Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Ep152 Bones, Estrogen, And Aging Strong
Changes in menopause are more than just mood and temperature swings; it is a rewiring of bone biology. The Besties sit down again with Dr. Toni Otway, a New Jersey Board Certified OB-GYN physician, to unpack how falling estrogen levels accelerate bone loss, why height can shrink over time, and what it truly takes to prevent fractures that derail independence. Instead of chasing a perfect bone density number, they focus on a smarter target: fracture prevention through timely hormone therapy, evidence-based medications, and daily habits that strengthen bones and reduce falls.
Dr. Otway breaks down the science of menopause-associated bone health in plain language—how bones remodel, why vertebrae compress into microfractures, and the real stakes of a hip fracture.
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Hey Ant. Hey Les. How's it going?
SPEAKER_02:It's going well. Good. We got company. We have company. So I'm going to be on my best behavior. Actually, no, we don't have company today because she's already family. Yes, thank you. On our podcast multiple times. And once you get past the first episode of shenanigans, you're in. You're in. So I want to say welcome to another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_03:Hey folks, I'm Angela, and that's Leslie, my best friend of almost 50 years. We are two free-thinking 60-something-year-old black women, and we've decided to be really intentional about inviting joy and boldness into our lives. We want you to come along with us. We want you to be on your own journey of boldness and joyfulness. So today we have Dr. Tony Otway back. Do you remember her? Yes. She has been here before. She is an honorary bestie. And she's here to talk about yet another of the myriad of aspects of menopause. She is here to talk about yet another.
SPEAKER_02:So Dr. Tony Otway, she's a licensed obstetrician and gynecologist in New Jersey. And we are blessed to have her here to continue our series A Year in Menopause. We thought that it's important to continue to bring this content to you because menopause touches everyone, whether you are a female, a male, whether you have a uterus, whether you know someone or love someone with a uterus, menopause will affect you in ways that you would be shocked. Hello, my dear.
unknown:Hello.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you for having me back. I know it's been a little bit of time, but uh yes, we're racing to the end of the year and we've got some more things to talk about with menopause. So um let's get to it.
SPEAKER_00:Let's get to it.
SPEAKER_02:So we've talked about some of the um cardiovascular changes um in menopause. And one of the things that we've mentioned that's really, really important is how menopause touches every aspect of our human beings, every system, every organ. And very often we don't hear about things other than hot flashes, perhaps. But um, we have Dr. Tony here to talk to us about other aspects of menopause.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So today I want to go over bone health. Um, you probably know a bit more about with called osteoporosis, but they're trying to change that name uh to encompass uh everything that should be done to help maintain your bones. Um so you know, just to recap again, menopause is uh classi you're classified as menopause when you're one whole year without your periods. Average age in this country is 51, and you've got to understand that at least 40% of your life will be in those menopausal years, especially because women live till about average age, late 70s, 80s. So you know, if you're becoming menopause at 50-51, that's almost 50% of your life is in this stage. Um so let's talk about bones. Um let's talk about bones. Let's talk about bones. So you you know, you'll you see well, you used to see a lot of you know, you know, women who, you know, as they get older, they start to shrink down. And that's one of the things that um when you go for your yearly, um, they're doing more and more is actually measuring your height. Um just to make sure that you are so if when you go for your yearly and exams um with your primary care, make sure they're measuring your height. Uh just to see if you're losing height at all. So this yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's funny that you mentioned that because I've noticed that at the tender age of 63, I've lost probably about an inch. Yeah. Really, Laz? That much? Yeah, I don't think I'm 5'8 anymore.
SPEAKER_01:Woo! Oh wow. Yeah. So um the whole thing with bone is bone is like it is a dynamic structure. It's constantly breaking down and building up, breaking down and building up. And where as where estrogen comes into this, it helps to slow down that that breakdown. So you continue to build, and estrogen keeps maintaining your bone, uh, the strength and the structure and the density of your bone. So once you lose that, um it's continuing to break it's it the estrogen. Um, once you lose the estrogen, your bone just continues to break down faster than it's building up. And that's where you get this weakness in your bones, you get loss of the density and the quality of your bones. So most medications that they put you on these days, if it's not estrogen, it's other medications, is to help stop that breakdown and help to maintain. So just you know, go ahead. You had a question?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I listen, uh, you it just out the gate, as we say, out the gate, yeah. I'm learning something because I never think of bone as something that is in change, in flux. Oh, yes, constantly. Constantly. Constantly in flux. So constantly in flux. In incredible. Because what that means to me is that there is something that one can do to affect this thing that's constantly in flux. We want it to flux up, not flux.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly, right.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. Yes. So so wait, one other one other thing I wanted to mention, like um we we we so we think about osteoporosis and kind of maybe like a hunching over as as one ages. And I wanted to talk about, I was listening to our friend um Kim Coles has this podcast called Reliving Single. And they had um they had a guest on and they were talking about menopause and aging and so on, and um how it changes the body. And Kim mentioned that she is um doing some hormone replacement. And I've never thought about that. I've never considered it because I did not experience menopause um in a in a in a disturbing way at all. I had hot flashes, but just like my mother, it was very mild, um, an annoyance, but none of the kind of horrible things that I hear people experience. And so I don't think about things like um HRT, hormone replacement theory, but when I think about my bones, I want to think about HR. Do you know what I mean? Yes, so that was the first thing that comes to mind is that we have this idea that because we attach menopause to hot flashes only, only and and mood, and we even make fun of it in those aspects, right? We we we make fun of it ourselves. It's not only that other people make fun of it and point and direct it to us, we put levity around it also. Um so I never think about it, but the more that you expose me and us, everyone out there, to these the connection between estrogen and these other systems in our bodies, I am just blown away.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And and the the sad thing is that um, you know, I think I'd I'd mentioned this before that it's it's not a subject that's really taught in medical schools, it's not a subject that was really taken seriously. Um, so with there's a whole generation of people when they first came out with estrogen replacement and then they scared everybody into not taking it, there's been a whole generation that's actually lost the benefit of using estrogen and hormone replacement therapy because if you're not starting it within, you know, the five to six, seven years after menopause, yeah, it's really not a good idea to start using it at this late stage of the game. So it really has to be something that's done very close to when you go into menopause to actually reap the benefits of maintaining this your estrogen levels. That's so estrogen. It is. It's it is a whole generation has been lost. Oh my god. Um because of the WHO study and and everything that scared everybody. So it's only these past couple years that we've started to push for more um research, more education, um, and pushing women to actually try and learn and make sure they understand what's going on, that things have started to change. Um, but again, it's a whole generation that's been lost to going without estrogen. Um but there are other things that we can do to help uh maintain our bones at this stage of the game.
SPEAKER_02:So there's a couple of things I thought of while you were speaking, and this is really I love the fact that we're bringing the conversation to the public. I met a woman, um, she was actually my manicurist um a couple of weeks ago, and we got to talking. She was a black woman who told me that um she didn't have any children. I think she was forty-five or so, she didn't have any children, and she said, regrettably, I went into menopause early in my 30s. Wow. And she said, listen to this, she said, I found out later when I could no longer have children, that my mother went into menopause early. And my grandmother went into menopause early. Oh wow. But because we don't talk about those things, her mother did not have that conversation with her and give her the opportunity perhaps to start childbearing earlier.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And she only found out too late. So the fact that we're talking about this is just so important, you know, to stimulate dialogue and to take the taboo off of something that's just a natural part of everyone's life.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Right. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:I just I just here's here's the teacher in me and the doctor in me also. I just want to go back a little bit and talk about what we call the pathophysiology of bone loss and and getting shorter and all. And what that means is how it happens, what happens in order to make these things happen. Well, remember we talked about with estrogen, it causes the makeup or the matrix of the bones to get weaker.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And the word osteoporosis actually means osteous bone and porosis is holes. So it instead of the bones forming solidly, it forms loosely like a sponge. Right. So clearly the bone is not as strong.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So if you so now you have weaker bones. So when you fall, you're more prone to breaks and fractures, etc. However, here's how you get shorter, and women and people have that hump. The vertebrae, the bones in the back, the spinal column, they're obviously made of bones. But let's say that bone gets weaker, right? So they're stacked on top of each other. Yep. And the ends of the bones start losing their density, and it presses shorter and shorter. And you get these small, what they call microfractures a little bit. So the end plates are like grinding and getting shorter. Instead of being nice and full like this, they become that's how we lose our height. Heights, yeah. The bones collapse collapse down. Right. And and the curves develop when the front, let's say, lose more than the back. So now it goes like this. Right, exactly. Instead of like this, you're like this. That's how you get these curves. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Let me tell you, you went from medicine to engineering.
SPEAKER_00:Now, speaking your language.
SPEAKER_02:So the point is, by the time you see an elderly person who is actually stooped, we can't tell them straightened up or whatever because they no longer have the physical structure and ability to stand up. Their bones no longer are perfect uh squares or rectangles. Exactly. So as Dr. Atwe is saying, we really need to start these restorative processes early.
SPEAKER_01:Early. Absolutely, absolutely. And take it seriously. Take it really seriously. Just give you to give a few statistics. Worldwide, there's about 8.9 million fractures annually. That's like somebody having a a break every three seconds, whether it's a hip, whether it's in the back. Um and uh it's it increased more if you've had a previous fracture. Um and the hip fractures are the ones that are the most and the worst. They cause the most problems. There's about if you have a fit hip fracture, 10 to 20 percent of women go from being like a functioning person in the community to becoming having to go into a long-term uh dwelling because they cannot function anymore. Just from a hip fracture. Just from a hip fracture. We're not even talking about the other ones, we're just talking about the hip. Why? So it's it's a pro it's a profound loss of function. Yeah. It's not just you breaking your hip. Like when you were younger, you could break a hip, whatever. But once you get older, it's a profound loss of function. 40% of people are unable to walk, 60% need assistance within the first year. Uh, and and it's weird because more women are scared of breast cancer than they are of having a bone fracture. And if you look at if if you look at the statistics with breast cancer, um, if you catch best breast cancer early and it hasn't spread and it's very local, um, five-year survival rate is in is in the high 90s. Um whereas the the morbidity, mortality, the death, and the um illness from having a bone fracture is so much worse uh, you know, than that it is for having breast cancer. So we need to be more aware of these things, yeah. So sit in that for a minute.
SPEAKER_02:Uh all this is from a lack of education. A lack of education. Who knew?
SPEAKER_01:You know, absolutely, yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_03:So you you mentioned we, you use the the word we in describing how the things are changing in terms of um um being more aware and educating more. Who is the we? Who's taking who is leading the charge in changing how menopause is viewed in terms of someone's whole life, not this comical um, you know, um, we don't need to hear about that. It's all about your mencies and that's it. And right, you know, um who is leading the charge? I want to like give them flowers or something. Well, we're talking to one of them. Right. I love that. You get the flowers.
SPEAKER_01:You get the flowers. And I think more and more, I remember I said there was this whole lost generation of women that are not being treated for this. And I think more and more of those lost generation physicians are coming into this world and saying, well, wait a minute, you know, we need something, and this is what's pushing um a lot of, you know, more medical schools are teaching it, there's more research into it. So I think it's more of the women that are um experiencing this and and demanding uh answers and demanding some help.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, so it's it's not impossible to slow down the process. And the process is not necessarily to build your bones back, it's to prevent prevent fractures. That's what we're trying to do, and that's the new train of thought, is not necessarily to just to build bones back up again, it's to help prevent fractures, preventing from uh continuing to lose and make you know by making your bones stable so you're not losing anymore, and doing other things to help um, you know, maintain your height, maintain your bones, whether it's through diets, whether it's through exercise, whether it's through other things other than estrogen. So it's really about it's really about preventing fractures. And this is why they're saying it's they're trying to move away from that word osteoporosis to bone health, because it's it's encompassing a lot of different things to try and maintain your bones. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I'll tell you, I see an integrative medicine doctor, and I went to them their practice because of uh menopausal symptoms of hot flashes and all, not necessarily, not at all related to bone health or whatever. And while I've been on HRT now for about a year and a half, um, helpful with the symptoms of um hot flashes, but on my last visit, she sent me for a bone scan and said, it's time I want you to get a periodic bone scan just to check on the fitness of your um bones and what have you. And, you know, proverbially, I always in medical school, I know I was taught you mo uh most of the population prone to osteoporosis are the people um Asians, people from the uh Eastern Europeans and small, frail, um blonde people um that I never really thought that osteoporosis was a problem in our community.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right, right. Because you didn't see as many you didn't see as many um black women with those issues of height, loss of height, and the hunching over, but you see us with those fractures. We do have those fractures. Yes. You know, we it it does it does incapacitate us as well. So um we are affected.
SPEAKER_03:I'm about to dig up my waist right now. I'm about to start like on this call, I'm gonna start lifting. Yes. I mean, really, that's that's the shift. That is what this conversation is moving me towards um taking action because these are it what the what the what now? One thing that I did to do, Tony, since the last time we're here, I certainly did go out and get those Syndrome.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, good. Like the next day. Good for you, good for you. Just a little bit, yes? Every little bit helps.
SPEAKER_02:Every little bit helps, every little bit helps. And I've started weight training because I've learned that since June, I've heard that weight training, wait, wait, wait, let me just Oh Lord, over here. Wait, wait, yeah, no, no, no, don't I've heard that if if you if you do weight training, not necessarily to bulk up, but that it is helpful in bone health.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And and please, there's a misconception that you'll bulk up um doing weights. We could we could never, as women, or we could never lift as much weight to bulk up. So um don't get uh, you know, don't think that. But the the the the exercise part of it helps to stimulate bone formation because what it does is it stresses it's it's almost like a mechanical stress on your bones when you're doing weights and you're doing exercise, and that helps to stimulate, helps to stimulate bone formation and decrease bone.
SPEAKER_03:Osteoblastic.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_03:I bet I bet you I'll be lifting those weights tomorrow. I bet you I promise you. I feel like that's very thing in this moment. This is changing me. I promise you.
SPEAKER_02:This is but I'll tell you, with these conversations as with others, very often you just need to make one or two changes. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, in addition to bone building that weight training does, what it also does is it helps us with balance and pro what they call proprioception. Right. And remember, when we get older, sometimes we're less steady on our feet. Yeah. We uh don't see as well. But all of that is related to an uneven muscle tone.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:So if we continue, you know, keeping up our muscles and our muscle strength, even if we do happen to have falls, because I know I'll fall, but I want to be able to pick myself up off the ground and not fall in a way where I'm breaking, you know, these bones.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh my goodness. I know. Okay. So again, it's uh it's all about preventing the fractures. That's what we need to work towards. So um, so what do we do? We um, you know, uh diagnosing it is based on a is a based on a bone scan called a DEXA scan. Um and what they do is they measure the bone density and they compare it to a healthy young person. Um and there's two two words that most people probably know there's osteopenia and osteoporosis. So if you think of osteopenia as slightly bone slight bone loss, and then osteoporosis as severe bone loss. So that's how people need to to think of it. So um, and usually if you're just in what they call slightly bone loss, when you go through menopause, it'll take years before you get to osteoporosis. But if you're on that borderline when you go into menopause, that tipping you over into the severe comes very, very fast. So again, it's something you need to start doing from way back when. From way back when. Just like everything I say. Not June.
SPEAKER_03:And not June.
SPEAKER_01:Not too June. Oh my goodness. Not June. It's all about, it's all about making sure you're doing these things from way, way, way back.
SPEAKER_02:But you know, this is a concept that we talked about in previous podcasts, and it's a common thing going around in the medical community about health 3.0. Right. If we want to get to a healthy 70 years old, we really have to start in our 20s. And surprisingly, it not only involves um nutritional eating and keeping your body um well, but it also involves maintaining restorative friendships and relationships and financial health and wellness. It's the combination of all of these things that it looks like my video is stuck, but it's the combination of all of these things that is going to get us to a healthy 70 years old if we pay attention to all of these things.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, but wait, hold hold on, hold on. I get it, I get it. Shame on me. However, it's never too late to start. Thank you. Can we get to that? It's not too late to start. Okay. Listen, I'm not about to just go go get into bed and and and stay there. So what what do we do at the tender age, as Leslie always says, the tender age of 63. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so let's just talk about when you should actually be tested. You should definitely be tested when you're over 65. Okay. Uh, under 65, if you have some of the risk factors uh that don't not include in menopause, some of the other risk factors that I'll go over. Um, or women that have had like fractures under 65, uh, who smoke, who have who take steroids, who have autoimmune diseases, all these people, women that are menopausal under 65, should really have a baseline bone density scan.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And they usually measure these bone densities every two years because it it kind of takes that about that to see any significant changes. Oh, okay. Um the other thing is that it used to be that you would just take your bone density scan and they would just read, you know, the numbers from the bone density and and and treat you based on that. But there is a new, well it's not really new, but it's something that you should also have done. It's called a frack score, and basically it's taken into account bone density, it's just one portion of uh measuring your risk factor. It's fracture risk factor, risk risk assessment, I should say. So it's a it's a frac score, and they take into account your age, your weight, your height, whether you use tobacco, whether you use steroids, whether you drink alcohol, whether you have autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sickle cell. Um, if you have family history of people women that have fractures early, um, and it gives you a 10-year uh risk of hip and other bone fractures. So it's not just about taking your bone density scan anymore. So this is something when you do a bone density, you should ask your providers or your doctors, what is my risk? What's my frack score? Should I be on treatment? Okay. So two things you need to do from now. You need to make sure you're being measured when you go for your primary, for your yearly, and you need to make sure you have you get your frac score, not just the bone density number. It's there's a whole thing, which is again bone health. All those things I mentioned, all bone health. Because all those things need to be taken into consideration to calculate your risk. Okay. Wow.
SPEAKER_03:Listen, my page is almost filled here. I'm over here taking notes. You have no idea. This is I tell you, this episode is for me. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I'll share it with everybody, but I'm just so some of the things that we that you need to do, the easiest things. One, it well, that the the most the best thing to do for when you're going through menopause is always hormone replacement therapy, estrogen. But again, this needs to be started sooner rather than later when you first getting into menopause. Even if you're starting to see irregular periods, it's best time to start anything if you're gonna usually once you're five, six, seven years out, it's not um you there's other issues that may be going on, cardiovascular problems, if you're diabetic, all these other things that could come into play. Um, so estrogen is always the number one. In terms of diet, you should need to make sure you're taking enough calcium in every day, at least 1200 milligrams per day. Um, and there's two forms of calcium: there's calcium carbonate, which should be taken with food such as which is like tums, and then there's calcium citrate or citrical. And most of these are over the counter. So it's 1200 milligrams of calcium per day. You're getting that answer. I don't have my pen handy. Oh, I got it. Oh, I got it. Vitamin D, you need to be getting four to eight hundred international units per day to help prevent uh, you know, falls and uh sorry, uh help to prevent fractures. Um and this needs to be divided uh to increase your absorption. Because if you take too much, it a lot has to do with your GI, um, what's going on with your stomach. So um sometimes it's a little bit more harder to absorb that. So you know where we get our vitamin D from? The sun. The sun. But the sun may not always be good for us either. Um and I'm gonna talk about our skin in a little while. So um things that um have increased vitamins in, you know, we have fortified uh milk and cereal, all these things have added um vitamin D in. Um, and just have a healthy diet, egg yolks, liver. I don't know if anybody likes liver, but whatever. Um So uh so all these things that have extra vitamin D that they have put into our foods. Um but if we have uh if we continue the way we're going, who knows what our foods are gonna be like in the future. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe I'll follow you where you go. Um so other things that we need to do, which we talked about was r uh regular weight, um weight training, muscle strength, even if it's just walking, uh treadmill, uh, you know, you get on your peloton, those these are all the things that help with muscle strength. And again, it's it's a stressor. So it's helping to build that muscle or those bones up. Um again, quit smoking if you're smoking and moderate and try and decrease your alcohol intake. So um these are some of the things you can do to uh just on a day-to-day basis. Um and then there's also the medications that you can take. You hear about and all these medications work the same way as estrogen, which is to help decrease um the reabsorption of the bone. It's called reabsorption. Um things like your phosmax, your actinel, your prolia. Prolia is an injection, all those other ones are um medications you take by mouth. Um so there are other things, you know, there are pills that you can do if you're not taking uh hormone replacement therapy.
SPEAKER_02:So the main thing is to get it checked. Get it checked first, absolutely. Start the process as early as possible so you know what your numbers are and your risk factors. Right. I love that. So, Dr. Tony, in the in the we have just uh not too too much longer. Um t tell me, does the menopause affect loss of estrogen affect the skin?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, absolutely, your skin and hair. But let me just say something really quickly about the bone still. Um, if anybody's had bariatric surgery, um that also will increase your bone loss because you're not absorbing your calcium, your vitamin D. So you've got to make sure you're on top of that too. Okay. Good point. Good point. Skin, estrogen helps to stimulate the collagen in your skin, which keeps it elastic and stops that whole droopiness and those wrinkles. It keeps that elasticity. Yeah, I have oh yeah, like this. Sometimes do you ever stand in the door like this? And you're like, yes.
SPEAKER_02:I'm like, wait, wait, all I need is a piece of tape.
SPEAKER_03:I'm like, what fingers? Yeah, I don't see any fingers.
SPEAKER_01:I stand there sometimes, and I'm like, geez, when I was like when I was 20, this used to be all the way up like so good. Oh Lord. So collagen, okay collagen, hyaluronic acid. It's another one stimulates hyaluronic acid. And hyaluronic acid helps to keep the skin um moist, maintains the moisture in your skin. So you see all these medications, um, you know, all these hyaluronic acids that you can put on. I use them. Um all this kind of stuff, right? So estrogen also decreases inflammation, which causes, you know, bruising or wrinkling and it helps with wound healing and prevents antioxidant damage from the sun. So you have to be very careful. So even though you need the sun, you have to be careful with the sun. Just because we're black people, too, you need to make sure you're still protecting yourself from the sun. Yes, uh, making sure you use sunscreen. Okay. So you should really use sunscreen, uh, especially though, those people in the south, you need to be using the sunscreen. So and then it also with the hair, it stimulates the hair follicles and maintains it keeps your hair in that state of growth. Always, it's always growing, you're losing it, growing. Once you lose that estrogen, that growth phase just like drops off. That's when you'll see the thinness, thinning, um, the brittleness. Yes, that's what estrogen does for you. So estrogen is like this this magic pill. It's a magic, magic, magic bullet. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, yeah, those are the things. And those uh estrogen is great, but you know, like I said, that we've lost a lot. So um, but another thing I also wanted to make sure I talk about with um with the bone loss, it to help with um not getting a fracture is making sure things like getting your eyes tested, making sure you don't have obstacles in your house, make sure you don't have rugs that don't, you know, that that have a backing on that won't slip.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Making sure you in the wintertime you're clearing off that black ice, you're not walking out there blindly.
SPEAKER_02:Do you know what the number one of the number one reasons I have patients come into the aura for fractures?
SPEAKER_00:Walking their dogs.
SPEAKER_02:Their dogs on the right walking, the elders walk their dogs, and the dogs get tangled, the little dogs get tangled in their legs. Right. How many times has Simba tripped me up getting in between my legs? Yes. Yeah, so people have to be very careful about that. You be careful about how often that happens.
SPEAKER_03:The world is dangerous out there.
SPEAKER_02:And not even just we need to just sit on our couch with the weights. Oh gosh. Oh my goodness. Yeah. That is. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, going to the days, I really felt badly for the lady that said her mother just never told her something. So, you know, that was a generational issue for her.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And she really had a lot of resentment and uh over the loss of the ability, you know. She said had she known, she would have had children when she was much younger.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Well, her mother didn't know either. That's why this conversation has to be intergenerational.
SPEAKER_02:Well, right. Yes, exactly, exactly. These are conversations that we should be having with our 20 somethings and 30 somethings. Yes, yes, absolutely. Wow. Yeah, you know, we think of menopause and we think of just um that it's a conversation for elders only. Yeah, yeah. Right. It's down the way of the other. Or just women today. You know, right. Wow.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:This is This has been awesome. You know what? One thing that I haven't mentioned, and I should have mentioned this up front, and Dr. Tony, you should have mentioned this. Dr. Tony is one of the founders of a really amazing organization. Called the She's like, hmm?
SPEAKER_03:It's called the Oh, that little thing.
SPEAKER_02:Of which I am a member, but I am not the founder. Like one of the founders, like she is New Jersey Black Women Physicians Association. Right. Uh NJBWPA. Um you'll find all of uh all about her and Dr. Pamela Brooke online. And they are a nonprofit um organization really designed to correct some of the mismanagement and inequalities in medical care for women and people with uterus and people who love women. Um it was formed several years ago, and because Dr. Brook is also a colleague of mine, I was eager to join the organization, and I'm so glad to partner with you and Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn to talk about these things and get this word out across different genres, not just in the medical field, not just on podcast platforms or not just in social settings, but let's just keep talking about it and make it a regular part of our lives.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right. Indeed.
SPEAKER_02:So I really appreciate you. I'm I I can't wait for the next um um session. Uh you know we keep bringing good stuff to you. So um if you continue to follow us, you'll get all the all the tea. We'll spill all the tea. All the good, good. Absolutely. So thank you again, dear. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. You two so this has been another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn. Brooklyn
