Clinical Services
UI Women's Health is our gateway to clinical care for women. We offer primary health care for women, coupled with specialty services including minimally invasive surgery, vulvar–vaginal disease, adolescent gynecologic health, treatment of fibroids, including uterine artery embolization, and colposcopy, urogynecology and pelvic reconstructive surgery, breast health —including reconstructive breast surgery, wellness and counseling, and ovarian, uterine, vaginal, vulvar oncology, and LEEP procedures.
We offer an extraordinary depth of clinical expertise in areas ranging from pregnancy and birth, pediatric and adolescent gynecology, and urogynecology and reconstructive surgery to breast health—including reconstructive breast surgery, wellness and counseling, and ovarian, uterine, vaginal, and vulvar oncology. See our faculty listing.
UI Women's Health (Services)
UI Surgeon Carol Scott-Conner, MD, PhD, was named one of America's top doctors for women by Women's Health Magazine, which cited her expertise in breast cancer, cancer surgery, and laparoscopic surgery.
Our maternal fetal medicine experts provide comprehensive prenatal care to women with high-risk pregnancies. The Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Unit was among the first 30 in the country to receive accreditation. The Neonatal Level 3C Intensive Care Unit has among the best outcome rates supported by data collected by the Vermont Oxford Network.
We are home to the Iowa Statewide Perinatal program which has been in in operation for more than 36 years.
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the LUMA Cervical Imaging System for use in combination with routine cervical exams to detect precancerous disease. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is one of five centers that will install LUMA as part of a nationwide clinical study to determine the effectiveness of the system coupled with existing methods.
Best Doctors
The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology has eight physicians listed on the 2009-10 "Best Doctors in America" database.
Stories of Hope
Family Dreams Come True
When Eric and LeAnn Briesemeister married in 2002 they figured starting a family would be the last of their worries.
"We assumed that getting pregnant just 'happened' because no one we knew had ever had a problem," says Eric. They had not considered the possibility of infertility.
The Briesemeisters turned then to the assisted reproductive specialists at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. "We will never forget our first appointment with Dr. Syrop" (Craig Syrop, MD, an infertility specialist in the Center for Advanced Reproductive Care, which is affiliated with the UI Women's Health program). "He gave us hope."
Most importantly, the Briesemeisters say, the UI team had a solid care plan based on their medical histories. LeAnn got pregnant in 2004 and baby Michael Briesemeister arrived on March 23, 2005. "We were more than a little overjoyed!" LeAnn says.
The Briesemeisters wanted a second child and worked with the UI team to repeat its success. Baby Josef on December 22, 2006.
LeAnn was now 40 and the Briesemeisters wanted a third child. Four cycles (the maximum) of IUI failed, so the next step involved an IVF procedure directed by IVF specialists Amy Sparks, PhD, and Ginny Ryan, MD. Baby Alex who was born March 20, 2009.