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…

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…

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…

As we come to the end of Heart Month, we’d like to remind women about unique heart-health risks you may face decades before the menopause years. In the U.S., cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death during pregnancy and the postpartum period (the weeks after delivery). 

An essential part of your pregnancy-related healthcare visits, both before conception and throughout your pregnancy, is a measure of your blood pressure. If your blood pressure is not normal, we often recheck it again later in your visit. James Martin, M.D., chair of the Pregnancy and Heart Disease…

Happy New Year 2023! Over the years, we’ve posted many greetings in this space suggesting healthy resolutions to start the year. The typical list includes weight-loss, smoking cessation, exercise, preventive healthcare, and so on—worthwhile goals for any new year.

This year we decided to change it up a bit. We begin 2023 with resolutions to make you happy. While none of these “resolutions” can minimize the burden of life’s serious challenges, they might offer you a few more smiles, moments of fun, chances to relax, or personal satisfaction over the next twelve months. Our list got…

The holidays bring a dramatic change in our usual routines. For most of us the festivities include more food and perhaps alcohol, travel, large gatherings of friends and family, more stress, and less rest. We wouldn’t have it any other way! But if you are pregnant, many holiday traditions require some special consideration. Here are a few tips to help our expectant moms enjoy the holidays safely…