About the Division
The Division of Complex Family Planning, home to the UC Irvine Health Women’s Options Center, is led by a team of fellowship-trained, double-board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists who provide evidence-based, high-quality care while educating the next generation of providers and furthering the specialty via groundbreaking research initiatives
We believe every woman deserves patient-centered, compassionate, nonjudgmental care for her unique needs throughout her reproductive life. Our goal is to train competent and compassionate physicians and nurses who advocate for their patients and provide the full spectrum of reproductive services using best practices. Additionally, the division’s research and quality improvement studies ensure patients benefit from the best evidence that medicine has to offer.
Clinical Expertise
Our division’s faculty members believe every patient deserves patient-centered, compassionate, nonjudgmental care for her unique needs throughout her reproductive life, and they impart that ethos to trainees of all levels.
Services include assistance with appropriate birth control selection and addressing family planning goals, in addition to treating any relevant medical conditions. The division also provides counseling and care for patients in need of pregnancy termination, treatment for miscarriage or fetal death, and termination due to maternal or fetal medical reasons.
Every faculty member in the Division of Complex Family Planning is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology with subspecialty certification in complex family planning. The faculty is responsible for the direct supervision and teaching of resident physicians and medical students in the clinical setting. The division is home to a two-year, ACGME-approved Complex Family Planning Fellowship program. UC Irvine is also a site for the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning.
Each division member is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, and subspecialty boarded in complex family planning. Our faculty members participate in lectures, Grand Rounds and national presentations. Each division member belongs to the UC Irvine Speakers Bureau and lectures within the community, state and nationally. If you are interested in arranging a speaker or have any questions, please call the UC Irvine Health Speakers Bureau at 714-456-7055 or email Nobi Riley at nvriley@hs.uci.edu.
Faculty members in our division aim to produce high-quality research—in family planning and quality improvement—that ensures patients receive evidence-based family planning care in which their autonomy and well-being are held in the highest regard. Our faculty investigators understand that research done in an interdisciplinary manner yields more insightful, useful information. As such, the faculty have developed multiple, broad-reaching collaborations.
Collaborations and Network Membership
- University of California Family Planning Collaborative
- Contraception for patients with complex medical conditions.
- Abortion complications.
- University of California Abortion Registry
- UC Irvine is the primary site, and UC San Diego, UCLA, UC Davis, and UC San Francisco are participating sites.
- Collecting information on all surgical and medical abortion and miscarriage management patients.
- UC Irvine School of Law Reproductive Justice Clinic
- UC Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, Gender, and Empowerment. Collaboration with Signature Program on Campus Sexual Assault.
For further information contact:
Heike Thiel de Bocanegra, PhD, MPH
Vice Chair of Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
hthiel@hs.uci.edu
Jennie Park-Lucero
Division Manager
714-456-6810
jparkluc@uci.edu