How to Get What You Need From a 15-Minute Doctor's Appointment with Dr. Lucy McBride

**Dr. Lucy McBride** (0:00)
I think the problem is that when you don't have context around it, and when you have access to unfiltered information, chat GBT, Google, you can make yourself crazy. You can diagnose yourself with pretty much anything you want to.
It's interesting if you look at studies of how chat GBT compares to actual doctors. There's studies to show that chat GBT actually does better than doctors. But remember that in the studies, the questions were being asked by doctors, so the framing was already there. When you're a patient, you don't know what question to ask. So in real life, people are being misled by chat GBT more often than they're being misled by doctors.

**Dr. Mary Claire Haver** (0:55)
The views and opinions expressed on unPAUSED are those of talent and guests alone and are provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. No part of this podcast or any related materials are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
My guest today is someone I've been wanting to sit down with for a long time. Dr. Lucy McBride is a Harvard and Johns Hopkins trained primary care physician, practicing clinician, and one of the clearest voices I know when it comes to what is actually broken about the way we take care of patients. She writes the Substack newsletter, Are You OK?, with nearly 39,000 subscribers, hosts the podcast Beyond the Prescription, and her first book, also called Beyond the Prescription, A Doctor's Guide to Taking Charge of Your Health, is out this month. And I had the honor of writing the forward for this book. The book is Lucy's attempt to solve a problem she sees every day in her practice. Patients caught between a health care system that treats them like a checklist, and a wellness industry that sells them promises. Neither one actually gives people what they need, which is agency over their own health. So Lucy has a five-step roadmap for becoming the CEO of your own health, not by rejecting medicine, not by becoming your own doctor, but by learning to ask better questions, advocate for the care you deserve, and make decisions that are actually aligned with your own values. She brings 25 years of clinical experience to this conversation, and what she's really talking about is a shift from passive patient to empowered partner. Awareness, acceptance, and agency. It sounds simple, but it changes everything. If you've ever walked out of a doctor's appointment feeling dismissed, confused, or like you were handed a prescription instead of an answer, this conversation is for you.
I'm Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and certified menopause practitioner. I'm also an adjunct professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Welcome to unPAUSED, the podcast where we cut through the silence and talk about what it really takes for women to thrive in the second half of life.
All right, Dr. Lucy McBride. Welcome to unPAUSED.

**Dr. Lucy McBride** (3:23)
Mary Claire, I am so excited to be here. I am just thrilled. I woke up elated.

**Dr. Mary Claire Haver** (3:28)
I want to talk about the book.

**Dr. Lucy McBride** (3:29)
Great.

**Dr. Mary Claire Haver** (3:29)
Are you down for that? Why on earth would you write a book?
Why this book?

**Dr. Lucy McBride** (3:34)
I wrote this book because I've been caring for patients for 25 years, and I was seeing the same problem again and again. Patients being churned out by the medical system, frustrated by 15-minute appointments, and then naturally turning to the wellness industry and wellness influencers for advice on how to be well, but feeling just as confused as when they left their doctor's office.
This book is a guide to getting what you actually need for your life, for your health, and it's not a recommendation to ditch your doctor. We all want to be well. It's a roadmap to make sense of your health and then ask the right questions and get what you need.

**Dr. Mary Claire Haver** (4:22)
You are still in traditional practice, correct?

**Dr. Lucy McBride** (4:24)
Yes. I started my own practice in 2024 I was in a practice for 19 years in a big group, and I wanted to run my own place. I wanted to really drill down into the relational aspects of care, to be able to have time with patients, to understand the whole person.
Because there's so many aspects of health that aren't measured in a blood test or on a scan. It's about a conversation. It's about trust between patient and doctor.

**Dr. Mary Claire Haver** (4:50)
Yeah.

**Dr. Lucy McBride** (4:51)
Our system isn't designed to care for the whole person.