“There Was Night and There Was Morning, Part Two” – with Sara Sherbill 

Trigger Warning: Discussion of abuse.

In part 2 of this Healthful Woman podcast episode, host Dr. Nathan Fox continues his discussion with Sara Sherbill, author of “There Was Night and There Was Morning: A Memoir of Trauma and Redemption.” They discuss Sara’s goal in writing this book, the feedback she has received, her feelings surrounding the book, and more.

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Dr. Fox: Welcome to today’s episode of “Healthful Woman,” a podcast designed to explore topics in women’s health at all stages of life. I’m your host, Dr. Nathan Fox, an OB-GYN and maternal fetal medicine specialist practicing in New York City. At “Healthful Woman,” I speak with leaders in the field to help you learn more about women’s health, pregnancy, and wellness.

What was your goal? Like, when you wrote the book, was it more I need to do this for myself? Is it I need to do this to have a proper, accurate memory of my father? Is it there’s someone out there going through this who I want to read this book and maybe they won’t go through this? What was your overarching…obviously, they’re all there, but if you had to pin it down to the top?

Sara: So, I think there were really two things. I mean, one aspect you could almost call selfish, right? Because I was writing this in a way, for myself, you know, like, you used the word “therapeutic” earlier. In a way, this was my therapy, writing this book. I needed to get all this out. I needed to do it for myself. I needed to do it for my own mental health, honestly. But there was another element. And you touch on that, which is that I did learn in my early 40s that my father had been abusing other people, young women in his congregation. And that was a huge shock to me. And it was also a huge motivator for me because it made me feel that even if I had been thinking that I was writing this book for myself, I soon realized that I wasn’t only writing it for myself, that it was also a way of saying, you know, when we are silent, when we keep secrets, when we don’t talk about the truth of what’s going on behind closed doors, it’s not a neutral stance. That’s not a neutral position. Actually, people get hurt when we keep secrets. People get hurt when we keep silent. And so, there was kind of both of those things going on, you know, kind of on parallel tracks when I was writing the book.

On one hand, I was writing it for myself because I felt in my gut that I needed to finish this project. And at the same time, it was motivated really, because I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt by my father or frankly, by anyone else. And I think the more we write about abuse, the more we open up the conversation.

Dr. Fox: Did that impact choices you made? Because when you write a book, there’s choices, like, what stories am I going to include? What stories am I going to leave out? Whose names am I going to include? Whose names am I going to change? Things like that. I mean, because you made choices, obviously, with that.

Sara: I did.

Dr. Fox: Was it impacted by that or was it more just, you know, practicality of certain things if you’re deciding what story to put in and what story to leave out? Because you could write a 6,000-page book if you wanted to, because that’s your life.

Sara: Sure.

Dr. Fox: Were you thinking, I’m going to put this in or leave this out because it’s not really therapeutic for me or it’s not really going to get the message across? Or, is it more so, this story just reads better or this story is just better, you know, middle point from A to B or something like that? Or again, your decision to, you know, not use people’s real names, is that because you’re like, well, it’s not really part of my goal or is it something, well, if I just use their name, people get pissed off or something like that?

Sara: Yeah. Well, look, I mean, this is a difference between writing fiction and nonfiction, right? So when you write fiction, in a sense, you have a freer hand, you know, because you’re saying this didn’t really happen. But when you’re writing nonfiction, particularly memoir, you are saying this did really happen. So when you’re talking about things that did really happen, you’re talking about real people in the real world with real lives. And I did, you know, change names. I did change certain details to protect certain people because there were stories I wanted to share. But I also, you know, wanted to be mindful that people in my family, my sister, my brothers, my mom, you know, they’re living their lives and they have jobs and kids, and I didn’t want to overexpose. So that was something, you know, that was kind of a dance I was aware of.

Dr. Fox: After it came out, did people who were in the story, did they respond to you in a way that was surprising, like, either they reached out and said, “I’m so proud to have been in your book” or whatever, or something like, “Why the hell did you include me? People are gonna figure it out.” Like, those types of things.

Sara: I’ll be honest with you. The only kind of feedback that people have shared with me is positive. So there could be people who are super, super-upset.

Dr. Fox: But they can’t find you.

Sara: Well, either they can’t or they’re choosing not to, which, you know, thanks, thanks. I mean, you know, don’t call me and tell me that you’re so unhappy with the book. But I mean, I’m open to different feedback. But I do feel lucky that anyone who’s appeared in the book… So obviously, my first consideration is my immediate family, my brothers and my sister and my mom. And they have been ultra-supportive, so loving and so encouraging of me telling the story. And honestly, I couldn’t have done it without their support. And I’m beyond grateful to them. And in fact, I think writing this book, you know, we were talking earlier, I was afraid it would, you know, break apart our family. But the truth is, it’s been the exact opposite. It has brought us closer together. And in terms of other people I write about, you know, friends and teachers and different people, so far, I’ve only gotten positive feedback. But if anyone’s listening and you want to write me some hate mail, please do.

Dr. Fox: Did your family know you were writing this book before it came out?

Sara: Oh, yeah. I mean, this has been like, the thing. You know, this has been the thing. Like I shared with you, you know, I’ve worked in publishing. I’ve worked as an editor. I’ve, you know, been a freelance writer for years. But the book was always “the thing.” That was always kind of the thing that I was, you know, the mountain I was training to climb.

Dr. Fox: Did you get feedback from people not who are in the book, but like, negative feedback, how could you do this type of thing, like in general or to your father, who was such a great man and all these types of things, did you get a lot of that?

Sara: So I did encounter that. So that was mostly from my father’s family. So, my extended family, not my immediate family, but, you know, cousins, uncles, aunts, things like that.

Dr. Fox: On his side, I presume?

Sara: Yeah, on my father’s side. Yeah. And that was quite serious and remains quite serious because I’ve lost…my whole father’s side of the family is now gone to me.

Dr. Fox: Is it because they don’t believe that it happened or because they believe it happened, but how could you tell anyone?

Sara: This is the part that I find so amazing. And I had a family member who I can’t name. But I have a family member who actually called me on the phone and said to me explicitly, “I don’t doubt anything you’re saying. I’m not calling you a liar. I know everything you’re saying is true. I know it, but you shouldn’t write about it.” And in a way, I found that very gratifying because he’s acknowledging the truth of what I’m saying. He just doesn’t want his…you know, we share a last name. So he doesn’t want, you know, the name being sullied, whatever that means. But, yeah, I did face a lot of that. And there’s, you know, cousins and a whole bunch of people that are just vanished from my life. And they told me before they vanished, “This is hurtful. This is wrong. You must not do this. Do not do this.” And I just thought, “I’ve been told my whole life or I’ve inferred my whole life, don’t talk about this. Don’t do this. Stay quiet. Now I’m an adult woman. I’m a mother. How can you tell me what to do?”

Dr. Fox: You got my first 40 years. I get the next 40.

Sara: Bingo. Bingo. You know, also when I was younger and I would confide in certain family members on my dad’s side about what was happening, they would kind of try to pacify me and say things like, “Well, you’re only a kid. You don’t really fully understand what’s going on.” And even when things really reached a crisis point, when I was 17, I went to an aunt of mine on my dad’s side and I was trying to describe to her the severity of the situation and how my family was truly in danger. And she said to me, “You’re only 17. You don’t really understand what goes on between a husband and a wife.” And it’s very condescending to speak that way to a person. I don’t care how old they are. And then I reached a point, you know, I’m 40, I’m 41, I’m 42. And I would say to myself, “Am I still too young to understand? Am I still too young to understand? I don’t think so.” You know, I kept silent throughout my childhood because I thought that’s what would protect my family. But as an adult, you don’t get my silence anymore. Sorry.

Dr. Fox: Actually, you describe understanding it from page 1, basically. You know, you’re like, “I was,” whatever, you were at the first store [crosstalk 00:09:32]. You’re like, yeah, it was wrong. And “I yelled out, like, of course you understand that.” Yeah, I don’t think it takes much to understand these things. You know, it’s like,…

Sara: I mean, it’s such a perverse approach to tell a child you don’t know what you know.

Dr. Fox: Right. Yeah. Wow. The book does not have a lot of the what-if thing in it. Like, I was sort of expecting that.

Sara: What do you mean, what if, what’s that?

Dr. Fox: You know, what would my life have been like had he not been abusive? Or, what would my life had been like had we actually left him when we were planning to and I was a teenager, had the police done something at that time, you know, that type of thing, sort of the sliding-doors type of discussion? And you don’t do that. And I’m curious, was it a conscious choice or you’re just not that kind of person?

Sara: So funny that you say that. No one’s ever asked me that question.

Dr. Fox: I thought a lot when I read this book. I can’t begin to tell you how much I thought about this when I read it. Not just this…

Sara: What did you think?

Dr. Fox: No. When I was reading the book, I didn’t just like, flip through the pages. I had to like, pause. Like, I couldn’t read it in one sitting. So again, it just really, it was very deep to me. I mean, because I know you. And I’m thinking like, we’re at a junction point. And, you know, you talk about the story where you’re about to leave your father, and you’re young and you’re going to walk out, your mother’s going to walk out, you’re going to figure out what to do with the kids and this or that. But you don’t, right. And that doesn’t happen. I’m thinking, “Where she’s saying like, here’s what my life would have been had we done that?” And I don’t hear that. And I was thinking, “I wonder if she intentionally doesn’t want to go there or if just, Sara doesn’t think like that? That’s just not my life. I don’t go back like that.”

Sara: Right, right. So I do think like that. Okay. To your question now, you know, I do think like that. I, for whatever reason, I didn’t write about it in the book. But it’s something I think about in my brain all the time, all the time. And I mean, all the time. Who would I have been if I hadn’t experienced this abuse? Or as you’re pointing out, who would I have been if I had experienced this abuse and then I got to experience the sense of leaving an abusive situation? And it’s something I think about a lot. And to be honest with you, I would be a totally different person. And look, I think if, you know, the sliding-doors question, what if we had left, what if I had not had to live through that abuse for so many years? To be honest, I think I could have bypassed a lot of years of depression, a lot of years of severe, debilitating anxiety and also years of self-harm.

You know, I’m very open in the book, so I’m going to be open in this podcast. Like, there is a price to be paid for experiencing abuse. You know, anyone who’s listening, don’t think, you know, well, I experienced abuse, but now I wrote a book about it and everything’s fine. It’s not fine. It’s not fine. I’m still carrying with me, you know, a lot of hard stuff. And it’s been through a lot of therapy and a lot of meditation and a lot of yoga and a lot of deep friendships, you know, that I’m surviving today. But the cost that I’ve paid has been huge.

Dr. Fox: You mentioned there’s a lot of the book that’s related to religion and specifically the Jewish religion, right?

Sara: Yes.

Dr. Fox: Because that’s your identity. And that certainly was your identity growing up. And obviously, such an important component of the story of your father is not just that he was an abusive father and husband, but he was a rabbi. He was a community leader. His professional role was to do the exact opposite, right, was to be a comforter, was to be someone who people trusted and whatnot. And he was doing the exact opposite in his family. But again, something that really surprised me is you go into sort of your own, you know, journey, I would say, through religion, you know, from there to there to there to where you are. And a lot of people have that, obviously.

Sara: Sure.

Dr. Fox: But what is not in there really is anger about religion. Again, I would have expected you to be like, “F this religion. You know, like, I’m in a Jewish school. They don’t pick up on this. My father’s a rabbi and he’s doing this. Like, it’s because of, you know, institutionalized religion, all this. I am out. Screw all of you.” And it would have been, by the way, two thumbs up. Everyone would have been like, yeah, I get that 100%. But you’re not. It’s almost like you’re sad that this is sort of moving you away from religion or that, you know, how deep your religious experience was and how it’s almost like you’re lamenting not just the loss of your relationship with your father, but your relationship with the tradition.

Sara: A 100%.

Dr. Fox: And I definitely just want to talk about that because it was so obvious to me when reading it, how important religion is in your life in different ways and that it’s not a bitterness book about it.

Sara: So here’s the irony. Here’s the irony. The irony is that, like you point out, I have every reason, hate God, hate religion, hate Judaism, hate all of it. Throw it in the garbage. But here’s the irony. That’s actually part of what helped me survive was my connection to God, my connection to prayer, my connection to observing the Sabbath. Those things gave me strength. And prayer, I wrote recently an essay for “The New York Times” about prayer.

Dr. Fox: You Might Consider Praying.

Sara: You Might Consider Praying. I wrote an essay about prayer recently specifically to talk about this, that you might, like you say, you know, I would be quite justified in being furious with this whole system. But there’s a lot of beauty there and there’s a lot of depth there and there’s a lot of wisdom there. And I don’t throw it out in the garbage. I do throw some of it in the garbage. I’m not the kind of rule-following religious person that I used to be or that I was raised to be. Or, you know, the schools that you and I attended, you know, kind of indoctrinated us. And I don’t observe like that anymore.

But the core of religion and the idea of being close to God and reaching out to God, that has been absolutely life-saving for me. And so, even though I do actually have anger at religious institutions, primarily just for turning a blind eye to child abuse, that if you want to get me going, get me going. Get me going on Jewish institutions, blind eye to child abuse. That does make me, in fact, furious.

Dr. Fox: Right, right. I will say, in our defense, it’s all religious institutions, not just Jewish.

Sara: Not just Jewish. And you know what? And that’s so fair. Like, I did a lot of research for this book. Even though it’s about my own life, I actually did do a lot of research. And I read a lot of books about, you know, abuse in the Catholic Church, like a lot of 600-page definitive histories of, you know.

Dr. Fox: Same themes.

Sara: Yeah. So are the Jews the only ones? No, we’re not, guys. It’s every religion. It’s, you know, all walks of life. People from all ethnic and religious backgrounds experience abuse. No one has a monopoly on it. But, you know, I do have some anger at the institutions. But as for the religion itself, as for, you know, the relationship to God, that religion is meant to inspire. That, for me, has been one of the best gifts of my life.

Dr. Fox: It’s so interesting. Again, I was so struck by that, that you don’t display that angerness in the book for sure. [inaudible 00:17:43] some in there, but you sort of present the religion in such a despite. Or like you’re saying, maybe that helped you get through this, through the abuse. Did you ever grapple with the direct idea, not the Jewish institution, but not just how can my father do this, but how can my father, the rabbi, do this? Or was that just sort of like, what’s the difference?

Sara: Look, you’re talking about hypocrisy, essentially, you know. So yeah, I mean, the hypocrisy was front and center. I mean, it was front and center, you know. And look, you’re also talking to me. You know, we’re middle-aged now. We talked about this earlier, you and I, although I like to think of myself as a teenager, I’m not. You know, that’s also just been time. That’s also just been years. You know, that’s also just been almost maturity in a way. You know, like, if you would have talked to me 10, 20 years ago, I might have been much angrier because of the hypocrisy, exactly like you’re saying.

You’ll like this because you have a good sense of humor. Like, I used to say to my mom all the time when I was little, “Why can’t you just get a divorce?” You know, and she’d be like, “A rabbi getting divorced is not like a shoe salesman getting divorced.” It calls everything into question, you know. And I remember thinking, “Well, why can’t my dad just be a shoe salesman and then we could get divorced?” Because there is something particularly horrible about a rabbi being abusive, right, in a way that maybe isn’t the same way for a shoe salesman to be abusive, because you’re proclaiming one thing and then you’re doing something that’s undermining that very thing in the worst possible sense. So, I don’t know. I don’t know if that fully answers your question.

Dr. Fox: It fully answers my question. You mentioned that people are sort of reaching out to you afterwards.

Sara: They are, yeah.

Dr. Fox: So there’s like the one level, obviously, your old family, friends support, you know, “Hey, I read this. This is like, unbelievable.” You know, sending love, like you said, all that positive. How much reaching out have you gotten from people to say, “Hey, I was abused. This happened to me”?

Sara: A lot. A lot.

Dr. Fox: And these are people you know, or people you don’t know, or both, obviously?

Sara: Both. Both.

Dr. Fox: Wow.

Sara: So I’ve heard from a lot of strangers, like absolute strangers, people I don’t know in any way, shape or form. I don’t know how they find me exactly. Instagram, Facebook, my website. I don’t know. People find me. They somehow get my contact info. And they’ve written to me and they have thanked me for helping to give them language for an experience that maybe they didn’t have language for previously. I remember one email in particular I got. I published an essay, I think it was like last summer in 2023. I published an essay in The Forward, not the first essay I wrote, but a second essay about how…and you and I touched on this earlier, like, how do you mourn an abusive parent? Because I wasn’t going to go to his funeral, like we talked about. I wasn’t going to go to his Shiva. I wasn’t going to do those kind of traditional markers of how we mourn someone we love. And so then, the question becomes, but they’re still your parents, so how do you mourn them? I was shocked by the amount of mail that I got from that. Strangers reaching out to me saying, you know, my mom died, my stepfather died and they were abusive, so I didn’t know how to mourn them. I didn’t know, do I say the prayer? Do I say Kaddish? Do I go to the funeral? Do I not go? Do I boycott? You know, it’s like a whole thing. And it’s something people don’t really talk about very much, honestly. And so, I’ve gotten a lot of messages from people just thanking me just for articulating that dilemma. You know, not that I can solve it for them. I’m not solving anything for anyone and not even for myself. But I think even just voicing those kinds of things is comforting to people. This is what I’m discovering.

Dr. Fox: Yeah. How meaningful is it to you that you’re getting this kind of people opening up to you?

Sara: It’s everything. It’s everything. It’s everything. And, you know, so many times while I was writing the book, I thought, “Why the hell am I doing this? This is such a stupid thing to do. I mean, okay, I’m a writer. Sure, I like to write, you know. Why don’t I write a book about, you know, interior design?” I mean, that is something I seriously thought about. I have a deep passion for interior design. I was like, “Why don’t I just write a book about interior design?”

Dr. Fox: You could do that, too.

Sara: I could do it, too. Maybe that’s the next book, you know. But like, I questioned myself, that’s my point. I questioned myself repeatedly over many years throughout the process of writing this. “Is this the right thing to be doing? Why am I doing this? This is so hard. Is this even worth it?” And now that the book has come out, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Yes, this was worth it. Yes, I know why I did this. Yes, this was hard. But boy, is it gratifying to feel that I can touch someone, that I can impact someone, and that maybe I can make someone feel just a tiny bit less alone the way that that teacher did for me in high school, just by being there, just by being there with me.

Dr. Fox: Do you feel any sense of responsibility now, like as a thought leader in the field? Or that, you know, now that you’re an author who’s written a book about abuse, do you feel any sense of like a need to continue to talk about this or to help people through something like that? Because obviously, it’s not your intention when you started, right, it’s very personal?

Sara: Yeah.

Dr. Fox: But now…

Sara: It’s grown.

Dr. Fox: …you’re a leader, right?

Sara: Yeah.

Dr. Fox: And in one way or another, you’re leading others through this. Is that something you’ve thought about?

Sara: You know, this is all kind of organically happening now, like as we speak. You know, it’s a very emerging reality for me. I don’t think of myself as a leader per se, but I do feel like just because I’m giving voice to these things and people are reaching out, that it is creating a dynamic where I do feel like actually I do have something important to say on the subject. And it’s interesting because, you know, what is writing? I mean, you’ve co-authored books. You know, I mean, you’re essentially sitting alone at your computer, at your desk, I mean, it’s not very interactive at all. It’s the furthest thing from interactive. But now that the book has come out, you know, there’s this opening. There’s this broadening.

And I was extremely lucky. I was invited to speak with the director of the National Organization for Victim Advocacy. Her name is Claire Ponder. And we did this fantastic event together where we spoke. We had a really meaningful conversation. And the people who were listening, were all either survivors or victim advocates or, you know, people who were working in the field, on the ground, in the field of domestic violence. You know, again, after that event, I again, was kind of deluged with these notes from people just telling me how meaningful this was and how important it is to hear actual voices of actual survivors and how much it strengthens them in their work, day to day. So, this has just been like an incredibly meaningful, unfolding for me and really a lesson in really just like the impact that words can have.

Dr. Fox: Yeah. I mean, I was going to say that the book, itself, is impactful, but it also opens the door for you in your life to continue to impact others.

Sara: I hope so.

Dr. Fox: Because now, you’re an author of a very important book. And so you have that opportunity moving forward, which is really amazing. Like, what a legacy that brings to this book beyond the book itself. It’s really a mark, you know. This podcast that you’re on, right, so…

Sara: Are we on a podcast right now? I thought we were just chatting.

Dr. Fox: We are. I’m recording. So it’s, you know, basically about women’s health, right? What the hell does this have to do with women’s health?

Sara: Yeah. What does this have to do with women’s health?

Dr. Fox: So well, you know, you’re a woman, not a mental health, whatever. No. But it’s, you know, we basically have two kinds of podcasts here. One of them is informational. We talk about topics, you know, whatever it is, pregnancy, gynecology, woman, fine. But the other part of it is where people come on and tell the stories of their birth, right? And some of those stories are tremendously happy. Some of those are very sad. There’s mixed. There’s trauma. There’s all these things that, you know, the human experience in birth is vast, right. So people come on. And why am I saying this? There’s generally two sort of impacts that someone telling their story, their birth story, has. And this is a theme that’s over and over and over. And I was thinking about that because not so different from writing a book, right, you’re telling your story.

Sara: Giving birth and writing a book are actually very…there’s a lot of overlap.

Dr. Fox: Yes. So the first thing and again, you touch on it literally. I didn’t prep you. I didn’t prompt you with these things. The first thing…and I’ve said this on the podcast many times before, the first thing is that for the person telling the story, there is something therapeutic about it because who gets to tell the birth story, right? No one asks “How is your birth?” “Good.” “Okay.” You know, you don’t get 45 minutes, an hour to talk about the details, your fears, your anxiety, what was joyous, what was scary, what was hard, what was painful, you know, all those emotions, everything, you don’t get to do that. So, getting to tell your story has a very therapeutic, usually, on people that they just feel that just saying the words is helpful.

Sara: A 100%.

Dr. Fox: True. But the other thing, which is very meaningful, and this is why we have listeners, is that for people who hear the story, whether it is someone who has experienced the same or a parallel emotion, or they have a friend who went through this or a family member, they get to really understand. They get to empathize. They get to have more knowledge, but they also get to feel heard in the same way through the person telling the story. They get to feel validated and they get to feel like they’re not alone as what you said. And so, it’s the exact same two things you mentioned, you know, in this podcast about you writing the book, that it’s your own therapy. But it’s also for the readers, that they’re not alone hearing your story. And again, this just struck me as like, this is perfect for the podcast. It’s the same thing.

Sara: Yeah, it’s a beautiful thing. You know, I was listening to an episode of this podcast…

Dr. Fox: Oh, thank you.

Sara: …last night.

Dr. Fox: Yeah. What the hell is this guy doing on a podcast?

Sara: I was listening to an episode last night of a birth story, and I thought it was really beautiful, the conversation you were having with this woman who had had a, you know, what was really obviously, like a pretty traumatic story she had had. She gave birth, but the baby was very premature and, you know, it was stillborn, essentially. And that conversation you had with her, I thought was really beautiful because something that you both emphasized in that conversation you were having was just how unique the processing is for each individual. So like, for some women who lose a baby in that way, they’ll always consider that child, part of the family. And it’s like in the family album, I think was the phrase you used. And other people, you know, kind of don’t experience it that way and are more focusing just, you know, on their children who did survive. And there are different dynamics. And I think again, that’s not something that’s talked about very much, you know. And I think when you talk about those things, like you said, it makes the person who’s experienced it, to feel less alone. But then you’re also introducing empathy, you know, for how we can interact with people who have suffered in ways that maybe we haven’t and we don’t understand. But you can get a window into their experience and, you know, try to be there for someone with more empathy than you would have had if you hadn’t heard their story.

Dr. Fox: You speak so much more beautifully than I do. Well, I’m done. You’re going to host a podcast. I feel like a Neanderthal sitting next to you. It’s, I’m like, “story, good. Talk much.” And you’re very eloquent.

Sara: Thank you.

Dr. Fox: That’s why you’re a writer and I’m not. So, yeah. Listen, thank you so much. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Thank you for writing your book. Thank you for agreeing to do this. Thank you for answering, you know, when I reached out. And it’s amazing. I’m really, really proud of you for doing this. I’m really, I guess also happy for you that you got to do this. Obviously, I’m tortured internally that you went through this. And we were friends and I didn’t know. And that’s something I’m going to have to deal with on my own. But really, it’s so great to see you and that you’ve done this and that you’re helping yourself and helping others, obviously. And I really do appreciate all of it.

Sara: Thank you so much. I’m really, really happy to be here with you. Thank you.

Dr. Fox: Thank you for listening to the “Healthful Woman” podcast. To learn more about our podcast, please visit our website at www.healthfulwoman.com. That’s healthfulwoman.com. If you have any questions about this podcast or any other topic you would like us to address, please feel free to email us at hw@healthfulwoman.com. Have a great day. The information discussed in “Healthful Woman” is intended for educational uses only. It does not replace medical care from your physician. “Healthful Woman” is meant to expand your knowledge of women’s health and does not replace ongoing care from your regular physician or gynecologist. We encourage you to speak with your doctor about specific diagnoses and treatment options for an effective treatment plan.