Dr. Sherry Thomas: Passionately Committed to Women’s Health and Well-Being
Dr. Sherry Thomas’ aesthetic practice may be relatively new, but Dr. Thomas has been changing women’s lives for over twenty years, and she has experienced many life-changing moments herself.
Dr. Thomas, Urogynecologist and Surgeon, MD, MPH, FACOG, has years of experience in successfully treating specific conditions that afflict her female patients. She is world renowned for her expertise in treating serious medical conditions such as pelvic prolapse and for her skill in reconstructive surgery.
Dr. Sherry Thomas has certainly demonstrated her skills, knowledge and experience for women both here in the US and in Africa.
- Medical School at the University of Texas at San Antonio
- Residency training in OB/GYN at University of Texas and MD Anderson in Houston
- Fellowship in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive surgery at Harbor/ UCLA
- Professor in tenured track at UCLA for ten years
- Currently Principal Investigator for 522 FDA postmarking studies for Coloplast and Boston Scientific, and Cook Myosite periurethral stem cell study
- Several publications and papers on Urogynecology and pelvic reconstructive surgery.
- Founded “Life Changing Moments” a 501C3 nonprofit organization helping women with vaginal fistulas throughout Africa
That’s how she became interested in providing aesthetic services to her patients. “I’ve been a surgeon all my life, and skin tightening is a basic surgical practice. In looking at the minimally invasive surgery I’ve been performing for many years, such as laparoscopy, I saw that the technology has so many applications. It’s really changing how we practice medicine,” she explains.
Focusing on tightening mature skin
“My focus is on tightening whatever is lax,” Dr. Thomas says.
“I live in an area where people keep themselves in really great shape. They eat well and exercise, but their skin doesn’t keep up. Collagen doesn’t form when we’re over 40 or 50 years old, and we all have lax skin. It’s disappointing, and that’s what really got me interested in offering aesthetic procedures.”
Her main areas of treatment are the face, neck and abdomen. She also sees a great interest in the arms because minimally invasive surgery without incisions can reduce the extra flabby tissue that develops due to lack of collagen in the upper arms.
Novel aesthetic technique delight patients and friends Dr. Thomas’ friends and patients embraced her new offerings of minimally invasive aesthetic procedures. Typically, our patients range from eighteen to one hundred years of age.
“I began by letting my existing patients, family, and friends, know about this addition to my practice,” Dr. Thomas says. “I explained how there is very little downtime and very little pain. They were excited about it, and they wanted to sign up.” In fact, her first male patient was her brother.
We offer different technologies for skin tightening. Radio frequency sub-dermal treatments deliver good results in one treatment, while methods that deliver energy across the skin without injectables require 4-8 treatments over time. Ensuring natural results and satisfied patients.
“I take a holistic approach to looking younger,” she says. “My patients are exercising and eating better, but not always looking better. With these new technologies, I’m able to offer them what I’ve always wanted for myself, a little tightening here and there without major surgery. I’m not trying to look 20 again. I just want to look 5 to 10 years younger.”
Dr. Thomas has a group of patients with whom she already has relationships. When a patient comes to her for aesthetics, they talk about the patient’s concerns and what bothers them.
“I don’t just treat the outside, I treat the whole person. I might see that their neck has lax skin, but they may be more concerned about crow’s feet or about their abdomen.
She explains her communication process. “I ask them what they’ve done before, and what they want to look like. We go over their medical history, and discuss different technologies and what they can expect. This allows me to target their problems, and ask about any other areas they might be interested in down the road. Then I offer suggestions based on their needs, such as a one-time procedure of injectable radio frequency or 4-8 treatments over time.
Patients know me and have confidence in me as physician and surgeon, so they are delighted to know I can help them achieve the look they want.”
Changing lives here and abroad Dr. Thomas is passionate about changing women’s lives, and nowhere is this more evident than in her life-changing work in Africa.
She runs a non- profit organization in Africa called “Life Changing Moments” where she goes every two years to perform fistula surgery. She calls fistulas “The silent destroyer of women’s lives.”
Obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged labor without medical intervention, usually a Caesarean section. The woman is left with chronic incontinence and, in most cases, a stillborn baby.
At least 2 million women in Africa, Asia and the Arab region are living with the condition, which is almost entirely preventable.
Surgery can normally repair the injury, but the average cost of fistula treatment is about $50 and most women in Africa don’t know that treatment is available, or can’t afford it. Uganda has the 3rd highest fistula rates in the world, and Dr. Thomas is committed to going back every two years to provide this life-changing surgery.
Dr. Thomas produced and directed an award-winning documentary about the surgery she and her colleagues perform in Uganda. She describes it as both challenging and rewarding. http://lifechangingmoments.org/
Commitment to health and natural-looking results Dr. Thomas says “I believe I’m a forward-thinking physician. I am committed to women’s health and medicine, and very proud to have championed it over the years.”
She says she is delighted to embrace novel, minimally invasive aesthetic technologies that help women look better and feel happier, with natural-looking results. For additional information please visit www.drsherrythomas.com or call 818-991-0945 to schedule an appointment.
