We are now offering OB/GYN appointments at our new satellite office in Talladega.
Dr. Hall-Minnie and Dr. Malek are excited for the opportunity to provide women’s health care to this community. They are both passionate about caring for underserved populations and believe it is important that women have access to preventative care and cancer screenings like pap smears and mammograms in addition to maternal health care. According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, “Alabama ranks third in the nation for incidence and deaths from cervical cancer.” We want to help change this figure by improving access…

In case you missed it, Dr. Hall-Minnie, Dr. Malek, and Dr. Whitehead were featured on WBRC FOX 6 News “Ask The Doc” segment to talk about fibroids for Fibroid Awareness Month. We appreciate Sheldon Haygood and the team at FOX 6 News for welcoming our doctors to spread awareness about this women’s health issue! Check out their segment below:

Fibroids can cause heavy periods, anemia, abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, problems with urinating or bowel movements, and several other symptoms. Many women are affected by these benign smooth muscle tumors. They can range in size from as…

We are proud to partner with Baby Steps Bama as a sponsor of their Golden Gala.  Baby Steps is a non-profit organization that supports pregnant and parenting college students so that they are empowered to thrive as both parents and students.
The organization’s vision is “to create a culture of empowerment that changes how universities, communities, and society as a whole respond to and support Student-Moms. Young women facing unplanned pregnancies should not be defined by their circumstances but empowered to thrive. We are diligently working to bring Baby Steps to Student-Moms across the nation.” So…

What is endometriosis?
Endometriosis in a condition in which tissue normally found in the lining of the uterus begins to grow in other areas of a woman’s abdomen. It is normal tissue, not a cancer, but it can still cause great discomfort and other medical problems. Endometriosis is very common, affecting about one in ten women.

The misplaced endometrial tissue can become attached to the ovaries, fallopian tubes, the outside surface of the uterus, the bladder, bowel, or other places in the pelvis.
What problems does endometriosis cause…

The New Year and its traditions are upon us. For most of us, the festivities will include some combination of watching football, eating collards and black-eyed peas, attending a party, counting down the ball descent on Times Square, toasting 2024, AND making a New Year’s resolution!

Notice that the last item is not likely to help any of us look forward to 2024 with optimism. The reason is obvious. Experience tells us that most New Year’s resolutions are doomed to fail. So today our New Year’s greeting for patients and friends will not include the typical…

We want to remind you of the risks of postponing screening tests and other preventive healthcare.
Research tells us that Americans fear cancer more than any other health event, even though heart disease is the leading cause of death. Much of this fear comes from the belief that cancer or cancer death is just a matter of random chance, something we are powerless to prevent. But let’s look at the actual facts about gynecologic cancers.

We refer to any cancer that begins in a woman’s reproductive organs as a gynecologic cancer. About 100,000 women are newly diagnosed…

Few of our expectant moms have missed the message that breastfeeding has many benefits. But, while we continue educating expectant and new mothers about how good it is for baby, we don’t want to overwhelm them with the idea that breastfeeding—because it is natural—should always be easy to do. Some well-meaning breastfeeding advocates cite higher breastfeeding rates in third-world countries. Such statistics suggest that successful breastfeeding happens naturally in cultures where breastfeeding is the norm, and it happens despite inadequate healthcare and education for women.

Many suppose that, in developing countries like Botswana where I…

One of the great privileges of our work as obstetricians is the opportunity to witness, again and again, the moment when a man becomes a father. During the pregnancy, he waits in a supporting role. He attends prenatal appointments and childbirth classes, assembles a crib, installs a car seat, and offers his partner whatever help and comfort he can. During the first minutes after the birth, he watches his partner hold their tiny infant against her skin while a nurse works to clear the baby’s nose and mouth and dry the skin. Someone calls out a few numbers (the…

There may be a delay in receiving your mammogram or other imaging results. The radiology practice that reads mammograms for our office and mammograms and other imaging for Brookwood’s Women’s Diagnostic Center recently had damages to its facility. No studies were lost, but it is taking time to recover and catch up on the backlog of reports.
We will be working diligently to release your results after receiving them from the radiologist.

Sign up for the patient portal so that your results can be released to you electronically instead of having to wait for a letter in the…

What’s for dinner tonight? Chances are good that it’s not a fish or seafood meal. The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that 8 ounces of fish/seafood per week are part of a healthy eating pattern. Most Americans (80 to 90%) do not reach that goali. We may be missing out on nutrients that benefit our overall health.
Why is Fish an Important Nutrient Source?ii
(For everyone, but especially if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or might become pregnancy.)

Fish is an excellent source of protein—one of the critical building blocks of tissue growth, repair…