Dear Colleagues,
I’d like to personally welcome each of you to the ISSWSH Annual Meeting 2021. It’s an exciting time for ISSWSH as we continue to grow and expand the number of disciplines represented in our society. To highlight this expansion, the 2021 Annual Meeting features new, innovative topics with one eye on the present and one on the future. The virtual format of the meeting will provide the ISSWSH community with a global platform to discuss the latest advances in the field and their application in daily-practice.
This meeting is sure to be an event like no other! Our unrelenting goal was to create a strong scientific program full of ground-breaking sexual medicine science, together with new insights and innovation for clinical practice, all provided via an online platform that still allows our community to meet and engage together, albeit online. We have a very exciting line-up of State of the Art Lectures this year covering the relationship between stress, sex and reproductive hormones; sex and food; pelvic pain; and surrogate partner therapy – all with intriguiging insight on their clinical application. Our symposia will focus on disorders of orgasm and how to manage orgasm problems from the peripheral organs, pelvic floor, spine, and brain; the use of the internet (e.g., telehealth) for sexual medicine in the Covid era; and innovations in basic science and new evidence of inflammation as a secret killer for sexual health. Our final sympsium, Culturally Sensitive Sexual Medicine, sets the stage for great debate on working with culturally diverse patients and the creation of cultural competence for trans-sexual care. The scientific program will also highlight our collaboration with other societies with lectures from experts representing ISSM, ESSM, NAMS, IUGA, SSTAR, and the Scientific Network on Female Sexual Health and Cancer.
We are confident that our multidisciplinary audience of passionate attendees (including gynecologists, endocrinologists, urologists, sex therapists, clinical psychologists, patient advocates, physical therapists, family physicians, nurse practitioners, basic scientists, clinical researchers, sex educators, and trainees) provides the opportunity for highly interactive discussion with the common aim of understanding and actively promoting female sexual health.
I’d like to thank the ISSWSH Board of Directors for their unwavering support and freedom in creating this year’s program; Status Plus for their unparalleled administrative assistance and their solid experience with meeting planning; Paul Yong, my co-chair; and all of the members of the Scientific Program Committee for being so actively and enthusiastically involved in generating ideas for innovative podium topics and speakers, for reviewing abstracts, and helping me throughout the meeting planning process.
On behalf of the Scientific Program Committee, we invite you to join us in exploring how these ideas can enrich the sexual lives of women, as well as your clinical practice and scientific endeavors.
We look forward to meeting you all!
With kind regards,
Linda Vignozzi, MD, PhD
Scientific Program Chair
