Endometriosis: Scrambled Eggs and Killer Cramps

The research interests of Dr. Pamela Stratton focus on public health issues in gynecology. Her current investigation into the diagnosis, treatment and pain management of endometriosis is one such example. She has previously studied ways to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, worked to include women in AIDS trials and other clinical research and to develop new contraceptive methods to prevent pregnancy and the spread of other sexually transmitted diseases including HIV.

Currently, as chief of the Gynecology Consult Service, Pediatric and Reproductive Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) she cares for and treats women at the NIH Clinical Center who are participating in research protocols. For some of these women their medical conditions may impact their reproductive and gynecologic health. In addition to providing gynecologic consultation, she is a gynecologic co-investigator on several clinical trials involving normal cycling and post-menopausal women with various medical conditions including female survivors of pediatric cancers, women at high genetic risk for breast cancer and HIV-infected pregnant women.

Dr. Stratton has been a clinician-researcher with NICHD since 1989. Before assuming her present role she was a special assistant for Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch and a special assistant for Gynecology and Clinical Research in the Contraceptive Development Branch. She was the project officer for studies on vaginal physiology and the role of the placenta in the transmission of HIV infection; served as faculty for the NICHD's director's conference on preparing for a research career in perinatology and reproductive medicine; and has been integrally involved in establishing a national multicenter clinical trials network for evaluating the safety and efficacy of new and existing contraceptive methods.

Dr. Stratton's academic and professional credentials are a rich mosaic. A Commander in the Medical Corps of the U. S. Public Health Service her Public Health Service (PHS) work has included service on panels for inter-agency working groups, task forces, professional practice committees, and scientific councils. Dr. Stratton has been a gynecologic consultant for NIH with the World Health Organization, the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, the Office of Refugee Health, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is also an attending gynecologist at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and Georgetown University Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the U. S. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Georgetown University. Dr. Stratton has been awarded three PHS Commendation Medals.

She obtained her Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude in Mathematics from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and her medical degree from the New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. After an Ob-Gyn internship with Beth Israel Hospital in Boston she did her Ob-Gyn residency at Beth Israel and Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. She is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

She has published nearly 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles, a dozen book chapters as lead author and written and presented more than 40 combined abstracts, posters and invited presentations.

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