The Division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery includes three fellowship trained faculty and three APPs who specialize in caring for female patients with pelvic floor disorders. High-quality urogynecologic care is multidisciplinary. The division collaborates closely with physicians in the Department of Urology, the Department of Internal Medicine’s Division of Gastroenterology, and the Department of Surgery’s GI, Minimally Invasive, and Bariatric Surgery Division to provide coordinated care. The division’s faculty and staff also work closely with specialized pelvic floor physical therapists who treat urinary and fecal incontinence and bladder pain.

Patients are offered a wide array of non-surgical and surgical therapies. Non-surgical treatments may include physical therapy, non-surgical devices (pessaries), behavioral therapy, percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation, and pharmacological management. Clinic-based procedures (such as transurethral bulking injections and intra-detrusor botulinum toxin injections) are offered, as well as outpatient and inpatient surgeries. Special clinical initiatives include minimally invasive surgery program for urinary incontinence and prolapse, including outpatient slings and laparoscopic and robotic hysterectomy and sacrocolpopexy. Over the past seven years, like national practice patterns, the Iowa urogynecology practice has gradually performed more surgeries as same day discharge procedures and admitted fewer patients to the hospital for observation overnight or inpatient care. Those urogynecology patients who require overnight observation are typically admitted to the lower level short-stay unit and urogynecology inpatients are admitted most often to the 3JPP Women’s Post-Surgical Unit. As more operating room space was needed over the past 3-4 years, cases have been moved from the Main Operating Room to the Ambulatory Surgical Center. High utilization rates have led to small increases in OR assignments for the division, and starting in 2024, additional operating room days were obtained at the Downtown hospital campus (~2 days/month).