Black Women's Wellness Your "I've Got This!

" Guide to
Health, Sex, and Phenomenal Living

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BLACK WOMEN’S WELLNESS
YOUR I’VE GOT THIS! GUIDE TO HEALTH, SEX &
PHENOMENAL LIVING

MELODY T. MCCLOUD, MD
OBSTETRICIAN-GYNECOLOGIST
 This book is dedicated to every one of my patients, whose trust in me as
your physician and surgeon has me humbled and honored.
To the memory of both my beloved godmother, Genevieve Kemp, and to
Mr. Leo Richards, who stood in as a father—two gems who were always
there for me.
To my “Atlanta Mom” Mrs. Earnestine Shaw and her daughter, Patrice, for
letting me know and share a mother’s love.
And to my indispensable family of “inner circle” friends.
 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: THIS IS YOUR TIME TO BE HEALTHY, FIT,

AND FINE!

1. THE STATE OF BLACK WOMEN’S HEALTH

Societal Stress and the “Rejection Connection”
Medical Advances for Women
Ethnic Health Disparities
Leading Causes of Death
Facts and Stats of Living Black

PART ONE: THE TOP FIVE MEDICAL CONDITIONS

AFFECTING BLACK WOMEN’S LIVES

2. DISEASES OF THE HEART

The Expressway to Your Heart
Heart Disease: The Number One Killer
Myocardial Infarction
Hypertension, Coronary Artery Disease, and Stroke
Be “Heart Smart” in All You Do

3. OBESITY AND DIABETES

Metabolic Syndrome
Obesity
Diabetes Mellitus

4. MATERNAL MORTALITY AND PERINATAL LOSS

 Pregnancy-Related Deaths
Miscarriage and Stillbirths
To Be or Not to Be . . . a Mom
Pre-conception Counseling
Vaccinations and Pregnancy
Complications of Pregnancy

5. CANCER
The “Big C”
Catch It Early
Many Black Women Don’t Have to Die
Breast, Lung, Colon, and Gynecologic Cancers

6. HIV AND AIDS

Is He on the Down-Low?
Treatment and Prevention of HIV
Trust, but Verify

PART TWO: YOUR UNIQUE WOMANLY FORM

7. YOUR FEMININE FORM AND THE CONDITIONS THAT

AFFECT IT
Pelvic Structure and Function
The Brain/Body Connection to Menstruation
The Menstrual Cycle
Gynecological Conditions

8. MENOPAUSE
What Is Menopause?
Menopause and Osteoporosis
Menopause and Heart Disease
 Hormone Replacement Therapy
Ethnic Response to Menopause
Your “Secret Garden”: Use It or Lose It!
Foxy and Fine after 49!

9. CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT THE REST OF YOU

Eye Conditions
Lung Conditions
Genitourinary System Conditions
Musculoskeletal System Conditions
Multiple Sclerosis and Sickle Cell Disease

PART THREE: SEX, SENSUALITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS

10. LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX

Sexuality 101
Proven Benefits of Sex
Overcoming Hang-Ups to Get the Hook-Up
Sexually Transmitted Diseases

11. SEXUAL HEALING, RECLAIM THE FEELING

When Pain Prevents Pleasure
You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling?

12. BLACK WOMEN AND MARRIAGE

Still Waiting to Exhale?
Blacks and Marriage
Everybody Needs Love
Interracial Dating and Marriage
Multiracial Trends
“Manless” Does Not Mean Mindless
 Support from Sister-Friends and Family

13. PEARLS OF WISDOM TO HEAL YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

First, Do No Harm
Ensure Adequate Nutrition
Never Underestimate How Much Someone Hurts
Remember That Men Feel Pain Too
Don’t Leave the Tourniquet on for Longer Than Necessary
When You’re in Over Your Head, Call for Help
The Earlier the Diagnosis, the Easier the Treatment
Sometimes Surgery Is the Only Option
You Are Part of a Team
Even the Best Can Make a Mistake
It’s Easier to Repair a Straight Line Than a Jagged Edge
Your Words Can Have a Powerful Emotional Impact
It’s Easier to Stay Out of Trouble Than to Get Out of Trouble
Check Vital Signs Regularly
Learn from Your Mistakes
Listen
If You Can’t See the Problem, You Can’t Help with the Solution
Don’t Ignore the Signs and Symptoms

14. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND DIVORCE

Intimate Partner Violence
Signs of Intimate Partner Violence
To Divorce or Not to Divorce?

PART FOUR: HAPPINESS

15. DREAM IT. BELIEVE IT. ACHIEVE IT.

Moving Beyond Stereotypes
 Don’t Let Others Define You

16. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL

The Key to Real Beauty
The Skin You’re In
Nail Care
The Mane! The Mane!
Dental Care
Plastic Surgery
Make the Best of What You’ve Got

17. A STATE OF MIND

Mental Health Disorders
Your Brain
Aging and Mentation
Dementia vs. Alzheimer’s Disease
Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia

18. RACISM’S EFFECT ON BLACK WOMEN’S HEALTH

The Lasting Impact of First Experiences
Emotional Pain and Depression in Black Women
The Effects of Social Rejection

19. FINANCIAL HEALTH AND MONEY MANAGEMENT

The Pain of Poverty
Envision a Path to Financial Success
Managing Your Money

20. HOW TO SURVIVE, THRIVE, AND STAY ALIVE

A Loving Prescription for Black America
Life Lessons for Your Daughters . . . and Theirs
 Engage Your Phenomenal Spirit

EPILOGUE: TAKE TIME TO TAKE STOCK

AFTERWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
APPENDIX: HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE
GLOSSARY
NOTES
RESOURCES
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT SOUNDS TRUE
 INTRODUCTION
This Is Your Time to Be Healthy, Fit, and Fine!

S ex, health, happiness, and wealth . . . you know you want it all. And
there’s no better time than now for having it all and “gettin’ it good!”
Without social networking, motorized vehicles, or modern-day
technology, many of our ancestors went for what they wanted and got it.
One trailblazing “I’ve got this” woman I revere is Dr. Rebecca Lee
Crumpler. As the Civil War raged in 1864, 33-year-old Rebecca Lee became
the first Black female physician in the US. She graduated from what is now
Boston University School of Medicine. In 1865, with her husband, Arthur
Crumpler, she courageously journeyed to Richmond, Virginia, to provide
medical care to recently freed slaves that the White doctors would not
touch.
Her life in Virginia wasn’t easy. While there, many pharmacists refused
to honor her prescriptions, some hospitals denied her admitting privileges,
and some—reportedly, even physician colleagues—wisecracked that the
“MD” after her name stood not for medical doctor, but for “mule driver.”
But Dr. Crumpler persevered! She remained in Virginia for almost four
years then returned to Boston in 1869, established her medical practice, and
wrote a book about women’s and children’s health. She blazed a trail upon
which many have and do tread.
Hers is just one story of a brave, determined, capable Black woman. Over
the centuries, there have been more in numbers untold! In the 1900s,
especially during the Civil Rights Movement, Black women were
instrumental in the reckoning of a nation. While their husbands got the most
notoriety, matriarchs such as Coretta Scott King, Juanita Abernathy, and
Lillian Lewis stood alongside their men and played pivotal roles in moving
the nation forward to live up to its creed.
And as the first decade of 2000 ended and a new one began, Black
women became increasingly on the move, onward and upward, and are now
doctors, accountants, judges, pilots, investment managers, nurses, and
elected officials as well as wives, mothers, and caregiving daughters.
Undoubtedly many of today’s Black women are carving out lives about
which our great-great-grandmothers may have only dared to dream.
Black women’s voices are no longer muted or silenced; instead, they are
heard around the world, with sophisticated, strong, and successful style. In
2020, America elected its first Black female vice president, Kamala Harris,
at whose 2021 inauguration the words of the first Youth Poet Laureate of
the US, Amanda Gorman, rang forth for the world to hear. But there’s more!
In February 2021, Georgia Tech engineering major Breanna Ivey interned
at NASA and helped put their rover, Perseverance, on Mars! And as the
COVID-19 pandemic stole lives around the globe, vaccine researcher
Kizzmekia Corbett, who has a PhD in microbiology and immunology that
she earned at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, worked with
the National Institutes of Health and was instrumental in bringing safe,
effective vaccines to the world.
Indeed, Black Girl Magic is in full force! When we look around,
seemingly there’s hardly anything Black women can’t do—and do well—in
any field, including medicine, the military, politics, education, technology,
business, sports, aeronautics, and the arts. What we put our minds to, we
can achieve! With an “I’ve got this” approach and determination, it is ours
to be had.
But life is not a bed of roses for all Black women. Too often (and still)
negative images barrage our psyches, loved ones in our community lose
their lives in gun violence, and our health often needs dramatic
improvement. Black women still carry the highest incidence of, and the
poorest prognosis for, medical conditions that affect practically every organ
system in the body. We are more obese and have a shorter life expectancy
than other women in the female demographic, and we carry the highest
mortality rate for many killer diseases such as diabetes, heart disease,
cancer, infant mortality, HIV/AIDS, and more.
Despite those findings, the plight of Black women’s health is rarely, if
ever, specifically addressed at length in general women’s health books. For
that reason I have stepped outside of my medical office, outside of the
sacred space of the surgical suite, even outside of my city and state to offer
women in America and abroad Black Women’s Wellness: Your “I’ve Got
This!” Guide to Health, Sex, and Phenomenal Living. May it be the one-
stop source you can reference on your personal quest to achieve total
wellness, health, and happiness in every important aspect of your life. I
offer this book as a Black female who grew up poor in a single-parent
household. I never knew any of my grandparents, had an absentee father
(who I later found when I was 49), a mother with some “issues,” no
siblings, and many naysayers in my midst. But to achieve my goals to
become a physician and a surgeon, I studied to show myself approved. It
wasn’t easy, but I got it done.
Over the years, I’ve seen thousands of women of various ethnicities
suffer with chronic diseases, some of which can be avoided, or at least,
better controlled. I also know the remarkable and rewarding joy of
practicing medicine and performing surgery to remove disease, help women
with their infertility, or free them from cancer.
As a physician, my question to you is, Are you taking time to take care of
your health? In fact, when did you last really think about—and take time for
—your health in a comprehensive, serious, deliberate manner?
Jack Kornfield’s Buddha’s Little Instruction Book reminds us that “each
morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”
Kornfield also tells us, “If your compassion does not include yourself, it is
incomplete.” Whatever your schedule, lifestyle, religious preference, or
personal obligation to others, the reality is you won’t be able to do anybody
any good if you’re in poor or failing health. As said in the 2021 movie
Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia, “Take one seed of what you give others
and plant it in yourself.”
The words and images within these pages present information that is
applicable to the specific medical, spiritual, emotional, and social needs of
Black women. However, non-Black women can glean valuable information
about their health and standing in this book as well because I also provide
comparative data for Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American
women, as well as some data about our male counterparts. But special
attention is given to Black women because the fact is, Black women’s
health concerns and challenges are different from those of other women.
In these pages you will find staggering statistics and a less-than-desirable
legacy of Black women’s health. But you will also find tools, medical
information, and encouragement that can liberate you and Black women
everywhere from a similar fate. With knowledge comes power.
 Look at all the wonderful things Black women have done and continue to
do when they employ their mind and determination in force. Hold on to that
because improving one’s physical health is doable—you can do it!—and
changing the trajectory of Black women’s health is also doable. It can be
done, and it must be done because changing the health of Black women can
change the health of the Black family and that of all future generations. As
you review and compare the health statistics across racial lines presented
herein, remember one thing: the goal isn’t to be like White or Asian women;
the goal is to be healthier Black women.
Black Women’s Wellness provides a head-to-toe medical reference, with
information that will carry you for years to come. Some of you might read
this book cover to cover, as a whole. Others might read chapters that
address your, or a loved one’s, current medical concern, circumstance, or
curiosity. Or as you flip through the pages, you might see a pie chart or
graph that grabs your attention or gives you pause.
In chapter 1, I begin with my “Societal Stress and Black Women’s
Health” flowchart that ties together the psychosocial challenges and
microaggressions that we face as Black women and how those psychosocial
stressors can affect our physical well-being.
In part 1, I present timely information about heart disease, diabetes,
maternal mortality, cancers, and HIV/AIDS . . . the top five conditions that
are robbing Black women of life and longevity.
In part 2, I hone in on our womanly feminine form and function. As with
all creation, the human body is a thing of beauty with wonders it performs!
No one would be alive today without a woman’s body, for it is through
women that all life is formed and born.
Medical conditions can affect all of us—whether we are tall or short;
“thick” or thin; heterosexual or homosexual; light-skinned, “olive-
complected,” or the color of rich, dark chocolate. You’ll read about your
reproductive anatomy and physiology and the diseases that can affect your
female organs, such as fibroid tumors and endometriosis, but also other
medical conditions that cause midlife “female” problems such as a dropped
bladder, urinary incontinence, and pelvic pain. You’ll read about vision
problems, arthritic conditions, sickle cell disease, multiple sclerosis, and
more. And if you are menopausal and utterly confused about hormone
replacement therapy, this part can give you guidance.
 No book on wellness is fully complete without addressing sex. Can I get
an amen? Given my personal experience and professional expertise, I wrote
the sex, sensuality, and relationships section with a heterosexual approach.
But regardless of your sexual preference or identity, in part 3, you’ll read
about the health benefits of having sex (with whoever rocks your boat).
There’s also sage information about sexually transmitted diseases and how
to identify any residual sexual hang-ups you may have so you can fully
enjoy and benefit from the experience that love-making was meant to be.
Maybe your love life has gone from a sizzle to a fizzle, you have trouble
achieving orgasm, or you experience pain with intercourse. Or perhaps
you’re wondering if male enhancement medications work in women or how
you can possibly enjoy sex in a day of rampant sexually transmitted
diseases and men “on the down-low.” Fret not; you’ve come to the right
place! I give you tips on how to boost your sex life and get or keep the
passion going with your sweetie. I also offer you advice on how to address
these intimate issues (including sexual dysfunction) with your doctor.
And last, in part 4, I round out the call for total wellness with information
on relationships, love, beauty, mental health, mindfulness, and financial
well-being. I also provide a checklist for you to take stock of your health to
identify the specific areas that require your medical attention.
To find happiness in a world of frequent, near-daily rejection, it is
important to have inner strength, self-assurance, emotional balance, and
reliable friends and family. Part 4 will give you useful tips to achieve inner
peace, to keep your brain active and alert, and to avoid toxic people. It will
advise you on how to capitalize on your best traits and, if needed, minimize
those traits you find less desirable or that impede your personal or
professional goals.
Proper diet and physical activity for increasing the secretion of
endorphins—the “feel good” body chemicals—will be addressed, and tips
for hair and skin care will be presented. Lastly, unique medical “pearls of
wisdom” will help you improve your interpersonal relationships. Along the
way, I will share a few anecdotes of my life’s journey; perhaps they will
encourage you to keep moving forward when you feel you just can’t take
another step.
I am excited for you and me. Despite the doom and gloom of the past, it
is possible for Black women to achieve medical parity and live the best,