Hi there. Welcome back. I talked about what is advocacy in female mentioned that advocacy is not about confrontation, it's more about clarity. So clarity about what your body is feeling, what it's telling you, how to communicate that with your physicians, and many more skills that I'll talk about in these later episodes. here's what I've realized as I've been creating this series. There are some really big barriers that women experience when talking about their bodies to their physicians. And I want to share what I've learned about this, because it's such an important, if not the most important piece of the advocacy puzzle. So this all started when I saw something on social media, and it just really blew my mind open when I was thinking about women and how they advocate for their health. I was on Instagram, and a health influencer popped up in my feed. She has a big account, around 150,000 followers, and she's lost over 100 pounds. Her account is about her journey this weight loss. So she had loose skin on her stomach, and she wants to get a tummy tuck. So this really explained that she's had consultations, but that she was worried about how the surgery would change her body. if we get specific about what she was worried about, it was her pubic hair. And if it was going to be higher and more visible after her surgery, because they pull that skin upwards. So it's a legitimate question, but here's what really jumped out at me. She said, "I'm embarrassed to ask my doctor about this, so I'm coming here to Instagram, to my audience, to ask you what you think, or if you know about this." This made me so curious about women being embarrassed about their bodies and whether or not that impacts the care that they receive. And more specifically, I was really curious about if women avoided care because they were self-conscious about their bodies. So because I'm such a curious person who loves research and finding answers, I decided to do a survey about this. It was an anonymous survey through a reputable platform, and the responses blew me away. Now, I have a report for this survey. It's on my website, [thehairychin.com](http://www.thehairychin.com). I'll also have it in the show notes. You can read all about it and see all the details. But for now, I really want to talk about the key findings and what I learned because it was significant. the survey was 400 women the United States between the ages of 25 and 65. I wanted to understand whether body self-consciousness affects how women navigate their healthcare conversations. The survey was less than one minute. It was quite straightforward. The details are in the report. You can read them of the key findings. 55% of women, that's 220 of them, said they have withheld a medical question because they felt self-conscious about their body. 60%, 241 women, said body self-consciousness has caused them to delay or avoid scheduling an appointment. nearly half, 46%, reported skipping preventative screenings for the same reason. So we're talking mammograms, pap smears, skin checks, these types of tests. Now, the truth is, is that I wasn't so surprised by the numbers. I kind of expected them a little bit because being a breast health educator, I do know that some women are uncomfortable having their breasts touched or exposed during mammograms. But after really thinking about it, I think I was more struck how rarely we talk about this barrier that women face in healthcare. You know, we're told to advocate and there are skills to make that easier, but there are also many layers to this, especially for women. And advocacy isn't just about being organized or being informed. It's also about vulnerability. And that can be really hard because when a healthcare conversation involves parts of the body that feel private or exposed, and also if there are traumas involved, speaking up becomes much more emotionally charged, more complicated and really uncomfortable. I think about the kinds of topics that come up in female medical appointments. And we're talking about vaginas and sexual health, weight gain, hair loss, hair growth, hormones, sweating, body odor. I mean, there's so many topics and they're deeply personal experiences. You know, I don't believe this is so much about vanity. I mean, it could be, but I also see it really about vulnerability because for many women, these areas are ingrained with layers of shame, embarrassment, or a fear of being judged even by their doctor. if a woman knows she should ask a question or mention a symptom and something inside of her hesitates, that hesitation can affect what gets said or what never gets mentioned at all. And that matters so much. in this survey, I asked the women if they were uncomfortable discussing certain areas of female health, and there were seven options. So 83% of the women had one or more areas selected. More than half said they feel uncomfortable discussing vaginal or sexual health concerns. 35% said the same about colon or rectal concerns. Now these are not cosmetic issues. These are medically significant areas of health. And if a woman feels embarrassed or exposed when bringing them up, it becomes much harder to receive the care that she needs. you remember what we've been talking about, it's that advocacy is clarity. And what I'm seeing is that clarity becomes much harder when emotions are involved. I'm starting this new series with this new season, I think it's really important to talk honestly about advocacy because it would be incomplete to talk about it without acknowledging that there are layers to these conversations. episode is about shining a light on this barrier and approaching it with compassion because health care really requires openness. It also requires women to address the vulnerabilities and the complexities of their relationships with their bodies. so for me, the next question becomes, how do we lower these emotional barriers so that women can speak up their doctors? And in the next episode, I'm going to talk about one of the simplest tools that I've found to make advocating easier inside of an office, even with delicate topics. And the reason I feel it works is because it's so straightforward. I'll be offering a free PDF download from the episode, so it's super easy for you to put this into practice. Because when the structure of a conversation becomes clear, the emotional weight becomes so much lighter. then health care preparation can really change the game. So stay with me and check out this next episode. And if it's not available yet, you can follow the show or subscribe to the YouTube channel and set your notifications to alert you when new episodes release. sharing your time with me today. If something in this episode resonated with you, don't just sit with it. Take action. Comment below, subscribe to our channel, or share it so more women can find conversations like these. You can sign up for the Hairy Chin Newsletter to stay up to date on everything we're building. And if there's a free cheat sheet connected to this episode, visit the [thehairychin.com](http://www.hairychin.com/) to download. Life takes a village. Thanks for being a part of ours. See you soon.
