The Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast

E94: Exploring Cosmetic Gynecology and Women's Health Solutions with Dr. Amy Brenner

• Kerry Reller

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Welcome to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast with Dr. Kerry Reller! This week, I am joined by Dr. Amy Brenner, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and expert in hormonal health. In this episode, we delve into the vital role hormones play in weight management, particularly as women navigate menopause and perimenopause. Dr. Brenner shares her personal journey and discusses common symptoms associated with hormonal imbalances, as well as the importance of bioidentical hormones. We explore misconceptions about hormone therapy, its effects on overall health, and the significance of lifestyle changes and supplements. Tune in to gain valuable insights into optimizing hormonal health and enhancing your well-being!

Dr. Amy Brenner, a seasoned Gynecologic Surgeon, boasts a rich experience spanning over 25 years. After dedicating herself to conventional gynecologic surgery for more than a decade, she delved into extensive training in cosmetic gynecologic procedures such as Labiaplasty, Vaginoplasty, Perineoplasty, Hymenoplasty, and Aviva scarless Labiaplasty. Since 2017, Dr. Brenner has been at the forefront, performing advanced techniques in cosmetic gynecology.

In 2022, she was esteemed with the prestigious award for Best Labiaplasty with Clitoral Hood Reduction by the ISCG (International Society of Cosmetogynecology). Her zeal extends beyond surgical innovation; she is deeply committed to educating both her patients and colleagues. Dr. Brenner strives to normalize discussions surrounding women's anatomy and health while empowering them with the knowledge that seeking care to enhance confidence and well-being is not only acceptable but also commendable.

0:28 - Introduction
0:39 - Meet Dr. Amy Brenner
0:47 - Dr. Brenner’s Journey to Hormonal Health
4:04 - The Impact of Hormones on Weight Management
4:14 - Aesthetics and Sexual Medicine in Practice
5:40 - The Importance of Hormone Balance
6:51 - Myths About Hormones and Weight Gain
12:31 - Understanding Bioidentical Hormones
14:57 - Hormones as a Tool for Managing Weight
16:13 - Addressing Cancer Fears Related to Hormone Therapy
20:20 - Testing and Initial Approaches to Hormone Therapy
24:47 - Lifestyle Changes to Complement Hormonal Health
28:14 - Conclusion and Resources for Listeners

Connect with Dr. Brenner:
Website: dramybrenner.com
Facebook: @doctoramybrenner
HealthiHer: HealthiHer
Email: contact@dramybrenner.com
Phone: 513.770.0787
Instagram: @amybrennermd

Connect with Dr. Kerry Reller
Podcast website: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprou... 
My linktree: linktr.ee/kerryrellermd
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerryrellermd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClearwaterFamilyMedicine
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clearwaterfamilymedicine/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kerryrellermd
Clearwater Family Medicine and Allergy website: https://sites.google.com/view/clearwa...
Podcast: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprou...

Subscribe to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Pandora.

kerry:

Hi, everybody. It's Dr. Kerry Reller. Welcome back to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay podcast. I'm your host and today we have Dr. Amy Brenner. Thank you for joining us on the podcast.

Amy:

Thanks for having me.

kerry:

Yeah, we're super excited to talk to you today about your expertise. So tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Amy:

Yeah. So as you mentioned, my name is Amy Brenner and I am a board certified obstetrician, gynecologist. My practice is in Cincinnati, Ohio. And I was practicing traditional OBGYN for 11 years. And then when I turned 40, I felt like literally somebody had pulled the rug out from under me. I felt like, I wasn't sleeping. I had mood issues. I felt like I was just getting bigger and bigger and bigger despite, like, working out with a trainer, what I thought was eating healthy, weighing food, like, doing all the things that I thought But still gaining weight. Had zero libido. And also just living at the traditional OBGYN lifestyle with delivering babies that come at all hours of the night. I'm like, okay, like this cannot be like, this is my life at 40. I have to make some changes. And so I just started open my practice and focus on just Gynecology only, but I was having all of these issues and ended up going to a conference and learning about hormones and what that entailed and basically corrected a lot of my hormones. And at the time, I started taking progesterone and testosterone and really learned about diet which as a physician, I don't feel like we get a lot of traditional training in that. But learned about kind of all the lifestyle things that I should be doing versus what I thought was the right thing to do. Started taking a few supplements, and I felt like it was life changing and I was like, I have to do this for my patients. Like. I didn't even think I was that like messed up, if you will. And I just made such a 180 turn in really all of my symptoms and was feeling better in my mid 40s than I had felt in my 30s. And so I just thought I have to start doing this for patients. Things just really kind of changed in my practice from there. I ended up getting board certified in functional and anti aging medicine and really my practice. We do a lot of things in our in our practice, including aesthetics and sexual medicine and cosmetic gynecology, but. The backbone of our practice or the biggest reason why patients enter our practice is for looking at their hormones. And I know that's a general term but it includes your sex steroids, your estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid adrenal hormones, and looking at insulin resistance. And that's what most people enter our practice is for issues relating to those. And so that's what I'd love to talk to you about of how hormones maybe affect weight gain or weight loss when, when those are optimized, maybe specifically the, the sex steroids as women go through menopause.

kerry:

Yeah. Well, okay. I definitely want to talk about that, but I do have one question about your practice. So have you always done the I guess the aesthetics and the like sexual medicine part of things, or is

Amy:

Yeah, so we've always done aesthetics. We started off just with doing like toxins like Botox and Dysport and dermal fillers and chemical peels. And now we have a full service Medispot and have different devices of CO2 lasers and RF microneedling and regular microneedling. Laser hair removal. We've always started with that, but that's a rapidly changing field. So something we're always staying on top of with the latest technology and trends and that kind of thing. And as far as sexual medicine goes I think that having balanced hormones is the backbone for having a optimal sex life and also treating atrophic vaginitis, but for some women, it just wasn't enough They maybe still weren't or having issues with orgasm or still having issues with pelvic pain or pain with intercourse by taking systemic hormones. So that's when we got into more of sexual medicine with things like vaginal laser or RF radio frequency treatments to the vagina or like the O something called the O shot. Of injecting growth factors into the vagina to help with orgasms.

kerry:

Yeah. Very interesting. So you're obviously very excited about making a woman have their best health and wellness, feel their best, look their best and everything like that. So you, and it's always helpful to have, you know, you've had your own journey as if you will. And I think that's always really showing a really nice perspective that you could be helped by these things yourself. I think that always speaks words.

Amy:

Yeah, my husband joked when I first started our practice is you need to, you know, he has an MBA if you, you know, you need a business plan. And to this day, I still have yet to have a business plan. I'm like, you know, I think if you just offer what women want and make women feel better, like, It'll just work out. And that seemed to be my business plan of, well, I'm in that demographic, so we'll just do what, what works for me. And if I want this, probably most people of our age are interested in this as well.

kerry:

it's true. Sometimes all the fancy outlines for the business plan, maybe not as much needed, but good for you. Good for you. And congratulations on your practice.

Amy:

thanks.

kerry:

So basically, how, how do hormones significantly impact weight gain or even weight loss? How would you start with that?

Amy:

Yeah. So this is probably a question I get for my patients on a daily basis. And I guess we could start with the sex steroids. So estrogen, progesterone, as it relates to kind of older in age. I think when you're younger and have issues with PCOS, that's a completely separate topic. But we'll talk about, we could talk about as those hormones decline with age. And when we replace those hormones, it doesn't mean that weight is going to just fall off of you. But I think when your hormones are at the optimal range, like they were when you were in your teens and twenties, and then you do things that are specific to help with weight weight loss, and I've listened to a lot of your podcasts. They give great information on specific weight loss strategies and lifestyle changes, and your hormones are balanced. Then I think it works. So I think it's an indirect way that causes weight loss or prevents weight gain. Everybody knows or. Accepts the idea of when you go through menopause or as you get older, the pounds start creeping on and I, there are definitely some physiologic reasons for that, such as estrogen helps prevent or treat insulin resistance testosterone does as well. Testosterone helps build muscle, which, as we age, we lose muscle. Every year and testosterone helps prevent some of that age related muscle loss and testosterone alone doesn't just put on muscle. But when you do the things to build muscle and have a. Testosterone on board, then testosterone helps build muscle helps with exercise, recovery the main symptom that I see it help with his sleep, which if you don't sleep, like really nothing is right. You don't typically have the energy to Eat healthy, the energy to go work out, as well as just the physiologic consequences of not sleeping can cause people to not be able to lose weight or start gaining weight.

kerry:

Yeah, absolutely. With, you know, the lack of sleep or other sleep problems like sleep apnea, it all increases the elevated cortisol and then it's even more difficult to lose weight. So I totally agree with that. So you mentioned progesterone helping with sleep. What if like someone, I know this is kind of jumping ahead, but what if they don't have a uterus? Do you, would you still consider giving them progesterone? Yeah.

Amy:

The simple answer is absolutely. And I think that that is probably one of the biggest misconceptions of patients and other OBGYNs of not giving progesterone just because somebody has had a hysterectomy. And where this story came from, or this idea that you don't need progesterone if you've had a hysterectomy, came from basically the drug companies taught physicians to do that from the Women's Health Initiative. Way back when, when the first hormone that came on the market was Premarin, and all these women were given Premarin, which is It's called horse estrogens, and so estrogens stimulate the lining of the uterus. So women were having an increased risk of uterine cancer, endometrial cancer, and so then the company why if at the time we're like, well, this isn't good, so they came up with a new drug called Prempro that had Premarin, the horse estrogen, and the synthetic progestin called Medroxyprogesterone acetate, and it Prevented this stimulation of the lining of the uterus. But the problem was the synthetic progestin or provera had a lot of unwanted side effects of bloating mood issues. It negatively affected, blood sugar and lipids. And so they're like, ugh, we hate to give this, but we have to give it to prevent cancer of the uterus. So in somebody that doesn't have a uterus, then we don't have to give Prempro. We can just give Premarin. And this notion that that people have taken that information with Premarin and Prempro grow and extrapolated it even in 2024 with bioidentical progesterone, but there are progesterone receptors all over your body, not just in your uterus. There's progesterone receptors in your brain, which is why it helps with sleep and mood. There's progesterone receptors in the lungs, so it can help with lung disease. There's progesterone receptors in the bones, so it can help a little bit with bone loss. So I don't think that it's a Kind of a just black and white thing if you don't have a uterus that you don't need progesterone. So I, again, when you were younger, your ovaries made all three estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. So when I'm balancing hormones, I think that women do feel better when they're taking progesterone. Along with estrogen.

kerry:

Yeah, no, that's a really thorough answer. I appreciate that. I think also you, you said progesterone receptors are all over. Well, so are the estrogen receptors, right? So what are some other symptoms that we don't always hear about that people might be experiencing or maybe that you experienced when you were in that perimenopausal period?

Amy:

You mean with from estrogen or progesterone?

kerry:

Either.

Amy:

Yeah, so I think progesterone is one of the first hormones that starts to decline and women can have heavy periods, irregular periods, mood issues, particularly with PMS not sleeping. And those are the things that progesterone can typically help with the issue is, is a lot of patients, physicians and even medical journals interchange the word progesterone and progestins and they are completely different molecules. A lot of times I'll open up a medical journal and they're talking about progesterone or a progesterone releasing IUD and well, first of all, there's no such thing as a progesterone releasing IUD. It's a progestin releasing IUD. And even in the medical journals, they'll be talking about progesterone. But when you really dig deep, it's a synthetic progestin, which is the completely different molecule that, although they work similar on the lining of the uterus, It works completely different in the rest of your body and your body actually looks like, looks at it like, what is this foreign substance in here? Which is why there's an increased risk of breast cancer with synthetic progestins.

kerry:

Okay. That makes sense. So what is well, I guess what define what bioidentical hormone is then?

Amy:

so bioidentical Means the molecule is exactly the same as your body makes or used to make versus a synthetic progestin. They've taken the chemical structure of bioidentical progesterone and altered it just a little bit. And it creates just a completely different molecules. So like an analogy I would give patients is if you were baking a cake and use Splenda or sweet and low instead of sugar, you're gonna have a completely different outcome, even though they're kind of sort of the same.

kerry:

That makes, I mean, that makes sense. For sure. And so how would you say that, like, The hormones that you're talking about using bioidentical hormones is a tool for managing weight. How does that come into play?

Amy:

So again, I think that it's not a direct, like, like weight loss drugs where you take this drug and it causes weight loss, but I think indirectly progesterone, you know, mainly progesterone as that relates to weight, it helps with sleep, which indirectly can affect weight A lot of people eat because of poor mood or PMS. So progesterone helping with PMS and mood can indirectly affect some of those emotional eating and PMS eating and cravings. Estrogen and testosterone's role again are mainly as it helps with insulin resistance and building muscle also with sleep because estrogen, well, actually, all 3 can help with pot flashes and night sweats, which can interfere with Sleep. So it's not really a direct weight loss drug, but more an indirect effect.

kerry:

Yeah. So I would definitely say that's one of the myths about, right. Getting hormone replacement, like, Oh, you're going to, you know, go back to your normal weight of wherever you were having issues with. So clearly, clearly a myth, right.

Amy:

Clearly.

kerry:

Are there any other myths or misconceptions about hormones and weight? Yeah,

Amy:

I think that people think that if they took a hormone in the past and had issues with weight gain, that they think that hormones might contribute to weight gain. Maybe they had issues with birth control pills, which is again, a completely different substance or something like Depo Provera, if they think they're getting a progesterone shot or the progesterone IUD, which those are synthetic progestins, which absolutely cause weight gain. And then they think, you know, well, I took those hormones, so therefore all hormones could cause weight gain. And that's just, you know, very far from the truth.

kerry:

absolutely. Unfortunately, I thought we had kind of got rid of the depo for Vera shot more, but I still see it being

Amy:

It's I do not like it like I do not like it. I think it causes significant weight gain bone loss, irregular bleeding. It is just not something I like to ever prescribe, but I do see patients on it periodically.

kerry:

So walk me through, you know, when a patient is coming to you, you know, Hey, can you check my hormones kind of thing? You know, that's always the favorite question. And they're asking for help. What do you, how do you approach it? What do you do?

Amy:

Yeah, so first of all, we like to, we have our patients fill out as a symptom assessment to kind of see what's mild, moderate, severe. And I've kind of nickname things, the 40 year old syndrome and the 50 year old syndrome. Typically, in the 40s, the patients may start noticing issues with sleep issues with libido. They might start having some hot flashes or night sweats. Their menstrual cycles might start changing. Maybe just starting to have some issues with vaginal dryness, starting to notice some weight changes, mood changes perhaps some brain fog or inability to concentrate, and then The 50 year old syndrome, you can take that and then just magnify it. And typically hot flashes, night sweats skipping period or actually, if you're in the menopausal range, not having a period for over a year. Vaginal dryness has worsened and typically all of those symptoms have typically worsened. So we'll review people's symptoms and then for most patients we're doing a comprehensive hormone panel. So we're looking at their sex steroids, their estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, their estrone level, their FSH level, which is a brain hormone that goes up when there is not enough estrogen around. We'll do a full thyroid panel, so not just TSH, but Looking at free T3, which is the active form of thyroid, a free T4, reverse T3, some thyroid antibodies. We'll look at adrenal hormones. So I personally think the best way to look at adrenal hormones is with a salivary cortisol, but we usually start out in our practice by looking at Blood tests of D. H. G. A. S. and pregnenelone because blood tests are typically covered by insurance. We'll look at insulin levels a fasting insulin and a 2 hour postprandial insulin and a hemoglobin a 1 C. And then if it hasn't already been done we'll look at a CBC, a comprehensive panel, C reactive protein, an advanced lipid panel. And that's usually our, our baseline tests that most patients will have performed.

kerry:

Yeah, that's certainly an extensive panel, you're not just getting things to related to the hormones, but everything related to metabolic health as well. So that's very important. I like that. And then like, do you, okay. Say, Hey, all right you have perimenopause, you're in menopause. Do you, like, what do you do after that? After you get

Amy:

Yeah, so then we typically see the patient back in 2 weeks. I think that if the DHEA and pregnenolone are off, then we'll talk to our patients of it. I think it would be best if they did a salivary 4 point cortisol and DHEA. I think that's the best way to look at adrenal issues. I think thyroid's pretty, pretty self explanatory is if there is a thyroid issue, we'll replace thyroid hormone. If somebody has insulin resistance, that's a whole other topic that's best addressed with lifestyle changes, maybe some supplements, some medications. As far as this theorem testing goes for the sex steroids, I, as I mentioned, I do like to do the blood test, but it's not this end all be all like it is with Looking at lipids or thyroid. I look at it more as a guide. What I'm really looking for is does somebody have excess levels before we replace those levels of making sure somebody doesn't have a hormone secreting tumor of the ovaries or adrenals, or they aren't inadvertently getting hormones from. Their partner or or somebody else, because when we replace those hormones, they typically go up. So what I'm looking for is I just want to make sure they aren't elevated as a baseline, but there's no set level of serum hormones that has been defined. So I look at it, but it really is more of a clinical diagnosis of looking at the patient's family history, their clinical symptoms, their age and and that type of thing. So,

kerry:

Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. That's perfect. Perfect answer. I think that sometimes it just. Kind of re, I guess, verifies what you're hearing clinically sometimes, but obviously you wanna rule out the medical causes, if there's anything else

Amy:

So that's why, you know, when other, a lot of OBGYNs think that doing hormone testing is irrelevant or, or, or not helpful. I don't 100 percent disagree with that because I'm not looking at levels dosing and then trying to fit it in a specific level like you would if you were managing somebody's LDL with a statin medication because it is a clinical diagnosis, so I don't think that's wrong, but I look at it as a piece of the puzzle and putting it all together. I also think it's really helpful in that person who's had a hysterectomy or somebody that's had an endometrial ablation and they haven't had periods to know when to add estrogen. Their FSH is typically elevated and their estradiol is usually undetectable.

kerry:

So, well, I think you might have just given some examples, but when do you actually start to initiate hormonal therapy?

Amy:

typically, again, sometimes women will come in and say, you know, maybe they're in their 30s of, you know, I don't have any symptoms. I just want my hormones checked. And in that case, I would discourage somebody from actually getting their hormones checked. So again, I think it's a clinical diagnosis. And in the premenopausal phase, if somebody is premenopausal, I wouldn't recommend replacing progesterone and or testosterone unless somebody had symptoms they were significantly bothered by. Now, once somebody's menopausal and hasn't had a period for over a year, I think that completely changes things because there's so much data that says that. Hormone replacement therapy in the postmenopausal patient when initiated as close to the time of menopause. Not only does it help with a lot of symptoms, but reduces a lot of diseases and overall mortality, such as heart disease, osteoporosis, vulvar, vaginal health, brain health. So I think there's a lot of medical reasons, even if somebody felt great in menopause.

kerry:

So you don't typically treat in perimenopause or you were kind of

Amy:

I absolutely treat with progesterone and testosterone in perimenopause when somebody has symptoms that those hormones could potentially help with. And I'll talk to them about a trial of progesterone and or testosterone to see if it helps with their symptoms, similar to how maybe a psychiatrist would be prescribing antidepressants to help with clinical symptoms of mood issues.

kerry:

Mm hmm. So as they're working with you on hormonal health and everything, how do you help them with the, I guess the practical tips with, if we're talking about weight, I guess, weight gain or difficulty losing weight, like what, what do you help with them with that, with your holistic side and functional medicine

Amy:

so great question. I think having all of the hormones optimized, so the sex steroids, thyroid, insulin, adrenals but if you don't have the lifestyle components in place, we could balance all the hormones in the world, but If, you know, somebody's just not not eating correctly or eating poorly or not moving their body, they're not going to have success. So, in our practice, we do have some wellness coaches available to really dig deep about the lifestyle components. And in select cases, we'll also talk to people about some specific weight loss medications.

kerry:

Okay. Do you, you mentioned supplements before, how do you use those into your practice and do they like complement hormonal therapy or anything like

Amy:

Yeah, great question. I, I, I take a lot of supplements. I believe in supplements. I, I don't think the food quality in the United States is similar to other countries or what it used to be many decades ago. So I think it, even if somebody is eating the organic rainbow, that it's hard to get all of the nutrients from supplements. So In a, in a simple way, I think everybody should take a good quality multivitamins omega three fatty acids. Almost everybody needs to supplement with vitamin D, which is actually a hormone and has just so many effects and like almost you name the problem, vitamin D helps with it. A lot of people can benefit from a probiotic, magnesium, B vitamins, and then we use supplements in other specific cases, like if they didn't want to take a statin for lipids or for blood sugar issues or adaptogens for adrenal issues.

kerry:

Okay. Yeah. So I, I agree with you, like wholeheartedly, you know, the food supply is not what it once was. And I think people realize how much better they feel and even lose weight when they go to other countries on vacation. And they're like, I ate whatever I wanted and I came back and I lost weight. But often that's not the case. because they moved more too. So you said you got health coaches that work with them to set goals and make those lifestyle changes, which I think is really important too.

Amy:

absolutely.

kerry:

So what other things did you want to add or that we might've missed or something important regarding hormonal health and weight health or just hormonal health in

Amy:

You know, I think one of the biggest kind of maybe barriers to looking at hormones is patients fear of cancer, that a lot of, there's still a big myth from a patient standpoint, and even from a physician standpoint, that Hormone therapy causes cancer. And I think that's, you know, the furthest from the truth as it relates to bioidentical estradiol, bioidentical progesterone, and bioidentical testosterone. All of those have actually been shown in many clinical studies to lower the risk of breast cancer. So even the Women's Health Initiative with oral Premarin, the estrogen only arm, actually showed a Decrease in the risk of breast cancer, but you know that wasn't all over the news like it was with the progestin side that did show an increased risk. So I think they're, you know, being overweight or being over an ideal body weight or alcohol, those are probably some significant Things that increase the risk of breast cancer, but bioidentical progesterone hormones have actually been shown to lower the risk of breast cancer. But unfortunately, no matter what you do, about 12 percent of women are going to get breast cancer. Also estrogen has been shown to lower the risk of colon cancer. But unfortunately that's a big myth that we're still trying to overcome every day in our practice.

kerry:

Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up. I mean, I definitely hear that from patients as well. They're very concerned about cancer risk and things like that. And the truth of the matter is, is with the women's health initiative study, the people who are at risk were those who waited, you know, 10 or more years to start hormonal therapy after menopause, whereas the risk was low and actually prevented those diseases that you mentioned earlier, like osteoporosis, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease, when they were initiated more quickly. Yeah, so I think it's, it's hard, but I think, you know, there's definitely still working on getting the word out and people, you know, doing what you're doing and things like that, are part of, I guess, moving this cause in the right direction.

Amy:

Yeah. And I think the pendulum is switching. Even ACOG and NAMS, North American Menopause Society, their guidelines used to say only take hormones for the shortest period of time and the lowest dose, but they were really talking about using synthetic progestins, which for the longest time were The only drugs that were available from commercial pharmacies. But now they really changed their position and said that, most women, unless there's a contraindication should take hormones close to the time of menopause.

kerry:

Yeah. Until death do they part.

Amy:

Yes, absolutely.

kerry:

I still get things from insurance companies that say, you know, your patient is on this and this old and have you thought about stopping it? And I'm just like,

Amy:

Yes, I get those too and hear that patients telling that they saw their family doctor and their family doctor told them they needed to come off of it. And so again, a lot of myths of people. Again, that's another thing we battle of how long should I take hormones? But I love that till death do we part.

kerry:

Yeah. And then well, the training, right? So you had you, I think you were saying you, I don't know if you got training or not. It sounds like you had your OBGYN and was working for a while or were working for a while. And then you went back and learned all these things about hormonal therapy. Right. Cause we were not really taught this in medical

Amy:

no, I mean, you would think is you would think OBGYN would be a hormone expert, but I work with residents and you know, this recent class just graduated and they flat out said, like, I don't know how to take care of menopause and I don't really know how to do hormone therapy. And I think the residency programs are really obstetrics heavy and surgery heavy. And residents just aren't getting that training. And certainly I didn't have that training and was not a hormone expert even in the first years, you know, the first 11 years of my practice until, you know, I started having those symptoms myself and went out and sought the training. And I did my training mainly through a four M and another company called World link and continue every day. I recently just took a course through Dr Lindsey Berkson and you know, because this field is constantly changing. It's really important to stay up to date as I'm sure it is in your field of obesity medicine. It's changing nonstop. So I'm sure you spend a lot of time doing continuing education, whether it's formal or informal.

kerry:

Yeah, I really think that medicine as a whole is changing. Hopefully there's more things to change, but I think it's really, you're right. You have to go out of your way to educate yourself on these things so that you can be a better doctor. Right.

Amy:

Yeah.

kerry:

if I would, you know, if someone doesn't have someone that is doing that, they might be doing a disservice. So I might, seek a new doctor to make sure they're staying up to date on these things and that they can help you with them or just find another one that can help you too. So,

Amy:

Yeah, you can't just rely on drug rep lunches and dinners to educate you. You really have to go out of your way to seek continuing education and not just what your college kind of forces you to do.

kerry:

Exactly. Well, where can listeners find you? Or how do you, how can they reach you if anybody wants to work with you?

Amy:

Our website dramyebrenner. com and certainly you can also find us, Amy Brenner, MD and associates on facebook, Instagram, YouTube. I also have a podcast called Healthy Her, H E A L T H I H E R. I'd love to have you as a guest on my podcast and talk about what you do, since our listeners would love to hear about that.

kerry:

I would love that. That would be amazing. Yeah. Well, I will put all of that in the show notes and thank you so much for joining us today. If anybody needs a primary care doctor in our area in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Florida are number 727 446 1097. And thank you so much for listening and we'll tune in next week.

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Dr. Kerry Reller

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