Complex Family Planning Fellowship

We have a complex contraception clinic that receives referrals from multiple specialties. We provide all forms of contraception, and the fellow will be trained in the management of complex IUD and implant, insertions, and removals. With the establishment of Family PACT, which provides comprehensive family planning services to eligible California residents, the fellow will regularly perform surgical salpingectomies. The fellow will also have the opportunity to work with experienced faculty when they provide vasectomies in our Federally Qualified Health Center.

With the close affiliation between Planned Parenthood and UCI, we have a large Pregnancy of Unknown Location (PUL) service. Management of this service will provide the fellow with excellent training in the diagnosis and management of PULs, miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. Finally, UCI is a referral center for cesarean scar ectopic pregnancies (CSEPs) as well as cervical and interstitial pregnancies. Through collaboration with colleagues specializing in minimally invasive gynecology, radiology, interventional radiology, gynecologic oncology and maternal fetal medicine, the fellow will master diagnosis, management and coordination of these high-risk conditions.

The fellow will receive extensive training in ultrasound and become skilled in ultrasound guidance during procedures, evaluation of placenta accreta, deep implants and diagnosis of ectopic pregnancies.

Fellows will take Back-Up GYN call from home, answering patients' questions and occasionally coming into the hospital for GYN surgeries. There is no mandatory in-house call. Fellows can choose to take paid in-house call, covering labor and delivery, gynecology and the emergency room as a moonlighting opportunity.

Tabetha Harken graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor of science. She completed her master’s in public health at George Washington University. She then completed her medical school and residency in OB-GYN at the University of Colorado. Following this, she completed her fellowship in family planning at the University of California, San Francisco. While at UCSF, she completed the Advanced Training in Clinical Research (ATCR) course. She was recruited to UCI to expand family planning services in Orange County and has since founded the Division of Complex Family Planning, the UCI Ryan Residency Program and the UCI Women’s Options Center. While at UCI, she has nurtured robust training and clinical relationships with the local Planned Parenthood affiliates and nearby private hospitals. She is ABOG certified in OB-GYN and CFP.

Research Interests:

• Creation of the University of California Abortion Registry with UCI, UCLA, UCSD, UCSF, and UC Davis
• Cesarean scar ectopic pregnancies (CSEP)
• Increasing nurse involvement in abortion and perinatal loss care

Rachel Perry attended the University of Rochester Medical School and then completed her OB-GYN residency, master’s in public health, and Family Planning Fellowship at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Immediately following fellowship, she joined the UCI Division of Family Planning, where she has remained. Dr. Perry is the medical director of our Women’s Options Center at UCI, and a co-chair of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She is ABOG certified in OB-GYN and CFP.

Research Interests:

• Contraception access for individuals with substance use disorder
• Reproductive healthcare for sexual assault survivors 
• The role of mobile technology in improving reproductive health

Jasmine Patel attended SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, followed by an OB-GYN residency at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and a Family Planning Fellowship at the University of Southern California. She is the co-director of SB 24 Medication Abortion Services at the UCI Student Health Center (SHC) and site director for the Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment (Family PACT) program, where she is responsible for overseeing the family planning services at UCI Health and California Refugee Reproductive Health Network (ReproNet). She is ABOG certified in OB-GYN and CFP, and is a ReproNet member.

Research Interests:

• Male contraception including vasectomy and withdrawal
• Contraceptive-induced amenorrhea
• Medical Education

Janet Jacobson graduated from the University of Southern California with degrees in chemistry (BS) and biology (BA). From there, she entered the U.S. Navy and served 11 years as a pilot and division officer. She left the Navy to attend medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, followed by residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado. She completed her fellowship in family planning at the University of Utah. She is ABOG certified in OB-GYN and CFP. In 2013, Jacobson started as a staff physician at Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, where she became the medical director and senior VP of clinical services in 2019. She also holds a volunteer clinical faculty position at UCI. Since 2014, she has also participated in advocacy work in California and now serves on the California Medical Association Board of Trustees and as a delegate in the American Medical Association House of Delegates.

Research Interests:

• Procedural abortion
• Medication abortion
• Recurrent vaginitis
• Response of vaginal microbiome to contraceptive methods
• Advocacy and organized medicine

Heike Thiel de Bocanegra, the director of research for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is a research scientist who previously worked on the California-wide Family PACT evaluation program and has extensive experience in sexual and reproductive health research.

Research Interests:

• Reproductive health
• Postpartum contraception
• Health disparities
• Immigrant health
• Refugee health
• Intimate partner violence