A Doctor turning her cancers into a treatment for postmenopausal women with Sexual Pain

I have been a dedicated, caring physician for over 30 years. My grandfathers were both physicians. It has been my calling. I didn’t need to get cancer to empathize with my patients. It is what I have always done. Now, I am also a woman who has had breast and ovarian cancer and I need to meld these two identities to make good use of my personal experiences, to feel that there is a higher purpose to what I am and what I have experienced.

Throughout our lives together, my husband has been my closest ally, friend and lover.  The loss of body parts did not deter him from being so. However, between menopause, surgery, and chemotherapy, sexual pain became an issue.

As a postmenopausal woman with a history of estrogen sensitive malignancies, hormones were out of the question for me. I discovered, through self-experimentation, that by diluting an FDA approved topical botanical drug, I could eliminate painful sex.  As a physician and dual breast and ovarian cancer survivor, I realized a placebo controlled double-blinded clinical trial was in order to provide a safe and effective alternative for alleviating painful sex for so many women who, like myself, where hormones are just not an option. I am grateful for this opportunity to share my story that will hopefully help many women facing breast and ovarian cancer in the future.