Candace Cooley
Board certified obstetrician and gynecologist whose medical career, now more than 25 years long, has run across New York, Florida and Colorado
Women's health, explained and sourced
Candace Cooley, MD, is a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist whose medical career has taken her across New York, Florida and Colorado, and this encyclopedia gathers reference entries on the subjects of her specialty. Her certification comes from the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which has set standards for the field since 1927 and also certifies subspecialists in areas such as maternal fetal medicine and gynecologic oncology.1 The specialty has changed over the same decades. Figures compiled by the Association of American Medical Colleges show women rising from 38 percent of active obstetricians and gynecologists in 2004 to 62 percent in 2022.2 So have its tools: the first two dimensional ultrasound scanner, built in the United Kingdom in 1958, stood eight feet tall and produced slow static images, far from the real time grayscale pictures of modern machines.3 The entries that follow cover pregnancy and birth, gynecologic conditions and surgery, cervical screening, menopause, bone health, the routine visit and the thin air of the mountains.
- American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, About ABOG
- AAMC News, Association of American Medical Colleges, Women are changing the face of medicine in America
- Academic Medicine and Surgery, History of the Ultrasound Machine in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Obstetrics and gynecology
Her work has run from deliveries and pregnancies both high risk and routine to gynecologic surgery, office procedures, ultrasound and testing of bone density, in hospitals and in offices alike. The specialty entry explains what the field covers and how its twelve subject indexes map onto that scope.
Read the specialty entryBinghamton, Albany and residency
A Bachelor of Science in Biology from the State University of New York at Binghamton, a Doctor of Medicine from Albany Medical College and an OB/GYN residency completed in 1998, followed by certification from the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Read about her educationSix entries to start with
- Pregnancy and Prenatal Care
Breech Presentation and External Cephalic Version
Bottom first or feet first near term, and the manual turn clinicians may offer before birth.
- Ultrasound and Imaging
Three and Four Dimensional Ultrasound
Depth, then motion: the imaging that turned a flat gray slice into a moving face, and the line drawn around its use as a souvenir.
- Gynecologic Surgery
The Hysterectomy
Removal of the uterus, from the long open incision to keyhole and robotic routes, with the numbers, the name and the open questions.
- Cervical Health and Screening
Colposcopy and the LEEP Procedure
A century old way of looking closely at the cervix, and the office procedure that removes what it finds.
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Bone HealthDual Energy X Ray Absorptiometry
The low dose X ray test behind nearly every bone density number, explained from the table to the report.
- Menopause and Midlife
Perimenopause
The stages researchers use, the age it tends to start, and why no single blood test settles it.
Twelve subjects, from prenatal care to life at altitude
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Subject 01Pregnancy and Prenatal Care
The checks of pregnancy from the first visit to the last weeks, and the conditions they are designed to catch.
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Subject 02Labor, Birth and the Postpartum Weeks
How labor unfolds, how its pain is relieved, how the baby is watched and how the body recovers.
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Subject 03Ultrasound and Imaging
Pictures built from echoes, from an eight foot scanner in 1958 to the volume images of today.
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Subject 04Gynecologic Conditions
Seven conditions behind painful, heavy or irregular periods and pelvic symptoms, each in its own entry.
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Subject 05Cervical Health and Screening
A century of looking at the cervix, from a magnifying lens and a glass slide to a test for a virus.
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Subject 06Menopause and Midlife
The years around the final period, the symptoms they bring and the long argument over how to treat them.
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Subject 07Bone Health
How bone is measured, what the numbers mean and why midlife matters for the skeleton.
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Subject 08Gynecologic Surgery
The operations of the specialty and the history of doing them through ever smaller openings.
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Subject 09Pelvic Floor and Bladder
The muscles that hold the pelvic organs in place, what happens when they weaken and how it is repaired.
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Subject 10The Gynecology Visit
What happens during a routine checkup, why parts of it were questioned and how decisions are made inside it.
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Subject 11Training and the Specialty
A college, a residency, a board examination and the history of the specialty they lead to.
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Subject 12Mountain and Active Life
What thin air and hard exercise ask of the body, from the first night at elevation to the ski slope.
On Medium, Blogger and WordPress
Candace Cooley also writes educational pieces on women's health for Medium, Blogger and WordPress, and the newest piece from each channel appears below.
All writing