Newport Beach, CA (January 13, 2015) – Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian today announced the opening of WOMANOLOGY® by Hoag, a comprehensive, integrated program for the thousands of women in Orange County who are facing incontinence, painful sexual intercourse and other pelvic floor disorders.

For more than 12 years, WOMANOLOGY has operated a private clinic in Irvine and recently added a second location in Fullerton, dedicated to providing complementary, holistic treatment and rehabilitation for women experiencing pelvic floor issues. When founder and physical therapist Robin Christenson, MPT, decided to sell her clinics in late 2014, Hoag was an obvious choice.

“When I sold WOMANOLOGY I felt as though I was putting my baby up for adoption,” Christenson said “I trust Hoag’s caring staff and incredibly forward-thinking medical team to expand upon the vision of helping women live better lives.”

Like its predecessor, WOMANOLOGY by Hoag offers women comprehensive, integrated treatment for pelvic floor health in a calm spa-like setting. By bringing the complementary and alternative medicine practice under Hoag, patients will now also have access to top-quality clinicians, said Allyson Brooks, M.D., Executive Medical Director of the Hoag Women’s Health Institute, one of the first physicians in Orange County to refer patients to WOMANOLOGY 12 years ago.

“Robin assembled an outstanding specialized team of acupuncturists, Pilates instructors, massage therapists and guided imagery therapists, all of whom are now on Hoag’s staff,” she said. “WOMANOLOGY by Hoag combines the trusted complementary care of WOMANOLOGY with the expert medical care of Hoag’s Women’s Health Institute.”

To address the needs of men with pelvic pain, Hoag also acquired an additional component of the groundbreaking, trademarked program of WOMANOLOGY that focuses on men called, RESTORE HIM®.

Though part of the Women’s Health Institute, WOMANOLOGY by Hoag does not have a “clinical” feel to it. Instead, Hoag has adopted the program’s signature “spa-like” setting and will appeal to the emotional, as well as clinical, side of treatment for these issues.

“We can’t light candles in the hospital,” Dr. Brooks said. “But you won’t be asked to discuss your vulvodynia in the same room as a stroke patient coming to rehab for balance therapy or someone recovering from a heart attack or car accident.

“The only patients at WOMANOLOGY by Hoag will be others with pelvic floor issues like yours.”

Childbearing is one of the main culprits, but obesity and other factors also contribute to debilitating pelvic floor conditions. A National Institutes of Health study found that pelvic floor disorders affect 10 percent of women ages 20 to 39, 27 percent of women ages 40 to 59, 37 percent of women ages 60 to 79 and nearly half of women age 80 or older.

Though thousands of women suffer from pelvic floor pain and disorders, too few discuss it. Even with their doctors, Brooks said.

“With a comprehensive physical therapy program for women, designed by women, we hope that more women will take advantage of the rehabilitative therapies available,” Brooks said. “You can’t undo the causes of pelvic floor problems: You can’t reverse childbirth, or chemotherapy or C-sections. But you can have a healthier, more active life. You don’t have to suffer in silence.”

ABOUT HOAG MEMORIAL HOSPITAL PRESBYTERIAN
Hoag is an approximately $1 billion nonprofit, regional health care delivery network in Orange County, California, that treats more than 24,000 inpatients and 362,000 outpatients annually. Hoag consists of two acute-care hospitals, six health centers, and seven urgent care centers. Hoag Hospital Newport Beach, which has served Orange County since 1952, and Hoag Hospital Irvine, which opened in 2010, are designated Magnet hospitals by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Hoag offers a comprehensive blend of health care services that includes five institutes providing specialized services in the following areas: cancer, heart and vascular, neurosciences, women’s health, and orthopedics through Hoag’s affiliate, Hoag Orthopedic Institute. In 2013, Hoag entered into an alliance with St. Joseph Health to further expand health care services in the Orange County community, known as St. Joseph Hoag Health. Hoag has been named one of the Best Regional Hospitals in the U.S. News & World Report Metro Edition. National Research Corporation has endorsed Hoag as Orange County’s most preferred hospital for the past 19 consecutive years and, for an unprecedented 19 years, residents of Orange County have chosen Hoag as one of the county’s best hospitals in a local newspaper survey. Visit www.hoag.org for more information.