As a gynecologist who also happens to be more bouncy cheerleader than stuffed shirt, I’m pretty much the beck-and-call girl for most of my girlfriends when it comes to girly parts and the questions you’d only ask your gynecologist if she was your best friend. Which means I also get asked to tell stories at parties, the way I did in "Gyno Guzzling: A Vagina Drinking Game".

I happen to love vaginas, so my goal is not to be irreverent or make fun of people who have suffered from vaginal misfortune, but it does happen to make for fun dinnertime conversation, as those who have been to my dinner parties can attest. But for those of you who have missed my dinner parties, I wanted to invite you to sit down with a group of friends, pour yourself a glass of wine, and respectfully honor some of the women who have come across my radar in the ten years I practiced gynecology. So here’s a toast. And a warning. This post is not for the faint of heart. To VAGINAS!

For those of you who have chosen whether and when to have a family by taking birth control pills, I wanted to share with you my thoughts about a recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that concluded that certain birth control pills may increase your risk of gallbladder disease.

So what does that mean if you’re one of the millions of women taking birth control pills? Do you have to choose between simple, highly effective contraception and gallstones? Must you resort to less effective condoms or a diaphragm if you want to avoid gallbladder surgery?

Take a deep breath, Pill fans. The Girlfriend MD is here to reassure you.

Queen Turnips,

Why am I so driven to try alternative therapies? Because I’m a health junkie and a writer. I want first-hand experience, not recycled articles with agendas. In 2008, I had a little downtime so I decided to give oxygen treatments a whirl. I had been reading about their benefits for years, saved some money from my speaking gigs, and dove head first into goodness and madness.

My readers have always commented on the cost of a healthy lifestyle.

These complaints have stuck in my mind. Forget my out-of-the-box treatments; the main problem is the raw, vegan, organic diet, and all the goodie-boosters that go with it. It’s expensive! Some folks get really miffed at me for promoting this way of living – if they can’t afford it then I shouldn’t write about it. Now that’s not fair or constructive. My point is to address problems and find solutions. But clearly I have more work to do.

This morning, a very reputable women’s website called me and asked me to write an article about a press release they sent me, which read:

(April 1, 2011) For Immediate Release—ACOG ANNOUNCES PLANS TO STOP ELECTIVE C-SECTIONS

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) announced today it is devising a comprehensive plan to lower C-section rates in the United States. C-sections in the U.S. have gone up 700% since they were first measured in 1965, when the C-section rate was only 4.5 percent.

“The nation’s C-section rate has been rising steadily for the last eleven years. It’s now over 31 percent,” said an ACOG spokesperson. “This is a deplorable situation that harms women and their newborns.”

An organization that advocates for quality healthcare for women, ACOG is asking obstetricians to halt elective C-sections.

“C-sections should only be a last resort. They should never be performed for the convenience of the doctor,” the spokesperson said, “or for financial or liability reasons.”

Since the use of electronic fetal monitoring has been shown to increase unnecessary C-section rate without any proven benefit to the mother or infant, ACOG is also calling on American hospitals to stop the routine use of electronic monitoring during labor. ACOG’s new guidelines encourage women to have freedom of movement during labor, labor standing up or squatting, and to eat and drink at will.

“Cesarean can save lives. But doctors and consumers have to remember that this is major surgery that carries major risk,” the spokesperson said, pointing to the example of 29-year-old Abbie Dorn, who suffered severe hemorrhaging and brain damage after her uterus was nicked during a Cesarean section at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (2006), 32-year-old Diane Rizk McCabe, who died following complications from a Caesarean section at Albany Medical Center Hospital (2007), and Karen Vasques, 27, who died during a C-section at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (2008).

Maternal mortality has risen every year in the United States for the past 25 years, while over the same period the rate of C-sections has gone up 33 percent.

“The skyrocketing rate of C-section in America has had devastating consequences,” the spokesperson said. “ACOG, the most highly respected organization of obstetricians and gynecologists in the United States, is leading the fight to stop it.”