Patients like Olivia Munn and Florence Pugh are devoted to her. Meet the famous ob-gyn, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi (exclusive)

When a biopsy revealed that Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi Had atypical cells in their left breast, the Los Angeles-based ob-gyn feared the worst. With the help of a breast cancer risk calculator, she discovered that the odds would develop cancer was a worrying 37% – and quickly requested a double mastectomy from her doctors.

“If you told me that a flight had a 37% chance of crashing, I would never board that plane,” says Aliabadi. “I went to several doctors and said,“ I love my life. I don’t want to get breast cancer. Just take them off. ”

But most doctors didn’t see it that way. Since the mother of four had no family history with breast cancer and was in exceptionally good health – it was another six months before Aliabadi found a surgeon to perform the prophylactic surgery. Three days later, in August 2019 – while acting back to the school material for his children – her surgeon called with devastating news.

“They told me that I (already) had invasive cancer in step 1 in my right breast,” says Aliabadi, 54. “I was so upset about all the people who called me crazy. I cried so much in my bed. It woke me up completely.”

Since then, Aliabadi, which is worth the popular She MD podcast with designer and women’s health lawy Mary Alice HaneyHas been commissioned to educate women on how to take ownership of their health.

“I promised myself that I would turn something so traumatizing into something beautiful,” says Aliabadi from his home in Bel Air. “This happened so I could change the world for breast cancer. I want to give women the opportunity to be their own health advocates.”

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In April 2023 Aliabadi put these words into action when the actress Olivia Munn arrived at his annual exam. Although Munn’s pap-stroke and mammogram had returned, OB gyn recommended that she took a risk assessment test to determine her lifetime risk for breast cancer.

“The fact that she did it, saved my life,” says Munn, who shares two young children with husband, comedian John Mulanaey. Her point, like Aliabadis, was 37%; Subsequent tests revealed cancer tumors in both breasts, which led to a double mastectomy a month later.

“Olivia’s cancer was very aggressive,” says Aliabadi, who recommends Myriad Myrisk® Hereditary Cancer Test – which calculates the genetic risk of developing 11 different types of cancer – to all her patients. “Olivia had a little baby (at that time) and you can’t play with it. I’m so proud of her.”

Last year, more than 310,000 American women with breast cancer were diagnosed, according to National Cancer Institute. While four out of five types of breast cancer are detected through mammograms, an estimated 20 percent of breast cancer, such as the mouth, is estimated to be undetected.

“The scary is, even today, doctors do not calculate their patients’ lifetime risk for breast cancer,” says Aliabadi. “We don’t need to train more doctors. We have to educate women.”

One of three children born to the late Mehdi Aliabadi, a banker and Sue, 78, an entrepreneur, Aliabadi grew up in Tehran, in the middle of the Iranian Revolution. “Our lives turned upside down,” she reminds. “They froze my father’s bank account and removed his passport.” Aliabadi went from wearing a bikini in the family’s villa in the Caspian Sea to covering the hair for the school. “I grew up with bombing,” she says. “It wasn’t an easy childhood.”

When she was 17, she received a green card to travel to the United States and arrived in Northern California with her sister. “During the revolution, women lost all their rights,” she reminds. “When I came to (USA) and realized what other girls had access to, it was life -changing.”

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She started high school without knowing a word with English and switched to a community college after graduation, where she gradually learned the language. “I appreciated all this beautiful country had to offer,” she says. She transferred to the University of California in Berkeley, spent 12 hours a day studying and graduating in 1992 at the top of her class. “I had nothing else to do but study,” she says. “I memorized each page in the book before a test.”

She also met her future husband at Berkeley, Kambiz Tehranchi, who also comes from Iran. “He’s the nicest guy on the planet,” says Aliabadi. “When I first met him, I was 20 and still had a lot of trauma from the war with me. He brought that peace and love and safety in my heart again. He cured some of my heart.”

In 1998, she graduated from the Medicine School at Georgetown University with a desire to focus on women’s health. “I couldn’t see anyone in pain, especially women,” she says. In 2005, after completing an OB-Gyn residence in Los Angeles, Aliabadi opened a private practice and took a second job at another hospital to make extra money.

“I worked like a crazy woman,” she says. “I made so many deliveries, so many C-sections.”

In the coming decade, Aliabadi’s personal attitude to women’s medical health led to a thriving practice, including celebrity customers as RihannaThe SZAThe Florence PughThe Khloé Kardashian and Hailey Bieber.

“The paps express is only 1% of what I do,” says Aliabadi, who with Haney recently launched OVII – an educational platform (ovii.com) and the first holistic daily supplement for women struggling with PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome). “I fight for every little thing. You can’t risk people’s lives.”

At home, the mother enjoys four movie nights and trips with her husband, and their four daughters, Delara, 20, Layla, 18, (both in college), Dalia, 12, and the youngest, Coco, 4, which she and Kambiz adopted 2021 from Fostervård. “We are a family with big hugs,” she says. “Our favorite thing to do is travel. We always have the best time and we just bind.”

As a dedicated mother and dedicated doctor, Aliabadi draws passion, inspiration and a deep empathy for women from their own turbulent childhood. “When you want to make sure bombs don’t fall on your head, you want to do the same for others,” she says. “All I do to protect women is to protect the child within me who lost all this. My patients have become my family.”