Episode #336: Balancing the Benefits with the Risks of Medications with Suzanne Robotti

July 30, 2024
Cheryl Ilov

Podcast: Download (Duration: 52:51 — 48.4MB)

Suzanne Robotti is an FDA Consumer Representative, Drug Side Effects Expert, DES Daughter, and founder of MedShadow Foundation, a nonprofit organization which encourages people to think for themselves, not to believe everything you read online, do your own diligent research, and balance the benefits with the risks of medications.

She launched MedShadow Foundation in 2013 because she herself was harmed by a medication called DES that was given to her mother when she was pregnant with Su. At the young age of 13, Su learned that she would never be able to have children because of the harmful side effects of DES. Generations later, DES has been found to cause rare cancers, autoimmune diseases, and infertility.

In 2017 Su was appointed to the FDA Advisory Committee on Drug Safety and Risk Management as the lone consumer representative on a panel of doctors and pharmacists. She considers it a privilege to have a seat at the table when the FDA is deciding if a drug is safe and effective enough to use.

Su shares her own personal story of dealing with the harmful side effects of DES, as well as the many other side effects that other DES mothers, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren continue to deal with, only because “modern medicine” believed that medications were not able to cross from an expectant mother to her unborn child. This led to not only one generation being impacted by the harmful effects of the first synthetically manufactured estrogen which was given to pregnant women between 1940 to 1971 to prevent miscarriage and related complications of pregnancy.

Su explains how her own experience caused her to look deeper into medications which are prescribed, as well as potential side effects. Her research and due diligence went into high gear when her nephew who was living with her and her husband, was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 12. He was subscribed large doses of approved ADHD medications, the doctors told Su and her family that he would keep trying various medications to “get that kid under control.” When Su asked what the potential side effects were, the doctor assured her that there weren’t any. When she asked to see the studies, he laughed and said there weren’t any, but again reassured her that they were perfectly safe.

Download this informative episode to hear Su’s story, and discover how she and her family were able to help their nephew deal with his ADHD without medication, the importance and impact of healthy living, how to become your own health advocate, how to get involved with your own medication regime by collaborating and communicating with both your doctor and pharmacist, why it’s important to consider your options, how to balance the benefits with the risks of medications.