I have to say, I feel for my kids. After all, when your mom is a gynecologist in Cincinnati life isn’t exactly normal. Especially working at a practice like mine, where my name, face, and stories happened to be published all over town. Really, there’s nowhere to hide.
One time Andrew, at age 9, was on a field trip for school and they drove by our MyFlow ad on I-75, which read “No more periods, period.” His friends were excited to see someone they knew on a billboard, but then wanted to know what this period business was all about. Needless to say, the conversation died off there, but when Andrew got home he had a lot of questions. I bet he wishes he had never asked.
Another classmate of Taylor’s, at age 14, discovered my website during study hall one day. Rather than stopping on the homepage he starting clicking through and finally landed on our P-Shot page – a procedure to help increase size and performance of the penis. “Hey Taylor,” he asked, “do you think your mom could make my penis bigger.” She came back by saying, “probably why don’t you just call and make an appointment.” While I know she was embarrassed she handled it like a champ!
Outside of these awkward interactions, I don’t always do the best at filtering things around the house either. I can’t tell you how many times they’ve walked in on me watching surgical videos casually at home. Most recently my laptops been taken over by labiaplasty and vaginoplasty content. When they were little they used to ask why I wanted to watch videos of someone getting “cut in the pee pee”. Well, now they know. They’re used to finding medical text books open around the house. And, then of course, I have no shame in asking them to participate in ads for Amy Brenner MD & Associates.
One time I asked the kids to be in a MyFlow commercial, for heavy periods. The girls didn’t hesitate on giving me a definite no. Andrew agreed. Mind you this was before our period conversation so he was just excited to be on TV. He was later disappointed to find out that he didn’t have any lines, but he made one cute extra!
Reflecting back on all of the things that my kids have been exposed to, I know that it hasn’t always been comfortable for them. That said, I wouldn’t change a thing. As a mom and a gynecologist, I’ve appreciated the opportunity to have honest conversations with my children about anatomy, health, and sex. I’ve enjoyed observing their curiosity. And, while they may be embarrassed now my hope is that one day they’ll see the value in all of this too.