TED Audio Collective.

This is TED Health, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective.

I'm your host, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleiter.

For the next few weeks, we're bringing you a special series called a healthier you

we'll tackle topics like heart health exercise mental health and something that we

heard listeners liked gut health I'll talk to experts dive deeper into these ideas

and share my insights with you today I want to talk about something that we all need to learn and get better at,

and that's how to advocate for ourselves at the doctor.

But before we dive in, let's hear from our sponsors.

Have you ever been at the doctor's office and felt like you're playing charades?

You're trying to describe that weird pain or feeling, but somehow the words just don't come out right.

It's frustrating.

Trust me, I've been there.

I'm a doctor, but I'm also a patient.

I still go for my own appointments, and being on the patient side is a real eye-opener.

So today I want to dive into what it means to truly advocate for yourself when it comes to your health.

And I'm sharing this from both perspectives, physician and patient.

Even doctors need a plan when it comes to their own

health care. The turning point for me was when I decided to have my ovaries and fallopian tubes

taken out after discovering I carried a BRCA mutation. A mutation in one of your BRCA genes,

also called BRCA, increases the likelihood of developing

cancer because this mutation can keep your body from being able to repair damaged DNA, which can

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