Dr. Mitzi Krockover, board certified internist and host of Beyond the Paper Gown Podcast, joins Jeanne today. They talk about 3 women's health risks that we do not talk about enough: Cardio vascular disease, bone health, and internal medicine for women. Dr. Krockover explains that we are more than just our reproductive health or "bikini medicine", there are other health factors we need to be aware of, and know how to navigate.
Dr. Mitzi Krockover, board certified internist and host of Beyond the Paper Gown Podcast, joins Jeanne today. They talk about 3 women's health risks that we do not talk about enough: Cardio vascular disease, bone health, and internal medicine for women. Dr. Krockover explains that we are more than just our reproductive health or "bikini medicine", there are other health factors we need to be aware of, and know how to navigate.
Episode Key Moments:
[00:20] Introduction
[03:02] Why don't we talk about bone health enough and why is it important?
[05:40] Bone health, pregnancy, breastfeeding and post-breastfeeding.
[06:59] Must you take vitamin D with calcium? What does vitamin D do?
[08:23] Tests for bone health: When to do them, how to intervene with osteoporosis.
[09:53] Cardio vascular disease in women: Why is it important? Why do we need to talk about it more?
[14:15] What specific episodes or diseases are we talking about when we talk about cardiovascular disease in women?
[16:33] Signs of cardio vascular problem: What symptoms and signs should we be aware of?
[21:18] Internal medicine issues for women and why we don't talk about it enough?
[25:14] What an internist does and what diseases they are focused on.
[26:57] What Dr. Krockover does on the daily to live her best life.
[27:23] Beyond the Paper Gown Podcast, and where to find Dr. Krocover.
Guest Details:
Dr. Mitzi Krockover: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Beyond the Paper Gown Podcast
Jeanne Retief: FIGGI Beauty Shop | My FIGGI Life Podcast | My FIGGI Life Blog | Instagram | Facebook
[00:00:01.530] - Intro
Welcome, goddess, to your sacred space. This is My Life podcast, where we openly discuss life's wins and losses on our journeys to self discovery. This is your best life. This is your FIGGI life. And now here is your host, Jeanne.
[00:00:20.550] - Jeanne
Good morning,goddess, and welcome to another episode of the My Figgi Life podcast. Today we are talking all things women's health, but especially the things that we underappreciate and that we don't talk about enough. So let's talk about our guest. Dr. Mitzi Krockover is the founder and CEO of Women Centered, a company dedicated to improving the health of women. She hosts the beyond the Paper Gown podcast that informs, inspires, and engages women so that they can achieve optimal health. She also supports and mentors other women entrepreneurs as a Managing Director of Golden Seeds, an angel investment organization dedicated to funding early stage women led companies. She serves as co chair of the Golden Seeds Healthcare Sector Group and is a founding member and co leader of the Arizona chapter of Golden Seeds. Dr. Krockover has long been a leader in women's health and issues. She was the founding medical director of the Iris Cantor UCLA Women's Health Center, designated as a center of excellence by the Department of Health and Human Services. She then served as Vice President of Women's Health for Humana, Inc. Where she was the company's chief healthcare strategist and spokesperson for women's health.
[00:01:37.760] - Jeanne
She is a member to and serves on multiple high profile councils, societies, and committees. Recipient of numerous honors over the years, she is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, and she also received her medical degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Northwestern University. Welcome to the My FIGGI Life podcast. It is amazing to have you here.
[00:02:06.260] - Dr. Mitzi
Oh, my goodness. I just heard my whole life flash before me. Thank you so much for that very generous introduction, Jean. It's so great to be here.
[00:02:14.510] - Jeanne
I am so interested in this episode because I feel that it's things that we don't talk about enough. And especially as women, we get so busy in our daily lives and we're always taking care of somebody else, and we're always wondering and worrying about the kids and how we're balancing everything we need to balance it. So our health always kind of gets put on the back burner. Even if you have the flu, you tend to go into this phase where you tell yourself, it's okay, it's just a cough. My body's just a little bit sore. I can still make it through today. I just need, like, a vitamin C or something. So I'm so glad we're having this chance to chat with you. We're going to talk about three really important things that are very underappreciated in women's health and that I think we don't talk about enough. And the first thing that we want to talk about is bone health? Why do you think we should talk about it more?
[00:03:06.810] - Dr. Mitzi
That's an excellent question, Jean. And I so resonate with the whole issue about caregiving. And I just want to underline what you said, because women, for the most part are the caregivers, right? And so what we do know is that caregivers health actually is not as good as others in a lot of ways. So I thank you so much for underlining that issue. And to that point, I don't think that we think a lot about our bones until it's too late. And that's the one thing I want to say, is that it's not too early. What happens is and what you're really talking about is osteoporosis, which is basically the thinning of our bones to make.
[00:03:44.170] - Jeanne
It oh, that sounds scary.
[00:03:45.860] - Dr. Mitzi
Very simple. Yes, exactly. And we think about that. Maybe we have this vision of elderly people hunched over and all of that, but they didn't just get there in one day. What happens is that we're always building and losing bone. It's really a very active process. But the really magical moment in time is up until your 30s when you actually are making more bone than you're losing. And so it's kind of like putting your money into a bank account and for savings. That's what we do for retirement. So as much bone as you can build during your younger years, then you have more to bank on, if you will. Later on, when we're younger and we're still having periods and having the estrogen circulating, that actually also helps to build bone. As we get farther down the road, starting in our 30s, we start losing more bone than we gain. And so we want to keep more bone. And ways to do that is through strength training, getting enough vitamin D and calcium and not doing certain things like smoking. Smoking can increase your risk of osteoporosis. Other risk factors are being white and thin and perhaps even having a family history.
[00:05:03.360] - Dr. Mitzi
It's pretty much a disease of both men and women, though 80% of people with osteoporosis are women. And we're much likelier to get a hip fracture or some kind of fracture when we're older. And why is that important? Because many times that might lead to getting into the hospital, being in bedridden and nonfunctional and even leading to pneumonia and even death. So there are real significant consequences. Yeah, that's the bad news, right? Like I said, the good news is there are things that we can do. And so those are things that for lifestyle we can do.
[00:05:39.480] - Jeanne
Let me just ask you because you're saying that you're losing or you're not making as much bone as you are when you're in your 20s, when you enter your thirty s. And in today's day and age, in our 30s is mostly a time for many women where we have kids and we're breastfeeding. Is that something that we need to consider in terms of bone health, because we have so many contradicting messages. Are we supposed to be just automatically start taking a calcium supplement once we have had kids or once we've breastfed?
[00:06:10.030] - Dr. Mitzi
Well, that's a really good point when you talk about pregnancy, because you're usually taking a multivitamin if you're trying to get pregnant or you are pregnant. And so that probably has enough calcium with it. I think that as you get older, the best way to get enough of any nutrient is through your diet. So to be very cognizant, things like broccoli actually has good calcium. Certainly dairy products we know, and even if you're non dairy, then you can look at a lot of these. For example, soy milks have vitamin D and calcium included in them. So you want to do that. It's hard to say whether or not there's a specific amount, but what I would say is that as long as you're getting about 1000 milligrams of calcium a day, you're doing well. And also you want to use vitamin D because that enhances the calcium absorption.
[00:06:58.450] - Jeanne
You do see a lot of calcium supplements on the shelf that says with.
[00:07:01.960] - Dr. Mitzi
Vitamin D. Vitamin D is actually a hormone. We think of it as a vitamin, and so we need that to be able to better utilize calcium. Vitamin D has a number of potential benefits as well, though the evidence is not perhaps as clear as we would like it to be. But vitamin D can also potentially help with depression and also, or mood, I should say. I don't want to say depression, that it's not a clinical medication, but also it can help with potentially even boosting our immune system. So in all, it's really a very good supplement to add to your armitarium, and they come in usually about 1000 IUs you can also do blood tests to see where your levels are. For the most part. I think most physicians would say at least 30. Some suggest that your levels should be at 50. I'll let the listeners talk to their own physicians to see what they subscribe to. I take three or four, and I also follow my levels. So you can kind of titrate theoretically, you can have too much. It's not like some of those other vitamins where you urinate them out. So you have to be mindful of that.
[00:08:15.200] - Dr. Mitzi
But you have to get really high levels to really have problems.
[00:08:19.570] - Intro
You're listening to the MyLife podcast.
[00:08:23.170] - Jeanne
Are there tests that we could do or should be doing at a certain age to tell us what our bone levels are or bone density?
[00:08:32.510] - Dr. Mitzi
Exactly. There's an x ray test called a DEXA that does exactly that in the United States. Medicare, our insurance for people over 65 covers it. But I would say that if someone has any risk factors, they should probably get that scan sooner rather than later, because you want to intervene. And I'll give myself as an example, I found out through a DEXA. I mean, I'm very healthy, I'm very active that I have what's called osteopenia, which is kind of the precursor of osteoporosis. It's starting to look like my bones are thinning. And so now I can be much more mindful about intervening. And I've started a strength training program. I've been very focused on my vitamin D intake. I've not smoked, so I don't have to stop. So that's good. I would ask that if anybody is concerned that they talk with their physician about a DEXA scan. And then also one of the other questions you might have is that what happens if you do have osteoporosis? You've done all these things perhaps to prevent and you still have that problem. There are medications, they do have some side effects, but there are some things that you can do to reduce the loss of your bone.
[00:09:45.460] - Dr. Mitzi
And that would be something, obviously, that you would want to speak with your physician about.
[00:09:53.150] - Jeanne
So let's move on to the next one that we don't talk about a lot. And this is an interesting one to me. It's cardiovascular disease. And I personally always associated it with men because you'll always hear about a man just being super healthy and just one day having a heart attack. So it wasn't until recently, a couple of months ago, that my grandmother passed away from a cardiovascular disease. Thank you so much. So then I started also asking the question, should we worrying about that a little bit more as women?
[00:10:26.100] - Dr. Mitzi
Oh, yes. Well, I wouldn't worry, but I would be active and aware. So the number one killer of women is cardiovascular disease.
[00:10:35.440] - Jeanne
Oh, I would not have said that.
[00:10:38.490] - Dr. Mitzi
And that's no matter where you are for the most part, the good news is that 80% of the risk factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease can be modified by lifestyle. But what we're finding out, and what you're exactly right, is that most of the research historically has been done on men, usually a 70 kilogram white male. What we know is that men, for the most part have some very specific symptoms that are kind of like what you see in the movies. You're clutching the chest. And women, for the most part, don't necessarily have those same kind of symptoms. They may have chest pain and come in clutching their chest chest, but they may also say, I'm feeling nauseous. I'm really tired, I'm sweating. I don't know what's going on. I'll give you an example that I had in my own practice, a woman who came in for her first exam with me. She was in her 50s, thin white woman, and she smoked and she had a high cholesterol and high blood pressure. As I was going through kind of what we call our review of systems, asking all those pesky questions, I asked her if she'd ever had any pain in her arm or jaw or whatever or when she exercised.
[00:11:49.670] - Dr. Mitzi
She says when I walk, I get arm pain. And I said, oh, really? And she said, yeah. I said, well, you've been to other physicians. I said, does it stop when you stop exercising? She said yes. And I said, have you ever mentioned this to any of your other doctors? She says, oh, yeah. They just tell me that it's probably arthritis. So I got a little bit concerned because here I had this woman of a certain age who had a number of risk factors for heart disease. And what are those risk factors? High blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking, and family history. And did I say obesity? She was not obese, but that is another risk factor. So she had a number of those risk factors. And then she was telling me this as she exercised. And obviously, when you exercise your heart, your body needs more oxygen. She was having pain. And again, another what we call atypical, but maybe it's not so atypical for women is arm pain. And so I said, Dre, I think we need to focus in on this. I'm a little concerned. I believe it was a Friday afternoon.
[00:12:49.680] - Dr. Mitzi
So I said to her, as long as it's not happening when you're at rest. I gave her some aspirin and some nitroglycerin. I said, we'll start some tests next week. Over the weekend, she came into the Er. And my attending physician I mean, sorry, the chairman of my department came to me on Monday and said, we saw your patient, and thank goodness you gave her the aspirin, which she took, and the nitrates, because she basically was having she progressed to what's called unstable angina, which is probably more than your listeners need to know. But basically that's happening. The oxygen isn't getting to the body even at rest. It is an issue. Age certainly is a significant risk factor, but unfortunately, we're seeing younger women. And what we're also finding is that pregnancy complications can be a risk factor, because if someone has gestational diabetes, diabetes during pregnancy, they're more likely to have diabetes as they get older, which is, again, that risk factor. Or if they've had any heart issues while they were pregnant, it also sets them up. And I don't think we talk enough about that so that these women are followed and that they know that they're at increased risk.
[00:13:54.320] - Dr. Mitzi
So if they start having any kind of symptoms, the other challenge is also getting medical education. So, again, as physicians, we're taught about this typical scenario, but we're not always taught about the other. So when women come in, even with complaints, they may again be dismissed because they don't fit that model of what the doctor is looking for in a heart patient.
[00:14:15.210] - Jeanne
Just to clarify, also, if we're talking about cardiovascular disease, what are we specifically saying? Is that a heart attack, or is there other sort of heart episodes that do not necessarily lead to heart attack that are more long term that you need to treat.
[00:14:31.140] - Dr. Mitzi
What I was just really describing was cardiovascular disease, meaning the heart, cardiac, and the vessels that feed our body that the heart pumps that oxygen rich blood to. So what we're talking about, as you said, are heart attacks and things that might suggest that we're making our way towards that heart attack. And I'll go back to that, as well as things like stroke. So we have vessels that go to our brain, and those vessels can sometimes be blocked by what's called an embolus or maybe a plaque, like a cholesterol plaque that has been building up and then finally gets so big that it goes to our brain, if you will. There's some other reasons. It could be irregular heartbeats, and that could also lead to that. When we think about cardiovascular disease, and especially in women, what we're finding out is that it's not just the big vessels from the heart or to the heart that are being blocked, but it's also what we call the microvasculature or the smaller vessels as well. And it seems to be that that's more common in women. And so that may be why maybe the symptoms are more subtle or we're seeing it in a different way.
[00:15:38.860] - Dr. Mitzi
So what causes those blockages? Usually it's plaque. This stuff that you have a high cholesterol starts aggregating, and then if it gets too big, it will either block the artery itself or if it shears off and goes into the heart arteries, if it breaks off, if you will, then it can also cause a clog as well. What we want to do is heed any kind of warning signs. So, again, going back to my patient, she was starting to have pain when she exercised. So that is saying, okay, when your body needs more oxygen, you're not able to get it because there could be some blockages there. And then that might progress to you're at rest, but still having maybe arm pain, jaw pain, that feeling. And then the heart attack is when the blockage is so bad or for so long, it actually damages the heart muscle.
[00:16:32.790] - Jeanne
Can you maybe tell us what do we need to be looking out for? Because for me, example, I'm a horrible patient. I'm one of those patients that I feel so shy to say when small things feel wrong. Like you were saying she was feeling her arm was getting numb and all of that. So we sometimes forget to tell our doctors about things that we ourselves think are insignificant. What are the things that we should be looking out for and that should be telling us, hey, maybe check this out, or maybe you should ask about this.
[00:17:02.620] - Dr. Mitzi
So well put. Thank you. I absolutely understand what you're saying. Both as a woman and as a physician, it's always hard to know, what do I tell? And I don't want to keep crying wolf if you will. But it's kind of that if you feel something, say something and it's up to then the physician to tell you why or why not. That may be an issue, but also I also say use your gut as well. So the kinds of things that you're going to be looking out for are if you're exerting yourself and you start having shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, sweating, arm pain, jaw pain. Those are some somewhat classic signs that there may be something wrong with the heart and getting, like I said, that oxygen to the body.
[00:17:42.290] - Jeanne
Jaw pain, that's so strange.
[00:17:44.170] - Dr. Mitzi
Jaw pain, it's what we call referred pain. Don't ask me why, but it's just the way that our nerves and our arteries work. I wouldn't wait to see if it happens again. If it's significant, if you're really like or feeling it so that you have to stop, or if you really can't go about your day. And the other thing is, if it's subtle, quote, unquote, you can always call your doctor, but don't wait 8 hours. Again, if you're having any of those symptoms then I would say go to the emergency room. It takes time, it takes effort, there is a cost involved and you might be a little embarrassed if in fact there is not something that has been identified. But what the downside is, the upside is you might save your life. The other things is to know your risk factors. And the way that you do that is that you know what your blood pressure is and the ideal is under 130 over 80. So if you're higher than that, that needs to be addressed. If you have diabetes, which again is a blood test that your doctor can do to screen for diabetes, cholesterol, there's a blood test to know about that.
[00:18:49.020] - Dr. Mitzi
If you're smoking, stop. I know it's easier said than done, but it's really important and know what your family history is. And if you're overweight, then that needs to be addressed at all. But also if you know that you have any of those risk factors, those put you in a higher category. And so to know that your level of suspicion needs to be even higher if you have any of those. And then I would add another one and that is if you had any complications of pregnancy, specifically hypertension, cardiac or diabetes, those put you in a higher risk category as well. Not just when you're pregnant, but even afterwards. You asked a really great question. I just want to clarify something. Cardiovascular disease is not the only heart issue for women, but it's the most prevalent. There are also issues with the heart muscle.
[00:19:35.470] - Jeanne
Yeah, that was my granny's. That was actually her problem with her heart muscle.
[00:19:39.410] - Dr. Mitzi
And it could be you can get heart muscle problems if you have enough damage to the heart from atherosclerosis or heart blockages of the arteries. But there are also other things like viruses and irregular heart rhythms and things like that that also are in the bucket of heart disease problems. And so maybe you'll have me over another time and we'll talk about it. Or I could connect you to a good cardiologist.
[00:20:01.910] - Jeanne
Yeah, it's such an amazing thing to discuss. And I'm so glad you're on the podcast because we get to ask these questions and learn more about how we can take care of our own health. I feel like we're so blessed to live in an age and a time where we have so much medical intervention for these things. There were times where there was no medical progress in this field, and there are so many things that we can treat now. So it's so important to know our options and what we can do for ourselves.
[00:20:31.620] - Dr. Mitzi
And that's really key because the other piece of that is if you truly are having an artery blockage, there is a window of time where certain interventions can be done. And so you want to get there within that window of time. There are a number of things that we can do to help prevent this from happening. It's the usual suspects diet, exercise, reducing stress, and sleep.
[00:20:55.630] - Jeanne
Sleep is so important, and I think that also plays a big role in our next topic that we're going to dive into, which is I don't know if this is the right way to say it, but internal medicine. And there's so much that go on inside our bodies. But for me, my only thing that I link to that is I had gallstones, and I have had my gallbladder removed. And I know I have some issues with IBS linked to my panic disorder, but that's really what I associate the internal things in my body to be connected to. But I'm sure there is so much more. So what are the things that show up for women in this? And why is it something that we don't talk about enough?
[00:21:32.430] - Dr. Mitzi
Oh, wow, I need about three more podcasts for that question. Let me see how I could address that. So I'm an internist, so that means I practice adult medicine, so I'm not an OBGYN, and so I don't do what's called bikini medicine, but I probably do a little bit more gynecology than the regular internist just because of my area of interest and expertise. That being said, one of the things that I so try to talk with people about is that we are more than our bikini medicine parts, if you will. And as you alluded, you talk about mental health issues, GI issues, we just talked about cardiovascular disease and bone health, right? So it's really all of those issues that anybody can be problematic for them. What I sometimes focus on when I talk with anybody who listen to me is that there are differences between men and women both in the medical conditions like heart disease, how they manifest. We may have different symptoms. We may need different ways of diagnosis and treatment of those issues, but for the most part, we both get them, both genders get them or both sexes get them.
[00:22:40.130] - Dr. Mitzi
The other ones are those that are predominantly happening in women. So we talked about osteoporosis and 80% of people with osteoporosis Alzheimer's. 66% of people with Alzheimer's are women. Autoimmune diseases, certain autoimmune diseases are more prevalent in women like lupus and multiple sclerosis. The third bucket is those that are for the most part exclusively in women, such as breast cancers. There are 1% of breast cancer patients that are men, but in certainly all the reproductive health issues. So when I look at women's health or as an internist, I look at that entire spectrum. How do I deal with that or how do I look at that in my practice? When we talk about cancers, I'm going to quiz you if I can.
[00:23:22.990] - Jeanne
Oh God.
[00:23:23.920] - Dr. Mitzi
What's the number one cause of death in women due to cancer?
[00:23:28.490] - Jeanne
I mean, I guess it would be colon cancer.
[00:23:30.680] - Dr. Mitzi
I'm not sure. Okay, well, that's the top three. Most people would say breast cancer, but the answer is lung cancer. Surprise. All right. And it's growing in women and it's also in women who've never smoked. And we still have a lot to learn about that. But again, I think most people will be surprised that it's lung cancer and not breast cancer. Breast cancer is number two and colon cancer is number three. And that's so important. And then the recommendations for screening have changed because we're seeing it at younger ages. And so where it was screening at 50, it's now screening at 45. Cardiovascular disease that we just talked about, number one killer of women, bone health. And we talked about what you can do to diagnose that and also potentially prevent it. You talk about GI issues and you talked about irritable bowel syndrome, I believe is what you talked about. It's not uncommon in women. And is there anything different about it in women than men? I'm not a gastroenterologist. I don't want to opine on that. But my guess is that I think we're seeing more IBS in women than we are in men in terms of mental health.
[00:24:35.980] - Dr. Mitzi
We see more depression in women than men. But it's certainly a significant issue for everybody. So I don't want to minimize it no matter what we look at. Also prevention, right? So you talk about how do we prevent these cancers or diagnose them at early stages? We do mammograms for breast cancer. We do colonoscopies or a DNA test for colon cancer. We do the DEXA for bone health. And then obviously all those things that we talked about for cardiovascular health. The other thing that I think bears importance is really addressing menopause. But I will stop there because we could go into a whole other conversation about that.
[00:25:13.860] - Jeanne
I wanted to ask you if we can just backtrack for a second, and I hope this is not a silly question, but obviously I'm not a medical professional. So you were talking about the GI tract, and obviously I think that those are things that a gastroenterologist would look at. You're an internist, so what does the internist focus on? What are you mainly concerned with, and what are you checking in to see?
[00:25:37.600] - Dr. Mitzi
Is all okay as an internist? What's considered a primary care doctor? I'm the doctor you call or come to see if you have an acute issue, such as a sore throat or diarrhea or something new. But I'm also that doctor who's going to follow you along. And so if you have a chronic problem like diabetes or osteoporosis, I can follow you. I can do the testing and certainly all those prevention kinds of things. Now, when it gets to be that I need help and I don't have the level of expertise needed to go forward with a patient, then that's when I would refer to a specialist or a subspecialist, like a gastroenterologist.
[00:26:22.530] - Jeanne
In essence, you are literally our fairy godmother, seeing that we are all okay. And then when needed, you can turn our pumpkin into a carriage by referring us to the specialists we need to see.
[00:26:35.980] - Dr. Mitzi
I have never been likened to a fairy godmother, but I'll take it.
[00:26:41.950] - Jeanne
So in the life, we always say that life happens. There are no secrets to happiness, and we just do our best to live our best life, which is our FIGGI life. So what do you do on the daily to live your best life? One thing you do on the daily.
[00:26:57.030] - Dr. Mitzi
I just try, and it's so hard, and I'm I'm really working on this. Being present. There's so much stuff we can regret. I wish I had started sooner on my osteoporosis regimen, or I wish I had started exercising sooner. That's done. That's not going to help you, and it's only going to hurt you. And then the future can only impact it so much, but really staying present and mindful and cutting yourself some slack.
[00:27:23.210] - Jeanne
Can you tell our listeners a little bit about beyond the paper gown, where can they go to listen to the broadcast and what's it about?
[00:27:30.020] - Dr. Mitzi
What do you address as an internist and somebody who's been in the women's health space for a very long time? And I think just being a woman, as you probably can also attest to in terms of observing this, women's health is affected by so many factors. It's not just those medical conditions that we experience. It's also whether or not research has been done right. It's whether or not that research has been translated into textbooks, into medical education, so that it gets to our clinicians. It's also about policies, the policies that fund that research or politics. And we've seen that certainly in the United States with reproductive health issues, it's also about the environment that we live in. Do we have access to food? Do we feel safe? And all of those, again, external factors, do we have access to nature? And finally, the good news is the innovations that are out there to help us to feel better and to be better, I get the honor of seeing those innovations and those innovators all the time with my work with investing and femtech. So what I wanted to do was to look at women's health and kind of that 360 viewpoint and help others really appreciate those kinds of things.
[00:28:47.400] - Dr. Mitzi
So that's how I started beyond the paper gown. And I again look at different medical conditions with the experts, the scientists, the clinicians, as well as the policymakers and those trying to affect policy advocates and certainly the innovators. So that's where we try to shine a light on all of those issues.
[00:29:07.860] - Jeanne
And I love the podcast. You should really go and listen to FIGGI Goddess. It's really an awesome podcast to listen to and tell us a little bit about your FamTech ventures and what that is about.
[00:29:20.210] - Dr. Mitzi
And again, my team is going to be really unhappy if I don't tell everybody you can find us@beyondthepapergown.com. And the reason why it's beyond the paper gown is because again, the paper gown is usually associated with the doctor's office and health happens certainly mostly outside the doctor's office. Going back to your question about femtech. So in 2016, a woman, oh gosh, I'm going to now forget her name, but who was an entrepreneur, actually coined that phrase. It's kind of shorthand for women's health Technology or women's Health Innovation. What I found in the way that I got into investing and then being more involved is because I had a number of women come to me who were starting their own companies because they had their own personal health pain points and they weren't finding solutions in the marketplace. And so they decided they were going to create those solutions. And that's what I see for the most part in almost all the entrepreneurs that I work with. And so as I saw what they were doing and they were curbsiding what we call curbsiding me for my clinical expertise, I said I could really potentially affect change by supporting these innovators through investing.
[00:30:34.430] - Dr. Mitzi
And so I joined an organization called Golden Seeds, which is an angel investment organization that focuses on women led companies and we invest in a number of different areas. But obviously my sweet spot is women's health. And so I bring that expertise to that organization as well. And what's also been really exciting is to see women's health and femtech defined beyond just the reproductive health area, but into some of those other areas that we are identifying in terms of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, menopause sexual health, and even brain health. It's been really fun, exciting, firing. As I've worked with these entrepreneurs, I.
[00:31:17.940] - Jeanne
Can only imagine as an entrepreneur myself, I've been in this space for over a decade. I can really attest to how amazing it is to have people that support you, that understand your mission and your goals. And I'm always talking about that on the podcast, about the kindness that others afford you and how that can help you on your journey. Is there anything else that you would like to tell our listeners of where they can find you or interact with you or where you'd like them to go?
[00:31:43.900] - Dr. Mitzi
Again, our website is beyond thepapergown.com we also have articles and we have a forum and you can find us on all the usual social media suspects, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook as well. And we would love for people to follow us and to comment and let us know what they want to hear and what questions they might have and that will give us more ideas for other guests.
[00:32:07.650] - Jeanne
If you were driving during that, don't worry because I'm going to put the links to all of these for you in the episode description of this episode so you know exactly where to go and where to find Mitzi. Thank you so much for coming onto the My Figure Life podcast and sharing these really insightful journeys into healthcare with us. We are so grateful.
[00:32:28.190] - Dr. Mitzi
Jane. This is so much fun. And thank you for your insightful questions. I really appreciate it.
[00:32:32.340] - Jeanne
Thank you so much. Okay,goddess. That's it for today. And remember, as always, everyone deserves to celebrate the goddess within. So we will see you again next time on the My FIGGI Life podcast.
[00:32:45.490] - Intro
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