From endometriosis and painful sex to breast cancer, menopause and maternal health, women’s health concerns can be overlooked, misunderstood or difficult to discuss. Women physicians across the country are using their expertise and their voices to change that, giving patients clearer information, expanding treatment options and advocating for care that better reflects women’s needs across the lifespan.
These ten AMA members participated in the What Doctors Want Patients to Know™ series and are moving medicine by confronting stigma and misinformation, drawing attention to often-overlooked health concerns and empowering women to make informed decisions about their health.
Each of these doctors is from an organization that is part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Amber Savells, MD
Dr. Savells, an ob-gyn at Baptist Health Medical Group, is advancing women’s health by bringing greater attention to sexual health concerns that can too often go unspoken. By helping patients understand the many possible causes of painful sex—from menopause and vaginal dryness to pelvic floor dysfunction, prior trauma and other medical conditions—Dr. Savells is working to reduce stigma and encourage women to talk openly with their physicians about symptoms that affect their physical, emotional and relationship well-being.
Bonni Guerin, MD
Giving women the knowledge to understand and lower their breast-cancer risk is one way Dr. Guerin is improving women’s health. A medical oncologist at Atlantic Health and director of breast services at Atlantic Health Overlook Medical Center, Dr. Guerin encourages women to know their family history on both sides, understand modifiable risk factors and keep up with appropriate breast-cancer screening.
Cindy Celnik, MD
Using research and health-system data to improve maternal outcomes is a major focus for Dr. Celnik, assistant national medical director of HCA Healthcare Women’s Services. Dr. Celnik has helped advance efforts to determine when cesarean delivery is medically appropriate, reduce unnecessary early-term and C-section deliveries, and improve recovery after surgery—work aimed at making childbirth safer for both women and their babies.
Katie Peterson, MD
For women living with endometriosis, getting answers can take years, which is why Dr. Peterson, an ob-gyn at Confluence Health, is bringing greater attention to the often-underrecognized condition. By explaining the wide-ranging symptoms, effects on fertility and available treatment options, Dr. Peterson is helping women better understand endometriosis and advocate for evaluation and care rather than accepting debilitating symptoms as normal.
Kimberly Dawn Warner, MD
Amid a flood of misinformation about birth control on social media, Dr. Warner, an ob-gyn at Colorado Permanente Medical Group, is working to give women reliable information to make informed decisions about contraception. Dr. Warner emphasizes patient-centered contraceptive counseling—starting with a woman’s health, lifestyle and reproductive goals—while clearing up misconceptions about fertility, cancer risk, intrauterine devices and other birth-control options.
Laura Katz, MD
Menopause can affect far more than menstrual cycles and hot flashes, and Dr. Katz is helping women recognize the full range of changes that may come with the transition. An ob-gyn who is a member of Professional Medical Corp., Dr. Katz draws attention to lesser-known symptoms of menopause while urging women to become familiar with their bodies, communicate openly with their physicians and advocate for themselves when symptoms affect their well-being.
Lindsay McCullough, MD
Calling attention to sleep problems that disproportionately affect women—and can too often go undiagnosed—is one way Dr. McCullough, a sleep medicine physician with Rush University System for Health, is advancing women’s health. Dr. McCullough highlights how hormonal changes from puberty through pregnancy and menopause can affect sleep, while drawing attention to conditions such as insomnia, restless leg syndrome and sleep apnea that may present differently in women. By encouraging women to recognize persistent sleep problems and discuss them with their physicians, she is helping make sleep an important part of conversations about women’s health across the lifespan.
Melisa Edler, MD
Removing embarrassment from conversations about vaginal health is an important part of Dr. Edler’s work as an ob-gyn with Bayhealth. Through straightforward guidance on preventing and recognizing yeast infections, Dr. Edler helps women understand everyday risk factors, avoid practices that can disrupt vaginal health and know when symptoms warrant a conversation with their physician rather than self-treatment. She also reassures patients that developing a yeast infection does not mean they did something wrong.
Laura Steers, MD
Preventing urinary tract infections—and making sure women know when they can become serious—is a priority highlighted by Dr. Steers, an ob-gyn at University of Iowa Health Care. Dr. Steers offers practical guidance for preventing recurrent infections while calling particular attention to the needs of pregnant and postmenopausal women, including how hormonal changes can affect urinary and genital health.
Veronica Gillispie-Bell, MD
Expanding women’s options for uterine fibroid care is central to the work of Dr. Gillispie-Bell, an ob-gyn and system medical director of health outcomes at Ochsner Health. As medical director of the Minimally Invasive Center for the Treatment of Uterine Fibroids, Dr. Gillispie-Bell stresses that treatment should reflect each woman’s symptoms, fertility goals and desire to preserve her uterus—and encourages patients to seek a second opinion when they are not offered those choices.
Learn more about the AMA Women Physicians Section, which seeks to influence and contribute to AMA policy and program development on issues of importance to women physicians, and to increase the number and influence of women physicians in leadership roles.
