Postpartum Depression, Stigma in Medicine, and the Failure No One Talks About | Social Rounds

On this week’s Social Rounds, Tony and Frances Mei go from the universal pain of long-haul flights (and the rise of the Butt Donut Brotherhood) to one of the biggest breakthroughs in women’s mental health: a new blood test that can predict postpartum depression with over 80% accuracy. They break down the biology, the stigma, and why so many women suffer in silence.

Then, the conversation turns to stigma in medicine—how weakness is weaponized, how shame gets baked into training, and why physicians are conditioned to hide anything that looks like vulnerability.

Finally, Tony shares a rare, raw story about a capital-F failure from med school—walking at graduation with an empty diploma folder after failing a rotation during a major depressive episode—and how it reshaped his understanding of shame, resilience, and what failure actually looks like in medicine.

Oh—and yes, they absolutely cover the Kentucky woman who opened a package full of severed fingers (???), because of course they do.

Topics:

– The science behind postpartum depression

– Why stigma still controls medicine

– Failure as a doctor: the stories people never tell

– Cadaver-lab scandals & severed-finger delivery nightmares

– How to stop letting shame run your life

Hosted by:

Tony Chin-Quee: @wheyouat

Frances Mei Hardin: @francesmeimd

Produced by: The Hippocratic Collective