Dr. Alexander is currently preparing guidelines for the management of mood during and after the menopausal transition. She teaches CME on a local, national and international level, and holds a voluntary position as Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University.

Alan M. Altman M.D.

Alan M. Altman M.D. is Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. He is a board-certified gynecologist with a private practice specializing in peri- and postmenopausal care and midlife sexuality issues.

Dr. Altman received his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. He then took a year off between college and medical school to answer his "theatre calling", during which time he became Key Page at NBC and dabbled in Off- Broadway theatre. Finally the operating "theatre" recaptured his attention and he received his MD degree at the New York University School of Medicine in 1975. Moving to Boston, he completed his internship and residency at Harvard in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

A distinguished and sought-after speaker, Dr. Altman lectures frequently throughout the country on such topics as menopause, perimenopause, sexuality, state-of-the-art developments in hormone replacement therapy, and treatment of the complicated postmenopausal patient.

He is an outspoken advocate for providing health information to the public, and was co-founder and president of the Women's Healthcare Video Library, Inc., which produced informational videotapes. Dr. Altman wrote and co-produced the highly acclaimed video sets: Transitions; Preparing for Menopause, Adolescence; A Woman's First Transition, and Fertility; Pathways and Obstacles to Pregnancy.

An expert on health issues, Dr. Altman has been quoted and interviewed over the past fifteen years by a variety of publications and television programs, including Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, Glamour, Self, Bride, More, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, Good Morning America, Men Are From Mars; Women Are From Venus, Getting Healthy, Doctor on Call, Howard Stern and WebMD.

His first book, Making Love the Way We Used To…or Better; Secrets to Satisfying Midlife Sexuality, was published by Contemporary Books in March, 2001, covering the perimenopausal transition, menopause, hormones and their collective impact on sexual function and dysfunction.

His second book, with the working title, The Betrayal of American Women; Don't throw away your hormones so quickly! is due out in 2005.

He is married to Judi, his wife of 31 years, and they live in Boston. Their sons, Matthew, 29, and Joshua, 26, both live in LA and work in the entertainment industry.

Valerie Andrews

Valerie Andrews is Managing Editor of The Alexander Foundation Newsletter. She was formerly Senior Editor at HealthScout, a designer of interactive programs on depression for Salus Media, and editor of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center's award winning report on Surgical Innovations. She has contributed articles on health issues to WebMD, Medscape, and MAMM as well as to Vogue, Esquire, New Woman, and New York magazines. In addition, she has served as a commentator on two public television specials and published books on feminine psychology and the mind-body connection.

Ms. Andrews also founded and directed a non-profit institute in San Francisco called "Sacred Words: A Center for Healing Stories" which focused on women and the mid-life transition. She continues to work as a freelance book editor and scriptwriter.

Rosemary Basson, MD

Rosemary Basson is a Clinical Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Centre for Sexual Medicine in Vancouver, Canada. She trained in Internal Medicine, gained Membership into the Royal College of Physicians UK in 1973, and then worked in Family Medicine in Deep Cove, North Vancouver. In 1987, after completing a UBC Fellowship in Sexual Medicine, she focused her career entirely on human sexuality.

Dr. Basson has developed models of human sexual response that attempt to more accurately depict the blending of mind and body, moving away from the restrictive view that sexual dysfunctions are either psychological or biological. Her models of sex response cycles differ in rather fundamental ways from the linear and predominately genital events described by Masters and Johnson, and later, by Kaplan.

Her current focus is questioning the validity of current definitions of sexual disorder - especially for women. She is the Co-chair of an International Committee sponsored by the American Foundation of Urological Disease to review these definitions.

Dr. Basson's clinical research has led to invited membership of the International Academy of Scientific Researchers. She is the past Scientific Program Chair for the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health, 2002, and Co-chair of the 2003 Consultation on Sexual Dysfunction to the World Health Organization.

Dr. Basson has some 40 peer-reviewed articles published in the last 10 years. She has multiple teaching responsibilities at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels and teaches at CME level locally, nationally and internationally.

Andrea Braverman, PhD

Andrea Mechanick Braverman, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with a specialty in infertility counseling and third-party reproduction issues. She is also Assistant Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Braverman attended the University of Pennsylvania where she received a BA and MA in Literature and an MS and PhD in Psychology. Since 1989, Dr. Braverman has been with Pennsylvania Reproductive Associates and the Women's Institute for Fertility, Endocrinology, and Menopause and is Director of Psychological Services. She has published research and book chapters and has lectured both in the United States and internationally.

Dr. Braverman is past chairperson of the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and is currently President of the North American Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Henry Burger, AO, FAA, MD, FRCP, FRACP, FCP(SA), FRCOG, FRANZCOG

Henry Burger is Emeritus Director of Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research and Honorary Professorial Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne Australia. He is a practising clinical endocrinologist and a clinical investigator, whose major interests have been in reproductive endocrinology, specifically the physiology of the inhibins, the endocrinology of the menopause and the therapeutic use of androgens in women. He chaired the World Health Organisation's Scientific Group on 'Research on the Menopause' in 1994 and is a Past President of the International and Australasian Menopause Societies. He is author or co-author of more than 520 publications. He has won a number of prizes and awards, including the Dale Medal of the British Endocrine Society, Distinguished Physician of the US Endocrine Society (1999) and the North American Menopause Society's 2000 NAMS/Wyeth Ayerst Perimenopause Research Award.

Vivien Burt, MD, PhD

Vivien K. Burt, MD, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is also Founder and Director of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital Women's Life Center.

Dr. Burt received her Master's in Physiology and Biochemistry, as well as a PhD in Physiology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. She then did a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Division of Haematology and received her medical degree at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. She is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Dr. Burt co-authored Concise Guide to Women's Mental Health, now in its second edition, published by the American Psychiatric Press. The focus of her activities includes projects in pregnancy-related psychiatric illnesses and post-partum disorders. She is a reviewer for major peer-reviewed journals in psychiatry and medicine and is on the editorial board of the journal Women's Health in Primary Care.

Jerry Cott, PhD

Dr. Cott is a researcher, writer, and scientific consultant for conventional and complementary health care and academia. He has lectured at major universities and international meetings for more than 25 years. His research interests include psychotherapeutic drug development and the treatment of mental disorders by the rational use of conventional drugs and/or nutritional and botanical supplements. He has explored the benefits of essential fatty acids and the effectiveness of hypericum, ginkgo, kava, and valerian. His current specialty is herb-drug interactions,

Dr. Cott has written more than 75 scientific publications and was most recently Chief of the Psychopharmacology Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health at NIH. He has also done research in the pharmaceutical industry and currently reviews new drugs with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Susan Davis MBBS, FRACP, PhD

Susan R. Davis, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, is the Professor of Women's Health, Monash University, and Director of the Monash University NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Women's Health, Victoria, Australia.

Dr. Davis trained as a Specialist Physician in Endocrinology at Prince Henry's Hospital in Melbourne and later completed her PhD on "The molecular biology of female ovarian inhibin".

Her particular area of expertise is gynecological endocrinology with an emphasis on clinical practice, research and education. She now focuses her research and clinical practice on the consequences and management of sex steroid depletion in women.

She has published over 150 peer reviewed manuscripts and has written two books for women, The Healthy Woman and Our Health, Our Lives.

Dr. Davis is President of the Australasian Menopause Society.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including an NHMRC Research Scholarship from 1986 to 1988, The Robert Greenblatt Prize for Research of the International Menopause Society 1993, the Glenn Aging Award of the US Endocrine Society 2000, the Glaxo-Welcome Diabetes Education Award 2000, the Barbara Gross Award of the Australasian Menopause Society 2002, and the North American Menopause Society/Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals Androgen Research Award 2003.

Lorraine Dennerstein, AO, MBBS, PhD, DPM, FRANZCP

Dr. Lorraine Dennerstein has made significant scientific achievements in women's health and menopausal health. She is currently Director of the Office for Gender and Health and Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Dennerstein established a new academic field at the Key Centre for Teaching and Research in Women's Health at the University of Melbourne and was Foundation Director from 1988 to 1995, developing research programs, undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In 1993 the Key Centre was made the world's first WHO Collaborating Centre in Women's Health. She also established standards for good practice in women's health for the Commonwealth Secretariat (London) in 1996. And at the invitation of WHO, UNESCO and the Commonwealth Secretariat, she has edited a number of books on women's health.

In addition, Dr. Dennerstein established a Department of Psychological Medicine at the Mercy Hospital for Women in 1990. She served as director until 1993 when she resigned to give more time to her research. Her major interest: the effects of ovarian hormones on mood, behaviour and a woman's physical state. Her research career has involved clinical studies including double-blind randomized placebo controlled trials, bioavailability studies, psychophysiological assessments and evaluations of non-pharmacological therapies. She has also developed and validated menopause questionnaires.

In the last decade her research direction has moved to epidemiology. In 1990, as Chief Investigator, she achieved program funding from VHPF to establish a population-based study that is now in its 9th year of follow-up. Innovative aspects have included the interdisciplinary nature of the study, the detailed measures of psychosexual aspects including stress, mood and sexuality and the inclusion of physical measures such as hormone levels, and CVD risk factors.

Over the last decade, findings from this study have been disseminated in 64 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 14 additional papers still in the publication process, 29 chapters in medical books, and a book for women in the community.

For her scientific contributions, Dr. Dennerstein has received the Order of Australia in 1994 and the University of Melbourne award of a Personal Chair in 1995. She has also served on a number of expert panels including the WHO Scientific Committee for Research on Menopause (1993), the NIHBL (USA) Consensus on Menopause (1999 - 2001) the National Institutes of Health Staging of Reproductive Aging Workshop 2001, and the Princeton Androgen Insufficiency in Women Expert Panel, 2001).

Professor Dennerstein has also lectured on her research findings to the World Health Organization, Population Council (New York), Ford Foundation (New York), and a number of universities worldwide including Stanford, Yale, John Hopkins and the Maudsley Institute of Psychiatry. She has received the Commonwealth Award of Excellence for Good Practice in Women's Health, the International Menopause Society Poster Award (1999), senior research awards of the RANZCP and the Australian Society for Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Novartis Award in 2000 and First Prize Essay at the Female Sexual Function Forum, Boston 2000.

Tracy Gaudet, MD

Tracy Gaudet, MD, is assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University Medical Center, and director of the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. She is well known for her work on integrative approaches to menopause and other women's health issues and was instrumental in developing the highly successful "Women, Wellness, and the Transformation of Healthcare" conference in the fall of 2002.

Dr. Gaudet was also the founding Executive Director of the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Under her direction, the Program designed the country's first comprehensive curriculum in this emerging field.

Dr. Gaudet's work has been featured in McCall's, Natural Health, Prevention, and New Age magazines, as well as on ABC News 20/20, Oprah, and The Arts and Entertainment Network, and in professional journals including AM News, Unique Opportunities, and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.

Irwin Goldstein, MD

Dr. Goldstein is director of the Institute for Sexual Medicine and professor of urology and gynecology at Boston University Medical School. He has been involved with sexual dysfunction research since the late 1970s. His interests are the physiologic investigation of sexual function and diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in men and women, including penile microvascular bypass surgery and dyspareunia surgery.

Dr. Goldstein has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in the field of sexual dysfunction, and his research in this area has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1980. He is past president of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America, member of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Sexual and Impotence Research and secretary of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health. He is the current editor of the International Journal of Impotence Research: The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Alessandra Graziottin, MD

Dr. Graziottin is currently Director of the Center of Gynecology and Medical Sexology and Director of the Menopause Center at the Hospital San Raffaele Resnati in Milan, Italy. She received her medical degree at the University of Padova in 1978, where she specialized in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1982 and in Oncology in 1985. Since completing a five-year training in psychotherapy, she is enrolled in the Medical National list of Psychotherapists in Sexology.

Dr Graziottin has published more than 250 papers and nine books on female medical sexology, adolescent sexuality, gender disorders, enuresis, drugs and sexuality, and menopause. She has also authored seven educational booklets on different aspects of contraception, menopause and dyspareunia and is currently referee and member of the Editorial Board of Maturitas and The Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy.

Dr. Graziottin served on the Board of the Italian Menopause Society for four years (1997- 2001), and as Vice President of the Female Sexual Function Forum (FSFF) (2000-2001), then joined the Board of the Italian Society of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, of the Italian Menopause Project (IMP), of the European Society of Menopause and Andropause (EMAS) and became President of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH).

A leading expert and teacher in Female Medical Sexology and Menopause, she has given more than 390 lectures at international, world and national meetings. In October 1998 she was the only invited Gynecologist member of the Board of the First International Consensus Conference on Female Sexual Dysfunction, held in Boston.

Since 1984, Dr. Graziottin has been a regular columnist in Italian newspapers, female and health magazines and a guest on TV and radio programs. She is devoted to education on female health and medical sexology.

Robert A. Greene, MD, FACOG

Robert A. Greene received his bachelor's degree and subsequently his medical degree from Ohio State University. He performed his residency and internship in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Louisville-Humana Hospital before continuing on to fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)-Harbor Medical Center. It was during his fellowship that he began his research on the dynamic relationship between hormones and the brain.

Dr. Greene is certified by the both American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) and the ABOG Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Fertility. He is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Greene is affiliated with UC-Davis Medical Center as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. He is also serves as an ad hoc reviewer for Obstetrics and Gynecology, focusing primarily on studies involving the hormone-brain relationship. His educational activities include a very active lecture schedule, targeting diverse audiences from OB/GYN's and Family Practice Providers to Neurologists and Psychiatrists on subjects ranging from sexual dysfunction and chronic pelvic pain to managing migraine headaches and epilepsy.

A prolific writer, Dr. Greene has published numerous articles in the medical/scientific literature. More recently, he provided assistance to Suzanne Somers and wrote the foreward for her book, The Sexy Years. His own direct-to-consumer book, Perfect Balance: Breakthrough Program for Finding the Lifelong Hormonal Health You Deserve is scheduled for release in spring 2005 by the Clarkson Potter division of Random House, Inc.

He invites your queries at rgreene@pol.net.

Victor Henderson, MD, MS

Victor Henderson, MD, MS is Professor of Health Research and Policy (Epidemiology) and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University. He is also Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne (Australia), and previously he was the Kenneth and Bette Volk Professor of Neurology at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Henderson's research interests include identification of risk factors for memory loss during aging, preservation of cognitive abilities during aging, Alzheimer's disease and other age-associated cognitive disorders, and hormonal effects on cognition. He obtained his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and his masters degree in Epidemiology from the University of Washington School of Public Health.He trained at Duke University (internal medicine internship), Washington University (neurology residency), and Boston University (behavioral neurology fellowship). He has been a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a visiting professor at the University of Melbourne. Dr. Henderson has been honored with a number of awards and serves on several medical editorial boards.

Risa Kagan, MD

Dr. Kagan is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, in private practice in Berkeley, CA, and an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. In addition, she is Co-Medical Director of the Foundation for Osteoporosis Research and Education (FORE) through which she is involved in several clinical research trials. She graduated from New York University and the Albany Medical College of Union University and then did her internship-residency at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Kagan is a North American Menopause Society (NAMS)-certified Menopause Practitioner and is certified by the International Society of Clinical Densitometry. She specializes in gynecology with particular focus on gynecologic surgery and women's health issues such as menopause and osteoporosis.

She currently serves on national committees that are developing standards for menopause and osteoporosis care and is actively involved in several professional organizations, including the North American Menopause Society where she serves on the professional educational committee.

Bruce Kessel, M.D.

Bruce Kessel, MD, joined the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1998, where he currently holds the positions of Department Vice Chair, Director of its Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and Associate Professor. He previously taught at Harvard Medical School, the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine, and the University of California, San Diego. Additionally, Dr. Kessel is Medical Director of Obstetrics/Gynecology Services and Director of Residency Education at The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu. He currently sits on the Board of the North American Menopause Society and is on its journal's Editorial Board, and was the Scientific Co-Chair of the 2001 meeting of the North American Society of Psychosocial Obstetric and Gynecology. After graduating Oberlin College with honors with a bachelor's degree in Biology, Dr. Kessel received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Michael L. Krychman, MDCM, FACOG

Michael L. Krychman, MDCM, is an Assistant Clinical Attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), Department of Gynecology, Division of Surgery, New York, New York. He is the Sexual Medicine Gynecologist of the Female Sexual Health Program for female cancer survivors and has recently been appointed Co-Director of the Sexual Medicine Program at MSKCC. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN) at Cornell University School of Medicine, New York, New York.

He earned his medical degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and served his OB/GYN residency at Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Krychman is a Fellow of the American College of OB/GYN, a member of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, North American Menopause Society, and Physicians for Women's Health and International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health. He is an academic reviewer for Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality, the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Conceive Magazine.

A past recipient of the Ortho Pharmaceutical Award for Residence Research, Dr. Krychman has coauthored many chapters on female sexuality and cancer, presented numerous papers, posters, and abstracts at a variety of professional meetings. He lectures locally, nationally, and internationally on female sexuality and sexuality issues for the cancer survivor. Dr. Krychman has appeared on several radio shows and has been featured in many magazines including, Coping, and US News & World Report.

Bruce S. McEwen, PhD

Dr. Bruce S. McEwen is Alfred E. Mirsky Professor and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University. Dr. McEwen received his AB from Oberlin in chemistry, summa cum laude, his PhD from Rockefeller in cell biology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Neurobiology in Goteborg, Sweden. Past president of the International Society of Neuroendocrinology, Dr. McEwen is currently president of the Society for Neuroscience and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and the book, The End of Stress As We Know It, as well as co-author of The Hostage Brain (1994). Dr. McEwen and his research team are currently exploring the impact of stress on brain structure and neurochemistry, as well as sex differences in the brain.

Thomas C. Neylan, MD

Dr. Neylan is the Medical Director of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) Program at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.

A noted researcher in the field of posttraumatic stress, Dr. Neylan has examined the biology of sleep and arousal disturbances in subjects with PTSD. He is the Principal Investigator on a Veterans Affairs Merit Review Grant studying brain-event-related potentials in PTSD; a National Institute of Health First Award studying the role of the HPA axis in regulating sleep disturbances in PTSD: a study comparing fluvoxamine, guanfacine, and placebo funded by the Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Center (MIRECC), and a study funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb studying the effect of nefazodone on the treatment of PTSD.

Dr. Neylan's articles have appeared in the Archive of General Psychiatry, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, and the Journal of Biological Psychiatry, and he has lectured extensively on PTSD to the medical students and psychiatry residents at the University of California, San Francisco, and to psychiatrists at national meetings of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Sleep Disorders Association, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Dr. Neylan has received several awards for his teaching and is listed in Best Doctors in America, published by Woodward and White, Inc.

Talli Yehuda Rosenbaum, PT

Talli Yehuda Rosenbaum is a physical therapist in private practice in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Bet Shemesh, Israel. A researcher and lecturer specializing in urogynecological and pelvic-floor rehabilitation, she serves on the board of the Women's Health Section of the Israel Physiotherapy Society and the Professional Advisory Board of the Women's Sexual Health Foundation.

In addition, she is a member of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health and an affiliate member of the Israeli Society for Sex Therapy. She has presented posters and papers at international conferences on the subject of vulvar pain and treatment of painful sexual intercourse and has contributed to the National Vulvodynia Association newsletter. She recently co-founded the Institute for Marital Enrichment, which provides sexual education and therapy for Orthodox Jewish couples in Israel.

Amy E. Rosenman, MD

Dr. Amy Rosenman is the Co-Director of the UCLA Urogynecology Fellowship Program, one of only a few such programs in California. She is one of the founders of the Pacific Continence Center in Santa Monica, and she is a published author in the field of urogynecology and contributed the "If You Have Problems with Your Bladder" chapter for A Gynecologist's Second Opinion. Dr. Rosenman is Assistant Clinical Professor of Gynecology at the UCLA School of Medicine and a former Vice-President of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. John's Medical Center. In addition, Dr. Rosenman is the Medical Director of Women's Services at the Senior Health and Peer Counseling Center in Santa Monica. She is in private practice in Santa Monica, CA.

Dr. Rosenman is a member of the American Urogynecology Society and is President of the AUGS Foundation. She is a reviewer for the Journal of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists and the Journal of Gynecologic Techniques. She has been named one of the "Best Doctors in America" and is on the "Top Doctors" list of Consumer Reports.

Philip Sarrel, MD

Dr. Sarrel is an Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, and a noted researcher in the field of human sexuality. He established the Yale University Sex Counseling Service and directed the Sex Education Program at the Yale University School of Medicine. He has been a Faculty Scholar in the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, a Visiting Lecturer at King's College Hospital Medical School, the University of London, and a Visiting Professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

With his wife, Lorna, Dr. Sarrel wrote the first popular columns on sexuality for Redbook and Glamour magazines. He has also been a consultant on Sex Education to the New Haven Public Schools, developed programs and taught Sex Education courses at Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Brown University, University of Bridgeport, Oxford University, and the University of Copenhagen.

In addition, Dr. Sarrel has served on the White House Committee on Adolescence, the Medical Advisory Committee of Planned Parenthood, the Board of Directors of the Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS), the Advisory Board of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) the Scientific Committee of the North American Menopause Society, the Steering Committee of the Women's World Health foundation, and the Board of Directors of the American Menopause Foundation.

He has been editor of Maturitas, The Journal of Sex Research, The Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, and The Journal of the Society of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, written several books and over 200 journal articles.

Ridwan Shabsigh, MD

Ridwan Shabsigh, MD, is an associate professor of Urology at Columbia University and the director of the New York Center for Human Sexuality at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

Under his direction, the New York Center for Human Sexuality has been very active in providing clinical services for the diagnosis and treatment of various types of male and female sexual dysfunctions. Dr. Shabsigh is also the recipient of several research grants to conduct studies in erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, female sexual dysfunction, and Peyronie's disease and has acted as a principal investigator for numerous clinical trials.

Dr. Shabsigh is a member of the American Urological Association, the American College of Surgeons, the Society of University Urologists, and is a founding member of the Society for the Study of Impotence. He is widely published in clinical journals and has written a patient education book on ED: Back to Great Sex, Overcome ED and Reclaim Lost Intimacy.

Lee P. Shulman, MD, FACMG, FACOG

Lee P. Shulman, MD, FACMG, FACOG, is the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Distinguished Physician, and Professor and Chief of the Division of Reproductive Genetics in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. He is currently the Medical Director of the Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling at Northwestern University and also serves as a Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Previously, he was on the Obstetrics and Gynecology faculty of the University of Tennessee, Memphis, and the Director of Reproductive Genetics. He also was affiliated with the University of Illinois at Chicago where he served as Deputy Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of the Divisions of Reproductive Genetics and Ambulatory Care Services and Practices, and as Medical Director of the Center of Excellence in Women's Health. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Board of Medical Genetics, as well as a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics.

He earned his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in New York, New York and completed an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at North Shore University Hospital - Cornell University Medical College in Manhasset, New York and served as Chief Resident during his final year. He completed his fellowship in Reproductive Genetics at the University of Tennessee, Memphis.

Dr. Shulman's major areas of research focus on reproductive genetics, contraception, and medical education. He is Editor-in-Chief of the emedicine.com textbook and the Yearbook of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Associate Editor of The Female Patient and Contraception , a Contributing Editor for The Journal of Reproductive Medicine and the Executive Editor of the Journal of Gynecologic Surgery. He also serves on the editorial board of 2 other journals and as a peer-reviewer for 24 journals.

A frequent contributor to peer-reviewed and informational literature with more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and over 40 book chapters, Dr. Shulman serves on governmental, foundation, and pharmaceutical advisory boards and is currently the Treasurer of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. He is on the Medical Advisory Board for the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Diseases, and on the Boards of Trustees of the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis.

A member of numerous regional, national and international organizations that pertain to the health and care of women, Dr. Shulman's work has been recognized regionally and nationally; most recently, he was included in the list of "Top Doctors" in Chicago and the United States.

David E. Soper, MD

David E. Soper is currently Professor in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at the MedicalUniversity of South Carolina (MUSC), in Charleston. His undergraduate studies were done in Tallahassee, Fla., at Florida State University (1968-1972). He attended the University of Miami School of Medicine (1972-1976) in Miami, Fla., where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Dr. Soper did his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Naval Regional Medical Center in San Diego, CA., before going on an overseas tour in the Philippines where he became interested in infectious diseases. He returned to the Naval Hospital in San Diego in 1982 to do a fellowship in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Soper has subsequently studied various aspects of obstetrical and gynecological infectious diseases including vaginitis, postoperative infections, intra-amniotic fluid infection, and pelvic inflammatory disease. He has also studied the safety and efficacy of the new female condom. He has been listed in every edition of The Best Doctors in America. He continues his research in women's infections, and is now the Vice Chairman for Business and Clinical Operations, as well as the Director of the Division of Gynecology for the MUSC Ob/Gyn Department.

David Spiegel, MD

Dr. David Spiegel is the recipient of an endowed chair: Jack, Lulu & Sam Willson Professor and Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Stanford University School of Medicine where he has been a member of the academic faculty since 1975. He is also Director of the Psychosocial Research Laboratory.

He received his bachelor's degree in philosophy at Yale and his medical and psychiatric training at Harvard prior to coming to Stanford. He is the author of over 350 research papers, chapters in scientific journals, and books.

Dr. Spiegel is a leader in the field of psychosomatic research and has published numerous studies showing that group psychotherapeutic interventions have positive effects on mood disturbance, coping and pain among these patients. He is the author of a landmark study, Effect of psychosocial treatment on survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer (The Lancet; October 14, 1989; 888-891), a randomized prospective clinical trial which studied the effects of psychotherapeutic intervention in women with metastatic breast cancer. This study demonstrated that the application of supportive-expressive group therapy in women with terminal disease not only improved quality of life but significantly enhanced survival time. This work was the subject of a segment on Bill Moyer's Emmy award-winning special Healing and the Mind.

His laboratory is currently completing a replication trial to determine whether or not Supportive/Expressive group psychotherapy results in longer survival time in a sample of 125 women with metastatic breast cancer. This trial is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Cancer Institute. His book, Living Beyond Limits: New Hope and Help for Facing Life-Threatening Illness (Ballantine/Fawcett, 1994) is a careful description of his fifteen years of experience in helping patients with advanced cancer cope with their illness.

Dr. Spiegel has long had an interest in the use of hypnosis as treatment for medical symptoms and treatment side effects. In 1978, he and his father, Herbert Spiegel, M.D., co authored what has become a standard textbook on the clinical uses of hypnosis, Trance and Treatment. He is the past president of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, and in 1986, was the recipient of the Schneck Award for significant contributions to the development of medical hypnosis.

He has also studied immediate reactions to life-threatening events, including the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and the 1991 Oakland/Berkeley firestorm, demonstrating that acute dissociative symptoms are strong predictors of the development of later post- traumatic stress disorder.

In 1998, Dr. Spiegel opened the Center for Integrative Medicine at Stanford Medical Center, and he serves as its Medical Director. This new program is designed to provide the highest standard of clinical care and research to the utilization of techniques designed to help patients better cope with their illnesses. The program includes careful diagnostic assessment and treatment recommendations, a Cancer Supportive Care Program including nutrition, exercise, and support groups, hypnosis, biofeedback, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, mindfulness meditation, and yoga. For more information about this program, please call 650 498-5566.

Dr. Spiegel is a member of the editorial boards of 11 journals including: the Columbia Univ. School. of Public Health Newsletter, The Breast, Consciousness and Cognition, Dissociation, Journal of Traumatic Stress, the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, The Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, Psycho-Oncology, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Health Psychology, and The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. In addition he is a Series Editor for Progress in Psychiatry Series, published by American Psychiatric Press, Inc., a new series of books reporting research advances in psychiatry. Fifty volumes have been published in this series to date.

Julie Van Winkle, MPH

Julie Van Winkle earned her Master of Public Health degree at the University of California, Berkeley with a specialty in Health Policy and Management. She is currently a health planner for the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, Community Health and Prevention Services specializing in maternal, child, and adolescent health program planning and evaluation.

She has worked as a research associate for the Alexander Foundation for Women's Health where she participated in researching and writing guidelines and manuscripts for publication in the area of menopausal health. As a research associate for Kaiser's Family Violence Prevention Program she researched intimate partner violence screening tools and researched various aspects of violence prevention. She has also participated in the Marin Family Lifestyle Program focusing on childhood obesity in Marin County where she helped develop the enhanced clinical care arm of the intervention. In her work at the Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute she served as project manager on the adult asthma clinical practice guidelines where she worked with the clinical development staff to produce evidence based guidelines for adult asthma.

Beverly Whipple, PhD, RN, FAAN

Dr. Whipple is a Professor Emerita at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in Newark, N.J. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing from Wagner College, a Master's Degree in Counseling and a Master's Degree in Nursing from Rutgers University, and a PhD in Psychobiology, with a major in neurophysiology, from Rutgers.

A certified sex educator, certified sex counselor, certified sex researcher, and certified sexologist, Dr. Whipple is the co-author of the international bestseller The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality, which has been translated into 19 languages.

Her most recent books are Safe Encounters: How Women can say Yes to Pleasure and No to Unsafe Sex, Smart Women, Strong Bones, and Outwitting Osteoporosis. Dr. Whipple has appeared on more than 250 radio and TV programs, been featured in Time, Glamour, Self, and Reader's Digest. She has also delivered more than 350 professional talks, presentations, and keynote speeches, and published more than 125 journal articles and book chapters.

Dr. Whipple is past President of The American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (1998-2000) and of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (2002-2003). She is currently the Vice President of the World Association for Sexology (2001-2005) and serves on the Board of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (2002-2004).

Nancy Fugate Woods PhD, RN, FAAN

Nancy Fugate Woods is one of the United States' most distinguished scholars in the area of women's health studies and a leader in university administration and in professional organizations. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Dr. Woods is a leading expert on the menstrual cycle and menopausal transition. She is currently Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Washington in TK and professor in the Department of Family and Child Nursing.

She has served on the Advisory Committee on Women's Health in the National Institutes of Health's Office of Women's Health Research, on the National Advisory Council on Nursing Research for the NIH. She has also been president of the American Academy of Nursing, the North American Menopause Society and the Society for Menstrual Research. Committee memberships include the International Congress on Women's Health, the Council of Nursing Educators for Washington state and the King Country Workforce Development Committee.

Dr. Woods received the American Nurses Foundation Distinguished Contribution to Nursing Research Award and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She is presently on the editorial board of Menopause and has served on the board of the Society for the Advancement of Women's Health and Research.

Over the last 30 years Dr. Woods has led several large, pioneering research projects focusing on women's perimenstrual symptoms. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Washington, in 1989 Dr. Woods established the Center for Women's Health Research, focusing on a woman's health across her lifespan. Her current research focuses on the health of mid-life women.

Dr. Woods earned a BS in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 1968; a MN from the University of Washington in 1969; and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1978

Kimberly Yonkers, MD

Dr. Kimberly Yonkers is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and heads the school's PMS and Perinatal Research Program. An award-winning and nationally recognized expert in the field of mood and anxiety disorders in women, she is the co-author of the books Management of Psychiatric Disorders During Pregnancy, Mood Disorders in Women, and Depression In Women: Mood Disorders Associated With Reproductive Cyclicity.

Dr. Yonkers is editor of Mental Fitness, a monthly journal focusing on women's mental health, providing information on current developments, diagnostic tools, and treatments in evidence-based psychiatry.

She has received research grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health. Her areas of investigation include the effectiveness of pharmacological treatment for prenatal mood disorders and PMDD, the degree of health care received by women with PMDD and perinatal depression, and the impact of prenatal depressive and anxiety disorders on birth outcomes.

Dr. Yonkers been named one of the "Best Doctors in the U.S." and "Best Doctors in the New York Metropolitan Area."