In addition to my private practice, I work with an organization called Project Prepare which teaches medical students how to perform comfortable and effective breast and pelvic exams. In my capacity as a Gynecological Teaching Associate with Project Prepare, I instruct students at Stanford University Medical School, the University of California San Francisco, and Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
In October of 2006, two days before my 35th birthday, I was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. Happy birthday, you have cancer! As a good sexologist, I did my research on how this diagnosis might impact sexuality and was disappointed by the lack of information that was available. After winning the anti-cancer trifecta; chemo, surgery, and radiation, I decided to focus my professional career on this largely unmet need. My mission is to fill the gaps in information about the sexual impact of cancer and it's treatments and offer solutions in an area that medical doctors rarely address.
Why choose Sexology as a career, you might ask? Good question. I have never understood why the study of sex should be any different than say, nutrition or English literature. Sex is just as much a part of the human experience as anything else and it deserves no less scholarly discussion and understanding. My study of human sexuality is guided by a quote written by Dr. Alan Gregg in 1948:
"Certainly no aspect of human biology in our current civilization stands in more need of scientific knowledge and courageous humility than that of sex. The history of medicine proves that insofar as man seeks to know himself and face his whole nature, he has become free from bewildered fear, despondent shame, or arrant hypocrisy. As long as sex is dealt with in the current confusion of ignorance and sophistication, denial and indulgence, suppression and stimulation, punishment and exploitation, secrecy and display, it will be associated with a duplicity and indecency that lead neither to intellectual honesty nor human dignity."
Contact: (415) 573-7395 • Email
"Sueann and I worked together for three-plus years at the National AIDS Memorial Grove. She is a person of the utmost integrity, is smart as a whip, and has a good sense of humor."
- Thom Weyand • Former Executive Director • National AIDS Memorial Grove