Stepping into Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi’s Beverly Hills space, you may forget for a second you’re in a gynecologist’s office. A massive glass chandelier dangles from the ceiling. Ceramic sculptures dot the sleek surfaces. Nearby sits a potted olive tree and a lighted antique silver Illuminazione candle. Crystal butterflies sit in two ornate cabinets. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows show a 360-degree view of the Hollywood Hills.
And then, there’s the physician herself.
Clad in a bright blue dress she’s held onto since a guest appearance on “The Doctors” 10 years ago, she acknowledges she personally opts for neutrals in real life (and her signature pink scrubs when seeing her patients), but that she’d been advised to wear jewel tones for “on camera” moments. In a town known for sculpting movie stars, Aliabadi looks like she could be on “Grey’s Anatomy” as she towers in high heels and a sparkly pink and white butterfly necklace as she poses for a Los Angeles Times photographer.
Aliabadi has delivered the babies of Rihanna, Khloe Kardashian and Hailey Bieber. She has also diagnosed Olivia Munn with breast cancer, Tiffany Haddish with endometriosis and Florence Pugh with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
All of these celebrities’ health journeys are public information because her famous patients have discussed them in detail on her weekly podcast, “SHE MD,” which she co-hosts with former fashion designer Mary Alice Haney. The show — which was launched by Dear Media, the largest women’s podcast network, in March of last year — aims to educate women about common overlooked medical conditions. It regularly features interviews with Aliabadi’s famous patients and other celebrity doctors or authors who discuss everything from preeclampsia to egg-freezing.
“My dad was like, ‘I did some research and the best person in the business is this doctor named Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi,’” Sofia Richie Grainge, daughter of Lionel Richie, explains on a recent episode of the podcast. She started seeing Aliabadi at 15.
“They are the most privileged women in this world — especially when it comes to access to medical care,” Aliabadi says of the podcast’s famous guests. “These are women who have good insurance. They can afford going to any doctor on this planet and yet their symptoms are [still] dismissed. They’re speaking from their heart because they want to help another woman.”
Aliabadi’s high-profile clients and podcast have elevated her status on social media. Called Dr. A by patients and fans, she boasts 441,000 followers on Instagram, where she shares clips of her celebrity interviews. She regularly appears on network television to discuss women’s health. She has even made the occasional cameo on “The Kardashians” as Khloe Kardashian’s ob-gyn. She’s run with the role, both with the professed hopes of educating women on their health, but also with business prospects.
Haney urged Aliabadi to co-create SHE MD to combat misinformation surrounding women’s health issues. “We are providing a resource that is backed by science and medicine,” says Haney. “People are getting their medical information on TikTok. That’s dangerous.”
With women’s health entering the spotlight as an overlooked area of medicine and as fewer people have access to healthcare, becoming one’s own medical advocate has never been more important — and confusing. It’s led to the rise of wellness influencers with questionable qualifications, which is why Aliabadi says she committed to doing the podcast.
“If you want to talk about endometriosis, how many endometriosis surgeries have you done?” Aliabadi says. “How many thousands of patients have you treated?”
Aliabadi is connecting with consumers on many platforms with “SHE MD,” which is filmed like a glossy talk show from a Brentwood office. They can listen to her and Haney’s hourlong podcast episodes or catch video clips on social media.
“SHE MD,” which stands for “Strong Healthy Empowered,” features deep dives with health and medical experts — as well as celebrities such as SZA, Shailene Woodley, Tiffany Haddish and Olivia Munn — on a variety of topics including fertility, breast cancer, menopause and endometriosis. Key takeaways and action plans are available following each conversation.
Munn’s story in particular garnered national attention after Aliabadi diagnosed her with an aggressive breast cancer in April 2023. With a clear mammogram, ultrasound and pap smear, Munn’s cancer could’ve been among the estimated 20% that go undetected, according to the National Cancer Institute. But it was discovered after Aliabadi introduced her to the Tyrer-Cuzick test, which assesses one’s lifetime risk of breast cancer. Munn’s score was an alarming 37.3%. (Anything above 20% is considered high-risk.) An MRI, further ultrasounds and biopsies revealed she had Stage 1 invasive cancer, and Munn underwent a double mastectomy.
“Without Thaïs being so proactive I don’t know when or at what stage I would’ve found it,” Munn tells The Times. “She saved my life.”
Aliabadi says Munn felt a responsibility to turn her pain into purpose. “Olivia came to me and said, ‘I want to talk about this issue,’” she recalls. “She knew that sharing her story will save millions of lives.”
Munn felt compelled to speak out while still coming to terms with her diagnosis. “I was looking back on photos of playing with my then 1-year-old son, and I realized that at that time I had just had a clear mammogram and ultrasound — yet I had breast cancer and didn’t know it,” she says. “I asked myself, ‘How many other women [are] also walking around unaware they had breast cancer?’ I knew then that I had to talk about it. This little known, lifetime risk score test is free, online and saved my life. Every woman can and should know their score. Thaïs told me this test had been around for years, and it was her lifelong mission to get every woman in the world to know about it. It has since become my mission too.”
Long before becoming ob-gyn to the stars, Aliabadi recalls waking to the sounds of sirens and bombs while growing up in Tehran during the Iranian revolution in 1979. “We would all run down to the shelter that we had created underground,” she says. “Imagine a 12-year-old doing that five times a night.” Her family was granted a green card when she was 17. “It felt like the gates of heaven were opening for me,” she recalls thinking after landing in Los Altos. “We were like, ‘Why would we ever go anywhere else?’”
After medical school at Georgetown University School of Medicine and completing her residency at USC Medical Center, Aliabadi, 54, opened her private practice at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 2002. She credits word of mouth, and her office manager of nearly 25 years, Kimmy Ferdowski, with helping her build the practice she has today. “When I first started, there was a gynecologist across the hall who told me something I’ll never forget,” Aliabadi recalls. “He said, ‘Every happy patient who leaves your office will refer four other patients to you.’”
That mantra and her detailed approach are the secret to her success, she says. “I look at my patient as a whole,” says Aliabadi, whose appointments run between 30 minutes to an hour, leading her to stop taking insurance around seven years ago. “I don’t just look at your uterus, tubes, ovaries, breasts and say, ‘You’re done.’ I talk about depression. This morning, I was scheduling an MRI and MRA of a brain to rule out [a] possible stroke in a patient of mine.” Now, her fees vary by patient, but she offers “superbills” for potential reimbursement, similar to therapists who don’t take insurance.
Women with “complicated cases” typically come to her with health concerns that have gone otherwise undiagnosed elsewhere.
Take for example, “Lopez vs Lopez” actor Mayan Lopez, daughter of comedian George Lopez, whom Aliabadi diagnosed with insulin resistant PCOS in her 20s — even though she’d been describing the same symptoms to other doctors since she was 10. Her symptoms became even more prevalent during college, when she developed excess facial hair and gained 75 pounds in three months without explanation despite eating well and exercising. By 23, her hormone levels were so low she was practically menopausal.
Lopez says she felt elated once she had a diagnosis and plan for proper treatment. “I just remember going into the car and crying from pure relief,” she says. “For the first time in a decade, I felt hopeful and unafraid of my body.”
“I see every dismissed woman in this town,” Aliabadi says. “These patients are complicated. You need to sit down and listen [to their symptoms].”
Aliabadi has other frustrations with the healthcare system.
“The issue is,” she says as she lets out an exasperated sigh. “I mean, there are so many issues.” She points out that even the most informed person still needs access to a doctor willing to listen as well as the ability to afford treatment. “If they’re going to charge you $3,800 for a breast MRI, ‘Can you afford it?’” she says. “There are limitations at so many levels.”
By not taking insurance, one could argue she too is creating another limit, but she blames insurance companies that don’t recognize quality time spent with patients. “I’m not seeing you in five minutes.”
Given the limited time patients often have with their doctors, Aliabadi hopes women will demand more from their care providers if she arms them with the right questions to ask.
Despite trying to build an online persona with the help of her celebrity circle, Aliabadi confesses she’s not very online or in touch with pop culture.
“Sometimes [Khloe Kardashian] calls me, and I think I’m just talking to her,” says Aliabadi, who delivered her second baby via a surrogate on the show in 2022. “Then six months later, my daughter’s like, ‘Mom, they called you [on the show.]’”
That’s why Haney is the media savvy yin to Aliabadi’s medical yang. “She’s a doctor first, and she’s a podcast host second,” says Haney.
Like other medical professionals and influencers in the wellness world aiming to expand their reach, Aliabadi has her own nutritional supplement, Ovii, which she advertises on her podcast. At $79.99, Ovii is aimed at women with PCOS and includes ingredients such as vitamin D, magnesium and biotin. And like other supplements advertised on podcasts, it hasn’t been tested in peer-reviewed clinical studies.
In the long term, she’s exploring a chatbot, a tool increasingly used by influencers to communicate with fans. Aliabadi believes her chatbot can help expand access to women’s health education.
“It’ll sound like me. It’ll be trained by me. Obviously, it’s just for knowledge and education. It cannot treat or prescribe,” she says.
Aliabadi welcomes technological advances to shake up the medical field.
“I look forward to robotic doctors,” she says. “The robot will not dismiss a woman who said, ‘I’ve gained 40 pounds in two years, and I’m doing exactly what my skinny sister is doing. Something’s wrong.’”
Aliabadi has four daughters, who are 20, 19, 13 and 4 (she recently adopted the youngest). Her oldest daughters attend Stanford University and she sees them following in her footsteps. She advises them to become doctors or develop technology to help women around the world.
“I think that is more powerful,” she says.
The post She delivered Hailey Bieber’s baby and saved Olivia Munn’s life. Her new calling? Podcast host appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
