I've been a physician providing women's healthcare since 1989. I had a traditional obstetrics and gynecology practice for 17 years. Since 2006 my practice has been devoted to midlife women, specifically providing gynecologic care and helping women navigate the perimenopausal and menopausal years. (It's tricky for some women, in case you hadn't noticed.)
One of the most challenging issues is women's sexual health. I realized that there are multiple changes, common to many women at this stage of life, which result in (sometimes unpleasant) changes in sexual function. But there weren't great resources for women to access to learn more about it, or purchase products that might help. I honestly didn't know of any websites that I could recommend for women to access and really feel comfortable with the messages, images and products they offered.
Meanwhile, I was working on my Masters in Medical Management at Carnegie Mellon University. While there, I had a business development course, and my homework was to create a business. Here's the rest of the story.
In April 2010, I launched an on-line business, MiddlesexMD.com, to help women enjoy sexuality for life, offering clinically sound information, practical advice, and intimacy aids. Sexuality is so important to our relationships and our happiness, even our overall health -- my goal is to help women maintain sexual health at every age, and preserve it as we age.
I am board certified in Ob/Gyn, a NAMS (North American Menopause Society) Certified Menopausal Provider, and have a Masters in Medical Management.
I was honored as the 2013 Certified Menopause Practitioner of the Year by NAMS for what was acknowledged as “exceptional contributions” to menopause care. In particular, the award recognized the work she does through MiddlesexMD speaking out publicly and to midlife women about how sexual intimacy changes as we age and how to deal with those changes.
Recently I treated a patient who’d had elective breast reduction surgery. Nerve damage during the procedure had caused her to lose all sensation in her nipples. She found herself unable to have an ...
January 20, 2014 - 10:39am
You may have heard about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s prediction that by 2050, one in three Americans could have diabetes. One in ten already do, although many of them haven’t ...
October 29, 2013 - 6:32am
She’s 54 years old. She’s spent most of her adult life in a long-term monogamous relationship. She’s just been diagnosed with genital herpes.
This happens more often than you might ...
October 17, 2013 - 6:27am
While writing about intimacy and developing our recipe for enjoying sex after 40, my team came across a study seeking to understand what people consider to be Great Sex. That is, when we talk ...
October 14, 2013 - 1:56pm
It’s a personal question, I know, but one I’m trying to be sure to ask my midlife and older patients who are newly single and sexually active.
Among women our age, sexually transmitted ...
September 1, 2013 - 6:01pm
I had a call not long ago from a friend who’s been a widow for several years. “I’ve found someone!” she told me, with just the slightest quiver in her voice. “I’m so excited I can hardly ...
August 26, 2013 - 1:47pm
I saw a patient recently who is in her early 60s, in great shape, and happily married to an attractive and generally healthy man also in his 60s. Both retired from executive positions, they have ...
August 20, 2013 - 1:39pm
A lot of the patients in my menopause practice are single women. My patients who have no sexual partners can be quick to dismiss my questions about sexual symptoms, figuring that without a partner ...
June 27, 2013 - 12:34pm
The science of human sexuality is young. For most of the last century, we assumed that men and women approach sex in roughly the same way.
I know: Crazy. But as I said, the science is ...
June 24, 2013 - 11:38am
I live and practice in the Midwest, where open discussion about sex is just not part of the culture. Even among close-knit groups of girlfriends, it’s a rare discussion, at least past a certain ...
June 14, 2013 - 11:16am
As a gynecologist, I’ve studied a lot of anatomy, including some that makes other folks blush. I sort of forget how uncommon it is for women to know exactly what parts they have “down there.”
I ...
June 10, 2013 - 10:12am
None of us gets through our adult life without some questions about sexual functioning. And we go lots of places for answers, consulting family, friends, texts, the Internet, piecing together a ...
June 3, 2013 - 2:06pm
I never knew what it meant to prime a pump until I watched a plumber work on one at my cottage. To prime a pump means to pour a little water into its fill cap to create suction and, with luck, to ...
April 30, 2013 - 3:13pm
Here is a recent blog from my website, MiddlesexMD, that created a lot of conversation. Would look forward to your comments too!
Sex and His Self-Esteem
Ladies, sometimes we are just too ...
February 8, 2013 - 7:51am
I don’t know about you, but celebrating New Year’s Eve has become as exciting as a dirty sock under the bed. What happened to the crazy parties with friends? What happened to Auld Lang Syne and ...
December 28, 2012 - 1:12pm
I don’t know about you, but celebrating New Year’s Eve has become as exciting as a dirty sock under the bed. What happened to the crazy parties with friends? What happened to Auld Lang Syne and ...
December 28, 2012 - 1:01pm
Remember that play that premiered a few years back called, “The Vagina Monologues”? Well, I wish someone would write one called, “The Vagina Dialogues” so that women would start to realize that ...
October 26, 2012 - 12:39pm
I am 56 years old. Aside from a 15 day episode (8/2012) of exceptionally light flow, I have had only sporatic spotting since. I have had 2 endometrial biopsies Sept 2010 & 2012, negative for any ...
Dr. Barb DePree commented on Anonymous' post Is this just menopause or is it post-menopausal bleeding?