Managing menopause is rarely straightforward — and for the patients who don't fit neatly into clinical guidelines, the decisions become even more challenging. In this session, Dr. Risa Kagan draws on four decades of clinical expertise to work through complex menopause cases, including women with cardiovascular risk factors, a history of hormone-sensitive cancers, refractory vasomotor symptoms, bone health concerns, and co-existing comorbidities that complicate standard treatment approaches. Using a case-based format, Dr. Kagan will walk attendees through her clinical reasoning process, review the evidence behind individualized treatment decisions, and offer practical frameworks for navigating the gray areas that guidelines alone cannot resolve. This session is designed for clinicians who are already comfortable with menopause basics and are ready to sharpen their skills at the complex end of the spectrum.
Risa Kagan, MD, FACOG, CCD, MSCP, is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and one of the country's leading experts in menopausal medicine, bone health, female sexual health, and gynecologic cancer survivorship. With more than four decades of clinical practice and research, she brings rare depth and breadth to the care of women at midlife and beyond.
Dr. Kagan is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, where she has trained medical students and residents throughout her career. She serves as a menopause consultant with the Sutter East Bay Medical Group and maintains a private women's health consulting practice. She is a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner (MSCP) and holds certification from the International Society of Clinical Densitometry (CCD), reflecting her specialized expertise in osteoporosis and bone health.
A prolific researcher and thought leader, Dr. Kagan has been a principal investigator on numerous women's health clinical trials, including studies on hormone therapy, vasomotor symptoms, and menopause-related cardiovascular and skeletal health. She serves on the editorial board of Menopause, the journal of NAMS, and has been an ad hoc reviewer for The Journal of Women's Health, Climacteric, and The Journal of Sexual Medicine. She has been recognized for years as one of the best physicians in the Bay Area and nationally listed among U.S. Best Doctors.