We’re all immigrants somewhere.

Are you an international student or international medical graduate? Have you worked along side an international healthcare professional? Have you ever wondered what their experience is like? What if things were reversed? How would you feel in a brand new environment? A brand new world?

In this podcast featuring Dr. Hajira Yasmin, a gynecologist of over 25 years now with a niche practice focusing on perimenopause, menopause and the sexual health of women, lays bare how, as an international medical graduate student, she got to her breaking point, but didn’t quit. During our time together we explore the tools she used to find the strength to keep pushing forward and the role history played in giving her strength.

Dr. Yaz’s story is one of new beginnings and triumph.

Connect with our speaker:

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Yaz, please check out her website  alraymd.com or you can find her on Instagram and tiktoc with handle @dr.yas.alraymd or on Facebook by searching for “Dr. Hajira Yasmin”

Podcast Transcript:

Dr. JB 00:03 :
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Hope4med podcast. I am your host, Doctor JB and today’s
featured guest is Dr. Hajira Yasmin. She goes by Dr. Yaz. She is a gynecologist with 25 years of
experience and has set a niche practice to help women who navigate through perimenopause,
menopause and sexual health challenges. Welcome to the show.

Dr. Yasmin 00:37 :
Thank you, Thank you Doctor JB for having me. I am super excited to be here today. Thank you.

Dr. JB 00:44 :
Yeah, and I am also excited to have you as a featured guest on today’s show. So let us go ahead
and start from the beginning. Can you please share with my listener your origin story?

Dr. Yasmin 00:55 :
Yeah, goes back to more than almost 25 years. So I was born in India and I left India after my
medical school to England to United Kingdom and they I was a trained gynecologist like we didn’t
have to do an undergrad after your twelfth grade so I was directly admitted with honors in medical
school in Bombay. If some of your audience know where Bombay is, it’s like the central part of India.
And then I did my residency there in or a training in OB GYN and I was. I was attending and like
almost an attending at the age of probably 23 or so, and then I left to England and I was trained
there in Birmingham Deanery, which is like again Central England. And then I did a lot of studying
and practice as a surgeon as laparoscopic surgeon, and became an obstetrician, did a lot of minimal
invasive surgery in England and then. I move from England for family reasons because I had a lot of
family in the United States and I moved here and though I was board certified by the Royal College
of OB GYN in London called RCOG and I got my fellowship or which they call us MRC OG there.
Member of Royal College of OB GYN in London I was completely trained as a consultant in United
Kingdom and I came here hoping I am going to be an attending an OBGYN and I don’t need to do
my residency again because I was fully trained in United Kingdom. But then the American College of
OB GYN here are rightfully told me I cannot become an attending even though I’m like super
qualified to be. A resident, so I navigated that and I took up I. It was a huge step for me because I
was stepping down from the position of a consultant OBGYN from United Kingdom. I was a
colposcopist. I was kind of menopause specialist. I was a surgeon. I was an obstetrician. And here I
am doing my first year residency in the United States. So my journey started i took that. It was i took
that step because I wanted to learn more. I wanted to be in a country where it which is not limited by
socialized medicine, where I could do more surgery where I could serve women. I could become
more skilled so I had that drive and that ambition at that age to really dive deeper into OBGYN, I
stuck out with OBGYN specialty as well because there were a lot of opportunities that came to me.
20/25 years ago to say, hey you have done OBGYN’s so much in these two countries, why don’t you
just do family medicine or do internal medicine and kind of have a laid back life and I’m like no. I
have felt the reward and the happiness and the joy when I deliver those babies i’ve had the joy
taking care of women with fibroid uterus or with ectopic pregnancies or you know, counseling
somebody for a miscarriage. I said no. I don’t think I am placed in my mind and in my body and in
my spirit to really deviate from OBGYN. So I stuck out. I did a full four years of my residency, but it
was very different. It was different from a regular resident who comes out of medical school in
United States because I was doing a caesarean section as a first year resident without any training.
I was like the attendings very quickly came to know like where I came from. I was a very unique
breed. There are very few people who come across in residency programs like me. I was just going
through the motions of residency because I had to be board certified by the American College of OB
GYN and the American Board of OBGYN. So I finished the four years I moved from New Jersey to
Pittsburgh and I the reason I did that was because I was just doing the routine OB GYN and I
wanted some specialization in robotic surgery. And, urogyn, which was my which was I was very
fond of urogyn to cure incontinence in women, and also to take out a fibroid uterus. And, you know,
like in a small incisions like laparoscopic, tiny incisions compared to those big cuts that we were
doing 20 years ago. So i enjoyed removing large uteruses in minimally invasive fashion and I knew
the program that I was in New Jersey was not really giving me that kind of a driver or training to do
that and grow. That’s that piece of my skills, so I went to University of Pittsburgh Magee Women’s
Hospital, which is kind of an ivory tower for training in OBGYN and I really worked with some
prominent people, great leaders in surgery and obstetrics and I and I developed those skills of
Urogyn and i honed my skills on laparoscopy and became very comfortable. Very confident and. I
was ready to put on a program of robotic program and to serve in Women’s Health space and I
wanted to do this in a rural setting where I could go in and create a program. So I applied
everywhere and I chose Wisconsin because it was rural and it was in the middle of the country and
there were no experts there and they were they needed. People like robotic surgeon. They needed
somebody who had experience and it kind of fitted the my vision of. Growing something where there
was nothing i did not want to be under the umbrella of a large academic institute where there are
hundreds of sub specialists and I’m just a number for them like OK Doctor Yaz. Yeah she’s like any
other resident she’s doing this or she can go for fellowship i did not need fellowship training because
of my past so i wanted to go into a program and really into a place and really set-up a program.
Where I could serve and train junior attendings and really show what I have and that’s exactly what I
did in Wisconsin and i was very fortunate. I had amazing partners. I went to a large health system
which serves central Wisconsin, about 25 centers and I went to a large group of OBGYN which
where I had six partners there and we set-up a practice and I brought in robotic program. They did
not have the Davinci. System in that place. So I got the robotic program for gynecology i brought in
Urogyn and we started doing a lot of surgeries for incontinence and at that time we were using mesh
for slings and I brought on that sling surgery and I did all of this. Long story short, in my decade of
practice in Wisconsin, somewhere in the middle, I had this urge. Like, you know, I had. I was doing
surgeries and my patients would come to me and say my libido is low or, you know, i’m having a lot
of dryness. I’ve lost interest in sex after you did my surgery or after I had my baby. And you know,
you took out my uterus. I’m a cancer survivor and you have taken. I’ve gone into surgical
menopause, but there’s something happening in my body. What do I do? You know I didn’t have
many answers. Honestly, i felt I’ve trained in three different countries and top institutes like you know
in Bombay, in Birmingham and McGee. And I’m not able to help these women, so it created a kind
of a caveat in my mind as to I need something more. I need to gather how to help these women so
as a full time attending OBGYN I was mainly a I was drawn to gynecological surgery so it was more
of a surgeon and an obstetrician. But I kind of gave away that obstetric peace and less priority
compared to surgery and sexual health. I was draw. I was drawing patients more who were coming
to me for menopause issues. And sexual issues just by the interest that I was giving to them, I was
talking to them. I was listening to them so I went and enrolled myself into a human sexuality course
in Michigan, in Ann Arbor. I was a full time attending. I was doing calls i was completely inundated
with surgery and hospital calls as an obstetrician. You know how bad it is like. We are just ER docs.
You know like twenty four seven and you know catching those babies and juggling you well.

Dr. JB 10:01 :
My docs are not on.

Dr. Yasmin 10:02 :
Call yes, like you know you’re stuck in the hospital like you know they called me at two AM to
deliver a baby. And then I finished my shift like about seven AM and then I would drive to Ann Arbor
in Michigan and do my course. But it opened my eyes. It really opened my eyes. There is so much
to human sexuality that is really not taught in residencies and medical schools. There is so much
about gender identity, sexual orientation. How do we approach these women and men and in their
relationships? How do you? How do you navigate throwing away your judgment, throwing away your
mindset, the way you look at your life and not projecting on them? It took a lot of time for me for that
personal growth, and that happened while I was in attending. Like you know, yeah, the moment my
patient walks through the door I it’s nothing about me, it’s about her and I have to throw my bias. I
have to. You know, we all have some kind of implicit bias. We have to shut that and not project my
opinion or my culture or my stuff. And that was a huge thing for me, which I learned. If you need to
treat somebody for their sexual concerns, that is the first step that you need to do and that whole
year. It really explored what I was and what I wanted to do. And then I also passed an exam by the
North American Menopause Society and dive deeper into menopause because menopause is
hardly touched in curriculums, even like. Very pristine institutes like University of Pittsburgh and
Birmingham University Hospital in London in Birmingham. Nobody talks much about menopause so
I had to read myself. Self teach myself, write an exam, understand the Physiology of menopause.
What happens in different systems in your heart, in your brain and in every system of your body
when you go through that menopause or perimenopause? So i started a clinic in Wisconsin based
on the knowledge that I acquired and it was called women’s intimacy. Center, so I literally had to
present the need for this clinic and it got approved and this was my second venture in Wisconsin.
The first one was my robotic program and the second was women’s intimacy clinic. I was really
proud about that because being a woman of color in the middle of the country, very semi rural
Wisconsin. I literally fought with the with the board people and also medical directors to explain the
need for this sexual. Health and menopause. Health and it got approved. It got approved and I was
able to see patients from everywhere like I had patients driving from Madison or Green Bay or
Wisconsin Rapids, which is like a good hundred hundred and fifty miles to come and see me and
people from Michigan like Upper Michigan like the neighboring states would start coming to talk to
me and see me and I really enjoyed and loved that. I will tell you i have always shifted from one
thing to the other Doctor JB. I feel like that has added a lot of motivation and drive to me to keep
going in OBGYN and specialty. I mean if I stayed as a general OBGYN, could that lead to burnout?
Yeah, possibly, but I was always innovative. I was always thinking outside the box. I was always
trying to do things what? Regular stream people don’t do it, and I and I have to say it wasn’t a walk
in the park. I did get a lot of judgments. I did get a lot of criticism. I did get a lot of people thinking
like oh, why does she want to do this? And what is there in sexual health? It is, you know. And I did
pay a price for what I did because as you know, insurance based clinical medicine in our country
here, United States is mainly our view based for a physician like our model which is reimbursed.
Based on how many surgeries you do and how many deliveries you do, and because I set-up a
quality of life based model, I set-up menopause and sexual health where I would be with the patient
for 60 minutes. In my women’s intimacy clinic. So that was cutting out my time from my surgeries so
I would not be able to do like 60 to 70 hysterectomies in a in a like couple weeks or a couple months
of time. Because that volume was coming down because I was focusing more on sexual health. So
but i enjoyed it. I loved what I did. It was very fulfilling. It was rewarding because when the patient
came back she would be happy like she wanted to see me and say like what a big difference i want
to wind down this with one story that I want to share with you and your audience. Before I left
Wisconsin. Long story short, I moved out from Wisconsin and I set-up my own niche practice. Based
on exactly the same model that I was doing in Wisconsin, I before I left there, I was doing this
intimacy clinic one day. Very busy seeing patients and I came out of the door. I looked on my side
and I saw a young a man standing with a brown wrapper bag in his hand and I knew as soon as I
saw his face. I knew, oh, i know him. I’ve seen him before, but why is he walking into a gynecology
clinic? I mean it’s usually women who come with men. You know, men don’t come on their own. And
I’m like I said OK. And then he came closer. I knew who that was. I said, hey John, how come you’re
here? Where’s your wife like? Where’s Nancy where? Where is she? What’s where is she and he’s
like? I want to talk to you, so I took him in a room and he shared with me such a touching story that
his wife had passed away the night before when she had a massive cardiac arrest and they were
trying to revive her. She was undergoing a heart valve replacement surgery and he came just the
next day itself to tell me that I had given such a great life to that couple like they were able to be
intimate, they were able to. Even before she went to the hospital to have surgery, they had a
moment of intimacy and he said, I can’t thank you enough, like without you, that would have not
been possible we came to see you about three or four years ago and you gave us such a fulfilling,
rewarding life. In those last few years that I had with her. There’s nobody better for me to thank you
about her. The kind of life you gave me, so I wanted to come and tell you this, and I wanted to thank
you touched my heart you touched my heart and I felt like I am on the right track. I i I shed so many
tears I hugged him I said I attended her funeral too but you know I felt like it was such a touching
thing and I said I think I’m on the right path. This is the way to go you know it may not you know pay
me well but that’s what the difference I want to make in the world I want to make a bigger impact
and I want to continue to serve. Every relationship, every woman who’s out there can be can access
me. Can really reach out to me so right now I’m in North Carolina so I have set-up a similar in niche
practice and obviously I can see many patients in that practice other than Wisconsin and North
Carolina because I’m licensed in these two states. But I do want to create something bigger and
impact women all across the world just because from the roots of where I come. And how I have
come and my journey being across the world, I feel like I can relate to what women not only here but
across the world. Can are undergoing in that aspect of their lives.

Dr. JB 18:17 :
Wow, what an amazing story.

Dr. Yasmin 18:20 :
Thank you.

Dr. JB 18:21 :
And you’ve had so many transitions throughout your career and I want to kind of revisit a few of
those transitions if you’re OK. So the first transition I want to talk about is transitioning from the UK
to the US and explore that a little bit more to understand what exactly you meant in terms of you
wanted to get out of socialized medicine.

Dr. Yasmin 18:47 :
You know, in the United Kingdom I. There was a kind of a plateau. I would say it is a kind where
there is a ceiling for everything, like if I wanted to do robotic surgery or if I wanted to advance
something in sexual health or menopause health, or if I wanted to do urogyn There were a lot of
restraints because it’s a government funded healthcare and there was not much growth, you know
and people were pretty much laid back in terms of consultants I’m talking about like the attending
level and I felt a little boxed in there. I felt like you know I needed more growth. I felt like I could do
more. You know i just don’t have to be delivering babies and doing hysterectomies. In a
conventional fashion, because i want to do something more so that desire for more was not satisfied
in socialized medicine. So they were that drive was not fulfilled.

Dr. JB 19:58 :
Some people argue that the solution to combating our RVU based medicine is socialized medicine,
So what would you say to that?

Dr. Yasmin 20:06 :
I do not think that is one size fits all. I don’t think just because we are on this side of the world. And
we say socialized medicine is not the cure because I have practiced both ways and I will tell you it
has to be a hybrid. There is no way that we are going to survive with socialized medicine because it
does have its cons. Like if I if socialized medicine, you don’t get your hysterectomy like in 48 hours.
You don’t get your cataract surgeries in like a week. Everything is prioritized based on the funding
that comes from the NHS or the National Health Service or the government funding. So the
surgeries. We’re definitely delayed. You don’t get your assessments. Your you know your care what
you need, like the kind of privatized, care or insurance based care that we have here. People are
now going to be happy with that. I mean, socialized medicine is good. I would say at certain point to
give medical care to everyone above 65 You know like a free care for everybody, government
funding, free care like National Health Service giving. Like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and any
such care like a basic care. A basic package to be rolled out to all citizens of United State could be a
socialized piece of healthcare. But to roll it out to the entire country, I don’t think it’s going to be
feasible. It has to be a mix of 1 or the other. I don’t think the solution is give up our view based care
or insurance based care and jump to socialized medicine. I don’t think the answer is that simple.

Dr. JB 21:47 :
Ok, so transition number two is transitioning from, well the UK to the US, but now transitioning from
being an attending to being a resident, and so you had to start from the beginning from intern year.

Dr. Yasmin 22:03 :
Yes, absolutely yeah, the difference is. If I was coming into internal medicine or Pediatrics because
that’s those are the two specialties. I was told at that time I would enter as a second year resident.
So which means I go bypass the internship here but I was getting into a surgical specialty where I
am dealing with somebody’s body. I’m operating, i’m kind of into very delicate areas and the surgery
involves precision. And that I was told with any surgical specialties in our country, here we cannot
bypass the intern year. So I had to do all the four years with all my exams, all my stuff. And get
certified again.

Dr. JB 22:49 :
And as part of an intern year, you’re not just an OB, you’re floating through all these different
specialties and Services and. So how was that for you?

Dr. Yasmin 23:01 :
It taught me a lot of things Sir. Doctor JB, I have to say it is not everyone’s cup of tea because you
know, you know how interns are treated. You know how hard it is and you go through different
specialties. People would do the same to me and then they would understand where I’m coming
from and how much I know and what I know and then slowly they would realize Oh my God, like
she’s different. She’s not the usual one, you know. So and then I gradually navigated each pathway
and I have to say it was not easy. I mean, if somebody is trying to do that, I would love to be a
mentor to them. And there are far and few people who do what? I did and if there are people out
there who’s listening and they are planning to do that, I would love to share my experiences and
guide them through this because I didn’t have anybody to guide me through this. I mean, it was just
me doing everything.

Dr. JB 24:00 :
So you would think that if you’ve gone through this already and you’re already working as an
attending, that it actually would be easier than somebody who hadn’t, you know, gone through
anything like they’re fresh out of medical school, but you’re saying you still had a lot of challenges.

Dr. Yasmin 24:17 :
Yes. The challenges are mainly because you don’t fit in. You don’t fit in with your peers, you don’t fit
in with even your attendings because you may be better than your peers and your attendings. So
you are doing your first cesarean section. They’re just showing you, and you’re saying I can finish
this in 20 minutes, so you are at a different level, so that doesn’t fly very well with many first year
residents or even second year residents. So I had those challenges, you know. People would try to
pull you down. People would come and say things. Nasty things like that are totally unrelated to OB
GYN. Like you know, OK, why? Why can’t you do this? So why can’t you do that? Because they are
senior residents and you are a junior resident. And even though you were an attending in another
country, they don’t care about it. I mean is that their insecurity that they’re doing that? I mean that I
have seen that both from the attending sides and my peers. As well, so that was the challenge I
faced. It was not about learning a skill, it was not about doing surgeries, it was just trying to fit into
that camaraderie of residency fit into that class of residence, or fit into that attendings who feel
intimidated, who feel threatened by you or being saying, oh, the education United Kingdom. Oh,
that’s nothing you know, like. We are there. You got to reach there you know what you have learned
is not the be all and end all you know, like those kind of comments and attitudes. And i did come
across that a lot. And that was my biggest challenge.

Dr. JB 26:07 :
And during this whole experience, did you ever experience symptoms of burnout?

Dr. Yasmin 26:14 :
I wouldn’t say there was any burnout during residency, you meant during transition into residency,
right? In here, no it was exhaustion because it was both physical and emotional and mental.
Because you know, I was working hard. I was like going at three AM to do my rounds and get
everything ready and present things and at the same time I’m always on a alert thinking Oh my God,
like am I stepping someone’s shoes am I? Am I overdoing this? Am I? Showing that I’m an
attending, how much should I tone down? You know, how can I look ignorant and not really talk
about anything about my perspective? So I was constantly monitoring myself during residency and
that was my challenge. My challenge was not burnt out and I’m working too hard and somebody’s
making too something for me. The problem was, how can I fit in and how can I not? Be judged by
people because I know more than them, or I’ve trained more than them.

Dr. JB 27:19 :
And that must be extremely challenging.

Dr. Yasmin 27:23 :
It was, but you know, i went through and four years and I did it, i when I started I said, oh i’m not
gonna go through this. I probably will go back to England and become a consultant and live there
forever and never come back to the United States. But here I am. I finished the four years.

Dr. JB 27:40 :
So you thought about quitting. So what made you not?

Dr. Yasmin 27:48 :
Umm. You know the quitting piece that came when they were very negative attitudes from peers or
few attendings you know? Like not really acknowledging the POV’s of a of a trained person from
across the country from another land you know, saying like we do it all and we are the best and we
are the latest and the greatest here that was the frustration piece. Like you know. How can I make
them understand that the entire world is the same? To be kind, specialty can never change. You
dealt with the babies. You do surgeries and it’s just that we have more technology and we have
more precision and innovation. In United States you know. So my frustration of not being able to get
across to them. They give me ideas about oh God, i don’t think I can continue this battle. I should
just quit and go back and take my consultant job in Birmingham or anywhere in England. But I didn’t
not do that because I felt to myself. You know these are only a bunch of people like you know I was
operating amongst 16 residents or maybe 25 attendings and I was telling myself it’s a small people.
It’s a small pool of people and I had navigated so many people in England like you know we rotate
through different hospitals there and I had worked in Manchester. I had worked in Leeds. I had
worked in Wales, South Wales near Cardiff and I had seen so many people so many gynecologists.
How many residents and I said to myself, these people are a small pool and they are annoying me.
They are. I’m frustrated with them, but I am not going to give up because of them because there is a
bigger world out there so I would I would talk to myself and say and I’m a huge journal writing
person too. So i used to journal a lot and I write down everything like OK today this is a bad day and
I somebody was annoyed and somebody didn’t like what I said and. Ok, so tomorrow is another day
and I have done this before. I was always going back to what I had done before. I was always going
back to my roots and I was always going back thinking I have done this in Cardiff. I have done this in
Birmingham. I have done this in different places. Why can’t I do it here?

Dr. JB 30:10 :
Yes, yes. So you had a way to engage in self-care through your journaling, right to release to
process what happened during that day. So you get it out and then you wake up and face another
day.

Dr. Yasmin 30:26 :
Yes, exactly, that’s exactly. I did all four years I I’m a huge journal writing person. I did that. I think
from my high school days I was always journaling. So i i’m so crazy. Even today sometimes I’m
obsessed with. Journaling and I feel like I need to queue up. It can’t be writing every day, you know,
but that is my exit point. That is my letting go of all the things and kind of reflecting back and starting
fresh for a new day.

Dr. JB 30:56 :
I was looking forward, not, you know, being stuck in all the negative things that happened that day
and, you know focusing only on that negative aspect of your day, but realizing that tomorrow’s a new
day and there’s hope that it’ll be better, you know. And even if tomorrow’s not better the day after
tomorrow, you know maybe that’ll be better.

Dr. Yasmin 31:19 :
Yes, absolutely.

Dr. JB 31:22 :
Wow so you transition out of Wisconsin. So what made you decide to leave Wisconsin?

Dr. Yasmin 31:29 :
That’s so such an important vital piece of my life. I went to Wisconsin with my kid and he grew up
and he went to college and both me and my husband. We had one child and he became a college
freshman and in the middle of the pandemic and we always wanted to retire and go to a place of
Four Seasons and we used to come to North Carolina quite a number of times when we were in
Wisconsin, like to the mountains and. I love the mountains and the ocean and I get drawn for water
like water and it’s kind of grounding for me like to be close to the ocean and it really makes me think
that life is bigger. Like you know there is so many things that we worry about it my anxiety, my stress
and my surgery like as a surgeon when I when you do so many intricate surgeries you’re under a lot
of stress. You know, like you don’t want to create a complication you want to do everything right?
With this woman, so she can heal and she could be there for her family. So you are putting yourself
to the top level of stress when you do these kind of things, but I used to get a release every time we
take vacations in places with beaches or water. Or you know something like that. And i knew that I
wanted to retire in a city which is close to the ocean and mountains too. We had a beautiful
mountain in a place that I lived in Wisconsin called was it was called Rib Mountain and me and my
husband would. Always walk that mountain. It was like 2. It was like 4 miles. You could go up like 2
and a half miles and walk down 2 and a half miles. It was pretty steep. And we would take the dog
and go. And so when our son left, we were thinking we got to go back to Raleigh because you know
it is getting lonely in Wisconsin and the other piece was the winter was drowning us and we wanted
more of sunlight. I wanted to really flourish and do more work in terms of sexual health and
menopause. But for me to be a better version of myself and to be positive. I needed to look after
myself so that I can give better things to my patients or to my women. You know, like if I do coaching
or if I do anything in the future, I cannot be in a mess. If I have to give something positive so that
was my first belief, how do I make myself content, enjoy in peace and in with ease? I got to live with
ease. I can be frustrated with this winter. Every time I drive in the evening, and if there’s a Blizzard
and I can go to the gym, I can’t take the dog for a walk. So that was the whole point. We kind of
reflected on our life and our home, we became empty nesters and we decided, yeah, this is the time
I think we can make a move to North Carolina. So we did take that step and we came here and I
have to say that was another bold move. I didn’t know anybody in the city. It was something exactly
what I had done in the past. Again, my journaling helped me here because I had left England and I
had come to United States. I had my family here. I have my sisters and be a wonderful friends here,
but even then, going for residency program all by myself after being an attending and being at that
level of expertise and dropping down to a first year intern, I was exactly doing the same. Here i was
in a very secure. Position in my job as a medical director of Women’s Intimacy Clinic. I was at the
peak of my career. I was a fantastic robotic surgeon. I would do surgeries with 0 3 % was my
complication rate which was hardly nothing like absolutely nothing. That’s what the medical director
wrote to me and I was leaving all of that to come to a new city where I didn’t have family. I had a lot
of friends and I still do have friends to set-up my own practice. And you know, and not joining
another health system because the reason being I didn’t have the energy or the resources or the
mindset to again put up another fight to say women’s sexual health and menopause. Health is the
key to quality of life. You know, i fought for that a lot in Wisconsin. I didn’t want to redo that again, so
I said I’m going to set-up my own practice so that itself in itself was a huge thing for us to do. To
come here, but again, my journaling, my reflection, my capabilities, my abilities of what I have done
in the past, gave me the courage to take this leap of faith wow.

Dr. JB 36:24 :
That’s absolutely wonderful. And again, you know, just showing that you you’ve reached back to
your prior experiences to apply it to your current situation, which is something you’ve done
throughout your whole entire life, so that’s absolutely fantastic. So if my if my listener wanted to find
out more about you and your clinic, how can they do so?

Dr. Yasmin 36:47 :
I am all over the social media. I try to educate women because I know I know a lot of folks in India. I
know a lot of folks in England, Australia and everywhere, so I do a lot of education on social media
like little tidbits about gynecology, about Women’s Health, mainly focused on menopause and
sexual health, and my website is www.alraymd.com and they can contact me through my website.
There’s a contact form on the website and my name my handle on Instagram is DrYaz.alraymd and I
am on Tiktok too so with the same handle Dr.Yas.alraymd and I’m on Facebook as well as Dr. Hajira
Yasmin and I have a Facebook page for the practice so if they just type my name or even if they
type alright MD they’re going to find me everywhere.

Dr. JB 37:48 :
Alright perfect, perfect, perfect and in closing, do you have any pearls of wisdom you would like to
leave my listener?

Dr. Yasmin 37:59 :
Do not stop in seeking what you want. Reflect back on what you have achieved or what you have
done so far in your life and just keep going. If you have any doubt about anything, reach out for help.
But don’t stop just keep going and you will be able to achieve.