Sensitive Topics in Women's Health: Sexuality, Menopause, and Mental Health

Karen Adams MD, FACOG, NCMP has spent more than 30 years taking good care of women and teaching others to do the same. She is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), where she was the OHSU OBGYN Residency Program Director and Vice Chair for Education for 14 years.

She is a North American Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner and serves on the Education Committee of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health.
Karen Adams MD, FACOG, NCMP has spent more than 30 years taking good care of women and teaching others to do the same. She is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), where she was the OHSU OBGYN Residency Program Director and Vice Chair for Education for 14 years. She is a North American Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner and serves on the Education Committee of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health.
Dr. Adams is recognized as a national leader in OBGYN education. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) and the ACGME Residency Review Committee for Obstetrics and Gynecology, an appointed board that accredits all 241 OBGYN residency programs and 85 OBGYN fellowship programs across the country. She co-directs the ACOG School for New Residency Program Directors, and she was a member of the ACGME Wellness Working Group, a national group of medical educators working to decrease burnout among medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. She has served as an oral board examiner for the American Board of OBGYN (ABOG) since 2008.
Dr. Adams has received numerous awards for teaching during her career, including the Faculty Mentor Award and the Faculty Gold Humanism Award from OHSU graduating medical school classes, and the 2017 Mentor of the Year Award from ACOG, the American College of OBGYN.
Together with Dr. Cirino, Dr. Adams founded and directs the Menopause and Sexual Medicine Program in the OHSU Center for Women's Health. The program brings together specialists in many fields to provide comprehensive health care for women in peri-menopause and beyond, with a special focus on women's sexuality in the second half of life. She is passionate about getting solid information into the hands of women and the providers who care for them. To accomplish that, she hosts an annual series of evening workshops for women, "A Toast to Midlife", in the OHSU Center for Women's Health. She has published more than 30 scientific articles and given hundreds of lectures nationally and internationally, including a January 2020 TEDx talk entitled 'Sleep, Sex, and Menopausal Zest" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ly-WLpmagU Her website is www.dr.karenadams.com and her podcast, "Midlife Life with Dr. Karen" is launching in 2021. She combines her passions for women's health care and teaching to create engaging, accessible content for medical audiences that is firmly grounded in the realities of clinical care.

Reproductive Psychiatrist
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Department of OB/Gyn
Division Chief, Women's Mental Health and Wellness
OHSU Center for Women's Health
Oregon Health Science University
Portland, OR

Dr. Nicole Cirino is a Reproductive Psychiatrist (Board Certified MD physician) and Associate Professor in both the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health Science University in Portland, Oregon. OHSU Center for Women's Health (CWH) is a National Center of Excellence for women's healthcare. 

It is a multi-specialty academic clinic treating exclusively women with a strong teaching and research component. She the Division Chief of the Women's Mental Health and Wellness Program at CWH as well as the Co-founder and Co-Director of the Menopause and Sexual Medicine Program at CWH. 

She has been fellowship trained in Reproductive Psychiatry since 2003. Reproductive Psychiatry is a specialty area of Psychiatry that focuses exclusively on the treatment of women across the reproductive life cycle. She has been practicing Sexual Medicine as a part of her practice since 1998. In the past 5 years she has expanded her work in Sexual Medicine to also include research and education. She teaches topics of both Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders and Female Sexual Medicine to medical students, residents and other academic medicine faculty nationally. 

Dr. Cirino is also a Certified Sex Therapist through the governing body AASECT, American Association of Sexual Educators, Counselors and Therapists. She also is skilled in Interpersonal, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and other therapeutic interventions. 

Dr. Cirino's research interests involve medical and behavioral therapy interventions for perinatal mental health conditions and female sexual dysfunction. She lives in Portland, Oregon and is married with three children. Traveling is one of her greatest passions.