IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Take Back Control of Your Health with Dr. Sharon Malone
Wed, 28 May 2025
On this week’s episode, OB/GYN (and close friend!) Dr. Sharon Malone joins the podcast to talk about the urgent issues plaguing women’s healthcare in the U.S. and how women can safely navigate a medical system that is not built for them. Plus, the group answers a listener question from a woman looking to freeze her eggs. Have a question you want answered? Write to us at imopod.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Hey, Mish. Hey, Craig Robinson. Today's topic is one that's near and dear to me. Now, one of the reasons why I'm excited about, one of the many reasons I'm excited about our platform IMO is that we really get to talk about whole array of issues that we both care about. But this topic today is particularly of note for me because we're going to be talking about women's health.
We've got one of our dear friends, Dr. Sharon Malone on. And she's going to talk about her new book, new podcast that we're excited about. And But we want to talk about a whole range of things. And in many ways, to have a guy like yourself on in the midst of this conversation, to some people might seem funny because a lot of men don't feel a connection to women's health.
Chapter 2: Why is understanding women's health so important?
Because quite frankly, oftentimes we as women don't understand our own issues. And we're going to talk a little bit about that. But I think you are... in a unique position because we grew up in a household where women had voices.
And despite the fact that we grew up in such an open household for that time in life or that stage of our lives, I'm still surprised at how little I know about my own body. uh, you know, and, and how many things we didn't talk about, not because our parents weren't open to it, but they didn't know, you know, so we're going to talk more about this.
Um, uh, but let's introduce, let's get, let's get Sharon in on the, on the conversation.
And you said Sharon's family and, and, and I, I, You know, I could introduce her without the notes, but I'm going to read Dr. Sharon Malone's bio here. Dr. Sharon is a nationally recognized OBGYN with over 30 years of experience, a New York Times bestseller with her book, Grown Woman Talk, and a longtime advocate for providing practical information on women's health and aging.
So here to join us is a good friend and just basically a family member, Dr. Sharon Malone.
Welcome to IMO, Sharon.
So good to have you with us.
Thank you for having me. Thank you. Road warrior, because this woman here has been... all over the country promoting grown woman talk. I am so proud of you for so much. But you did the thing, writing this amazing, creative, fun, funny, informative, open, honest book about women's health with a particular focus on women of color, but it's a book for everyone, men, women, women,
people of all races and all ages, because you cover the spectrum of just some of the things that women go through. Can you talk a bit about why you wanted to write the book and how you're feeling about things? Yes.
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Chapter 3: How can women navigate the healthcare system?
And it's about this whole complicated reproductive system that does the least of what it does is produce life. It's a very important thing that it does. But you only produce life if the machine that's producing it, if you want to whittle us down to a machine, if the machine is functioning in a healthy, streamlined kind of way. Right.
But there is no discussion or apparent connection between the two. Sharon, can you talk a bit about sort of the state of the current state? What's keeping you up at night of the many things that keep you up at night about the state of women's health? Yes, I think that.
One of the things that is disturbing to me is that somehow or the other, government has gotten involved in decisions that are personal and healthcare decisions. It's not just about whether someone chooses to have a pregnancy or not, but you should have... This is a situation where a woman should have control over her body when and if...
to have a baby and to decide how that pregnancy should continue. Because let me say this, if doctors are afraid to do their job, and it's not, and this is not about abortion. This is about a woman who is in, who is miscarrying, who is, her life is in danger, or she is in a position where we know that this pregnancy is not going to continue.
And a doctor is afraid that they're going to go to jail because they are helping that woman to make sure that she'll live to be able to do this again. These are the kinds of things that are very worrisome. And let me tell you what the downstream effect of that is. In states where there are the most restrictive in the post-Dobbs world, If I'm a young person and I want to be an OB-GYN,
One, I might choose not to be an OBGYN. And if I do choose that as my profession, am I going to want to train in a state where my career is in jeopardy? Am I going to want to stay in practice in a state where I have to worry about whether someone's going to drop a dime on me and turn me in because I did something to save someone's life or to preserve their fertility? That's enough.
But what happens when you don't have doctors in those states? What about all those other things? Remember I told you, you've got all the other things to worry about, fibroids and endometriosis and all the other things. Now there's no doctor there. What about the woman who's having a completely normal pregnancy and she needs a doctor to deliver her? And there's no one there.
How does that in any way, shape or form improve women's health? You know, it's setting us back because, you know, now we're in a situation where now you have no access. And that's a problem.
This next segment is presented by our friends at Cologuard, a non-invasive colon cancer screening test. You know, when I first got my job at Oregon State, I was in my 40s, sort of early 40s, and I really hadn't had a doctor of my own. And I got... a doctor finally, Dr. Chen, and got my first sort of blood screening at that point in time. Because growing up, we went to the clinic when we got sick.
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Chapter 4: What are the current issues in women's reproductive health?
the theories and, you know, whims of whoever it happens to be. And so it's not really coming, you know, it's not coming from the scientific community. It's really coming from someone else who has a very different view of what they think is important. And they're embracing some theories and some, you know, conspiracies that really have no basis in science.
And that's a problem if that's how we're going to continue to work do research in this country.
And we're seeing that with this measles outbreak. So what's going on there? This is in Texas, correct?
Yeah. I mean, they've got what, like now over 500 cases of measles, a disease that was considered eradicated in this country. And here's the thing, like take for instance, smallpox. Okay, smallpox was a terrible thing. And then everybody got vaccinated. It's been declared by the World Health Organization. It's eradicated. Now no one gets it. But if you allow the measles to come back...
And more and more people are unvaccinated. And the thing that people really don't remember about why it's so important to get an MMR, the MMR part of it was rubella. And rubella was why pregnant women get it. And guess what? You have congenital defects in children, deafness, blindness, birth defects in pregnant women who are unvaccinated. So
As bad as it is amongst the children, yes, will most of them survive? Yes, they will. But what about everybody else? What about the ones that don't? And one child dying is too many. But now you're going to infect pregnant women and unborn children. And if you really care about unborn children, that seems to me a good enough reason to vaccinate.
Mm-hmm.
So if you're a mother that's vaccinated, does that protect your unborn child?
If you are vaccinated, exactly. But what if we keep this trend going? And as these children who are unvaccinated now reach puberty and childbearing years, then they will be just as at risk as generations were before. Mm-hmm.
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Chapter 5: Why is colon cancer screening important?
And to give you an idea, because it's technologically more difficult to freeze an egg than it is to freeze an embryo, believe it or not. Okay.
I did not know that.
Because it has to... Because a certain number of them, you have to freeze them and then you've got to unthaw them before you fertilize them. So if you already had a partner, I would tell any young woman who is like saying, you know what, my husband or my partner and I are planning to have a baby, but not right now. And I'm 34 years old.
And maybe three years from now, because here's the part that I really talk a lot about in my book, in Grown Woman Talk, as we talk about perimenopause and all this, one of the things that we don't talk enough about during perimenopause, which is that period between about 35 and 45 for most women, one of the first things that changes is your fertility. Right.
You're not as fertile at 40 as you were at 30. And so that's how a lot of women will come to this as they start to realize, oh my goodness, I can't get pregnant. And that is just because aging of the eggs. And the drop-off is huge and sudden, right? It is.
But you don't know, for each individual woman, you don't know how long, I say you're stamped with an expiration date, and you don't know when your eggs are going to expire. For some people, it may be 42. My mother, I was born when my mother was almost 45 years old. Now, I'm sure she was not Well, you were the last of how many? You were the last of how many, though? Eight.
But then she hadn't had a baby since, you know, in eight years before I was born.
Oh, I got you.
So, you know what I mean?
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Chapter 6: What advice should women follow regarding their health?
But if you really have to go in, dig in your pocket, then I would say, ideally, I would not do it before-
Yeah.
Unless there's some other rationale for it.
That's new news, right? I think for a lot of people. And then how about pick the right place? Yes. It's like you have to really investigate these places where you're sending your aches.
your research. But here's another little piece about what's problematic today is that I just read something last week is that the part of the CDC, which collects all this statistics on this, has been dismantled. So now there is no government agency that's going to collect all this data so you will be able to evaluate one center versus the other.
Now you may be left to whatever they say is what it is. So that's a problem.
Well, those were two that I picked up on. Am I missing anything or have you got a couple?
And I was saying, if you have a partner or you have someone identified that you want to be the sperm donor, if you have the opportunity, freeze an embryo, don't freeze an egg. Yeah.
This is good for Lisa. And it's good for me to hear. And I think for the guys out there, this is good for them to hear. So I really appreciate you.
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Chapter 7: How can men support women's healthcare issues?
I want to hear about that.
Because we're going to be able to hear from Sharon a whole lot more and dig deeper into a whole range of issues because you are working on your podcast. your own podcast. Tell us all about it.
You know what? My podcast is called The Second Opinion or TSO. So we have IMO, we have TSO. I would love it. And what I really want to do with this is to go deeper into some of the issues and to really hear from women about about the things that they may be wrestling with and may not have gotten good answers for.
And here's the reason why I love the title of the podcast is because I know a lot, but I don't know everything. And sometimes, guess what? I need a second opinion. And when we're talking about topics that I am not the subject matter expert, I have no problems getting those people involved.
So we make sure that in your five to seven minutes that you get in your doctor's office, you may not get all your questions answered, but we're going to try to take care of them on the second opinion. love it.
So exciting. And I would be remiss to say that TSO is a part of the Higher Ground Audio family. And as proud as I am of all the work you put into Grown Women Talk, I know that TSO is going to have the same level of candor, humor. Are you going to have some good music to your podcast?
Because we didn't mention that sharing the book, Grown Woman Talk, comes with a playlist because my girl loves her music. And sprinkled throughout every story, she has a song that
Oh, neat.
That goes with it, you know. And it is a fun, it's a fun playlist.
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Chapter 8: What changes are needed in women's healthcare delivery?
Yeah, I know, I know. See, this was her way to get us to talk about how good her music tasted.
I wasn't even thinking about it. I wasn't even thinking about it. What I was thinking about is that I am looking forward to having Sharon back on IMO. I am looking forward to having some great conversations with you, more candid, more focused on TSO. Because this issue, if... anyone couldn't tell is near and dear to my heart.
Health and women's health has been at core of my advocacy since I've been in the public eye. I believe strongly that we as women have to take ownership over our health. I live my life by that motto and I've been better off. I mean, my physical health is directly linked to my mental health. And what got me through so many
of the tough times over the last decade was the fact that, you know, I felt good inside. And I think it's incumbent upon us to share that good news with other women because it's something we can do. You know, we don't have to be athletes climbing up a mountain. We just have to get up and move a little bit, eat better, be advised, believe in science and
and have candid conversations with the people that we love, it's doable. I just want us to do it. So I'm grateful, Sharon, that you are going to be the voice of that conversation. So, so excited. And thank you for welcoming me to the family. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And actually, thanks for letting the guy be in on this discussion. This was very...
Well, I think you need to be in, or more guys, I shouldn't say you, but that's going to be a part of it, right? Sharing, having those male voices around the table, people who are educated, but those men who are totally clueless so that the men can feel comfortable in their cluelessness, that it doesn't prevent them from being at the table asking all kinds of questions.
It's better to ask and be wrong than not ask at all.
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