Empowered Patient Podcast Improving Women’s Health with Advanced Gynecological Tools with Marylyn Rigby Bioceptive
Marylyn Rigby, President and CEO of Bioceptive, focuses on improving women's health technologies. Bioceptive has developed a cervical suction retractor as an alternative to the 200-year-old cervical tenaculum device used to insert IUDs and perform biopsies and other intrauterine procedures. While current procedures are extremely painful, there has been a lack of innovation in understanding women's pain because women are often described as hysterical, with little clinical data to get to the source of the pain.
Marylyn explains, "I think that also has to do with what modern medicine is based on, which is a man’s body and not a woman’s body. And because of that, it’s kind of interesting to think that a man could ever possibly understand what it would feel like to have their cervix, which they don’t even have, be pierced, essentially. It is like having your ears pierced and the traumatic experience that it causes because this is done again without any type of anesthetic. So, one of the biggest issues that we see right now, regardless of what your political stance on pro-life or pro-choice, is certainly that women need better options for contraception that are more effective."
"Science has indicated that the IUD is the most effective form of contraception and that is because of its efficacy, which is greater than 99%. You’re not looking to remember to take a pill. You’re not looking, you’re not having to have weight gain by having something inserted in your arm. It’s a one-stop shop that is incredibly effective and cost-effective. However, the number one reason that women do not get IUDs more often is because of the trauma and the pain that is associated with the tenaculum, which is required to insert the IUD."
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