As ObGyn physicians, most of the care we provide on an urgent basis involves pregnancy and childbirth. For gynecologic problems, we more typically provide medical treatment at an office visit or surgery, if necessary, at a planned time in the future. But this is not always the case. Certain conditions in gynecology represent true emergencies, requiring immediate treatment to prevent long term consequences and even loss of life. We want our patients to be aware of the signs of these more urgent problems.

As you would expect, gynecologic problems generally manifest themselves with pain and/or abnormal bleeding. Most women…

What is Osteoporosis?
Who has not known someone who had always been active and healthy, and then had a fall and never recovered from a hip fracture?  Or an otherwise healthy 75 year old woman with severely limiting spine deformity caused by multiple spontaneous fractures of the spinal bones leaving her with a “humped” back such that she can never see the sky? These are the result of osteoporosis. Our interest in osteoporosis should be a personal interest in our own health and that of aging family members, along with a concern for the enormous health-care cost of this…

The IUD’s popularity among American women for the prevention of pregnancy has varied greatly over the last four decades. According to the Guttmacher Institute for Reproductive Health, nearly 10% of American women used an IUD in the 1970s, compared to less than 1% today. Back then, a significant number of women using one popular IUD, the Dalkon Shield, developed serious and sometimes fatal infections. The government recalled the Dalkon shield, and the resulting legal actions and negative publicity created business risk for other IUD manufacturers who then chose to remove their products from the market. Remembering these stories, your…

You may have heard in recent news celebrity Sharon Osbourne’s discussion of her breast cancer risk and her decision to undergo surgery. How did she and her doctor come to this decision?  Ms. Osbourne, judge on America’s Got Talent and wife of Ozzy Osbourne, announced that she carries a gene that is known to significantly increase her breast and ovarian cancer risk.

Although most breast and ovarian cancers are sporadic—meaning they do not appear to be hereditary—women who carry genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2 have a much greater risk of developing these cancers…