Welcome, bienvenidos, bienvenue, welkom
Welcome my NASPAG family to Central Florida
Land of the Seminole, the Tequesta, the Miccosukee
Of Eatonville, the oldest incorporated Black Community in the US
Of Kissimmee con boriquos de Puerto Rico desde las setentas.

Welcome to the warmth, the embrace of our NASPAG community
To the energy and passion of those with a deep sense of the privilege and the responsibility of caring for our youth.
Especially now.
You are in your NASPAG home. You can breathe, renew, restore, engage. Meet new
friends, revel in our shared sense of purpose.
And this year you can even dance.

A question practitioners may ask is whether PAG care can exist in a private practice model or is it better to exist in an academic setting. Many of us have been practicing PAG for years in a private practice setting. We started this SIG to bring together everyone with an interest in private practice PAG.

We want to reach out and be able to mentor physicians finishing residencies, PAG fellowships, and join with those already in practice who are interested in this avenue. We can learn from each other and share keys to successfully practice PAG in private practice.

The Advocacy Committee continues its hard work in the setting of our current sociopolitical climate and all the things that continue to affect reproductive healthcare. This is particularly important for sexuality and gender minority adolescents and young adults. Below is a summary of the committee’s most recent accomplishments and activities:

• Endorsement of ACOG Practice Guideline on OTC Opill (March 2024)

A ginormous shoutout to the ACRM Program Chair, Gylynthia Trotman and the entire Program Committee for their incredible dedication, energy, and attention to detail.

One of the true joys of attending in person meetings is the chance to connect with colleagues in the PAG space, and this is amplified even more for me when I am with my international colleagues. I feel I have more in common with my PAG colleagues from Argentina, Netherlands, the Philippines, and other countries, than many people in my own department. FIGIJ (International Federation of Pediatric Adolescent Gynecology) is the global home for all the national PAG societies and in the past 5 years developed an active Advocacy Committee. I am excited that FIGIJ and NASPAG are now partnering to co-author, co-brand, publish in JPAG, and post in social media and on our website positions so dear to us all. I am thrilled that we have a large group of international attendees coming to this year's ACRM and hope we can find more ways to collaborate.

Our theme for this year was Standing Strong Together to support the reproductive health of our youth. This year’s meeting was developed with a mission focused on action-oriented dissemination of knowledge to affect change. It is with this vision that we worked to create a program with a balance of content that also allows for networking and creative collaboration with leaders in PAG and beyond.

We have an exciting program planned! Our plenary speakers represent a multidisciplinary group of nationally and internationally renowned leaders discussing essential topics:

How to maximize billing and coding for PAG (Jennifer Bercaw-Pratt, MD, Angela Hernandez, MD, and Lisa Moon, MD)

• Explain how medical care is reimbursed to providers via the Medicare Fee Schedule.

NASPAG wholeheartedly advocates for unrestricted, unbiased, and evidence-based medical care for all young women

NASPAG celebrate the release of Opill. The first daily over the counter oral contraceptive available without a prescription—now shipping to retail pharmacies. See the press release below:

Did you know you can get involved with Naspag through a Special Interest Group?

Have you logged into the LMS recently?  

There's a new surgical video available.

What a whirlwind the past few months have been! I am convinced NASPAG has the most dedicated, engaged, and productive members of any professional society.

Thanks so much to all who answered the member survey sent in September. We have taken your suggestions and feedback to heart. The committees, SIGs, ad hoc working groups and of course the board have been busy!

The Advocacy Committee continues its hard work in the setting of our current sociopolitical climate and all the things that continue to affect reproductive healthcare. This is particularly important for sexuality and gender minority adolescents and young adults. Below is a summary of the committee’s most recent accomplishments and activities:

• On behalf of NASPAG, the Advocacy Committee signed onto a letter to US Vice President in support of US hosting the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+30) in honor of its 30th anniversary. The ICPD Conference Coalition has put together a set of recommendations for the U.S. government to define their robust engagement in the ICPD process. One of these recommendations asks the U.S. government to convene a high-level commemorative event next summer, headlined by Vice President Harris, that celebrates and affirms U.S. commitment to delivering sexual and reproductive health and rights for all through its actions on programs, policy, and funding.

Hello NASPAG Family!

The end of the year is a time when many of us reflect on the past year and look forward to the year ahead. I use this time to truly focus on gratitude for all the accomplishments and lessons learned while remaining open to the abundance ahead! There are countless things that I am grateful for in 2023. Although too numerous to count, I give gratitude for the health of my loved ones, my expanding family, and my communities both personal and professional. I am also thankful for the relationships strengthened over the last year, particularly those within the NASPAG community.

 
The North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (NASPAG) has served as a leader in advocacy for unrestricted, unbiased, and evidence-based reproductive care for adolescents. We recognize and emphasize the potential health, social, and economic implications of mistimed or unplanned pregnancy during adolescence and have previously released a statement supporting the availability of oral progestin-only contraceptive pills to adolescents.

Read the Full Statement Here

As I write this update from JPAG, Thanksgiving 2023 is in the rearview mirror.. As usual, my family gathered at our home, and there were adult kids, a grandchild, the outlaws (daughter-in-law’s parents), and friends who for various reasons will join our gathering. There was much to be grateful for this year, and Thanksgiving Day allows us the tradition of a day honoring gratitude. We are healthy, we have plenty, we are together. The bounty of our home garden once again supplied side dishes of spinach, lettuce, persimmons, apples, various fruit jams and jellies, pickled beets, pickled peppers, and even some tomatoes fresh from the vine. I’m grateful that hubby cooked the turkey. We live in beautiful California, where our Thanksgiving day included high temperatures near 70 degrees; we ate outside All reasons to give thanks. We are reminded by near-tragedies that we are grateful for the safety of relatives who lost their beautiful home and all their possessions this year to a wildfire.

I am immensely grateful to the amazing JPAG Associate Editors (Andrea Bonny, Veronica Gomez-Lobo, and Eveline Roos) who are hardworking, knowledgeable, and wonderfully collegial. I am grateful to the many PAG folks who agree to review manuscripts for JPAG. Without their peer reviews, JPAG would not be thriving. I am grateful for JPAG’s immensely competent, organized, kind and patient Managing Editor, David Newcombe. I am grateful for JPAG’s Elsevier publisher, Andrea Boccelli, who has always been available and helpful, and who is a good friend of NASPAG. I am grateful to the many scholars who contribute manuscripts to JPAG that add to our knowledge about the gynecologic issues that affect our patients. I am grateful for their scientific curiosity, creativity, and vision.

NASPAG, like many other major medical organizations, has been disheartened to see limitations placed on the provision of sexual health education to our youth. Comprehensive sexuality education has been shown to better prepare young persons to make informed and healthy decision about their sexual health and sexual health behaviors. In support of the provision of unrestricted, evidence based comprehensive sexual health education to our youth, the NASPAG Advocacy Committee has released a position statement.

Read the full statement

NASPAG'S Response to Texas Senate Bill 8

NASPAG’s mission is to advocate for the reproductive well-being of children and adolescents and the provision of unrestricted, unbiased, and evidence-based practice of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. The Texas Senate Bill 8 undermines the ability of Pediatric and Adolescent health care providers to align with NASPAG’s mission. This bill impacts critical reproductive health care, which undoubtedly will disproportionately impact those with poorest resources and access to care. This is one of the most restrictive abortions bans in the US, making abortion illegal with no exceptions for rape, sexual abuse, incest, or fetal anomaly diagnosis.  

Read more