Services

Alta Bates Summit’s goal is to provide women with the best possible medical care for conditions ranging from cancer to heart disease and beyond. In March, the hospital opened the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center. The state-of-the-art facility is designed to be the East Bay’s pre-eminent breast care center, with a team of radiologists who specialize in breast imaging, as well as breast surgeons and pathologists who work together to devise treatment plans using the latest therapies. And before the end of 2008, Alta Bates Summit will open a new women’s center in Lafayette offering a range of specialty services, from mammography to urodynamics (pelvic floor health).

Whatever a woman’s needs, the staff at Alta Bates Summit is committed to offering the most effective but least invasive procedure. “We can perform fewer hysterectomies because we offer alternative techniques,” explains Risa Kagan, M.D., an OB/GYN at Alta Bates Summit. “We are well-trained in laparoscopy and hysteroscopy. So if a woman has menorrhagia [heavy periods] in midlife, for example, we can treat it with the newest hysteroscopic procedures and other alternatives so she doesn’t have to have a hysterectomy.”

As a woman enters menopause, her body is once again changing, and getting reliable advice is crucial. For this reason, Alta Bates Summit offers a lecture series on issues relevant to menopause—from hormone therapy and female libido to osteoporosis.