OBGYN Life & Online Influence With Dr. Fran

I did kind of get my very first troll and I was like, oh, congratulations.

Yay. That's a good thing. That means you're doing—

you made it. Do you know what a troll is, Mom?

Don't you ask me that.

What is it? What's a troll?

It's somebody who's just like, you know, in there and you're coming at you. Coming at you.

Hi everybody and welcome to the podcast, The Sex Generations MD. My name is Stephanie and I'm joined here by my colleague, Dr. Sarah Davis, who's also my Mother. And today we have a very special guest, Dr. Fran Haydanek. Please welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me. I love that you guys are doing this. This is amazing.

So we are so excited to have you. If you want to tell the viewers just a little bit about you and who you are and what you do.

Sure. So I'm a board-certified OB-GYN. I'm a full-scope generalist working for a hospital system in western New York. I have been— I'm going into my 5th year of being an attending. I work as a medical director for my hospital, so do a lot in that space in my real life, my real job. I have 3 young children who I started having when I was in my residency, and I, on the side, when I have, you know, some free time, I make medical content online. My username is Paging Dr. Fran, and so I educate on topics in OB-GYN, things happening in the medical space. Um, and I've been doing that for about 5 years now.

That's awesome. My mom was saying that you inspired her a little bit to start posting on social media.

Yeah, I love that.

You're one of those people that just kept saying that, you know, we've got to have our voices there. All those other voices are out there, and so you got to just start doing it. And I think— and I'd seen yours and a couple other people saying something similar of like just do it, just get over it and start doing it. And so I've been doing it and it's hard for me because I'm old, but you know, the only way you're doing it is by just doing it.

So yeah, I love that.

Yeah. Well, that's where you are now. Kind of backing up, I always like to ask our guests, when was the first time that you thought about being a doctor or going into medicine?

I probably was really considering it, um, at the end of high school. I really just liked my biology classes and my chemistry classes. And so I thought going into college that I was going to be pre-med. I am from an incredibly rural part of Wisconsin. I graduated with a class of 69 people and that was 3 towns combined, like, wow, rural. We didn't have AP classes, those kind of things. And so then when I went to the University of Wisconsin, this like huge university, I was very intimidated by that because I was, you know, I was smart for my high school, but like now I'm going to university and smart people are there. And I remember sitting in orientation and they're like, okay, who's pre-med? And I was like, And I put my hand down. I so distinctly remember that happening. Like, I was like, oh, I'm actually not gonna do this. Oh, so then for the next 2 years, I just kind of like tried a bunch of different things, and I took a bunch of really interesting classes and was like not working towards anything. And then my parents sat me down halfway through my second year of college and were like, so what you doing? Where are you? Like, what's the plan? And like if you could do anything, what would you do? And I said, if I could do anything, I would be a doctor. And my dad, who is a family med doc, was like, hmm, how about a dentist? You know, like, my life as a physician is hard. And his best friend is a dentist and had a nice work-life balance. He's like, you should be a dentist. I was like, I should be a dentist. So I was pre-dental for like 6 months. I switched all my classes that semester to science classes and Um, really liked the science classes, realized after some shadowing I didn't actually want to be a dentist, but I just continued on that path towards medicine because I would imagine the prereqs are somewhat similar. They're basically identical.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, I think that's so interesting what you said about the story of you raising your hand and looking around and everyone else is raising their hand and wanting to put it down. I feel like people don't talk about that a lot. I relate to that a lot. Just, I was going into college, I was like, oh, you know, I have parents who are doctors, and I was like, I knew that that was a thing and I knew that it was hard. And I remember just being hesitant to say that this is what I was doing just in case it didn't work out. Yeah, I don't really know what that is, but yeah.

Yeah, it's almost like a form of imposter syndrome, like I shouldn't say that I think I can do this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, it's kind of braggy, you know?

Yeah, like, I think I should be a doctor. You're like— you think people are like, you shouldn't, you know?

Yeah. And maybe not wanting to set your expectations too high, uh, maybe that's some, some of that is protecting yourself. But yeah, I think that that is super relatable to a lot of people. Um, but moving on and going into medical school, where did you go to medical school and what was your experience like there?

I went to Lehigh in Erie, Pennsylvania, so I moved from Wisconsin to Erie for that. I went into medical school thinking I would do OB-GYN. I took some women's health classes in college and I really liked them. I thought like the menstrual cycle was so interesting. So whenever anyone was asking like that first, you know, like going into school, like, oh, what do you want to be? I would say an OB-GYN. And then I really fell in love with pathology. Actually, I'm a very visual learner. I like that you were like the kind of like expert in everything. Like you were the one making a diagnosis before the actual doctors were making it. I don't know. I just really liked it. And then I told everyone that's what I was doing for the next 2 years. I was like, I'm doing pathology. Everyone's like, are you sure you want to do pathology? I was like, yeah, I really like pathology. And then I did a pathology rotation my third year and I was like, you know, I like the science, but I don't like the job. I just like didn't feel— I wasn't like excited about it, um, realizing like what your day-to-day job was like. And then my next rotation was my OB-GYN rotation, and then like my first day I remember I saw a baby being born and I was like, that's it, that's what I have to do.

Yeah, and I'm sure that's so special and such a special moment, and especially just kind of, um, when you go into med school thinking you want to do something and then kind of solidifying that during your rotations. Once you kind of moved on and went to residency, what was there something, or generally speaking, stuff that was really different than what you expected, um, in OB-GYN?

I think for me, probably the hardest thing of all of that was— I mean, outside of like the actual like working a lot and, you know, what you're learning, and that's difficult, um, really the, um, the continuity that you can have with patients throughout the lifetime. Was like somewhat newer to me because I had only seen like it fragmented in like my medical school. I also— the amount of like surgery GYN oncologists do and like the surgical skills they have was surprising because I hadn't been exposed to that in medical school and I was just very like impressed and like in awe of the things that they could do with their hands, but while curing people of cancer. So I think that was actually somewhat surprising to me.

Do you do much of that in your practice, or what does your practice consist of?

So I still do full scope OB-GYN. I no longer do hysterectomies though, because it just wasn't like where my heart was. I had never really loved the surgical aspect as much as I love the obstetrical aspect. So my practice is I work in the clinic like 2 to 3 days of the week, and I do like full scope OB-GYN in the clinic. And then, um, I do cover labor and delivery both during the daytime and then overnight. And then I do surgery like 2 to 3 times per month. And then I do— as the medical director, I have an administrative day every day of the week too. So it's a really— it's a big mix of things, which I like. My husband is a family med doc and he's in the clinic Monday through Friday, every single day. It's like the same thing every day. And I know you're like— he's like, what are you doing this week? I was like, I don't even know what I'm doing. I'll look at my schedule tomorrow. But so it's a little bit of everything. And, you know, I think ER doctors talk a lot about like their ADHD and like how it drew them to their field. And there's a little bit of that, especially in obstetrics. And like on the labor floor, like you are like pulled in like 1,000 directions at all times. And I love that.

Yeah, I think as I'm talking to my friends right now in med school and people are kind of deciding on specialties and stuff, I, I've talked to a couple OB-GYNs who have talked about how the shift in what traditionally was being an OB-GYN versus what it is today, how much autonomy do you have over what you're able to do and what you can do? It sounds like you really do everything. from just talking to OB-GYNs at different points of their career, it sounds like they kind of are able to tailor to the niche that they're interested in. Um, what's your experience with that in setting up your career and what you like doing?

I mean, I think that's the great thing about OB-GYN is that there's so many different things that you can do, right? You can do low-risk obstetrics, high-risk obstetrics. You can be doing menopause management. You can only do GI only. You could be a MIGS, like, specialist who's only doing endometriosis. You could be doing, and, you know, there's just so much that you can do to it. I do find the majority of us do start start to, like, once you're a little further into your career, you start to find yourself pulled in certain ways. So like, I'm very much pulled into like the hormone world. I do a lot of PCOS work, a lot of menopause work, that kind of stuff. And I love that. And I knew that about myself because I didn't want to be doing surgeries. But like, my best friend at work, like, she's a MIG surgeon, so she did do fellowship, but she doesn't do any obstetrics. Like, she did 4 years of delivering babies and was like, you know what, all I want to do is remove fibroids and treat endo. And there's just so many options. I do think like it's kind of like twofold. One, right, the field, the work of OB-GYN has drastically changed over the last 20 years. The, the time of like solo OB-GYNs who are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week hardly exists anymore. It just is not sustainable. You know, prenatal care doesn't reimburse very well. So to be a soloist OB-GYN, it's like very taxing work. And like 80% of our or 90% of our residents are female. So you have a bunch of like younger reproductive age women going into this field, they don't want to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week either. I didn't. And so when it comes to like the actual work, I think you're seeing a big shift from like that solo, maybe even smaller private practice. And many of us are going to employed larger hospital groups because we're trying to find a balance between delivering babies who don't care that it's 3 in the morning and being home with our own children or, you know, pursuing our own interests. At the same time, I think people are realizing that we are taxed with too much in the field of OB-GYN to be like perfect at everything. Like you cannot provide comprehensive high-risk obstetrical care while being really good at menopause treatment, while being really a great surgeon removing endometriosis like correctly, while still seeing 30 patients in the office for their annual exams. It just, you at some point have to realize that to be a better doctor, you have to really focus on just like some parts of it and feel like you can provide really comprehensive, thorough work in those fields and know who else you can send to. So when patients come to me and are like, I'm concerned I have endometriosis, I know I'm not the right doctor for them. Yeah, my bestie is. They're going to get great comprehensive care with her. It's not where my heart lies and it's not where my skills are. But when my perimenopausal patients come to me and are like, I don't feel good, and I know that I now can like really work through those things with them and manage their hormone replacement therapy. And I see them every month and we get to a place where they like feel amazing because I've taken the time to educate myself in that field and really feel I can provide full comprehensive care there. So in two ways, OB-GYN is in a big change, both like with the kind of work that we're doing, but also the medicine that we're practicing.

And sorry, side note, but do you guys have to recertify every like 5 years like we do in family medicine?

No, ours is different. So we take our written boards at the end of residency, our oral boards like 1 to 8 years after, and then after that you do a maintenance of certification every year.

Okay, that's better. We're, you know, they had— I just was thinking about that because family medicine is similar in that, you know, you can't do everything, everything super well, and you get to be that there's certain things that you like and you do a lot of that, and then other things you refer on to specialists at a, you know, you have a much lower threshold for referring to a specialist, but we still have to take boards on all of this stuff. And I mean, they still have obstetrics on our boards and they show us a strip. I'm like, I don't know. Uh, call the OB.

It's nice too for us because our, our maintenance of certification, you can pick your articles that you're reading. So you can, if you choose to like really just kind of like pick the things that you know that you're doing, uh, which is nice because it is pointing to the fact that they know that we are kind of choosing like what we are practicing in real life.

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.

Yeah, well, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like in order to figure out your niche or figure out what part of OB-GYN you're interested in at the beginning of your career when you are younger and fresh out of residency, do you have to kind of do everything and work like a traditional OB kind like it was?

Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, it just depends on like what you— where you work, right? I— my first, my first job is still my job that I'm currently doing, but because I joined a larger hospital group and I was very supported by my department and just like doing what I wanted to do, like no one was telling me you have to do hysterectomies. Like I did them for like 3 years and then I finally was like, yeah, I'm done with this. And you have to do call, like I have to cover labor delivery. That's like a requirement. But I mean, I think, you know, I can't speak for every OB-GYN, but for the most part, and the difference too is that I work in a city. So I don't have to be everything for everyone because I have like my MIGS friends, my oncology friends, my REI friends, my urology friends are all in the city. If I worked rurally, that would be different because if I didn't, couldn't do a hysterectomy, then I would be severely limiting care for those, that patient population who didn't have anyone else. My patients in like Rochester have like 100 OB-GYNs to go to in the city. So, um, that's also a bit of a difference. And I think everyone probably approaches it a little differently once they got out of residency. Some people are like, yes, I'm going to do everything. I'm going to be amazing. I'm going to keep up all my skills. And some people are like, you know what? I know what I want. I did my 4 years of training and now I get to do the work that I want to do.

I think that's important to hear. Um, yeah, just as I'm talking to my friends, it's, it's hard to the information to kind of catch up a little bit. Um, so sometimes people have an idea of what a specialty is and without kind of talking to different types of people and what we do on this podcast, uh, it's hard to get a full sense of really like your options within, within a field. Uh, one thing that I did want to touch on is you just mentioned about rural care and growing up in a tiny town and your dad was a family medicine doctor. Was he like the doctor of all the the town?

He was the doctor of all the town. He had a small clinic in the— in our very small town. Like, our town doesn't— didn't— they still don't— don't have stoplights. The closest stoplight is 20 miles away. Like, wow, it is like— it is rural Wisconsin. Um, so yeah, he was the doctor. Like, everyone went to, um, you know, I would go to the grocery store and I would be stopped every single time like, oh, your dad— tell your dad I say hi. And I would go home, Dad, some old lady said hi. I don't know. Like, I don't know who that was. So yeah, he was the rural, you know, doc there seeing lots of people. So, and then he did ER work for a long time. So for a while he was kind of doing both. He was in the clinic during the day and then he would go take call overnight at the hospital in the emergency room. And then eventually he transitioned out of family med and then just did like rural emergency care for like the last probably 10 years of his career.

That's kind of nice. I mean, that's at least more shift instead of just all the time.

Exactly.

Yeah. And I can see how he might be like, was encouraging you to be a dentist, um, especially just coming from that when he was working seemingly all the time.

Well, and like, I think, you know, for me, my dad was the only one providing for us financially. So like, my mom was a stay-at-home mom for 4 children, and my dad had to make the money for all of us, and he had expensive hobbies, so he had to do lots of things. Um, And I think part of that now, you know, I think he was scared of that for me as like a woman who he knew that I would want to have children. And he didn't— I don't think he— I think he was trying to protect me from that life. The way that my life has played out, I married another doctor and I don't have to work 100 hours a week to like provide for my family. But, you know, you don't know that when you're 19. Yeah.

Well, just talking about kind of family planning, um, OB-GYN residency and training is really intense. Uh, when did you kind of— we've been talking a little bit about just like physician family planning on this podcast a little bit. I'm just talking about female physicians. Uh, when did you start to think about having kids and starting a family?

Yeah, so I graduated from medical school right before I turned 30, and I was getting married at the end of my intern year, so almost 30. I guess I was still 30 when I got married. And I didn't— you know, you hear about how long it takes people to get pregnant. I have PCOS, so I was like, I don't know how quickly this is going to happen. And so I didn't want to wait like 3 years and then have to go through fertility treatments for another 2 years and all those things. So we decided to start trying at the beginning of my second year of residency, me expecting that this would take some time. Surprise, it took one time. So we— I had our our oldest daughter Penny at the end of my second year of residency, like the last week of second year. And then, um, had our son Theo at the end of my fourth year, like right before I graduated.

Oh, and how do you feel like the support was through residency as you were having children?

Yeah, I will say I was lucky because my residency was very— many of the residents had children, like 3 of my 4 chiefs had children. Every year above me had had children. So my residency wasn't new to people having children. That said, we still were in a very— we worked a lot. It's not like there was a lot of like— I don't want to say I wasn't supported. I was. But like residency is hard. Surgical residency is hard. So like I worked hard. No one gave me any like grief for it, which is different than a lot of people. So in that way, I was supported. Um, but it's not like I had a lot of accommodations or anything like that.

Oh, I just was thinking about the fact that it's— that there's so many women in OB that you would, you would sort of expect there— I mean, I guess that's— it makes it so that at least, at least you're not hazed for getting pregnant.

Yeah, right. Like, I mean, at the same— I'm there to work, I'm there to learn. It's a limited amount of time in my career that I have to learn. So there's only so much that you can do to support people in that, right? I think just the fact that I wasn't given— everyone said, just said, congratulations, like, happy for you. Like, it's not like people are like, I can't believe you chose to do this. Like, why would you do this? Because that does happen to people. People do get those kind of conversations. So I will say I was lucky in the sense that that wasn't something that was ever— if said, it wasn't said to me. Yeah.

When somebody I know who's an ophthalmologist said that Her residency scheduled a lecture on birth control after she announced she was pregnant.

Oh my God. That's hilarious actually.

Yeah.

Oh God.

Well, switching gears a little bit, um, I wanna talk about social media and posting on social media. When did you, uh, start doing that and what interests you in starting to post?

Yeah, so I actually had been on social media prior to medical school when I Between college and med school, I worked for 2 years for a pharmaceutical development company. This was in the early 2010s. You were probably like 3 years old. And this was the time of like Pinterest really starting to take off and people had style blogs and I was bored and I was like, I'm going to start a style blog. So I started taking pictures of myself on the side of the road before I would go to work every day. And then I got into med school and then I documented my way through med school. So I would just take pictures of like what I was wearing and I would talk about like what I was learning and the process of like matching and all that. So it was all of that.

It wasn't just the fashion. Like it was you were doing.

Yeah, I mean, I was— it wasn't like it wasn't about medicine. It was about me learning to be a doctor and like the process of that. But I was never like the risk benefits alternatives of what, you know, I was just like, today I learned about liver cancer or whatever. So I did that for those like 6 years. I really liked it. I like had an income that came from it. I had a lot of like, you know, social media friends from it. And then when I got— when I started my residency, you know, you're working 80 hours a week, you're only wearing hospital scrubs. Like, I like basically stopped posting. I like didn't exist on the internet basically for 4 years. And then in 2021, I graduated from residency and it was like COVID times and I was home with my 2 children for 6 months because I wanted to take a little time off to be home with them. And I just started seeing videos that were very applicable to like my job, right? I like birth control, labor and delivery, that kind of stuff. And there was stuff that would come across my way that was like incorrect. And I was like, well, I feel like someone has to like address this. So I just started making videos and, you know, I had that history of like content creation in my past. And so I had a little bit of a following on Instagram. I had like 20,000 followers, but, um, just started making videos. And then, you know, over the years have had like big leaps in followers. Um, and I just continue to do that. I mean, you know, the social media is an interesting world. You can make a lot of money from it. And so I've shared that in the past too, that this last year was the first year I made more money from social media than I did as my job as an attending, which is kind of crazy. That's so amazing. It's crazy. But, you know, I love my job as an OB-GYN. And so I get asked basically every time I do a podcast or I talk to anyone, they're like, so do you think you're going to stop working as a doctor? I'm like, why would I have done all that so I can make videos on TikTok?

No.

It's— I love it. It's another form of education. It's another way of advocacy in like, oh, world that didn't have as much of that. And that's just kind of like where we are today.

I think that's just so— I, I think that's so inspirational. And I, I just think, I mean, you know, the making money part is super nice, but the, but the rest of it of just like trying to educate people and trying to be this voice of, you know, I mean, who better to correct this misinformation than you? So I think it's good. And I mean, Stephanie and I have talked about this a lot on the podcast about how, you know, the, the dogma has been like, no, just stay off social media, just don't do it, don't do it. And I do feel like that's starting to shift maybe. Um, and I'm like, we've got to be our own advocates. We've got to get out there and say this stuff. They're, they're listening to all of the rest of it. So, um, I'm happy that you're out there doing a good job.

Yeah, and I agree with you, especially, you know, having come up through the years now and people saying like, don't even put anything on Facebook, like don't exist on the internet. And now we have presidents of our medical societies on social media. We have high-ranking chairs on social media. We have a lot of these people who now are in those leadership positions and realize the importance of social media. And I think that's great because all they're going to do is continue to encourage their people to be on social media. And you kind of alluded to it in the beginning, but if we're not there to fill that space, then anyone else is going to fill it. And so it's really important that the experts, the people who are trained in this, are actually the ones putting that— those voices out there.

Yeah, I feel, um, yeah, we definitely— this is a topic that we talk about a lot. Just, uh, I think it's so important to be present on social media. Um, it's— but yeah, it's slower to catch on, especially in the medical field, as a lot of things are. Um, how Have you ever struggled with kind of navigating, uh, maintaining your professional identity while still being genuine online?

I mean, I think you learn how to be professional online. Like, what I put on social media is not my most genuine self. Yeah, right. Because I know that, like, not only is my boss, my boss's boss seeing it, but, like, anyone can see it. Who knows where my future will go. And I, I don't think any of us can be when you are presenting yourself as a professional, being your most true self that you are in the kitchen with your best friends. Right. So I have had to really make sure that I am staying professional and really portraying my field in the way I want to. If I came on and I was like disparaging towards doulas or low-intervention birth or midwives or people who don't want to do birth control, all that is doing is creating more of a divide. And that is like the last thing I want. Like, I want us to be there together, even though we may have different philosophies. In the end, we're still a team. And so could I be more spicy? Sure. But like, that wouldn't be benefiting anyone in that.

You know, for you, you really started getting on TikTok once you were already an OB attending.

Yeah.

And thinking about people like Stephanie, who started doing this, you know, before she was even a medical student, she was just a person. Just a person and just kind of doing all of the, you know, all of the content that you do. And, and now she does a lot of stuff about med school and everything, but it'll just be interesting to see. And I've heard other people saying that, you know, once they're applying to residency, they sometimes go dark on their social media because they don't want people looking at that. But, um, I don't know, what are your thoughts about people of, you know, people her age?

I think when you are still a student, a lot of it is around like yourself, what you're learning, what you're doing. And I think, you know, you're showing an interest in something, you have a hobby. I think that's great. I did not hide my like blog when I was applying to residency because I felt it was very professional. I was very, you know, sharing my journey, but I wasn't like disparaging or like causing conflict or any of those things. And like, that's not what your podcast is either. I think it's wonderful that you have a podcast with your mom. Like, I'd love to talk to you about that at an interview. Right. So, um, I think you just have to keep it to um, like your level. So when you're a medical student, you can't be the expert in something, and so you shouldn't portray yourself as such. And so when you're a resident, you get to talk a little bit more about the medicine that you're learning and practicing and like, you know, those kind of things. And then like when you're an attending is when you really can finally have like the, the credentials to talk about the actual medicine and like the, the nuances that come with that. And so I, you know, you'll see your presence kind of shift and change as you go through the steps. And, um, I think you shouldn't shut down unless, you know, unless your social media is very unprofessional and you're just talking about like partying on a boat somewhere. But if it's— if your social media presence is around like medical school and what you're learning and talking to doctors about their careers, like, that's like just— is an interesting thing about you. I think that's only a positive.

Well, thank you.

That's encouraging to hear. Yeah, it's a, it's a weird thing to navigate just being at this stage in my career path. And it's, it's pretty common. There's a lot of people who post on social media. Like, I was in the library the other day and somebody had a tripod set up who they were clearly filming a day in my life or something. So it's a little—

that's bold. I don't know if I could do that. I get like, still, I— you— that's why the majority of my content is like in a closed room with the door. Like, my husband doesn't watch me film ever. Like, that makes me want to like I— props to that person because I could never.

No, yeah, that was—

it was a bit—

it was very bold. I mean, yeah, again, props. But I walked right in front of it and I was like, wait, am I gonna be on this TikTok?

Yeah, yeah, um, yeah, send it to me, I'll share it, you know, if I'm in the background.

But it is a lot more common now, so it's just an interesting thing to navigate. Uh, just talking about as like what you talk about now, you are an expert in your field and you talk about a lot of hot button topics. Um, how was that? And just like receiving feedback, or I don't know, more backlash on, um, topics that people feel really strongly about, uh, what was that experience like?

Yeah, to be honest, I feel I still moderate myself a lot. Like, the things I've said, I could have taken much further but don't. So sometimes I am surprised, like, you Sometimes I'm very surprised actually by what people take offense to or like expect of me or don't expect of me. And it also depends on like the, the, the platform that I'm talking on. For example, like Facebook is like a cesspool of angry people who will just like come at you for everything. So like I basically don't even venture into the comments there because everyone is just like so mean and like rude versus like I feel I have much more of like a, a kind following who's like interested in the same things as me on like Instagram and TikTok where people are much more supportive. But of course, there's gonna be things that rub people the wrong way, especially when it gets into certain more like niche topics. Like, you know, one thing that I've talked about a lot that people get really mad at me for is when I talk about the dangers of pregnancy, and that like, actually, just because labor and delivery is natural doesn't mean it's like healthy. Pregnancy is actually not like net, like a health neutral state for you. Actually, humans are actually pretty bad at reproduction. You know, like we can only have one child basically once a year and we need a lot of assistance for it and it causes a lot of trauma for our bodies and it's actually quite dangerous. And, you know, the more like holistic, natural-minded, crunchy community really went after me for some of those videos. Like they were like sharing it and making videos and like, you know, taking my voiceover and putting it over them, like having a home birth. I'm like, I didn't say that. Nothing that I said was incorrect. When you get pregnant, your risk of having a, like, a VTE significantly increases. When you are at full-term pregnancy, your uterus has 500 cc's of blood going to it every minute. You can hemorrhage out and die. Like, you can tear a giant, you know, fourth-degree tear with a low-risk intervention birth, and it still is terrible for you. So, um, people get mad at that, and like, I get it, it goes against their like very strict ideologies of like what pregnancy is, but the reality is, is that I have seen actually all aspects of pregnancy and all aspects of labor and delivery, and it's not health neutral and it's not good for you. Of course we do it. I did it 3 times, right? But I just don't take it personal because I think it's an important message. I think it's an important message that people hear that pregnancy isn't good for you. Doesn't mean we don't do it, but there are health consequences to it. And so I stand in that. I don't really shy away from it too much.

Well, I think I'm just— I'm very impressed with the balance that you have of of not wanting to cause conflict and not wanting to, uh, separate sides more, um, wanting to bring people together while also still standing your ground and understanding that what I'm saying is fact. I think that is a, a tough rope to walk on, and, um, you seemingly do it really well.

Well, thank you. I appreciate it. You know, when you're just in your room by yourself shooting content, sometimes you don't know how things are come off. I have learned about like ways that I could maybe minimize some of that conflict, so I make less of those videos. But you're right, I mean, I'm still going to stand in the facts even if people don't like that conversation, if they don't want to hear it because it goes against what, you know, some people are telling you online. But, um, I am a string— pretty— I have like pretty strong opinions, um, and so it's going to take quite a bit for you to like scare me off from being able to voice them. And like, that's why partially I didn't voice them until I was an attending, because now I can firmly stand and say, I have done all this training. I went through the entire board certification process. I had to sit in front of experts for 3 hours and defend like medicine orally to get the certification. And that means I can now talk about it and stand very firmly in that. Yeah.

And I think that's important. Um, something that my mom talks about as she's now starting to post on her, uh, social media is the struggle of Speaking to a wide audience, like, you can kind of touch on this.

Yeah, I'm used to talking to patients in the exam room, but I generally tailor what I say to who I'm talking to, and I'm really used to doing that and saying, like, okay, I'm going to tone down this part a little bit. I mean, it's not that I totally change what I say, but I just— the way you say it is a little bit different. And then so the first time I made a couple videos and said something, and I was like, oh, Whoa, like, I didn't quite know who I was talking to. And I got a few backlash comments of people coming after me. And I'm like, okay, okay, I've got to be a little bit more, you know, just a little bit more careful. And when I post something, just think about like, okay, how, how is everybody going to take this? But then it's interesting how the algorithm works as well, because eventually your content does find the people that you want it to find. So maybe that gets a little bit better over time.

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, for me, I always think of it as if I'm like standing on a stage talking to an audience because in the end, that's what it is. It is hard to capture some of those nuances and personalized advice that we're used to giving to our patients when it's actually a much broader audience where some of that won't apply to them. I think some of that just comes with practice. And, you know, for me, a lot of what I talk about is like general guidelines. This is what ACOG says, this is what a study said. And so it's a little less always like personalized to people anyway. But capturing that nuance though is hard in videos. And there's like ways that you can try to get as many people to like really have that apply to while still recognizing that it's not going to apply to everyone.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know, some people aren't going to like you. I did kind of get my very first troll and I was like, oh, congratulations.

Yay. That's a good thing. That means you're doing something right.

You've made it.

Yeah, and you know, I mean, they weren't really trolling me so much as like something else, and then they started a big fight in the comments. I'm like, okay, I guess that's—

you know what a troll is, Mom?

Don't you ask me that.

What is it? What's a troll?

It's somebody who's just like, you know, in there and you're coming at you, coming at you.

Listen, it's engagement. That's what it is. Very— if someone's fighting in your comments, that is like Pure, like, engagement gold right there. You keep coming back, you guys keep arguing, and all this is doing is bring more people to my content. Thank you.

And I'm just staying out of it, right?

Exactly.

Writing about something totally that at this point has nothing to do with my video, but, um, that's all right. It's, it's—

yeah.

Yes, I know what a troll is.

That's hilarious.

Uh, well, We won't take up too much more of your time, but talking about social media, where, where are you going? Where, what's, what's the next step in your social media career?

Yeah. So 2026 is the year of my podcast. I am not even that big of a podcast listener, but I have been on so many podcasts recently and I just love the opportunity to like sit and yap with people and like other content creators and just like have a chat. And I was like, how do I get to do this with other people? And so My podcast is called I Did My Own Research. It's about medical misinformation online. And so I'm interviewing the medical content creators, not just physicians, other healthcare professionals, scientists, you know, a whole group of people who are online discussing and combating medical misinformation. So it launches on February 26th. It's called I Did My Own Research, and I'm really excited.

Yeah, that's great.

That sounds great.

One of—

yeah, there was this podcast, um, oh no, I forget the name. It was called like The Truth About or something like that. Anyway, it— they're no longer a thing anymore, but, um, it was a lot of debunking, um, misinformation. And I— that was like one of my favorite podcasts, so I'm excited to listen.

Yeah, I'm really excited because I've already done— I've already recorded like 6 episodes and it's been so interesting. And like the people I'm getting to talk to are in different fields of medicine you know, like a geriatrician, a PhD in like medical communication, you know, a labor and delivery nurse. So like, I'm so used to obviously just talking to like other OB-GYNs and now I'm getting to talk to other people about like, what are they seeing in their field of medicine online? What are the things that they are seeing that they have to address? What are their patients affected by when, like what they see online? So I'm really excited about it, like on a personal level to get the chance to do this. Yeah, that sounds so good.

And it does— I'm impressed that, you know, that you want to kind of take it on because don't you find it, you know, somewhat exhausting?

It is daunting and it's a lot. But again, if we're not there to fill that space, then who is? Yeah, yeah.

I know Dr. Mike does some stuff where he like sits there and goes, you know, kind of toe to toe with people.

Yes. I could never. That's amazing. That is too scary for me. I, it's—

I know, I'm— I am—

I'm—

whenever I see that, I'm like, oh, you go. I'm happy you're doing it, but man, I, I almost can't even watch it.

Yeah, it is like, um, ability to stay calm and like know when to speak up. I— it's very impressive.

Yeah, it is.

Well, your career has been so inspiring, and as it continues to grow in various aspects. Um, I'm really excited to continue to watch you and listen to the podcast and everything. Um, for somebody in my position or at different parts of their medical education, uh, what advice would you have, um, for someone who's trying to be a doctor?

Yeah, I mean, I think you want to keep your options open because maybe you want to be a dentist instead of a doctor. You want— you may want to be a pathologist instead of an OB-GYN. You know, be kind to people along the way because you don't know who's going to help you when you need them the most. And like, you know, really think about— I don't believe that you have to like give your all in your whole entire life to your patients, but it really is a privilege to be a doctor and to have someone trust you with like very personal things and to like understand how sacred that relationship is.

Well, I love that. Thanks for leaving, leaving us with that. Where can people find you?

You can find me on Facebook. YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok at Paging Dr. Fran. And then my podcast you can find on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon.

And you guys know where to find us at Generations.md on TikTok and Instagram, and you can email us at askgenerations.md@gmail.com. And we'll talk to you guys soon.

Bye!