“So much of our physical health is about what’s happening inside. We want to look good. We want to feel good. But’s it’s the things we can’t see that we need to pay more attention to. So often Black women skip or neglect their exams.”
That was Emmy Award-winning host and journalist Adrienne Bankert’s take on OWN’s “Speak Sis” among a panel that included actresses Tia Mowry and Kym Whitley, co-host and social impact strategist Jotaka Eaddy, Dr. Medell Briggs, Chief Health Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at UCLA Health and an audience of all Black women.
“Speak Sis” has tackled many issues that impact Black people, but this episode, in particular, tackled the importance of Black women putting their health first, racism in healthcare and how to overcome dismissive and unsupportive doctors.
The importance of putting your health first
“How can the goose lay the egg, if the goose does not take care of herself?” panelist Mowry questions. Essentially, this quote means how can you can be the best version of yourself if you are neglecting your health and missing your important physical exams?
“I feel like [in] our society us taking care of ourselves, it kind of seems like a selfish thing, especially when it comes from a woman’s perspective. We’re natural nurturers so we’re always taking care of everybody else, making sure everybody else is okay. But at the end of the day you’re too tired to take care of yourself,” Mowry adds. “It’s really important for you to become an advocate for your own health. And don’t wait until you’re in your 50s or 60s to start because I would have never known that I had high cholesterol.”
Dr. Briggs echoes that sentiment because as she puts it, the mind, body and soul are all connected. So in order to be able to give to others, it is important that we feed all three. That’s the one thing she wants viewers to take away from the pandemic: “Self-love is self-care.”
“Start to reflect on why am I not? What is going on in my life? What are the barriers that are preventing me from taking care of myself? You made choices to be where you are, you can make choices to get out of where you are,” she says.
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The barriers Black women face
Unfortunately, Black women are often faced with obstacles even when they do decide to put their health first.
“There are pretty alarming statistics when it comes to Black women and medical care. Black women have a much higher risk for heart disease and stroke and are at least three times more likely to die from childbirth than white women. And while breast cancer affects one in eight women, we are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women,” Bankert shares.
And that’s not all. Black women often have to face the barriers of not getting the appropriate treatment or being taken seriously by their doctors.
“I’ve been very open with my diagnosis of endometriosis… And I was in so much pain that I wanted to call an ambulance. I, unfortunately, kept going to so many different doctors because I was being dismissed. Thank God I had support from a friend of mine. And she was like ‘Tia I have an incredible doctor for you to see,’” Mowry shares. “I was only in her office for about 10 minutes and she said‘I think I know what you have, endometriosis.’ And that was the first time I had ever heard that. And this was a Black doctor and she said ‘You fit the criteria, but in order for you to be properly diagnosed, you’d have to have surgery.’ So she went in with the little scope, but thank God I did not give up. Thank God I became an advocate for myself,” Mowry shares.
Audience member Lindsey also details her story of being dismissed by her doctor:
“I actually had gastric bypass surgery a year ago and it’s very challenging. People think it’s a quick fix. You have to work at it every day for the rest of your life. And it was especially challenging because my surgeon was very unsupportive. Five minutes before I’m being wheeled into the operating room he said ‘You know what? You’re probably going to fail at this because you already have.’ According to him, I hadn’t lost enough weight from before that he thought I should’ve, so he said ‘You already failed based on your culture of your family you know, a lot of it is based around food and reunions and cookouts,’” she shares.
“The following day, I was being discharged and he walked in and I was in extreme pain and I asked if I could stay another day cause it was hurting to breathe and he accused me of wanting to stay extra in the hospital just for the drugs. When you’re trying to better yourself and make positive changes, you assume your doctors would be the number one people on your support team. So to not have that was difficult.”
These two unfortunate stories further reiterate the importance of advocating for yourself and pushing forward when you face obstacles from your care team.
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How to be your own advocate
“You gotta be your own doctor and I don’t mean you go to school to know what doctors are doing. But you have to know your body,” Whitley shares.
“I highly encourage when you’re going to see a doctor, write down your concerns and questions. Write them down before you go and see your doctor so that you’re organized and can make sure that you can talk about it. If the doctor tries to dismiss you, or maybe the doctor just says ‘Honestly I just don’t know what it is,’ get a new doctor. You are not married to your doctor. You have the right to have a doctor who treats you like the beautiful woman that you are and cares for you and works as a partner with you. Do not settle for anything less,” Dr. Briggs adds.
Another important part of staying on top of your health is knowing what your numbers are.
“Here’s the deal, we all have different body types, but we still have to optimize our health. It’s those numbers like that total cholesterol has to be underneath 200, those LDLs have to be underneath 100. Women (Black women in particular) have much higher rates of high blood pressure and heart disease than other women and we don’t even know it sometimes cause we don’t know the numbers. We really want to make sure our blood pressure is 120 over 80 and [we are] actually eating the healthy foods of all the colors, exercising, being intentional of what we’re doing,” Dr. Briggs adds.
Although Dr. Briggs believes our healthcare system is broken and was not built for us, there is hope. She encourages everyone to learn about the Equal Healthcare Act for All and make sure that this legislation is continuously pushed through.
“There’s a website that’s called racistmedicinekills.com where we are collecting stories to complete this campaign so that we can continue to evolve into a new vision of a system where we’re really promoting health, we’re owning health. Versus just trying to get healthcare services,” Dr. Briggs concludes.