By Matt Wiley
As the holiday season fast approaches, with its high-calorie, multiple-course meals, why not shed some pounds to make room for an extra turkey leg or slice of pumpkin pie, come November? And, why not get your slimming tips from medical doctors with experience at Women’s Care Florida?
Since March of this year, the Women’s Care Florida obstetrics and gynecology (Ob/Gyn) office of M.D.s Richard Dillon, Brian McNulty, Vicar Qureshi, Kristen Segall, Gem Ashby and Tiffany Patrick has been offering new services as part of their new Weight Loss & Wellness Center at the Wesley Chapel location of Women’s Care in the Cypress Ridge Professional Center, located just off Cypress Ridge Dr. and S.R. 56. And, the practice plans to expand the new program to its two other offices in Carrollwood (on W. Bearss Ave.) and North Tampa (on E. Fletcher Ave. at BBD).
Drs. Dillon, McNulty, Qureshi, Segall, Ashby all are Board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Fellows (Dr. Ashby is a Junior Fellow) of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG),. Dr. Patrick also is a member of ACOG and the American Medical Association.
Part of a physicians group that has offices across the state, Women’s Care Florida specializes in providing medical care which caters exclusively to women. Dr. Segall says it is for this reason that opening the Weight Loss & Wellness Center seemed like a natural expansion for the medical group.
“(Many of) our patients are constantly upset about weight and not being able to lose it,” says Dr. Segall. “So, the target audience was there. We decided that instead of sending patients to other people, why don’t we bring that service to our office? And, we plan to expand those services to all three locations.”
The new service, offered by Drs. Ashby, Segall, Patrick and McNulty, helps women shed unwanted pounds by looking not only at their diets and lifestyles, but also into their past.
Getting Started
“At the first initial visit, we do a detailed history and physical,” Dr. Segall explains. “We try to find out about a patient’s individual background and what their history and struggle has been with their weight. Then, we do lab work (comprehensive blood test, metabolic panel, lipid panel, blood count and thyroid gland test) and an EKG (electrocardiogram) to make sure that they are healthy enough to start the program.”
Dr. Ashby explains that the program is made up of a specific diet program that is customized for each individual and lots of nutrition/weight loss education. Patients also are given a multivitamin, a ProTrim weight-loss supplement and a prescription appetite suppressant.
According to the Women’s Care website, the prescription appetite suppressants, which have been deemed safe and effective by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), block hunger, while the provided food guidelines re-train the body to crave healthy foods. The exercise recommendations from the doctors, combined with the nutritional supplements, help to boost energy.
“After a week of adjusting to the program, we encourage (patients) to start exercising,” Dr. Ashby says. “We then schedule weekly visits to check on each patient’s weight and make sure that (the patients) don’t have any questions or concerns.”
Many of the practice’s weight-loss patients have seen significant results with the new program, Dr. Ashby explains, and many of them have been Women’s Care patients for some time.
“I think there is a level of trust there,” Dr. Segall says. “They feel comfortable, both with us and with our recommendations.”
Dr. Ashby, who has lost more than 30 pounds herself using the program, says that what sets the Women’s Care program apart from others in the area is the educational aspect of dieting — the doctors actually teach the patients how to be on a diet, but still be able to periodically enjoy foods that typically wouldn’t be part of their nutritional regimen.
“What’s different about our program is that we start to gradually add foods back in (to their diet) and we show (them) how to exchange foods in and out of their diet, so that when they’re done with the (weight-loss phase) of the program, they don’t add the weight back on,” Dr. Ashby explains. “We let them know that if they’re going to eat ice cream one night, they have to make up for those calories the next night.”
Lutz resident Julia Crawford says that the “super supportive staff” at Women’s Care make it a comfortable environment to learn healthy ways to lose weight, such as healthy food shopping lists.
Crawford, who has lost nearly 50 pounds on the program, says that it is much different than trying to lose weight on your own or with a personal trainer.
“I wanted to lose weight in a healthy way,” Crawford explains. “I know some people go to drastic measures to lose weight, but that’s not the case (at Women’s Care). They ask you questions about your weight, but make you feel comfortable about talking about it.”
In addition to the Weight Loss & Wellness Program, Women’s Care also provides extensive gynecological and obstetric services, including infertility evaluations, counseling and treatment, prenatal and preconception care and services, all aspects of labor and delivery, as well as general women’s health care, which includes menstrual issues, cancer testing and screening, contraception, urinary issues, sterilization, hormone therapy and more.
Many surgical procedures can be done in-office, including tubal sterilization, a permanent birth control method that does not require incisions or a local anesthetic. Women’s Care also offers in-office three-dimensional (3D) and even 4D ultrasounds, which offer an entirely new way to look inside the human body and determine not only the sex of an unborn baby, but also give a detailed look at fingers, toes and facial features. The practice even offers an in-office alternative to a hysterectomy called an endometrial ablation, which helps to treat painful menstrual cycles and requires no incisions, along with less than 48-hours of recovery time.
For additional information, visit WCF.me. Women’s Care Florida has locations at 26823 Tanic Dr. in Wesley Chapel (929-7377); 13601 BBD, just south of Tampa Palms (972-9300); and at 3321 W. Bearss Ave. (269-2528) in Carrollwood.
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