‘Bikini Medicine’ Mentality and the Need for More Gender-Specific Medicine

Available for Interviews: Dr. Karyn Eilber

Karyn Eilber, MD, is a board-certified urologist, an associate professor of urology & OB/GYN at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, and is an expert in women’s health and men & women’s sexual wellness.

What Dr. Eilber Can Say about
Traditional Women’s Health:

    • Traditionally women’s health has focused on reproductive and breast health, the bikini areas that differentiate women from men, hence the term “bikini medicine.”

    • Years ago it was reported that many medications deemed “ineffective” indeed weren’t ineffective—for men. Many of these medications can benefit women but their benefit went unnoticed for many years since they were only originally tested on men.
    • Just as in pediatrics, doctors are taught that children aren’t just small adults, and women aren’t just smaller versions of men when it comes to medicine.
    • One example of bikini medicine is a heart attack: men usually experience the typical chest pain that radiates to the arm while women are more likely to experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea, or jaw pain.

 The trend towards gender-specific medicine and the increasing number of women physicians will hopefully change this paradigm.

Story Referenced in The Boston Globe:

Healthcare Routinely Fails Women: Blame “bikini medicine”

 

Interview: Dr. Karyn Eilber

Karyn Eilber, MD, is a board-certified urologist with sub-specialty board certification in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery and has over 20 years of experience taking care of women’s most intimate needs. She is an Associate Professor of Urology and Obstetrics & Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and is the Associate Program Director for the Cedars-Sinai Urology Residency Training Program. Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Eilber served at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Urology Department, where she gained extensive experience in pelvic reconstruction following cancer treatment.

​Dr. Eilber’s research focus has been in the field of urogynecology, and she has published multiple peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. In addition to being a member and past president of the Los Angeles Urologic Society, Dr. Eilber is a member of the American Urological Association, the Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine & Urogenital reconstruction, the American Urogynecologic Society, and the Society of Women in Urology. She is also a Founding Medical Partner of Doctorpedia.

Dr. Eilber earned her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, Riverside, which was an accelerated 3-year premedical program that allowed her to matriculate into the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine (UCLA). She completed a general surgery internship, urology residency, and female pelvic medicine fellowship at UCLA. 

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