Shawn Tassone, MD, PhD - America's Holistic Gynecologist

Shawn Tassone, MD, PhD - America's Holistic Gynecologist 2X Board Cert OBGYN + Integrative Medicine | Author of The Hormone Balance Bible - AVAILABLE NOW!
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08/18/2026

Women are already accustomed to having very real symptoms given overly simplistic explanations online which is why I wanted to talk about this “30 pounds of poop” claim.

Bloating? “Parasite detox.”
Constipation? “Cleanse your colon.”
Hormonal symptoms? “This supplement will balance your hormones.”

The problem? Women’s bodies are considerably more complex than that.

The claim that most people have as much as 30 pounds of f***l matter trapped inside the folds of the colon, where it supposedly remains FOREVER, is not how a normally functioning colon behaves.

The colon is a dynamic organ. Its muscles contract to move contents forward, water is absorbed, stool is formed and eventually eliminated.

Can someone develop significant constipation or f***l impaction? Yes, but that’s not evidence that the average woman has decades of f***l matter permanently stuck inside her colon.

For some women, it may be gastrointestinal.
For others, pelvic floor dysfunction may be contributing.

Thyroid function matters.
Certain medications and supplements matter.
Diet, hydration and activity matter.
Hormonal changes may matter.
And as a gynecologist, I’m also thinking about the pelvis.

Does she have pelvic pressure? Pain? Heavy periods? Fibroids? Endometriosis symptoms? Has something changed with her menstrual cycle? Is she entering perimenopause?

Those details tell me far more than assuming her colon simply needs to be “cleaned.”

One of the most useful things you can do for your health is notice when your body changes.

New symptoms deserve curiosity — not a one-size-fits-all explanation.

Save this as your reminder, send it to another woman who needs to know that digestive symptoms can overlap with women’s health + follow along for more honest conversations about women’s health and hormones 💌

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08/18/2026

Why I don’t take insurance and why I stopped providing superbills is a much longer story than “I went cash-pay.”

And no, it wasn’t because I wanted to make healthcare more difficult for patients.

There’s a long, convoluted story behind both decisions, but ultimately it forced me to ask a pretty important question:

Who should have the most influence over your medical care — you and your physician, or an insurance company that has never met you?

When I stopped taking insurance, the goal wasn’t to practice less medicine. It was to remove some of the layers standing between me and the patient sitting in front of me.

More time to actually discuss symptoms.
More room to talk about hormones, risks, benefits and options.
More freedom to individualize care instead of trying to fit every woman into the same box.

Then came the superbill issue.

On the surface, a superbill sounds simple: your doctor gives you documentation, you submit it to your insurance company and potentially receive out-of-network reimbursement.

But once I deliberately stepped away from the insurance model, continuing to provide superbills kept creating an insurance relationship with the practice that we were intentionally trying to leave behind.

And I know this entire conversation can be controversial.

I also know there are patients who pay a significant amount for health insurance and still feel frustrated when they can’t see the doctor they want, can’t access the treatment they want, or suddenly discover how complicated “coverage” can actually be.

Cash-pay healthcare isn’t the right model for every patient or every physician, but this is the story of why it became the right model for my practice.

Watch the full breakdown before you decide whether you agree with me, share this with someone who has ever had to fight with insurance over their healthcare, and then I genuinely want to hear your perspective:

Has health insurance ever HELPED you get the care you wanted or made it harder? 💬

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08/14/2026

I’m all for women learning about their hormones, but I’m NOT for an algorithm convincing you that every symptom means you have a hormone imbalance.

Fatigue? Must be cortisol.
Weight gain? Adrenal fatigue.
Irregular periods? PCOS.
Mood changes? Estrogen dominance.
Brain fog in your 40s? Definitely perimenopause.

Except medicine doesn’t work like that. Symptoms overlap. A lot.

And one of the biggest problems I’m seeing in women’s health right now is taking a very real symptom and attaching a trendy diagnosis to it before anyone has actually looked at the whole picture.

Your history matters.
Your medications matter.
Your cycle matters.
Your age and stage of life matter.
Your labs can matter.
And sometimes the diagnosis social media handed you isn’t the diagnosis at all.

That doesn’t mean I think women should stop questioning their doctors. If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know that’s definitely not what I’m saying.

Women deserve clinicians who listen, but replacing medical gaslighting with social-media self-diagnosis isn’t progress either which is why this week on Confessions of a Male Gynecologist, I’m digging into some of the hormone claims that have taken over your feed, including:
💬 cortisol and “adrenal fatigue”
💬 PCOS and what an actual evaluation should look like
💬 estrogen dominance
💬 perimenopause symptoms
💬 hormone testing
💬 supplements marketed to “balance your hormones”
💬 how to tell education from really convincing misinformation + more!

Because your symptoms deserve to be taken seriously and they also deserve the right diagnosis.

Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe to Confessions of a Male Gynecologist so you don’t miss the next episode + send it to the friend whose FYP has convinced her she has 14 hormone problems 🎧

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08/12/2026

“Is this mansplaining?” 👀

Someone actually asked that in the comments.

I’m much less interested in arguing about the word mansplaining than I am in discussing whether what women are being told here is medically accurate, so let’s fact-check it:

✅ Fibroids come from uterine smooth muscle
❌ They are not simply “muscle knots” comparable to a knot in your trapezius
❌ A “uterus massage” is not an evidence-based substitute for evaluating and treating symptomatic uterine fibroids
✅ Surgery is NOT automatically the first or only option
✅ Plenty of fibroids cause no symptoms and may simply be monitored
✅ Some fibroids can cause severe bleeding, anemia, pain, pelvic pressure, bladder and bowel symptoms, painful s*x, fertility problems, dramatic changes in quality of life, and more…

And their size? They can range from tiny nodules to massive tumors (I’ve seen one as big as a basketball) occupying much of the abdomen.

So no — we don’t approach every one the same way.

Fibroids are complex hormone-responsive tumors involving estrogen AND progesterone signaling, genetics, extracellular matrix changes, lifestyle, and other biological pathways.

Pelvic organ prolapse is a failure of pelvic support, and if he really did “push the uterus back into place,” repositioning something temporarily isn’t the same thing as treating the underlying problem.

So I’ll turn the original question over to you — is this mansplaining, misinformation, a harmless analogy or a helpful conversation that simply went too far?

Save this fact-check, share it with the friend who sends you health reels constantly + follow me for more women’s health and hormone misinformation breakdowns 💌

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08/12/2026

🚩 “Your doctor didn’t tell you this…”
🚩 “Doctors don’t understand hormones…”
🚩 “They just want to put you on medication…”
🚩 “You need to do it naturally…”

If every health video starts by convincing you that your doctor is either incompetent or hiding something from you, just as Dr Zack MD brings up — maybe the red flag isn’t your doctor.

Do I agree with every physician? Absolutely not.

Actually, I’ve spent YEARS criticizing outdated thinking in women’s health, the dismissal of symptoms, hormone fear-mongering, and the one-size-fits-all approach to menopause.

Physicians are human. Their training, experience, personality, biases, and individual beliefs absolutely influence how they practice medicine.

But that’s very different from pretending doctors are collectively too dumb to know the “secret” an influencer discovered on Instagram.

No, your doctor didn’t forget to tell you —
❌ seed cycling will “balance” your hormones
❌ one supplement can “reset” your cortisol
❌ you have to “heal your gut” before treating your hormones
❌ progesterone is the answer for every woman
❌ estrogen is toxic because it isn’t “natural”
❌ one testosterone number explains every symptom
❌ breathwork can magically correct a hormonal imbalance
❌ “natural” automatically means safer

There are absolutely physicians who need to listen better.
There are outdated practices that deserve to be challenged.
And there are women who have been dismissed by the medical system.

I’m not denying any of that, but distrust is not a treatment plan.

You deserve a physician who will listen to you, explain the evidence, respect your autonomy AND be willing to think outside the conventional box when appropriate.

That’s where holistic medicine and evidence-based medicine should meet.

Not in fear. Not in conspiracies. And definitely not in a social media post promising your doctor doesn’t know what some random person on the internet knows.

Share this with someone trying to navigate the wellness noise online + tap the follow button for more conversations about hormones and women’s health that leave room for

08/04/2026

As America’s Holistic Gynecologist, people are often surprised when I push back on claims from the alternative health world.

This is one of those moments…

Can breathing exercises help your health? Absolutely! Research suggests breathwork may:
✅ Reduce stress
✅ Help regulate your nervous system
✅ Lower cortisol during periods of chronic stress
✅ Improve sleep
✅ Support emotional well-being

Those are meaningful benefits, but hormone health isn’t controlled by a breathing pattern.

Hormones are regulated through incredibly complex communication between your brain, ovaries, adrenal glands, thyroid, metabolism, genetics, age, and dozens of feedback loops happening every second.

I love holistic medicine.

I recommend nutrition.
Movement.
Stress management.
Sleep.
Mind-body practices.

But being holistic doesn’t mean believing every wellness claim, it means using the best evidence available while respecting the whole person.

If this helped clear things up, share it with someone who’s trying to sort through all the “natural” hormone advice online + follow me for honest, evidence-based conversations about women’s hormones and whole-body health 💌

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08/03/2026

Maca is one of the supplements I’ll actually defend, but generic maca powder is not the same thing as a targeted, clinically studied formula.

As mentioned by Dr. Janine Bowring, ND — maca is considered an adaptogenic herb and may help support the body during periods of hormonal and physiological stress, such as perimenopause and menopause, to support:
🌱 Hot flashes and night sweats
🌱 Mood and anxiety
🌱 Energy and resilience
🌱 Memory and mental clarity
🌱 Libido and s*xual wellness
🌱 A healthier stress response

Rather than treating every maca root as interchangeable, it’s important to also be aware that there are multiple maca phenotypes and they don’t necessarily behave the same way in the body.

Their nutrient and plant-compound profiles differ so one formulation may be more appropriate for a woman in perimenopause, while another may be better suited for postmenopause or for men etc.

Does that mean maca is going to magically “fix” every hormone symptom? No.

It also isn’t automatically a replacement for hormone therapy when hormone therapy is appropriate, but for the right person, with the right formulation, it can be a helpful addition to a more individualized plan.

My longtime preferred maca brand is Femmenessence by Symphony Natural Health as they use specific phenotype combinations formulated for different hormonal stages.

Have you tried maca before and did you actually notice a difference?

Save this for your next supplement haul, share it with a woman navigating perimenopause or menopause + follow me for more honest conversations about women’s health and hormones 💌

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