SEASON 4 EPISODE 5
March 1st at 10 AM PT/ 7 PM CET

You’re never too old! Women and Sexuality

WITH DR. ANDREA EISENBERG

Lately, we came across an online publication on Medium about women, ageing and sexuality. This seems to me a very interesting and important topic in the life of every women. Certainly it would be helpful if more men and women knew more about what is happening for women when they hit 50 or so.

Reading what Dr. Eisenberg wrote seemed to me different than so many things I had met before, it was neither a pure medical advice nor a sexualized story. It was just the right mixture of factual knowledge and knowing about women’s body and psyche and a compassionate offer to help. So we invited Dr. Eisenberg to our show and had an interesting 1 hour conversation which will be interesting for you, too, regardless if you are a woman or a man.

Andrea Eisenberg
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STREAMED LIVE HERE on March 1st 2018

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You're never too old! Women and sexuality

Timestamps

00:00 Intro and how to watch the show, make comments and ask questions

04:54 Meeting Dr. Eisenberg and how she got interested in Obstetrics and Gynecology

05:30 Heidi reports how her early experiences in ob/gyn had been with male doctors.  Andrea puts it a bit in context by pointing out that ob/gyn includes surgery which traditionally attracted men.And it’s not an easy life style for women who want a “traditional” route.
07:30 What about the older women you meet? Andrea reports that 60 year olds may have no one to talk to…and she’s often “it”.  She always asks about the patient’s relationships as a matter of course.  And she gets invited to weddings!

10:15 Changes that come with menopause, both physical and psychological.  And just what IS normal?

12:48 What “should” women be like at menopause or later? Pleasing their partner is a biggie!

14:50  Changes in practice over the years, questions from viewers, including from Martin Ucik, author of “SEX PURPOSE LOVE”

16:50  Those pesky changes! Lack of estrogen! Treating some of the common concerns.  How women value themselves.
24:30 The importance of companionship, especially for older couples. What happens when estrogen production stops.

26:20 Viewer questions.  Heidi recalls the relief from the fear of pregnancy that menopause brought. Compare with men’s fear of impotence. Other ways to be intimate.  Getting in touch with the body.

34:28 General medical advice for older women. Cancer and heart disease are the #1 and #2 diseases for older women so everything you heard about staying healthy.  Bladder infections can be so mild that many women don’t recognize it.  

37:12  Back to younger women:  What about menstrual pain? Choices of birth control?  Andrea describes several, some of which are new to us.

41:10 Hormone replacements, with slightly increased levels of breast cancer. History of decreasing levels of estrogen in birth control meds.

48:20 Women and pain! Men’s and women’s ignorance of each other!

51:30 How is it living with teen-age girls in this age, Heidi asks Andrea. Men and women in the workplace.  LGBT questions
56:20 Final questions: Mark asks if she ever seems like a “priest” for non-religious women.
57:40 We notice a final question from our viewers about returning to sexuality after a long period of monogamy.

58.52 Final remarks: Menopause is not the end of a woman’s life!

HEIDI’S INTRODUCTION

As women approach and transition through menopause, there are many surprising and possibly, unwelcome, changes. For some, the hot flushes, night sweats and interrupted sleep wreak havoc with their life day to day. For others, it may be more subtle changes that are bothersome – their skin feels dryer, their hair becomes thinner, their energy level is lower and it’s harder to take off the few extra pounds, their memory becomes a little foggy. And on a deeper level, there may be joy in not having a period anymore or hell trying to manage out of control emotions or sadness in ending their reproductive years.
For some women, these changes make them want to hide from any type of intimacy. They think they are no longer “sexy.” There are also the physical changes that make sex uncomfortable or downright painful, particularly vaginal dryness, and decreased sex drive. Additionally, there may be life changes, divorce, loss of a spouse, that add to insecurities regarding sexuality.
In our conversation with Dr. Andrea, we can explore your fears, your insecurities, your questions regarding sexuality as we age.

ABOUT ANDREA EISENBERG MD, FACOG

Andrea Eisenberg is a board certified ob/gyn in the metro Detroit area. She has been in private practice for 25 years, serving women from puberty through menopause.

Through her years of practice, she has been let into the most intimate moments of her patients’ lives and shared in their secrets, heartaches, joys, losses, victories. She enjoys the variety her specialty brings to her doorstep including seeing adolescents as they enter adulthood, women starting their families, women navigating through menopause and the years beyond, and everything in between. She has physician-patient relationships that have spanned many years and generations.

More recently, she has begun writing to share experiences of her work as a way to capture the human side of medicine and what doctors feel in caring for patients. She has documented these stories on her blog, www.secretlifeofobgyn.wordpress.com. She has been published in Intima, A Journal of Narrative Medicine and Pulse, Voices From the Heart of Medicine. She is also a guest blogger on KevinMD and Doximity.

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