What do you do when life gets really hard? You can either look for exit signs or create new doors, new opportunities, and new ways of doing things – not just for yourself but others as well. And that is exactly what Dr. Kanwal Bawa did when she was diagnosed with cancer.
As a doctor running through the halls of the Emergency Room at the Cleveland Clinic to helping people around the world with their sexual health as Dr. Sex Fairy, courageously going through chemotherapy and also winning the title of Ms. Florida just a month after her mastectomy, Dr. Bawa is a superwoman who is an inspiration to millions around the globe.
We had a conversation with Dr. Bawa to learn more about her journey, the profound impact she is making in the world and what you can learn from it.
Q: What made you go from being an ER doctor to opening Bawa Medical?
Dr. Bawa: I love Emergency Medicine. I love everything about it. You see so many different things, and you never know what lies ahead. There is a sense of excitement and you get to help so many people.. I also flew on the trauma helicopter picking up patients from trauma scenes. What I did not like about Emergency Medicine is that I was always reacting to disease and doing nothing to prevent it. I wanted to do more to preserve health, and not always be fighting illness. So, my practice Bawa Medical grew out of that concept. It is a labor of love.
Q: You have been called the Rejuvenation Queen in the media. How did that come about?
Dr. Bawa: I have been called Rejuvenation Queen because I do rejuvenation as a whole, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. I have a very simple philosophy. Anybody who walks into Bawa Medical leaves better. It does not matter whether they come for skin rejuvenation, hair restoration, body contouring or sexual wellness, they leave better.
Q: How did you become Dr. Sex Fairy?
Dr. Bawa: The TV show Sex Sent Me To The ER is actually quite accurate. That does happen. In the ER, I would see people having many sexual and intimate wellness type emergencies. Sometimes it was a vibrator still vibrating in somebodies bottom, which was an emergency. Sometimes men would come in saying, “I can’t get an erection,” and this was not an emergency. But this happened often enough and I started to think that maybe there was a gap in our healthcare system. Maybe there was a reason why these poor people were feeling the need to come to the Emergency Room for something so intimate. They were not getting what they needed from their own doctors. And that’s really how Dr. Sex Fairy began.
Q: So, when someone comes to you, are they simply looking to grow their intimacy with their partner, or is it because that they have an issue in particular?
Dr. Bawa: That is an excellent question. I see both types. Very few people realize that 20% of men even in their 20s suffer from some form of erectile dysfunction. Everybody thinks that this only happens middle age onwards, but that is not true. Far from it. It affects 30% of men in their 30s, 40% of men in their 40s, and you quickly realize that this goes up by 10% for every decade of life. And as long as we are living into our 80s and 90s, or even to 100 years old, there is no reason why we should stop having sex. However, the older we get, the less chance we have of having good sex. So I see people who are having issues with it, and I also see people who simply want to have a better time of it, and prevent issues.
Q: Sexual health is the elephant in the room. You are bringing that conversation to the forefront. How do people find you?
Dr. Bawa: People are crying out for help. They look for information on the internet and I have a strong presence online. I have a great website bawamedical.com. I have a YouTube channel called Bawa Medical Boca Raton, and very active Instagram and Facebook accounts. They might even find one of my blogs, or articles and videos about me online. They contact my practice, and we do both in-office and virtual consultations. I have people flying in from all over the US, Canada, Haiti, The Bahamas and Europe for my care now.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about why it took three years to get diagnosed with breast cancer?
Dr. Bawa: I am very glad you are asking this question, because I want people to know that I was misdiagnosed for almost three years before I was finally diagnosed with breast cancer. I went to my gynecologist when I found the first lump, He argued that he did not feel it, and that as someone under 40 I did not qualify for a mammogram anyway. I had to argue back that I felt it and that I wanted a mammogram. They saw the lump on the mammogram and ultrasound but said it was benign. This went on for 3 years. As my lump grew in size I had to fight for a biopsy. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2020. I now had multiple growths and they were large. So, what could have been a little lumpectomy, ended up being a mastectomy. I ended up with nerve damage. I ended up with so many issues that should never have happened. Cancer misdiagnosis is a real issue.
Q: You look so beautiful. You have beautiful skin and beautiful hair despite having major treatment. How come?
Dr. Bawa: As soon as I was diagnosed with cancer, my well-meaning friends told me to shave my hair and accept cancer gracefully. I disagreed with this. The other thing everybody told me was that I was going to look different, that my skin would change. Cancer treatment does age people prematurely but I refused to be a statistic. Bawa Medical is not just a sexual and intimate wellness practice, it is a rejuvenation practice where we also help people with their hair restoration and skin rejuvenation needs. How could I, of all people, admit defeat? I have since managed to save my skin and hair because of the treatments at my practice and my own Bawa Medical Skincare. I even developed new hair restoration products as I fought cancer, and tested them on myself. In the end, my practice saved me. I never went bald and my skin is here for you to see.
Q: How did you end up joining and winning Ms. Florida while getting treated for something like cancer? This is huge!
Dr. Bawa: I decided that I was going to show people that cancer can be beautiful, and encourage cancer patients to live their best life. I signed up for Ms. Florida the night my oncologist told me that I would need at least 16 rounds of chemotherapy, as well as possibly 40 rounds of radiation. Something just told me that this was not how my story was going to end. I was going to inspire.
Q: We have goosebumps with your story. So, were you going through the chemotherapy treatment while you were preparing for the pageant?
Dr. Bawa: I did not prepare for the pageant. I wore my own clothes. All I did was buy a gown at the last minute. I could not go to the gym because I was too sick to work out, and because I had no immunity. I did not buy a question bank. I was not on a diet. I just showed up, and that was that. Actually, I went through the worst of chemotherapy right before the pageant. I had a mastectomy a month before I walked on stage that day. So it is an interesting story. I defied many of the expectations of who a pageant contestant is, and what a pageant winner does.
Q: What kind of intimate or sexual wellness treatments do you offer to both men and women?
Dr. Bawa: For women, I do everything vaginal rejuvenation from vaginal tightening that takes women back to a pre-childbirth state to increasing lubrication to making them more orgasmic, treating urinary incontinence, and so much more. We help men with erectile issues get back in action. We also help men who do not have erectile issues prevent erectile issues, because I am all about preservation. As I said earlier, I believe in not just reacting to illness, but preventing it. We also help with penis enlargement. Bawa Medical is one of the few practices in the world that can actually do penis enlargement without surgery. This makes us unique, and that is why people are flying to my beautiful Boca Raton practice Bawa Medical from all over the world.
Q: You have a podcast. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Dr. Bawa: Oh, I love my podcast. It is called Dr. Sex Fairy, of course. The podcast came about because people around the world have questions. I spread the word about not only having great sex but also intimate wellness. It is about helping women jump on a trampoline without embarrassing themselves with urine leakage. It is about giving people confidence in not just the bedroom but the boardroom. My podcast is funny and respectful. And I ask the questions that we all want to know about but are sometimes too embarrassed to ask.
Q: To tie everything that we talked about together, stepping into your courage, going through chemotherapy, entering and actually winning Ms. Florida, what would be your parting words to someone reading this?
Dr. Bawa: Never sell yourself short, whether it is cancer or adversity in general. We all face adversity of some kind in our lives. Do not give up. Do not think for a second that adversity means that your life is over. I never let cancer define me. I was defiant. I became an American Cancer Society ambassador. I decided to fundraise for cancer research because if it was not for cancer research, I would not be alive today and my boys would not have a mother.
Adversity should help us grow. And of course, always get a second opinion when you are faced with a medical dilemma. I am now alive thanks to my doctors but in spite of them. If it was not for my oncologist at Sylvester, where would I be?
Thank you so much Dr. Kanwal Bawa for being part of Healthy Family-Palm Beach, and for inspiring so many people around the world.