Welcome to OBGYN Champs, the show where no question is off limits. Join host Morgan Allen and board-certified OB/GYN Dr. Suny Caminero as they tackle the topics women are often too embarrassed, afraid, or unsure to ask about. From hormones, menopause, and sexual wellness to pregnancy, pelvic health, cosmetic gynecology, and everything in between, each episode delivers honest conversations, expert advice, and practical insights to help women take control of their health with confidence.
Whether you’re in your 20s, navigating motherhood, approaching menopause, or simply looking for trustworthy answers, OBGYN Champs is your place for real talk, myth-busting, and empowering education. Tune in, ask your questions, and join the conversation because your health deserves to be talked about.
Dr. Suny Caminero, MD, OB/GYN
Founder of Cosmetic Gynecology Florida
Website Address: https://cosmeticgynecologyfl.com/
Is social media making women’s health better or worse?
Dr. Suny:
I believe, in the grand scheme, social media is making it better because it’s making women aware. We’re able to educate through social media. Now, there’s a lot of misinformation on social media, for sure, but I think in the totality of it, women are learning information, and now they have choices. Now they can go and look it up and talk to their doctor, talk to somebody who is an expert in whatever topic it is that they’re thinking about.
But sometimes there are topics that women don’t even know to ask about and are suffering through things. Then they hear about it on social media. They wouldn’t have heard it anywhere else if social media wasn’t available. That gives them the ability to go, “Oh, wait, I’m not the only one. Let me ask about this,” or, “Let me search more,” and hopefully not necessarily take what you get from anybody on social media as the authority. But I do believe social media is bringing a lot of awareness, which I’m really happy about.
So there’s pros and cons to social media. I know there’s comparison, and that could be affecting women’s health. But on the information side of things, ultimately, the hot take is that it’s making it better.
What are people getting wrong about hormones?
Dr. Suny:
Everything. Professionally, I see it all the time. Sometimes people feel like their hormones are causing every problem they have. Hormones are a huge part of our body, but they don’t account for everything. There are many things that can be going wrong even when you have completely normal hormone levels.
That’s a different topic about what’s normal, what’s not normal, what’s the right range, and what’s the optimal range. That could take three episodes of this. But what’s getting misunderstood about hormones is that they are important. When your hormones are not balanced, your entire body responds, from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes. Your joints, your brain, your heart, everything responds when your hormones are not normalized.
For women, when we get lab work and we’re told, “Your hormones are normal,” they could still be on the lower end of normal. They could be really low for what is optimal for you. Many women just feel like maybe there’s something wrong in their head, maybe they’re imagining what they’re feeling, when there is actually an issue there.
There are so many misconceptions about hormones. Whether it’s, “Do I need them? Do I not need them? Is it normal? Is it not normal?” It’s a much bigger topic than what we have time for today.
Morgan Allen:
So you recommend getting a personal meeting with somebody? There’s too much information online, and unless you have your labs, there’s not much you can do?
Dr. Suny:
There is too much information. There’s some really good information, and there is some really bad information.
Having a consultation with a hormone specialist, somebody who specializes in hormones, is extremely important, not just somebody who maybe dabbles in hormones.
Hormones can also be dangerous. Salt is good for you, but too much salt is not good for you. Tylenol is okay at the right level. Same with hormones. If your hormones are too low, you’re not going to have an effect. If your hormones are too high, your body is going to respond negatively as well.
Morgan Allen:
My daddy always says, “Everything in moderation.”
Dr. Suny:
Exactly.
Is there an age where people should expect major changes in sexual wellness?
Dr. Suny:
Yes. Great question. There are different stages in life. Believe it or not, when we’re younger, many women go on birth control because we want to have a life and wait to have babies until later on. We want to go to college, have a career, and all of that is good for us.
We often use birth control, and birth control actually blocks us from ovulating. That’s how it works to help prevent pregnancy. It also blocks your hormone levels. Many women who are on hormonal birth control have a very low sex drive. It also dries the vagina a little bit, so sometimes these women don’t necessarily have painful sex, but they have dry sex. They have to use lubricant because they’re on birth control. So that’s one population.
Morgan Allen:
Is there a specific type of birth control you’re referring to, or is it all birth control?
Dr. Suny:
It is not all, but it’s typically oral birth control pills, whether they are estrogen and progesterone or progesterone-only pills. The injections will do that. Nexplanon, the one that goes in the arm, will do that too. The IUD, not as much, because it’s really not suppressing much of your own ovarian production of hormones.
There is also a birth control gel that you insert into the vagina about an hour, maximum two hours, before having intercourse. Of course, that has no hormones, so it doesn’t do any of that.
Morgan Allen:
You’re going to be really prepared if you’re on that one.
Dr. Suny:
Yes. You have to have some foresight.
Morgan Allen:
For real!
Dr. Suny:
So that’s that age population. Then, after childbearing years, typically once we hit 35, our ovarian production of hormones starts decreasing. Particularly, progesterone goes first. One of the reasons women become higher-risk pregnancies at 35 is because our ovaries are different at that age. They are aging, and there are genetic changes that occur with that aging. Well, it happens with hormones too.
Often, women 35 and older, and especially once you hit your 40s, start to notice difficulty sleeping. Not necessarily hot flashes that you would think of with menopause, but difficulty sleeping. Definitely decreased sex drive. That has a lot to do with not only having young babies, being tired, stress, and everything else in life, but also lowering testosterone levels that start to happen around age 35.
Then we hit the menopausal population. Now we’re talking about having no hormones at all, or very minimal hormones. That’s essentially female castration. If we don’t have our hormones at that time, a lot of problems happen because of the lack of hormones.
One of the things I don’t think people realize is that, with all the negativity that happened in the past with hormones, most issues with women happen after menopause. Cardiovascular risk goes up. Genitourinary syndrome, meaning vaginal dryness, bladder leakage, pelvic floor issues, brain fog—all of that happens after menopause or in the late perimenopausal period. We’re talking about a stage that can be really tough, but it doesn’t need to be.
If you’re diagnosed with thyroid disease in your 20s or 30s, you get put on thyroid hormone. If you’re diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and need insulin, you get insulin. Female hormones are the ones that have kind of been missed forever. The attitude has been, “If you don’t have them, it’s okay. This is natural, and you just have to live with it.”
We don’t talk to anybody. We don’t tell anybody. We just think it’s okay and that we have to bear through it because we’re multitaskers.
We get things done that need to get done and just keep moving on.
What is one word that describes menopause?
Dr. Suny:
Castration.
Female castration.
What’s the earliest age you’ve ever seen someone hit menopause?
Dr. Suny:
Thirty-two. That’s premature ovarian failure.
One thing you wish every age range knew?
Morgan Allen: 20-year-olds?
Dr. Suny:
Establishing good health habits. Eating healthy. Exercising. Establishing those habits that are going to stay with you for life so you can live longer, happier, and healthier. We want people to die of old age, not of heart attacks, diabetes, or preventable medical conditions. Establishing good health habits in your 20s is super important.
Morgan Allen: 30-year-olds?
Dr. Suny:
Know that your hormones are going to change. Your body is going to change. If you have a baby, or two, or three babies, your body is going to change, and it’s going to change permanently. A lot of women say, “I just had a baby, and my body went back to normal.” It did not. Muscles don’t stretch like that and then go back to normal. It just doesn’t happen.
It is normal for those changes to occur, and you’re not alone. Everybody who has had a baby has experienced the same issues. There are many things that you can do to improve them if that’s the decision you make.
Morgan Allen: 40-year-olds?
Dr. Suny:
Starting at 40, we really begin that perimenopausal period, and the body starts to change. Not only do our hormones change, but our skin changes, our pelvic floor changes, our vagina changes, and our labia change.
One of my areas of expertise is cosmetic gynecology. Believe it or not, our labia change. They start to fall and get longer. I call it “we melt.” We melt here, we melt here, and down there we melt too. It’s important to know these are changes that happen to all women, not just to one person.
Morgan Allen: 60-year-old women?
Dr. Suny:
Urinary leakage. It doesn’t have to be the case. You do not have to have urinary leakage. You do not have to have recurrent urinary tract infections. There are many things we can do so that you don’t have to wear a diaper or a pad.
Every time I go to the supermarket and see an entire aisle of adult diapers that’s bigger than the baby diaper aisle, I cringe. Then I see the commercials that say, “Wear this underwear so you’ll be more comfortable with your urinary leakage.” What? This is not sexy. The person is wearing it, smiling, looking happy in their incontinence underwear. You don’t need to wear this.
That’s my message for 60-year-olds, 70-year-olds, and 80-year-olds.
Morgan Allen:
What are the ways to fix it? I’m sure people are wondering.
Dr. Suny:
There are so many ways. It depends on the type of urinary leakage a woman has, but there are many ways to treat it.
Morgan Allen:
Or does it always require surgery?
Dr. Suny:
No, not always. It does not have to be surgery.
