Seasoned OB-GYN, Ngozi Osuagwu, provides women with insightful, candid and often humorous advice on women’s health issues without ever seeing them in her office.
Her new literary work, Sincerely, Your Gynecologist, tackles common and sometimes taboo issues regarding women’s health including sexually transmitted diseases, menopause, contraceptives and pregnancy in the form of letters written by Osuagwu to her patients.
Sincerely, Your Gynecologist, published in November 2022, is an unofficial sequel to her first published collection of letters, Letters To My Sisters, published 16 years ago. Osuagwu says the new book builds upon Letters To My Sisters, covering more women’s health topics and expanding on others.
Osuagwu currently works with OhioHealth, runs a private practice, serves as the clinical director of the Women’s Health Center at Doctors Hospital and is a clinical professor at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
From Nigeria to New York
One might argue Osuagwu was destined to become an accomplished medical professional even at an early age.
Born in Nigeria, she moved to Brooklyn when she was 2 years old. Growing up, her parents pushed her to excel in academics and hoped that one day she would become a doctor.
After graduating high school, Osuagwu moved to Baltimore and began her undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins University, originally majoring in engineering. After changing her major four times, she eventually graduated with a degree in biology and was on track to attend medical school and fulfill her parents’ dreams.
Osuagwu was planning to attend SUNY Buffalo’s medical school when her father passed away. She told her mother that she wanted to move home and support her family, but her mother convinced her to stay the course.
“She simply said, ‘He’s dead. He knows that you were going to be a doctor. Not going to medical school, it’s not going to bring him back, so you need to go,’” she says.
Osuagwu’s unrelenting drive and focus carried her through the first two years of medical school. During her third year she became especially close to one of her patients, whose health suddenly took a turn for the worse. For Osuagwu, the death of this patient solidified her desire to become a physician.
“That was the first time I really cried, but it was a turning point, because I think I realized that I wasn’t really doing it anymore for my parents. I now wanted to be a doctor for me,” she says.
Though she originally considered specializing in neuroscience, Osuagwu eventually decided to go into gynecology for two reasons. The first was that, during her time on mission trips, she realized there would always be a need for health care for pregnant women. The second and more personal reason was that she wanted to learn more about her own body and eventually educate others on theirs.
“When you’re in the field, then you really learn about your body, right? And I really did it to learn and because I did not know as much as I know now,” she says. “I wanted to make sure that young people knew a lot. So I laugh because my kids are quick to say, ‘Oh, Mom, you’re having a hot flash,’ or, ‘Mom you have PMS,’ but then a lot of other people might not even know what that means.”
New Beginnings in New Albany
After graduation, Osuagwu moved to New Albany and began working at a medical office downtown. Osuagwu and her husband Chukwuemeka have lived in their New Albany home since the late ’90s, and have three children, Chiedu, 28; Chidi, 26 and Chinenye, 24.
Osuagwu said though she was nervous to move to a new area, New Albany quickly became a pleasant home for her and her family.
“I didn’t want a situation where I would be in a neighborhood where I would not be welcomed. At the time, there weren’t a lot of Black families, so it was really important that wherever we were, we were the first people to our subdivision,” she says. “And we have a wonderful neighborhood. We’re like the old folks now.”
Dear Sister
When Osuagwu started treating patients at her small private practice in Columbus, she decided to write letters offering her patients advice and support for the health issues they were facing. It was these letters that eventually became Letters To My Sisters. She said she wanted to publish the letters so that readers could be more informed about women’s health.
“A lot of us don’t talk to each other. I was amazed, I was listening one time to an NPR (story) where they said that there were 30-year-olds that don’t even know the meaning of menopause,” she says.
When writing Sincerely, Your Gynecologist, Osuagwu decided to add facts and statistics as well as quotes from other health care professionals to help give readers an idea of how common many women’s health issues can be.
“I actually provide statistical information, mostly for people when they read it to understand that there are other women that also have issues, the same issues, that no one is alone. No one’s unique in the health issues that they have. It might affect them a little differently, but they’re not alone,” she says.
Alive and Healthy
In addition to her two books, Osuagwu has written hundreds of blog posts on her website covering not only gynecological health topics but also topics such as diabetes, maintaining a healthy diet, exercising and stress management.
Osuagwu’s passion for health and fitness began in part with her battle with sarcoidosis, a rare condition that causes granulomas to grow on the organs and lymph nodes. Thanks to her commitment to a healthy diet and exercise, she had an easier recovery from the condition.
“(The doctor) said to me, ‘The only reason you’re alive today is because you came into this illness healthy.’ So if I were obese, if I had other things happening, I don’t know what would have happened,” she says. “Our goal, yes, it’s health prevention, but can we get you into an ideal state so that if you’re diagnosed with something, you’re capable of dealing with that disease.”
Maisie Fitzmaurice is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.