Best-selling author Dr. Sharon Malone encourages North Texas women to be their own healthcare advocates

GRAPEVINE, Texas - A doctor and best-selling author is traveling the country in hopes of empowering women with each stop.

Dr. Sharon Malone is the wife of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. She's in North Texas, urging women to be their own biggest healthcare advocate.

"We are living in a very different medical environment right now, and I think it’s probably less personal," she told a crowd at the Gaylord Resort in Grapevine on Thursday. "You may see a different person every time you come in. So the common denominator in all of these interactions is going to be you."

Dr. Malone’s career as an OB/GYN has spanned more than 30 years in the private sector. She is now primarily focused on educating women over 40.

"Nothing is probably more important in terms of how you are going to age other than knowing when menopausal symptoms show up, and they show up a lot earlier than you think," she said. "Women, I think, go into this medical situation, and they often feel unheard unseen. We’re minimized. To the point where we incorporate those things ourselves, we are minimizers."

Dr. Malone says her own personal experiences are motivators.

"My mother died of colon cancer. I’m certain she didn’t know what the early warning signs were of colon cancer," she said. "Certainly, there was no early diagnosis, and she really engaged with care too late."

Dr. Malone has several speaking engagements in North Texas this week. Her book, "Grown Woman Talk: Your Guide to Getting and Staying Healthy," has charted on the New York Times Best Sellers List. 

"What I really want women to know is that suffering should not be something that we deal with," she said. "We’ve suffered through enough cramps, PMS, and postpartum depression. The list goes on and on. The narrative that getting older means weakness and sickness and ultimately death… No. There’s a lot about that aging process that we have control over."