Why women’s sexual-health innovation is increasingly shaped by physician judgment, scientific evidence, and patient choice—not insurance coverage alone.
FAIRHOPE, Ala., July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Cellular Medicine Association today responded to growing international attention surrounding The New Yorker feature “The Billionaires’ Vagina Club” and subsequent reporting in The Times, saying the coverage illustrates a quiet but growing divide in the philosophy of modern medicine—one that increasingly shapes how women receive care for sexual health, menopause, and quality of life.
The recent articles describe women seeking personalized treatments that often fall outside traditional insurance models. In The Times, London physician Dr. Shirin Lakhani includes the O-Shot® procedure as one component of a comprehensive program designed to improve female sexual wellness. The publicity has generated worldwide interest, but according to Charles Runels, MD, founder of the Cellular Medicine Association and inventor of the O-Shot® procedure, the larger story has little to do with wealth.
“The Billionaires’ Vagina Club is not about wealth—it is about what happens when medical innovation advances faster than regulation and insurance reimbursement,” said Runels.
“The headlines may mention billionaires, but what they really describe is a growing number of women searching for physicians willing to address sexual function, urinary symptoms, menopause, comfort, pleasure, and quality of life with the same seriousness that medicine has long devoted to heart disease, diabetes, or cancer.”
Runels believes the attention generated by the articles illustrates something physicians have experienced for years: medicine has quietly evolved into two complementary—but often competing—ways of making clinical decisions.
“Medicine has quietly divided into two philosophies,” Runels said. “One philosophy begins by asking whether a treatment has FDA approval and insurance reimbursement. The other begins with different questions: What does the scientific evidence show? Is there biologic plausibility? What are the risks? What does the patient value? Those physicians continue studying and refining treatments while the evidence grows. Neither philosophy rejects science. They simply answer different questions first.”
He emphasizes that the distinction is especially important in regenerative medicine because many patients misunderstand what FDA approval actually means.
“The FDA regulates drugs and medical devices,” Runels explained. “It does not approve medical procedures. Operations such as hysterectomy, coronary bypass surgery, joint replacement, or platelet-rich plasma procedures like the O-Shot® are evaluated differently—through published scientific evidence, physician training, professional standards, informed consent, and continuing clinical research.”
Runels also believes that insurance reimbursement has gradually become confused with scientific validation.
“Whether an insurance company pays for a treatment is a financial decision—not a scientific conclusion,” he said. “Some valuable treatments receive no insurance reimbursement, while some reimbursed treatments may not be appropriate for every patient. Physicians should always follow the evidence wherever it leads while carefully balancing risks, benefits, patient preferences, and ethical practice.”
The O-Shot® is a standardized protocol using platelet-rich plasma prepared from a patient’s own blood and injected into specific clitoral and vaginal tissues. The Cellular Medicine Association also trains qualified physicians in Clitoxin®, a protocol using botulinum toxin for selected disorders affecting female arousal, orgasm, and sexual satisfaction. Both protocols are taught using standardized methods intended to improve consistency and patient safety.
As public interest grows, Runels cautions that patients should distinguish standardized physician training from generic procedures marketed under similar descriptions.
“Whenever a new field attracts attention, it also attracts people who promise more than they can deliver,” Runels said. “Patients should ask who developed the protocol, what scientific evidence supports it, what training the physician completed, whether standardized techniques are followed, and whether outcomes continue to be studied.”
The Cellular Medicine Association maintains the official O-Shot® Provider Directory to help patients locate physicians licensed to perform the trademarked protocol after completing Association training and agreeing to follow established standards.
“Women shouldn’t have to become billionaires to receive thoughtful sexual healthcare,” he said. “They simply need physicians willing to think beyond reimbursement schedules while remaining firmly grounded in science, ethics, and evidence. Better medicine should never be reserved for the wealthy.”
About the Cellular Medicine Association
The Cellular Medicine Association is an international physician organization dedicated to advancing regenerative and sexual medicine through physician education, clinical research, standardized protocols, and provider licensing. The Association developed and licenses the O-Shot® and Clitoxin® protocols and supports continuing research designed to improve quality of life while promoting patient safety.
Patients seeking physicians trained in the standardized O-Shot® protocol can locate licensed providers through the official O-Shot® Provider Directory.
Media Contact
Cellular Medicine Association
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CellularMedicineAssociation.org
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SOURCE Cellular Medicine Association
