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that I recommend: Follow the money—
if someone is making a profit from the
information, then you shouldn’t be using
that information; don’t rely on headlines—
make sure you read the whole article all the
way through to the end; don’t share bad
content—everything you click on or share
moves up the hierarchy of the internet; and
cross-check information with reliable sites like
Health Canada, the Society of Obstetricians
and Gynaecologists of Canada and the North
American Menopause Society. We should also
accept that medicine doesn’t move fast. If we
had miracle cures for things, we’d be giving
them out. I mean, we do have miracle cures—
we have the HPV vaccine. That’s an amazing
miracle we’re trying to give to everybody.
So miracles are how you define them too.”You’ve called medicine
“hopelessly patriarchal.”
Women who turn to some of the
alternative therapies you debunk
in your book may feel ignored or
dismissed by their health-care
providers. What should they be
doing to advocate for their health?
“British physician Ben Goldacre has a great
quote about medicine. To paraphrase: ‘If
there’s a problem with the airline industry, the
answer isn’t to invest in magic carpets.’ I admit
that medicine has huge gaps, and that’s why
I’m doing what I’m doing. Sometimes I feel like
I’m medicine’s PR person. I’m trying to bring it
up to a better standard.” Menstrual cups are growing
in popularity. Anything we
should know about those?
“A lot of people like the idea of menstrual
cups because of the lower environmental
footprint or just personal preference, but
they shouldn’t assume that they have a lower
risk of toxic shock syndrome or that they’re
safer. One concern about menstrual cups is
that just rinsing them between uses might not
kill toxic-shock-syndrome toxins if they’re
on there. It’s probably better to boil them
between menstrual cycles. We don’t have the
data, and because toxic shock syndrome is so
rare we’re probably not going to get it. But
that’s probably the safest thing. You can’t say
that menstrual cups are medically better than
tampons, but they’re a great, valid choice for
many women.”There’s a section in the
book called “Internet Hygiene”
on how to research health
information online. Why was
that important to include?
“Back when my kids were very ill, I fell
down all these clickbait data holes. I thought
about taking my son, who has cerebral
palsy, to a stem-cell clinic. I really did. It’s
kind of how I got started on this journey
about how people are accessing information
online. It’s hard to tell people where they can
get good information because you never
know if an article is good, but it’s very easy
to identify bad information. Some basicsbody
“I admit that medicine has huge gaps,
and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.
Sometimes I feel like I’m medicine’s PR person.
I’m trying to bring it up to a better standard.”