD symptoms nearly a decade ago, new symptoms kept building. Left lower quadrant pain, bladder pain, GI symptoms, clitoral changes, leg symptoms that did not match any nerve pathway. She was dismissed, she was told everything looked fine, and she kept pushing anyway. What they eventually found was pelvic venous disease. And it explained so much of what April dealing with. In this episode: How PGAD and pelvic venous disease can overlap and mimic each other The symptoms that finally pointed to a vascular cause What the procedure involved and what they found How this is changing the way April approaches her own patients Why the vessels need to be part of the diagnostic conversation in pelvic pain If you have been told everything looks normal and you are still in pain, please share this episode. These are the conversations that change the trajectory for women who have been searching for years.

  7. Jul 31

    Why Women Get Dismissed in Healthcare and What We Can Do About It | Dr. Sameena Rahman

    After more than two decades as a board certified OBGYN and over a decade as a specialist in sexual medicine and menopause, I have come to believe that one of the biggest obstacles in women's healthcare is not the absence of treatments or research. It is dismissal. This is not just something I see in my patients. I have lived it too. I share a story from my own birth experience that I have not talked about much publicly, and it changed how I think about what it means to navigate a system that was not built to listen to women. If it happened to me, someone who worked inside that system every day, I think about what it means for women who do not have the same access or the same voice. That is also what led me to write Brown Girls' Disease. The women who struggle most in this system are almost always the ones who have been told the longest that nothing is wrong, and I wrote this book for them. We talk about what is in it, who it is for, and why the title means so much more than it might seem at first. My mission has always been simple. I want women to feel seen, heard, and believed. This episode is about why that still matters so much. Highlights: Dismissal is one of the biggest obstacles in women's healthcare today.Why siloed medicine means women fall through the cracks.The story behind the phrase brown girls' disease.Why naming a condition can be part of patients healing.The movement to end dismissal in women's health. About the Book: Brown Girls' Disease: A Guide to Sexual Health and Empowerment Through a South Asian Lens by Dr. Sameena Rahman is available for pre-order now on Amazon, releasing October 6th. The book covers foundations of sexual health, the intersection of culture, religion, and colonization with sexual dysfunction, medical bias and implicit bias, trauma and mental health, and conditions including vaginismus, persistent genital arousal disorder, libido and arousal concerns, vulvodynia, perimenopause, menopause, and postpartum sexual health. Get in Touch with Me: Website Instagram Youtube Substack Pre-Order My Book

  8. Jul 24

    Obesity Is Not a Willpower Problem: GLP-1s, Myths, and Menopause with Dr. Angela Fitch

    Obesity may be the most misunderstood chronic disease in medicine. For decades we told people to eat less and move more, but the science says our weight is regulated by biology we don't control, in the same brain region that runs our reproductive cycles. Dr. Angela Fitch, past president of the Obesity Medicine Association and one of the country's leading experts in obesity medicine, joins me to separate what's real from what's myth in the world of GLP-1s. Angela's fascination with metabolism started back in her chemical engineering days and carried her through residency, ten years of primary care, and eventually board certification in obesity medicine, where she's spent the past fifteen years building non-stigmatizing, comprehensive care for patients, including her current clinic, Knownwell. We start with the question I hear constantly: why does obesity carry so much stigma when we treat it as a chronic disease like diabetes or hypertension? Angela traces it all the way back to Hippocrates prescribing treatment for "gluttony and sloth," through insurance systems that carved out obesity treatment as cosmetic, to the willpower myth that still shapes how patients are treated in exam rooms today. The science behind why weight loss is so hard is more interesting than most people realize, and Angela is one of the few people in this field who can explain it without making you feel like you're being lectured. We get into how these medications work, what they do in your brain, and why the conversation around them has become so loud. We also answer the questions that come up most frequently in my office and online, around muscle loss, microdosing, and whether compounded versions are safe, and Angela is refreshingly direct about all of it. For the women in perimenopause and menopause who feel like their bodies stopped responding to everything that used to work, this episode puts language to what you're experiencing and gives you something real to bring to your next appointment. Highlights:Obesity is a chronic disease, not a willpower problem.Why your body actively fights weight loss.What GLP-1s actually do and how they evolved.The truth about muscle loss on these medications.Compounded GLP-1s: what you need to know.Why access and coverage still fall short. Get in Touch with Dr. Fitch: Website Instagram LinkedIn Get in Touch with Me: Website Instagram Youtube Substack

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As a fierce champion for women empowering women (and the people that love them), GynoGirl provides the knowledge and education to help you advocate for yourself so that you can live your best life! Dr. Sameena Rahman curates a space for exploring hormonal changes, sexual health, and pelvic wellness, while also emphasizing self-love and life improvement. Through collaborations with leading experts and the personal stories of patients, she provides a platform for knowledge-sharing while also addressing healthcare issues that have impaired women’s quality of life.  A board-certified, South-Asian Muslim-American gynecologist who specializes in sex medicine and menopause, Dr. Rahman highlights the influence of religion, culture, racial bias, and societal factors on sexual health experiences.

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