Ambassador

BECKER Christian

University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom

Associate Professor at the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Christian Becker is an  studied medicine in Budapest, Berlin and San Francisco and qualified in 1995. He received his Medical Doctorate Degree at the Freie Universität Berlin in 1998.

Christian then trained in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Charité in Berlin and became fully accredited in 2003. In addition, he did two postdoctoral fellowships at the Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston working on angiogenesis and endometriosis.

In 2005, Christian moved to Oxford where he did an RCOG fellowship in reproductive medicine and surgery as and was appointed as consultant gynaecologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital and senior fellow at the University of Oxford.

Christian’s clinical and research interests focus on reproductive conditions including endometriosis and uterine fibroids. Together with Krina Zondervan he co-directs the Endometriosis CaRe Centre in Oxford leading a comprehensive basic, translational, and clinical research programme on endometriosis at the University of Oxford. Christian is the current chair of the ESHRE Endometriosis Guideline Development Group and was involved in the development of the NICE Guideline for Endometriosis in the UK. He has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in the field of endometriosis and has a special interest in biomarker studies.

Dr Becker became a WES Ambassador in 2018.

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Ambassador

ADAMSON David

Equal3 Fertility
Palo Alto, USA

Director, Equal3 Fertility

David Adamson, MD, FRCSC, FACOG, FACS is a reproductive endocrinologist and surgeon. He completed his medical school and residency at the University of Toronto in Canada and his Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility fellowship at Stanford University in California.

He is Past President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), Society of Reproductive Surgeons (SRS), four other major gynaecological societies, and currently serves as Past Chair of the Committee on Reproductive Medicine for the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), Chair of the International Committee Monitoring ART (ICMART), President of the World Endometriosis Research Foundation (WERF), and ex officio Board member of the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS).

Dr Adamson holds clinical professorships at Stanford University and University of California, San Francisco. He is a member of over 20 professional societies including the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society (AGOS), Society for Gynecological Investigation (SGI), and Society of Gynecological Surgeons (SGS). He has been an advisor, consultant, and reviewer to government, industry, professional and patient organisations, and has published and lectured extensively nationally and internationally on endometriosis, assisted reproductive technologies, reproductive surgery, and infertility. In 1997 he founded Advanced Reproductive Care (ARC Fertility), a national network of IVF clinics company that provides financial programmes and other services to IVF practices and their patients.

He has been recognised as one of the best 400 physicians for women in America. In 2006 he received the Outstanding Achievement in Medicine award from the Santa Clara County Medical Society, and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for outstanding and invaluable service to the community. He has also received the Barbara Eck Founders Award from National RESOLVE, the Distinguished Surgeon Award from the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine for outstanding achievements in advancing the practice of reproductive medicine, and numerous other national and international recognitions.

Dr Adamson has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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Ambassador

FALCONE Tommaso

Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, USA

Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, USA. Chairman of the Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, USA. Chief of Staff, Cleveland Clinic, London, United Kingdom

Tommaso Falcone MD, FRCS(C), FACOG, received his medical degree from McGill University School of Medicine in Montreal, Canada. While at McGill, he went on to complete a residency in obstetrics and gynaecology and a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology.

Dr Falcone is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in general obstetrics and gynaecology, as well as reproductive endocrinology. He is also certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Dr Falcone has published more than 500 original manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters.
He is co-editor of 8 books including a textbook on Clinical Reproductive Medicine and Surgery (Springer third edition 2017); Operative Techniques in Gynecologic Surgery (Wolters Kluwer, 2017).

He has served on the editorial board of several journals, including as associate editor of Fertility & Sterility and the editorial board of the Obstetrics & Gynecology (Green Journal). He is presently editor-in-chief of JMIG. He is past president of the Society for Reproductive Surgeons (SRS) and past chair of the endometriosis special interest group of the ASRM. He is vice president of the International Society for Fertility Preservation (ISFP). He has served on review committees for NICHD and MRC.

Dr Falcone has been the recipient of many awards for laparoscopic and robotic surgery at different societies. He was a senior author on the first publication on gynaecologic robot surgery and a member of the team that performed the first uterus transplant in the USA.

Dr Falcone has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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Ambassador

MILLER Charles

University of Illinois
Chicago, USA

Clinical Associate Professor, Department of OB/GYN, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. Director of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery and Director of the AAGL/SRS Fellowship Program in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge (IL), USA.

Charles E Miller MD, FACOG is the current President of the International Society for Gynecologic Endoscopy (ISGE). He is Chairman of the AAGL’s Reproductive Surgery/Endometriosis Special Interest Group, and a Past President of the AAGL.

Dr Miller is a fellow in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Dr Miller’s interests include advanced minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, treatment of uterine fibroids, laparoscopic myomectomy, laparoscopic hysterectomy, single excision laparoscopic surgery, treatment of endometriosis (medical and surgical), robot assisted surgery, as well as the treatment of infertile couples, especially in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Dr Miller has been a WES Ambassador since 2011.

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Ambassador

TSAI Shaw-Jenq

National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan

Distinguished Professor, Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

Professor Shaw-Jenq (Sean) Tsai received his PhD degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA in 1997. He then joined the Department of Physiology at the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, as an assistant professor in 1998. He was promoted to distinguished professor in 2008 in recognition of his great academic achievements.

Professor Tsai’s research focuses on investigating molecular mechanisms underlying important human diseases including cancer, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and endometriosis. He has published more than one hundred papers in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Communications, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Pathology, Cancer Research, Nucleic Acids Research, and Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

In endometriosis research, Professor Tsai is the first person to demonstrate that ectopic endometriotic stromal cells can utilize cholesterol as the precursor to synthesize progesterone, which is then converted to 17β-estradiol exclusively in ectopic endometriotic cells. Professor Tsai’s group also demonstrates that prostaglandin E₂ is a master regulator that controls steroidogenesis and angiogenesis, promotes endometriotic cell proliferation, and suppresses phagocytic ability of macrophage.

Recently, his team reported that endometriotic cells are much more sensitive to proinflammatory cytokine’s stimulation because of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α)- mediated ERK activation. They demonstrate that HIF-1α is over-expressed in ectopic endometriotic stromal cell, which inhibits the expression of dual specificity phosphatase-2 (DUSP2), a negative regulator of ERK and p38 MAPK. Reduced expression of DUSP2 by HIF-1α results in prolonged activation of ERK and p38 MAPK, which ultimately leads to the hypersensitivity of ectopic endometriotic cells. They also discovered that hypoxia alters DNA methylation, histone modification, and translational switch to regulate critical genes in endometriotic cells. Most recently, his lab reported that hypoxia de-represses Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) and ultimately activates many biological processes. By blocking the hypoxia-regulated gene network, his lab demonstrated that endometriotic lesion can be efficiently reduced without compromising maternal fertility and the growth of offspring. These findings provide new insights of molecular pathology in the development of endometriosis and point to a new direction of endometriosis research.

Professor Tsai was appointed a WES Ambassador in 2011.

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Ambassador

CRITCHLEY Hilary

University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Head of Deanery of Clinical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Clinical Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Professor Critchley is a medical graduate from University of Manchester and undertook Postgraduate clinical training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Manchester and Edinburgh. Her research training was with Professor David Baird in Edinburgh; Professor David Anderson in Manchester; and Professor David Healy in Melbourne, Australia.

Her research programme focuses upon local uterine mechanisms involved in menstruation and implantation and addresses mechanisms common to these reproductive processes – injury and repair, endocrine-immune interactions, and regulation of inflammatory mediators. A particular area of interest has been the local endometrial response to withdrawal of progesterone, both physiological and pharmacological.

Her fundamental studies have made major contributions to the understanding of mechanisms regulating the onset of menstruation and established local effects of pharmacological steroid receptor modulation in uterine tissues with a view to development of novel treatment strategies for menstrual complaints. Testimony to her research contributions are over 250 peer reviewed publications.

She has co-chaired an International Agreement Process for terminologies/definitions and a classification system for abnormalities of menstrual bleeding supported by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and remains a member of the FIGO Menstrual Disorders Committee.

Her expertise in the field of endometrial biology/reproductive medicine has been nationally and internationally recognised. She is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) (elected 2009) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (elected 2012).

Professor Critchley served on the Board of the World Endometriosis Society from 2011-2017, and became a WES Ambassador in May 2017.

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Ambassador

KIESEL Ludwig

University of Münster
Münster, Germany

Chairman, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Münster School of Medicine, Münster, Germany.

Professor Kiesel MD PhD studied at the Ruprecht Karl University of the Heidelberg School of Medicine, Germany, and the Royal Free Hospital Medical School at the University of London, UK. He earned a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Professor Kiesel is the president of German Society of Gynaecological Endocrinology and Fertility Disorders, the past president of the German Endometriosis Research Foundation (SEF) and the German Menopause Society, and is a board member of the German Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and member of the Joint Societies orf Reproductive Medicine (DVR). Professor Kiesel has received awards for his research from the German Society of Research on Endometriosis, the German Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the National Institutes of Health, the German Endocrine Society, and the Japanese Society of Pharmacology. The main aspect of his clinical work is endoscopic surgery of endometriosis especially of deep or recurrent disease. His research interests focuses on the role of stem cells and the mechanisms of cell proliferation and invasion in the pathogenesis of endometriosis and medical treatment of the disease.

He has performed a number of clinical trials in the fields of endometriosis, oncology, and endocrinology.

Professor Kiesel is a prolific contributor to a wide range of scholarly journals and has contributed to a number of book chapters. He has been a presenter at many international meetings and congresses. He is member of the editorial board of the Journal of Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Disorders, Gynecological Endocrinology, Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde, and Breast Care. He also serves as a referee for many international journals and research organisations including Fertility and Sterility, Human Reproduction, and the Journal of Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Disorders. He is a member the Endometriosis Guideline Group of ESHRE.

Professor Kiesel joined the WES Board of Trustees in September 2011, where he served as the Society’s Treasurer. He has been a WES Ambassador since May 2017, when he stepped down from the board.

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Ambassador

AMELUNG Vibeke

Svendborg Hospital
Svendborg, Denmark

Surgical Nurse in Gynaecology at Svendborg Hospital, Denmark

Vibeke Amelung graduated as a nurse in 1979 in Svendborg and has been working with gynaecology since 1982. She spent one year at Bispebjerg Hospital (bowel surgery), four years at Odense (paediatric surgery), and 19 years in Herning (gynaecology) before returning to Svendborg in 2003.

Since the early 90s she has been involved in treating women with endometriosis, and have witnessed the progress of treatment – in particularly from a surgical perspective. Recognising the issues which these patients were facing she, and two other nurses, initiated an out-patient clinic in Svendborg for women with endometriosis-related pain issues. At first their clinic took place once a month, but it has now increased to once a week with two physicians permanently involved to ensure continuity of contact for the patients.  The clinic has a specific focus on dealing with pain and pain mechanisms.

Svendborg Hospital works closely with Skejby Hospital where all complicated endometriosis surgery takes place in line with Danish National Guidelines, and thus Amelung is instrumental in ensuring that women with disseminated endometriosis are duly referred.

Vibeke Amelung was appointed to the WES Board in September 2011 and was the first paramedic representative. She has been a WES Ambassador since May 2017, when she stepped down from the board.

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Ambassador

MOEN Mette Haase

St Olav's University Hospital
Trondheim, Norway

Professor emerita, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Faculty of Medicine, Trondheim, Norway. Senior advisor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, St Olav’s University Hospital in Trondheim, Norway

Mette Haase Moen, MD, PhD, was born in Denmark and completed medical school in Copenhagen. After her marriage to a Norwegian colleague, she has spent most of her professional life in Norway. She underwent her training in obstetrics and gynaecology at the University Hospital of Oslo. Since 1986 she has worked at St Olav’s University Hospital and medical faculty of the University of Trondheim (NTNU) as a consultant, professor, and now professor emerita.

Professor Moen earned her PhD in medicine on endometriosis (occurrence, diagnosis, and risk factors) and most of her research in endometriosis has been on clinical issues. She has been engaged in developing and providing patient information through brochures and the internet, and she is in the advisory board of the US-based Endometriosis Association and the Norwegian Endometriosis Society. She has been on the organising committees for all of the Nordic Endometriosis congresses and was president of the 3rd Nordic Congress on Endometriosis in Trondheim in 2009.

Professor Moen has also been engaged in menopausal topics such as endocrinology of the menopausal transition and menopausal hormonal therapy. She has been the leader of a Scandinavian group studying the attitudes of hormonal therapy among gynaecologists. She has been in the board of Scandinavian Menopause Society, a board member and treasurer of European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS), and has been on the organising or scientific committee of European and International Menopause conferences. She is certified as a menopause practitioner by NAMS (the North American Menopause Society)

Professor Moen has been the president of the Norwegian Gynaecological association, secretary general of the Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and secretary general of FIGO’s fellowship program. She is also a former president of the Medical Society of Trondheim. She has almost 250 publications (scientific papers, review articles, abstracts and book chapters) and has been the editor of four books.

After her retirement in 2014 she is still engaged in different activities around endometriosis and gynaecological endocrinology. She gives lectures in Norway and the rest of Scandinavia and is a voluntary editor of the website HORMONES AND ENDOMETRIOSIS with 270 subscribers (gynaecologists).

Professor Moen was appointed a WES Ambassador in May 2012.

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Ambassador

ALBORZI Saeed

Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
Shiraz, Iran

Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Head of the Gynaecologic Endoscopy Division, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Vice President, Iranian Society of Minimally Invasive Gynaecology

Dr Saeed Alborzi was born in 1956 in Tehran, Iran. He graduated from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) in 1987 as a specialist in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology. He started working at the same university as an assistant professor until 2000 when he was promoted to associate professor. In 2005 he became full professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and has held the same position ever since at Shiraz Universiy of Medical Sciences (SUMS). Dr Alborzi received his fellowship in the field of infertility and gynaecologic endoscopy from Imperial College in London, United Kingdom.

Dr Alborzi’s major field of interest is endometriosis and gynaecologic laparoscopic surgery. He is the winner of the 11th Razi Research Festival (2005) and the 3rd and 9th Royan International Congress awards (2002 and 2008). Dr Alborzi has introduced many innovative laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgeries for the first time in Iran.

Moreover, he was the first to use a graft of the peritoneum for treating cervical aplasia and laparoscopic metroplasty for didelphic uterus in the world.

Dr Alborzi has published many articles in high ranking scientific journals and has presented his works at several international conferences.

He is a board member of the Asian Society of Endometriosis and Adenomyosis, and was the president of the 6th Asian Congress on Endometriosis (ACE), which was held in Shiraz, Iran, on 22-24 November 2017.

Dr Alborzi was appointed a WES Ambassador in December 2017.

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