The Field of Urogynecology
Just returning from the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS), I have time to reflect on some of the excitement of discovery and innovation witnessed while in Long Beach.
Great strides have been achieved in recognizing urinary frequency and urgency as a legitimate medical condition for which there are behavioral intervention, pharmacologic agents, surgery, and nerve stimulaton and implants delivering neuromodulation for regulating spasms of the bladder. This professional society of specially trained clinicians and researchers is improving its understanding of the biomechanics of childbirth and obstetrical trauma so they collectively can target the muscles and ligaments most susceptible to damage. This helps with the refinement of surgical procedures and even anticipating which women are more vulnerable than others to ensuing prolapse. Prevention of problems is the ultimate end goal.
Specifically on the research front, the AUGS Foundation has been funding the work of bright, young scholars, at academic medical centers such as Duke, Penn, Yale, and the Cleveland Clinic. They are exploring the development of instruments for measuring and assessing outcomes for pragmatic clinical trial research, validating a new type of informed consent for patients undergoing surgery, and examining predictors of female sexual function following a medical device implantation, among other objectives. This research is being funded privately through donations from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers in the U.S. as well as from individual doctors and even patients.
By way of background, urogynecology represents a fellowship trained expertise in the urological aspects of gynecology with a particular focus on female pelvic floor dysfunction including incontinence. There are approximately 1,100 urogynecologists practicing in the U.S. The mission of AUGS is to promote the highest quality care in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery through excellence in education, research and advocacy. This sub-specialty of obstetrics and gynecology stretches around the globe, through an entirely separate organization, the International Urogynecology Association (IUGA).
Women are fortunate that such a sub-specialty exists because these physicians can focus their work on female pelvic floor disorders that are responsible for incontinence, bladder dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, and pelvic organ prolapse. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, like other specialties, these doctors are primarily housed in or near academic medical centers and densely populated, urban areas. This means it is difficult for women in outlying areas to even know about, much less find out about, such experts. For help in finding such an expert in proximity to where you live or can easily travel, use NAFC's Find an Expert database.
*Update, March 2011: The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and the American Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) have officially approved the accreditation of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery. The certification of the subspecialty is a national recognition of the field's body of knowledge and research. Urogynecologists will soon be able to become board certified in their subspecialty.
