If youre not feeling well, do you book an appointment with a celebrity or do you visit your doctor? Would you rather have a Hollywood star write you a prescription or someone who has spent years in medical training?
If the answers seem rather self-evident, then why do so many women follow the advice of celebrities when it comes to making decisions about their health.
That was the focus of Dr. Unjali Malhotras talk at Sam Sullivans Public Salon at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 16. A family physician who is also the medical director of options for Sexual Health British Columbia (formerly Planned Parenthood), she is affiliated with BC Womens Hospital and UBC, where she is the creator and program director of the Womens Health Residency program.
Thats a long list of credentials. Far longer than Suzanne Somers when it comes to someone who is qualified to talk about hormones. And yet many women seem to swallow Somers advice about natural bioidentical hormones. Or they accept what Jenny McCarthy has to say about vaccinating their children even though medical science has disproved any link with autism.
Who are your experts, Dr. Malhotra asked in her seven-minute talk. When it comes to Somers advice, she says hormones are hormones and they all have risks. Find a healthcare provider you trust, not a celebrity.
Also be cognizant of whether the celebrity or newsmaker has any financial motivation for selling you their way of doing things. For instance, there are some people who make a living warning of the link between birth control pills and blood clots, saying that while five in 10,000 women risk suffering from a blood clot, that risk rises to nine or 10 among birth control users. And yet what the anti-birth control advocates dont say is that women who are pregnant women who dont use birth control have a 30 in 10,000 chance of getting a blood clot.
Are you really at risk, Dr. Malhotra asked women to consider when it came to making informed decisions about their reproductive healthcare.
One website she supports is
By Martha Perkins
