Urologist Specializing in Female Disorders Joins Baptist Health

Many women who experience pelvic health disorders, such as pelvic pain or incontinence, struggle to find a health care provider who specializes in female urology and can offer state-of-the-art treatment. However, women in Nassau County now have access to such a specialist.

Margeaux Dennis, DO, is the first female urologist to open a practice in the county, joining the Baptist Health Urology Medical Group. Dennis trained as a general urologist and went on to specialize in women’s conditions. A native of Ohio, she attended medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Bradenton Campus, in Florida and practiced in Lansing, Michigan. Dennis says she and her husband are happy to return to Florida.

“We were looking to move back to Florida,” she says. “When I came to Baptist Nassau, it felt very comfortable and different than the type of hospital culture that I was used to in Michigan. Everybody is exceedingly friendly. That was important to me. I wanted to do a community-based practice, and I like knowing the people I see on a regular basis.”

Female urology is an emerging field. Pelvic floor disorders are caused by injury, such as vaginal childbirth, or a gradual weakening of the muscles and connective tissue within the pelvic cavity. These muscles and ligaments form a sling across the opening of a woman’s pelvis, holding the bladder, uterus, bowel and rectum in place. Common types of pelvic floor disorders include urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.

These conditions, while not life-threatening, can be extremely distressful, Dennis says. Women report pain, difficult with physical activity and sexual dysfunction. The occurrence of pelvic floor disorders increases with age – to more than 40% of women from 60 to 79 years of age and about half of women 80 and older.

The conditions often go untreated. A seminal 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found nearly 24% of U.S. women are affected with one or more pelvic floor disorders. The authors, from the National Institutes of Health, were among the first to document the extent of female pelvic health disorders in the U.S. population.

“It was an area where not a lot of specialties were taking responsibility for it,” Dennis says. “It was an underserved area of medicine.”

Too often, she says, both doctors and patients have viewed issues like postmenopausal urinary incontinence or sexual dysfunction as “normal” problems related to aging. However, pelvic health disorders should not be accepted as normal, Dennis says. Women typically suffer for too long from pelvic health conditions that can be successfully treated.

“There is a pathology, and oftentimes there are things we can treat to improve their life as they continue to age,” she says. “There are so many new treatments coming out.”

Dennis says she typically treats overactive bladder, pelvic pain, stress urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, urinary tract infections and kidney stones. Treatments can range from simple nonsurgical approaches to surgery.

“While there are surgeries or procedures that can help with a lot of those issues, there are less-invasive treatments we can start with,” she says. For example, stress incontinence – a condition in which urine leaks easily, such as by sneezing or with physical activity – can be successfully treated without surgery.

New treatments continue to emerge in the fast-moving field, Dennis says. One new treatment is a noninvasive treatment for overactive bladder – a condition in which women feel the need to urinate frequently – that consists of an electrical stimulation device strapped to the ankle that sends signals via the nerves that regulate the bladder.

“I enjoy urology because it was typically the first of the medical specialties to use the robots for surgery, and it is more on the forefront of technology,” she says.

Dennis, whose office is at Baptist Medical Center Nassau on 18th Street in Fernandina Beach, says her philosophy of care is to get to know her patients first and to offer a range of treatment options.

“I see a lot of female patients who are really happy to have a female urologist and who feel more comfortable opening up about things,” she says. “I make sure to get to know my patients to build that level of comfort. Because this is not something people are eager to bring up. It’s really important to build a personal connection with my patients.”