What You Need to Know about Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology: Clinically Relevant Reviews Published in the Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology

The Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (JPAG) is the premier journal of the specialty of pediatric and adolescent gynecology. It is the official journal of the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology and of the International Federation of Infant and Juvenile Gynecology. The journal publishes articles on topics related to prepubertal and adolescent girls. Clinicians who care for these girls also frequently care for young adult women as well. We are now talking more about issues that affect adolescents and young adults. The members of the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology and the International Federation of Infant and Juvenile Gynecology include pediatricians as well as gynecologists, as well as others with subspecialty training, including pediatric hematologists, endocrinologist, oncologists, dermatologists, surgeons, urologists, and specialists in reproductive endocrinology and infertility.

Increasingly JPAG will be accessed and read by general gynecologists who are taking the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology maintenance of certification (MOC) lifelong learning and self-assessment modules. Some of you might procrastinate in doing the MOC lifelong learning modules as I do; I typically realize at the beginning of December that I have 30 articles to read and questions to answer before December 15, but this year, we pediatric and adolescent gynecologists will have the pleasure of reviewing articles that most of us have already read on the topic of pediatric and adolescent gynecology.

Although many articles published in JPAG will be helpful to individual practitioners, the articles that might be the most clinically relevant to the greatest number of individuals are the review articles. These articles have previously been titled “Mini-Reviews.” At a recent retreat for the Editorial Advisory Board of JPAG, the members of the board agreed with me that the reviews are not always “mini,” and that their importance can be large. Thus we are retitling them simply “Reviews.”

In this issue of the JPAG, you will find a review on a topic, congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), that is of importance to everyone who cares for kids, teens, and young adults. Dr Selma Witchel is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and Director of Pediatric Endocrinology at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She is a well known expert of the topic of androgen-related conditions, including CAH and polycystic ovary syndrome. Her review provides basic information and more, for those with an interest and need to know. With a focus on the most common form of CAH, in which individuals have mutations in the 21-hydroxylase gene, she addresses the molecular genetics, pathophysiology, presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of these conditions. She provides more than 150 references to her article. This is a clinically useful and helpful review.

There are many previous recent reviews in JPAG that are worth reading. I'd like to list some recent reviews that are among the most accessed articles. “Updated Guidelines for the Medical Assessment and Care of Children Who May Have Been Sexually Abused” was among the top 10 articles downloaded from ScienceDirect in 2016, and is a “must-read” for those of us who care for children. This article, authored by a group of pediatricians who are experts on child abuse, reviewed published research and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, reaching consensus on an update of previously published practice guidelines. Other reviews that are in the “top 10” downloaded articles of 2015 or 2016 from either ScienceDirect or from the jpagonline.org Web site include: “A Review of Hormonal Contraception and Venous Thromboembolism in Adolescents,” “The Impact of Social Media on the Sexual and Social Wellness of Adolescents,” “Adolescents with Special Needs: Clinical Challenges in Reproductive Health Care,” and “The Polycystic Ovary Morphology-Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Spectrum.” Each of these reviews is well worth a read. Whether you are doing the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology MOC lifelong learning and self-assessment module, or are just a lifelong learner, JPAG helps you to stay up to date in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, so that the care that we provide to our patients is on the basis of the best science. The next time you see the authors of these reviews, tell them thanks for the teaching that they do.