Welcome to You Are Not Broken, the only podcast that combines science, medicine, and psychology

to re-educate your brain and help you live your best-to-love life. And I'm your host, Ford

certified female urologist, Dr. Casperson.

Hey friends, today I'm so excited to have Dr. Jill Kraft in today because she is a lichen sclerosis expert.

She works and practices on the East Coast and January 17th is National Lichen Sclerosis Day.

So we are doing this podcast episode in celebration and awareness

of this condition that's kind of silent, right? So Dr. Kraft, can you tell us like how you

got to be a lichen sclerosis researcher and, you know, medicine provider? Yes, of course. So lichenschlorosis

is a condition that's difficult because it's a condition that's really between two medical specialties.

Essentially, you have gynecologists who look at the vulvar area, which is where lichen sclerosis predominantly affects.

Gynecologists look at this area all day, every day, but there's not great training in skin

conditions, even in this area.

And so that's an issue.

And then the other thing is the dermatologists, which are commonly doctors that are known

to treat skin and nails and hair. They know a lot about

lichen sclerosis on different parts of the body, but they don't typically look at the genital area.

Even when they do a full body skin check, they may take a quick peek, but they're not really

having someone set up in the position

that a gynecologist would to really thoroughly examine this area or doing something like

a vulvasopoe, which would more thoroughly examine this area.

And so, as you can imagine, this condition is often missed or misdiagnosed or there's a delay in diagnosis because it

really falls between the expertise of two specialties. You really need to have a dermatologist

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