Speaker 1: Confidence comes from knowing your covert literally, whether you're in
Speaker 1: back to back meetings, out running errands, or finally making
Speaker 1: time for yourself. Tamfax Pearl is designed to keep up.
Speaker 1: It offers up to eight hours of comfort and protection
Speaker 1: and features a leak guard braid that helps stop leaks
Speaker 1: before they happen. Because you deserve products that let you
Speaker 1: focus on what matters, not worry about what doesn't.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 1: Everyone, I'm Kitty Kuric and this is next Question. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is a little different but really important and we
Speaker 1: hope informative. We're bringing you a conversation I had as
Speaker 1: part of a fun live event we recently put on
Speaker 1: here in New York City at City Winery. I interviewed
Speaker 1: doctor Karen Tang. She's a board certified gynecologist, minimally invasive
Speaker 1: gynecologic surgeon, and a trusted voice on women's health. You
Speaker 1: might know her from social media, where she shares smart,
Speaker 1: approachable education with millions of followers, or as a contributor
Speaker 1: to Katie Courict Media. I was so excited to finally
Speaker 1: meet her in person. Together, we tackled everything from periods
Speaker 1: and menopause to incontinence, yay, and the stigma surrounding women's health,
Speaker 1: and we learned a lot in the process. This important
Speaker 1: conversation was made possible by our friends at Procter and Gamble,
Speaker 1: who are helping to elevate and support open dialogue around
Speaker 1: women's health. Let's take a listen. Our next guest is
Speaker 1: doctor Karen Tang. Before tonight, I have never met her
Speaker 1: in person, but we were social media pals, and tonight
Speaker 1: for the first time we got together irl as the
Speaker 1: kids would say.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Karen is a board certified gynecologist and minimally invasive gynecologic
Speaker 1: surgeon who's an internationally recognized leader in reproductive health. She
Speaker 1: reaches millions of people every month with her educational videos
Speaker 1: across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. She's all a contributor for
Speaker 1: Katie Kuric Media, as is Mary Claire.
Speaker 2: So please welcome doctor Karen Tang.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is sort of our segment on how to
Speaker 1: separate fact from fiction because so much of social media
Speaker 1: is filled with stuff that isn't accurate. Karen, and so,
Speaker 1: how did women's health become such a hotbed of misinformation?
Speaker 3: I was talking about Saint Joe. I was like, I
Speaker 3: don't know how long you have you could just be
Speaker 3: like the history of humankind has like led us to
Speaker 3: this moment. It's definitely a combination of how difficult it
Speaker 3: is to get reliable information, and that's been sort of
Speaker 3: the theme of the evenings, just us trying and struggling
Speaker 3: to get this information in this data and this treatment
Speaker 3: that we deserve, and the sheer number of people who
Speaker 3: are suffering every day, and it's not just about perimenopause menopause,
Speaker 3: but so many other aspects of our health, you know,
Speaker 3: periods and fertility and like sexual health and all of
Speaker 3: these things. So all these people suffering a real kind
Speaker 3: of like you know, lack of easy to access information,
Speaker 3: and into that sort of vacuum then comes you know,
Speaker 3: social media misinformation. There's some people who purposely spread disinformation
Speaker 3: because they you know, like sell detoxes. They're like, you know,
Speaker 3: we're the only ones who understand, and you know.
Speaker 2: People are so profit motives, yeah.
Speaker 3: Exactly, and so and then some of it too, is
Speaker 3: just people being really scared and confused, and social media
Speaker 3: tends to promote like strong emotions, like they're not real
Speaker 3: big on facts, Like the algorithm doesn't care about facts.
Speaker 3: It's basically like, you know, what response did we get?
Speaker 3: And if someone is like shocked or like they're really scared,
Speaker 3: it's it's going to kind of get out to more people.
Speaker 3: So you know, so the social media misinformation tends to
Speaker 3: kind of spread like wildfire, you know, doctor getting on
Speaker 3: there and being like, let me tell you the facts,
Speaker 3: and the data is definitely not as like algorithm friendly.
Speaker 2: So and the mythology starts really young.
Speaker 1: I think the way women are taught sort of culturally
Speaker 1: condition to treat their bodies and to feel shame actually
Speaker 1: starts when you get your first period, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or even younger. I was telling Katie backstage. So
Speaker 3: a nurse that I work with, uh told me her daughter,
Speaker 3: who was an elementary school got called to the office
Speaker 3: and they called the parents of the office. So she
Speaker 3: said a bad word and the nurse was like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, wash. She swore like what was this? And
Speaker 3: the word was vagina, Like she had used the word
Speaker 3: vagina in school, and the teachers were shocked. They were like,
Speaker 3: how like the mom is going to be so you know, upset.
Speaker 2: It's insane. By the way, where is this school.
Speaker 3: No, it's in the suburbs of Philadelphia, like our little
Speaker 3: blue dot in Pennsylvania. But no, it's true. And like
Speaker 3: this nurse is like, how how can you teach this
Speaker 3: to children that like a woman's body part is like,
Speaker 3: it's so shameful, it's akin to a swear word. But
Speaker 3: this is what happens like from a very young age,
Speaker 3: like a periods. Oh, it's embarrassing.
Speaker 1: And in fact, we asked Karen, we asked chat GPT
Speaker 1: some of the biggest myths about periods. It said, tampons
Speaker 1: can get lost inside of you. Menstruating women will spoil food,
Speaker 1: melt or plants. Menstruating women are impure, unclean. You shouldn't
Speaker 1: exercise or swim during your period. Obviously they never saw
Speaker 1: that tampax commercial that came out when I was in
Speaker 1: seventh grade. But how do these myths kind of impact women?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we absorb these messages, so, you know,
Speaker 3: even though we laugh about the spoiling food, but there's
Speaker 3: definitely this undercurrent of like, you know, it's embarrassing, it's taboo,
Speaker 3: it's something that you should you know, hide and be
Speaker 3: ashamed of. And we sort of absorb these messages about
Speaker 3: our own bodies. And so they were like oh God,
Speaker 3: Like you know, I'm not gonna want to talk about
Speaker 3: you know, my like my vatual discharge, my leaking, my
Speaker 3: horrible periods, because like, oh God, is just me and
Speaker 3: it makes you feel very alone. And I actually call
Speaker 3: this like the Emperor's New Clothes a fact where you know,
Speaker 3: you may feel like you're the only one going through
Speaker 3: something like a perimenopause, menopause, anything, but once you start
Speaker 3: sharing about it, you'll be like, all of my friends
Speaker 3: have had something similar. This happens all the time. So
Speaker 3: I encourage people to try it. You know, once you
Speaker 3: start talking about it, you'll be like I thought I
Speaker 3: was the only person, Like everyone is going to have
Speaker 3: a similar story. And like I said, just on a
Speaker 3: cultural level, the absorbing of that message, it trickles down
Speaker 3: into like, well, you know, no one talks about it.
Speaker 3: We don't think that many people have this issue, so
Speaker 3: we don't think as a medical profession that it's worth
Speaker 3: the research dollars. It's not worth like putting effort into
Speaker 3: finding like better treatments because we think it's just like
Speaker 3: ladies dealing with like their hysteria around their periods or
Speaker 3: around their hormone fluctuations.
Speaker 1: Do you think there is a sea change happening though,
Speaker 1: I really astely feel that women whether you know, they're
Speaker 1: positive and negatives about social media, but I think one
Speaker 1: of the positives is it does make people feel less alone,
Speaker 1: people talk about some of these issues, and it can
Speaker 1: be used, for example, your content as a real educational opportunity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, obviously Mary Claire has been huge in this.
Speaker 3: I think, you know, one of the really really strong
Speaker 3: good things about social media has been like the sense
Speaker 3: of community. Like obviously like all of this, like people
Speaker 3: find other people who can kind of share in that
Speaker 3: same experience, they can share resources, and then you do
Speaker 3: have like people like us who are you know, medical professionals, educators,
Speaker 3: trying to get that good information out there.
Speaker 1: Confidence comes from knowing your covert literally, whether you're in
Speaker 1: back to back meetings, out running errands, or finally making
Speaker 1: time for yourself. Tampax Pearl is designed to keep up.
Speaker 1: It offers up to eight hours of comfort and protection
Speaker 1: and features a leak guard braid that helps stop leaks
Speaker 1: before they happen. Because you deserve products that let you
Speaker 1: focus on what matters, not worry about what doesn't. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about another taboo issue, shall we incontinence? It affects
Speaker 1: will millions of women worldwide, and I think, honestly, you know,
Speaker 1: I really believe it's so important.
Speaker 2: We have to talk about our bodies.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to take care of your bodies,
Speaker 1: you have to talk, you know, truthfully about your body.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I got a kolonoscopy on national television people.
Speaker 1: So I've been doing this for a long time because
Speaker 1: if you know, knowledge is power, and we have to
Speaker 1: stop being embarrassed you know about all these things because
Speaker 1: they can be life threatening. But incontinence is one of
Speaker 1: those things that I think people just feel very nervous
Speaker 1: and trepidacious about discussing. But one in three women experience
Speaker 1: and some kind of incontinence in their lifetime. So what
Speaker 1: are some of the biggest myths about this? One that
Speaker 1: it just happens when you're older, right.
Speaker 3: I was going to be my first answer. So leaking
Speaker 3: of urine is actually some studies show it's even more
Speaker 3: than like fifty percent of women at some point will
Speaker 3: have some sort of leaking of urine. It's incredibly common.
Speaker 3: And so you know, I don't know if like trampoline
Speaker 3: birthday parties are as popular in the city as they
Speaker 3: are in the verbs. But every time I go to
Speaker 3: a children's trampling birthday party, like the moms and I
Speaker 3: just like we make eye contact and we're like.
Speaker 1: Well, my friend, who was my friend who talked about
Speaker 1: jumping and Peen, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Was just about to say that the first speak.
Speaker 2: We've got a lot of people who feel you're pain.
Speaker 3: Right pretty much, not everyone, but like a lot of
Speaker 3: people in this room.
Speaker 2: That's amazing, and Peen, that's my special.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, exactly, So it's true.
Speaker 1: And are there any men left in this very I
Speaker 1: hope they've all left.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I hope they hear because this is again,
Speaker 3: why should I be embarrass about it? I actually make
Speaker 3: the point my my husband had like a pinch nerve,
Speaker 3: and he had no problem telling everyone he was going
Speaker 3: to the physical therapist. He was going to the doctor.
Speaker 3: I mean, women go to pelvic physical therapy for urinary incontinence,
Speaker 3: but everyone will feels so embarrassed to tell. You know,
Speaker 3: you wouldn't tell your boss, your coworkers. Why not. It's
Speaker 3: physical therapy, just like any other physical therapy. So I
Speaker 3: think this is part of you know, we need to
Speaker 3: raise awareness about how common it is, like it shouldn't
Speaker 3: be something that we feel like we have to keep
Speaker 3: very hidden.
Speaker 1: Well, why does it happen as you get older? It
Speaker 1: is not exclusively for women who are older, but talk
Speaker 1: about sort of what happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so anything that weakens your pelvic floor muscle, so
Speaker 3: we have sort of structures like you know, sphincters and
Speaker 3: support like you know, fascial structures like inner pelvis that
Speaker 3: keep the bladder, the urethra, all that kind of under control.
Speaker 3: As you get older, especially after menopause with like the
Speaker 3: hormone changes, and especially if you've had a pregnancy. It
Speaker 3: doesn't even have to have you know, being vaginal delivery,
Speaker 3: just being pregnant and the pressure it puts on your
Speaker 3: pelvic floor. But also anything that you know, people who
Speaker 3: have chronic cough, people who have like eilther stanlows, like
Speaker 3: connective tissue issues, anything that kind of weakens your support structures.
Speaker 3: So that's a huge myth is that it's only people
Speaker 3: who are older who go through it. Lots of younger women,
Speaker 3: like premenopausal and their thirties all go through this. So
Speaker 3: the other myths that are probably important to debunk is like, well,
Speaker 3: there's nothing you can do about it. You have to
Speaker 3: kind of deal with it. Now. We mentioned pelvic physical
Speaker 3: therapy really really helpful. That's usually our first you know
Speaker 3: step that we recommend. It's not always surgical either. People think, oh,
Speaker 3: I don't want to have like surgery for this, but
Speaker 3: you know, like I said, you can do physical therapy.
Speaker 3: There's lots of different things that we can do that
Speaker 3: don't involve either ignoring it or operating.
Speaker 1: And it's not as simple as just doing those kegel exercises,
Speaker 1: is it?
Speaker 3: Keels is hard? Like who here is like failed key cost?
Speaker 3: Because like I know, it's hard to do. It's like
Speaker 3: strength training. You have to do like ten reps, hold
Speaker 3: for ten seconds, do multiple like reps throughout.
Speaker 2: The day, and then another fun thing I love.
Speaker 3: And half the time people are like, I don't know
Speaker 3: if I'm squeezing the right thing. It's hard to tell,
Speaker 3: like if you So this is where the physical therapy help.
Speaker 3: It's like having a trainer. It's like having somebody explain
Speaker 3: to you, like you hold this muscle. This is where
Speaker 3: it is like, yes, you're doing it correctly. So it's
Speaker 3: just like assistance.
Speaker 1: So how you know, we talked about sort of the
Speaker 1: shame and the stigma around so much that we go
Speaker 1: through with our bodies, you know, from the time we're
Speaker 1: born to really the time we reach adolescents and then
Speaker 1: childbirth and perimenopause and menopause and postmenopause. So what do
Speaker 1: you think it will take to really change attitudes about this?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think things like this and speaking openly,
Speaker 3: like I've been so moved by everything's happening with perimenopause
Speaker 3: menopause because like, look at this room. I've done a
Speaker 3: couple of talks outside of Philly and we've like filled theaters.
Speaker 3: It's just amazing. Like a few years ago, like I
Speaker 3: could never have imagined that, like you know, the number
Speaker 3: of people who would come out and say, yes, we
Speaker 3: want to learn the science, we want to get the
Speaker 3: best care, we want to push for more education. And
Speaker 3: it's just like it just takes people kind of speaking
Speaker 3: out and raising awareness about it. And you know, I
Speaker 3: always tell people it doesn't have to be that, Like
Speaker 3: you know, you're Katie Couric or your Oprah. All of
Speaker 3: us have a source of influence, like you know, in
Speaker 3: our communities and our families, with our kids, you know,
Speaker 3: talking openly about these things to you know, help you know,
Speaker 3: one say that this is not something shameful, and two
Speaker 3: that it's an area of healthcare and we deserve to
Speaker 3: know about it and have really good treatment options.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about, just in closing, how you separate fact
Speaker 1: from fiction. And I'm not talking about those ads you
Speaker 1: know that we're served up about belly fat. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about like legitimate what seems to be legitimate information that
Speaker 1: just isn't true. And you have some tips on how everyone,
Speaker 1: you know you can be sort of a conscious it's
Speaker 1: conscientious consumer.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, first of all, if somebody is out there
Speaker 3: saying something is always horrible or always the answer for
Speaker 3: every single person, no matter what, don't believe them because
Speaker 3: nothing in real life and nothing in medicine is so
Speaker 3: cut and dry. So a lot of times people will
Speaker 3: use like these terms like this is like always for everyone,
Speaker 3: like the best thing ever and like my like you know,
Speaker 3: hormone detox is going to fix your whole life, or
Speaker 3: like something is always bad, like HRT is always going
Speaker 3: to give you breast cancer. You know, like if you
Speaker 3: take birth control, you will have this horrible thing, no
Speaker 3: matter what so always like look for somebody who's giving nuance,
Speaker 3: you know, like here's like here's the data I'm giving you,
Speaker 3: like kind of a measured response. And then also if
Speaker 3: it seems like someone has a conflict of interest, like
Speaker 3: if they you know, have some you're just kind of
Speaker 3: like getting a little sense that there's like this is
Speaker 3: a commercial, Like I feel like you're trying to sell
Speaker 3: me something. Oftentimes if you look in their profile, I'll
Speaker 3: be like, yes, I'm selling you know, like this course
Speaker 3: where you like hack your bio or whatever. So right,
Speaker 3: and then also look at people's credentials because obviously you
Speaker 3: have again like people who legitimately like trained in this
Speaker 3: are really trying to kind of like give a balanced
Speaker 3: look at everything, and they have the credentials for it,
Speaker 3: you know, board certified, but would be Tyn has this
Speaker 3: many years of experience, so you kind of have a
Speaker 3: balance all of it, because you know it's not just
Speaker 3: one or the other. You have to have all of
Speaker 3: those elements together.
Speaker 1: Karen Tang, I'm so glad to finally meet you. Thank
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for your insight.
Speaker 3: Thank you everybody for being here. Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening everyone. If you have a question for me,
Speaker 1: a subject you want us to cover, or you want
Speaker 1: to share your thoughts about how you navigate this crazy world,
Speaker 1: reach out send me a DM on Instagram. I would
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. Next Question is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartMedia and Katie Couric Media. The executive producers are Me,
Speaker 1: Katie Kuric, and Courtney Ltz. Our supervising producer is Ryan Martz,
Speaker 1: and our producers are Adriana Fazzio and Meredith Barnes. Julian
Speaker 1: Weller composed our theme music. For more information about today's episode,
Speaker 1: or to sign up for my newsletter, wake Up Call,
Speaker 1: go to the description in the podcast app, or visit
Speaker 1: us at Katiecuric dot com. You can also find me
Speaker 1: on Instagram and all my social media channels. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Confidence comes from
Speaker 1: knowing your covert literally, whether you're in back to back meetings,
Speaker 1: out running errands, or finally making time for yourself. Tampax
Speaker 1: peerl is designed to keep up. It offers up to
Speaker 1: eight hours of comfort and protection and features a leak
Speaker 1: Guard for rad that helps stop leaks before they happen,
Speaker 1: because you deserve products that let you focus on what matters,
Speaker 1: not worry about what doesn't