Dr. Oz's Webcast Transcript

Dr. Oz: What does normal mean?

Oprah: Absolutely.

Dr. Oz: What's a normal shoe size?

Oprah: Absolutely—right. What is a normal shoe size?

Dr. Oz: It's between 4 and 12. Give me your shoes.

Oprah: I'm not going to give you these shoes.

Dr. Oz: They're not going to fit me.

Oprah: I barely have on shoes coming down here.

Dr. Oz: They're not going to fit me. Mine won't fit you. So when we say, "Hey, it's normal," all we're really saying is that you're a normal human being.

Oprah: Yeah, normal for whom? Normal for whom?

Dr. Oz: Exactly.

Oprah: Because every woman's body is different.

Dr. Oz: And that's the tug-of-war.

Oprah: Yeah. But wouldn't you say, though, that your profession has not really done its—us a full service in this because I, like so many other millions of women, have been completely frustrated because when you go to the doctors, they do say you're in the normal range. They don't say but normal for whom. They don't ask you about your quality of life.

Dr. Oz: It is—I think one of the biggest opportunities to improve medicine.

Oprah: Yes.

Dr. Oz: For sure when we shift away from just saving lives to preserving the quality of life, which we are doing now, then I think this becomes front line medicine. But you know we weren't trained to do this.

Oprah: That's right.

Dr. Oz: When we went through medicine, in my case, learning how to fix blocked arteries that were about to kill you. The last thing on my mind was whether estrogen worked or not. And the large trials that were done misled us.

Oprah: Yeah.

Dr. Oz: Because instead of using natural products, bioidentical products, that would—by the way, aren't patentable, and for that reason people aren't going to do big studies on— 
Oprah: Right.

Dr. Oz: —we ended up doing the clinical trials—

Oprah: And they're not patentable because bioidentical—because for those of you who know the difference between bioidentical and synthetic products—

Dr. Oz: Right.

Oprah: Yeah.

Dr. Oz: Go ahead.

Oprah: No, you go ahead.

Dr. Oz: You know better than I do.

Oprah: No, I don't. You're the doctor.

Dr. Oz: "Bioidentical" means it's the exact same hormone as in your body, which means you can't patent that. That's the property of the human race. But if I were to modify just a little built so that it's mine, now I own it, now I'll pay a lot of money to see if my version is better than what you were born with. And that gives us data that as doctors we have to use.

Oprah: Yeah.

Dr. Oz: And by the way, before we start pointing fingers, all of us invest in companies that do trials, if you invest in pharmaceutical companies that are designed to show that a product that might make money for the company is worth using. And so all of us are involved in this discussion.

Oprah: Okay. Well, we're going to have the full discussion on Thursday about whether bioidenticals or synthetic hormones—versus synthetic hormones. And also just balancing your hormones, because I really believe there are millions of women out there who are taking antidepressants and—

Dr. Oz: Yes. Yes. Yes.

Oprah: —taking antidepressants—

Dr. Oz: Sleep meds.

Oprah: —and sleep meds when really it's a hormonal issue.

Dr. Oz: I'll tell you the big problem you're going to have?

Oprah: What?

Dr. Oz: The delivery of that kind of care because it's very customized—

Oprah: Yes?

Dr. Oz: —is very intensive in resources. So you've actually got to sit with somebody and work with them very carefully, and it takes a long time to get them on the right program. I can't just give you a pill.

Oprah: Yes. And it's also not just one size fits all.

Dr. Oz: Exactly.

Oprah: Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Oz: So it's much more difficult to help all the people out there who have problems. So it's going to challenge us.

Oprah: Yes. Challenge us meaning you medical folks.

Dr. Oz: All of us because now I've got to go to you and say, "Oprah, tell me if you've got a problem." You have to be a good enough historian to tell me a story that convinces me you have a thyroid problem or estrogen problem or progesterone problem that I have to be insightful enough to listen to you.