Women & Infants gynecology service for children, teens

PROVIDENCE – Recognizing that a woman’s body is “vastly different” than that of an adolescent or a child, Women & Infants Hospital has opened a new pediatric/adolescent gynecology service at its Women’s Primary Care Center at 2 Dudley St.
The center, the first of its kind in the area, will provide outpatient management of girls from birth to age 16 who require evaluation and treatment of gynecologic problems. Patients could be referred for problems ranging from lack of menstruation or excessive flow to ovarian cysts to congenital anomalies of the reproductive tract.
Emergencies will still be managed by the inpatient gynecology unit at Women & Infants.
“Younger patients have special needs in their examination. We offer a reassuring, nonthreatening environment with special instruments and equipment to help us examine them properly without frightening them,” said Dr. Carol Wheeler, who heads the initiative and is also a clinical associate professor of obstetrics-gynecology at Brown University.