Dr. Shawna Ruple

Why do women so often have to prove their suffering to receive care?

So many women are asked to justify, quantify, and defend what they’re experiencing before being offered hormone replacement therapy.

We don’t require this level of proof in most other areas of medicine. So why here?

Women deserve to be heard the first time. They deserve evidence-based care without having to jump through hoops or minimize their own experience to be taken seriously.

It’s time to shift from skepticism to support. From gatekeeping to guidance. From “prove it” to “how can we help?”

Women used to be told “use it or lose it” when dealing with vaginal dryness or pain.

That advice = Not good medicine.

Pain isn’t something to push through. Dryness isn’t a personal failure. And intimacy shouldn’t hurt.

These symptoms are common—especially in perimenopause and menopause—but they’re also treatable. Hormonal changes are real, and so are the solutions.

You deserve better than outdated advice.

If something feels off, it’s worth talking about. You don’t have to suffer in silence.

I advocate for patients professionally — and I fight the system personally.
As both a physician and a patient with chronic illness, I live on both sides of this system.

Chronic illness is hard.
Insurance interference makes it harder.

Denials, delays, prior authorizations, and endless administrative barriers don’t just slow care — they worsen disease, increase suffering, and drain already limited physical and emotional reserves.

The people writing the policies don’t live with the consequences.
Patients do.
Providers do.

We deserve a healthcare system that prioritizes healing over profit, access over obstacles, and people over paperwork.