Ooh, Friend.  Let’s dig in! PCOS stands for polycystic ovarian syndrome, and there are some different criteria for diagnosis out there, but the mainstay of diagnostic criteria are called the Rotterdam Criteria.  The Rotterdam Criteria propose that a woman with irregular cycles, for which other causes of cycle irregularity have…

Dear Mothers, You are my friends, my peers, my patients, and my mentors, and I want to celebrate you today!  Whether you are a biological mother or not, Mother’s day can be pregnant (see what I did there?) with a lot of emotion.  I want to take a moment to…

Sometimes in a baby girl’s fetal development there can be a glitch in the development of the uterus.  The uterus and the ovaries originate from different tissues, so the ovaries are unaffected, but the uterus can have a spectrum of abnormalities or differences from the normal single uterine cavity.  Interestingly,…

This one has a lot of layers, Friends, so strap in! One of the first things to consider is that a hysterectomy is a major surgery and is costly both in a financial sense and with potential risk for complications for the patient.  With respect to the financials, the cash…

Endometriosis is when the tissue of the inner lining of the womb (the endometrium) gets out into the pelvis where it is not supposed to be.  There are a couple of theories on how this happens, but we don’t know for sure.  Each cycle, the lining of the womb or…

Holistic just means care for the whole person—physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but I am going to assume that this question is maybe using the term holistic to refer to non-pharmaceutical methods.  Let’s consider some physiology.  In general for a normal, healthy couple, there is a 20% chance of conception each…

Menopause, is by definition, no menstrual periods for an entire year.  The median age of menopause in the U.S. is 51.  Perimenopause, is the time leading up to menopause where our ovaries start to slow hormone production, and that transition is, on average, about 5 years in length.  In addition…

Most of us are familiar with the term Pap smear, but let’s pause for a moment to discuss what a Pap is, why we need it, and how often we need it.  The Pap smear was introduced in the mid 1940’s by Dr. Papanikolaou as a screening test for cervical…