
Photograph by Devyn Glista
As director of the surgical division at St. Elizabeth Physicians, Abby Loftus-Smith, M.D., embraces high-tech procedures that speed recovery time and improve quality of life for patients. But when she talks about enhancing women’s health overall, she primarily focuses on the human side of medicine. This is what she has to say.
Each stage of life is different. Our goal is to engage young women just as they start to transition out of the pediatrician’s office to help them find a gynecological home. At that age, it’s more about screenings and life changes. Then, typically, with young women in their 20s and 30s we’re talking about whether or not they’re going to have children and any fertility issues.
Later, we start getting into that menopausal age. A patient will say, “I’m having significant anxiety. I’m not sleeping well.” Or they’ll say, “I’m having joint aches.” Or they’ll say, “It’s normal for me to have menopausal symptoms. It’s normal for me to have painful intercourse. I should expect that because I’m aging.” Medical professionals have done a much better job of responding, “Well, yeah, that might be happening due to age, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we have to tolerate it.” That’s what I try to do. I want to normalize the conversations with your doctors so that you feel empowered to say, “Can we do anything about this?”
The goal of WISH (St. Elizabeth’s Women Informed Stay Healthy initiative) is to say, “Let’s just ask the questions.” We have public events with a forum of medical experts, and typically I’m there. We have a urogynecologist who specializes in treating conditions that affect female pelvic organs. We have a primary care doctor. We have a cardiovascular specialist and a weight management specialist. One conversation leads to the next, which leads to the next.
We’ve had dialogue with women who feel they’ve been stuck with the same physician for a long time and haven’t felt heard. I want women to feel empowered to have the conversations. If they’re with physicians who aren’t willing to have the conversations, maybe they need to look for another physician.
There are a lot of health care TikTok trends out there. Sometimes it’s great information, and sometimes it’s not, but physicians need to respond. For instance, a patient will say, “I need my hormones checked.” Some physicians will just get frustrated and reply, “You don’t need your hormones checked, your periods are fine.” I try instead to say, “Why do you want your hormones checked? What symptoms are you having?” They’ll say, “I’m so tired or I’m worried about my weight.” Then I can explain the medical options.
Our goal is to empower women to ask questions, to understand their bodies, to understand life changes, and to understand the treatment available.
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